The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
— Margaret Atwood
1 comment:
man will conquer
what will be our drum major?
new oil wells?
less oil use?
fat eat food?
adopt abuse?
i think you will conquer, jed, by refreshing ideas, challenging the boundaries of human acceptance and love, and by knowing unknown places in NW Canada.
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