ForumGarden

Margaret Atwood is a brilliant Canadian novelist & poet. I just love this poem because it puts us all firmly in our place!

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 (from Morning in the Burned House.)

jones jones;1436396 wrote: Margaret Atwood is a brilliant Canadian novelist & poet. I just love this poem because it puts us all firmly in our place!

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,


I own my acre.

The weeds, grass, bushes, trees or whatever critter which passes by are all subject to my whims, not unlike how weather affects my garden .