promised land

[Written for a session at Greenbelt 2012. Intended to be performed].

And so we've come sit in a tent.

In a tent

On a land.

And did you sit with intent

On your seat

On that land?

For that land on which your seat was planned

Is different to any other land.

As it will affect how you'll

See

Hear

Respond to this session.

When you speak to someone

On some closeby land.

Rural isolation,

In the corner?

Urban buzz,

In the center?

Along the aisle -

easy access?

Or maybe Specially Reserved,

At the front?

Or check out my land

On the stage

Where everything is facing

I'm the West! Baby

I'm London - New York - Tokyo - Beijing

I'm the epicentre of attention

I'm on the Eden

Of Eden.

For I was promised promised land

Made of rocks and earth and sand

I wanna take part - can't you understand

This all depends on promised land?

See Greenbelt exists

On a political patchwork of land

Just as my tent

Might be pitched closer to the main site

Than your tent.

And Eden venue

Is not Mainstage

Or Big Top

But it's not indoors either

Where nobody goes

(Unless it's raining).

And where did we come from?

Across this land

Across this

E-N-G-land

This S-C-O-T-land

This... Wales

And further afield?

By being in Cheltenham

Does Greenbelt privilege

The already privileged South?

Tell me,

Who is excluded from this land?

See I want to believe

The original Eden

Had no boundaries.

But it had to

Because there was an

Inside

and an Outside,

Right?

Yet who gives us the authority

To divide the land up into little squares

And place market values on them

To buy and to sell

To lease and to develop

Commodifying the Earth?

Is ownership consistent with stewardship?

[Really?]

For I was promised promised land

Made of rocks and earth and sand

I wanna be included - can't you understand

This all depends on promised land?

Oftentimes we fight over the land

Playing Risk with the Google Earth

"The land is like your mother -

You don't sell your mother!"

I hear him say

Before the blank cheque that was offered

Is repocketed

And replaced with a gun

And a bulldozer

That disperses the community

Yet cannot erase the spot

Where she was born.

And where he died.

And where they went to school.

They cannot go back.

Their life's an unachievable pilgrimage

To the land wherein dwells

Their Dreams of Home.

For I was promised promised land

Made of rocks and earth and sand

I wanna go home - can't you understand

This all depends on promised land?

Once, we carved up Africa with a ruler

And planted flags

To claim the land

And stain the land.

And now, to the God of consumerists' convenience

We make a Land Sacrifice

From 30,000 feet up in the air -

Let's melt the ice caps

and flood pacific islands

Whilst burning and bleeding and raping the land

Reclaiming the land

By filling in the sea?!

What an irony,

What a tragedy

Cries the land.

Now, we grab the land

Grab Land Grabs!

Cos there's not enough

We want more

To grow our biofuels and GM crops

10% of South Sudan?

That'll do

Slice it up and ship it to Britain

For now,

We are importers of land.

For I was promised promised land

Made of rocks and earth and sand

I wanna 'have dominion' - can't you understand

This all depends on promised land?

Oh God of the land

You're the God of this land

Help me overcome my unbelief -

I don't want my life to be a waste-

land

So give me your grace-

land

Don't make me barren

Like barren-

land

Not parched and salty

Like in Jeremiah 17

I want to sustain

I want to bear fruit

I need the rain

(...See it's not just about the land,

But about the resources under

and over...)

So plant me, God

Water me

I want to be rooted

I want to be grounded

- Yet the King of Kings had no place to lie his head!

So what should I do?

For I was promised promised land

Made of rocks and earth and sand

I wanna be saved - can't you understand

This all depends on promised land?

The weird thing is

That sometimes we draw borders

Along a river's course;

But rivers change.

Just as continents get marked

Along tectonic plates;

But aren't these simply floating on a sea of lava?

Maybe we need to be more fluid,

Maybe we need to share

Maybe this is promised land

Everywhere.