The Kinder Way
written by: Stephen Kingsnorth
Linguistic gameplan set to play
one might see pass, permissions three –
an open season, fencing time, –
to parry thrust, en garde, alert,
for de-fence was once how attacked.
Grouse, complaints, the butt of jokes,
as stalking keepers, not the game,
a time when prices hiked was fine,
or even barred, for land, estate,
that mine-field laid not divine right.
Fore to tor, make way, beware,
we’re coming, green and pleasant through,
partridge, pheasant, lark ascent,
not to quail when striding edge.
But walk the common, rites of way.
For it’s fool’s gold when mine is claimed,
so stake your claim, mine for a day;
who owns the plot to deny mass?
Ancestral home with park declaimed,
but raise a flag – that mine, our all.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
In remembrance of the mass trespass at Kinder Scout, Derbyshire Peak District, 1932.
The trespass was a coordinated protest involving three groups of walkers who approached Kinder Scout from different directions at the same time. It has been interpreted as the embodiment of “the struggle for the right to roam versus the rights of the wealthy to have exclusive use of moorlands for grouse shooting.”
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