Behind the FAWM Series #14 - "Take What You Want"

The Grower of Trees, the gardener, the man born to farming, whose hands reach into the ground and sprout to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn. His thought passes along the row ends like a mole. What miraculous seed has he swallowed That the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth Like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water Descending in the dark? - The Man Born to Farming, by Wendell Berry

A few months ago, my sweet friends Katy, Sandra and Alice and I made a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Port Royal Kentucky to meet one of our literary heroes, Mr. Wendell Berry.
Sandra blogged about it (beautifully) over at Art House America.

The five of us (Sandra, Alice, Flo, Katy and sweet Baby S) with Mr. Berry. Photo by Tanya Berry.

Since reading Berrry's work, and since becoming more informed about the effect of industrialization on the small farms, I have become, oh, let's say *slightly* passionate about the subjects of farm preservation and food justice.

I brought my girls to their/my first rally, to raise awareness about the issue of genetic modification and to protest the ban on labeling food that has been genetically modified.

The industry of farming with genetically modified seed is not only bad for our food, it's bad for our farmers. There are *ahem* certain agribusiness entities that are particularly aggressive, and this song was written with the farmer in mind who has been strong armed by the corporate giant and has no choice but to surrender, and ultimately, give up his livelihood.

I brought Mr. Berry a copy of this song, a song dedicated to all the farmers out there who are truly men "Born to Farming" and struggling to do so in this age of industry.

Take What You Want

Title suggested by Curtis.

Overalls and withered hands
A big straw hat and a leather tan
Growin' up out of the dark red mud
50 years of sweat and blood

They moved in close and they sowed machines
They wrote their name on every seed
They milked the ground till it was bone dry
And in a distant field you could hear him cry

Oh, take what you want
Oh, you take what you want

He kept on just like he'd always done
From the last of the stars to the last of the sun
They came rolling in like rain
That rots the fields and floods the plains

They pulled him up just like a wild weed
They called him liar and they called him thief
Hands in his pockets he walked away
They took it all and he took the blame
He said

Oh, take what you want
Oh, you take what you want

You can have my money
You can have my bread
You can even have the roof from over my head

I'll keep the stains in the cracks of my hands
I'll keep the smell of the dusty land
Take what you want
I'll have the peace that lets me sleep
Every year and memory
Take what you want