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Who Can Own Mountains?

 

 

Benny and Jimmy and four hundred more

took to the hills for their freedom to walk

A working class pastime; a Socialist march

A right to roam Kinder for rambling men

 

No gamekeeper, landlord, Duke or police

could stop the mass trespass up there on the Peak

A breach of the peace; incitement to what?

‘Unlawful Assembly’ up on the Scout

 

The gamekeepers tried to protect it

for their masters who never once walked it

Twelve days a year the Kinder was worked

for the shooting of grouse for the rich

 

Show me the crime in rambling land

abandoned by landlords all year

The wickedness lies in the laws that exist

to imprison those innocent men

 

So go on, contain us through our working week

Kettle and shackle us, cut off our access

But who can own mountains?

Who owns the sea?

This land was made for you and for me

 

 

NB: I wrote this for the 80th anniversary of the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout.  Jimmy is Jimmy Miller, aka Ewan McColl pre-stage name, and he wrote the famous and brilliant folk song The Manchester Rambler following this event.  Bonus prize for spotting the other song reference ;)

 

◄ No Pansies (for Charlotte)

On Not Wearing Purple ►

Comments

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Martin Peacock

Wed 27th Jun 2012 11:52

Aye, it's gotta be Woody, surely? Hell's teeth, Laura: this is balls-out - or, considering the author should that be 'tits-out'? - brilliant. Blank verse is so difficult to pull off [pardon - still got those frustrations to contend with.] Motorik, hypnotic rhythm [like a really good Krautrock workout] and righteous spleen on top. Have you ever heard Mungo Jerry's version of 'Dust Pneumonia Blues'? Whoo! By the way, ta ever so for liking 'Sertraline' and 'Cockpit Check' [which I've now reworked so - uh-ho, I smell an act of hubris on the horizon - it's even better! Um.]

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Cate Greenlees

Mon 11th Jun 2012 14:01

I soooo agree with the sentiment here Laura. Who has the right to erect fences around our shore line and deny access to what is essentially the boundary of land and sea?
Well written too!!
Cate xx

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Harry O'Neill

Sun 10th Jun 2012 14:52


Ah, Happy memories of `Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, out! out! out!`

(I like the reasoning in it, particularly the accentuation and parenthesis in lines seven and eight)

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Isobel

Sun 10th Jun 2012 11:08

The right to ramble is an important one, so I applaud your message Laura. I can remember feeling the same way when I rampaged through farmers' cornfiels as a child...
I don't have time to ramble anywhere at the moment, but I like the thought that I could, if I wanted to :)

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Yvonne Brunton

Fri 8th Jun 2012 18:17

I like the echoes of the two songs in this poem - they are both still in my repertoire ( I should get out more!!) Rights of way would be sadly diminished if it were not for the groups who are ever vigilant on all our behalves.

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Julian (Admin)

Fri 8th Jun 2012 17:35

He did. The bugger is still going!
Loggers? Hell in a handcart, eh?

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M.C. Newberry

Fri 8th Jun 2012 15:37

Didn't Pete Seeger also sing "This Land is Your Land"?There's an interesting situation in Brazil now when the interests of "owners"/"loggers" are being challenged by those who claim the right to the benefits to mankind in general that the rain forest offers over and above selfish short term-ism and profit for a few.
Check avaaz.org for a worthwhile online lobbying group.

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Laura Taylor

Fri 8th Jun 2012 13:46

Hey, thanks Julian :) Great to hear about those songs!

Aye - over a hundred years to pass the Right to Roam - that's incredible, isn't it? My own mother was threatened by a farmer wielding a shotgun, over the 'back fields', just for walking around it. Give her her due, she stood her ground, told him she wasn't walking on his crops, only on the worn down and unplanted perimeter. We would never back down, just kept on walking around it.

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Julian (Admin)

Fri 8th Jun 2012 11:26

And then Bob Dylan nicked Woody's singing style and made money from it whilst Woods died poor.

Laura, you are someone with something to say, and a superb grasp of how to say it. The Manchester Rambler was one of our favourite songs in the early days of rambling on the moors, that and When the Red Revolution Comes. Ah hubris!

The Right to Roam legislation has finally come into law after, how many years? I have done my fair share of breaking down illegal fences across footpaths, it being something that angers me more than most things.

Good one Laura.

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Laura Taylor

Fri 8th Jun 2012 09:28

Yep Lynn - you win the bonus prize :D

Thanks for reading - it's yet another event that provokes strong feelings in me.

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Lynn Dye

Thu 7th Jun 2012 23:13

The song must be "This Land is Your Land" by Woodie Guthrie. (I have a version by Bruce Springsteen, Woodie originally wrote it as a riposte to Irving Berlin's God Bless America.)
Appreciate your poem, Laura, and the sentiment. Good one. :)

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