"Walking Party" -- a Poem

Here is one of the poems I read at a recent "Occu-Poetry" event.

It's sort of a chant.  This poem is special to me because it was written during a walk with my dog, at a time when she was still strong -- just a couple of years ago; she died at the end of January.

Walking Party

I am in a walking party

Of a person and a dog.

On a sunny summer morning

I am strolling past your bog.

Now now don’t you be alarmed that I am walking in your wood

Tho’ my species has done you so much harm

I only want your good.

And tho’ I know there is no way

Our actions can restore
the forest living full of life

The way it was before –

Before the colonizers came, 

They sent ahead their seeds

Invasive plants and animals

And horrible disease.

And the people that lived here before

were driven to their knees.

They knew the uses of the plants

the secrets of the place

the spirit of the earth and sky

a reverential race –

For miles and miles the forest grew

And animals galore

And those that we have made extinct

They never will come more.

But listen to me people I know you can

The time has come to learn

To live more lightly on the land

And witness the Return