I’ve always thought that the commons, in its attempt to achieve a holistic balance of relationships, is profoundly aesthetic and ethical. It aspires to a certain dynamic but disciplined shapeliness. How wonderful, then, to encounter Harris Webster’s Japanese-style poetry about the commons, inspired by his reading of The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State!
A few years ago, Webster, a retiree living in Montpelier, Vermont, heard a presentation on the commons by University of Vermont professor Gary Flomenhoft. Then he read a number of pieces on the commons in Kosmos journal and discovered The Wealth of the Commons.
Webster has a hobby of writing tanka poems, a genre of classical Japanese poetry akin to haiku. He had developed a taste for Japanese poetry in the course of several exchange visits with the prefecture of Tottori, Japan, as the representative of the Japan-American Society of Vermont. Webster decided that he wanted to capture the essence of some essays in The Wealth of Commons in the succinct, austere style of tanka. (Links to the original essays are embedded in the authors' names and essay titles.)
I hope you enjoy this wonderful poetic experiment as much as I do!
Question: Should earth’s people share
our earth’s seven seas?
Answer: When some Somalians
lost their share of fishing grounds,
they became pirates.
Good church members are stewards
of the church commons,
its resources and culture.
Earth’s people should be stewards
of the earth’s Commons.
Unknown Elinor Ostrom
won a Nobel Prize
for research on the Commons
throughout our wide world.
May it be well known world wide!
The Commons looks at the ‘whole.’
resources, people, and norms,
(oceans, fishermen, and rules,)
nested together.
Do markets and government?
Do people value
good soil and fresh air?
Of course , but they are not priced,
advertised or for sale.
Is that why they’re uncommon?
Pete Linebaugh, “Enclosures from the Bottom Up”
Long ago village commons
were enclosed, enriching some,
‘de-riching’ most folks.
Are today’s commons
facing similar plunder?
Goethe’s poem ‘Catechism’, transferred to tanka form
Some one asked a child
‘Where did all this stuff come from?’
From Dad. ‘Where did he get it?’
‘Grandpa’ ‘ Where did he get it?’
He just took it all.
Locke told us that unowned things
were nullities and
free for the taking.
Hunter-gatherer’s commons
were taken with Locke’s blessing.
I dreamed of a lovely land
owned by and open to all
which no one could buy.
Awaking I was still there
in Yellowstone Park.
We’re damaging our Commons
faster and faster
in order to grow
to solve our short term problems:
The Red Queen falling behind.
Two Part Tanka
Like the Market and the State,
the Commons is not a God.
It has seen conflict,
bad leaders, poor governance ---
It’s a human thing.
However it does
reduce inequality,
reconnect us to nature,
invite participation,
is worth consid(e)ring.
Prue Taylor, “The Common Heritage of Mankind: A Bold Doctrine Kept Within Strict Bounds”
The Freedom of the High Seas
a free for all the mighty
versus the Law of the Sea
a commons for all:
so far, no contest
Christian Siefkes, “The Boom of Commons-Based Peer Production”
Peer production goods
focus on our needs.
Needs matter, things don’t matter
Not whether I have a car
but whether I can travel.
Adriana Sanchez, “The Code is the Seed of the Software”
The creators of knowledge,
the creators of culture
produce social change.
What rights and duties
should be provided/asked for?
The codes of seeds and software
are vital knowledge
for society.
Should they benefit the few
or be shared with the many?
Gerd Wessling, “Transition Towns: Initiatives of Transformation”
People in transition towns
from over forty nations
use heads, hearts, and heads
to act out their strong beliefs
that ‘less can be more.’
It’s slow complex work
as Brazil tests out
commons-llke land tenure rules
to sustain people and land.
Who said it would be easy?
Thomas Greco (US), “Reclaiming the Credit Commons: Towards a Butterfly Society”
Few folks understand money
but chase after it
to buy things and gain prestige
not recognizing
our money system’s defects.
Most money is created
by bank debt on borrowing
requiring int(e)rest
necessitating
an unsustainable growth.
Jonathon Rowe (US), “Good Bye Night Sky”
Might limiting our sky views
with lighting and smog
cost us money, hurt our health,
enclose our psyches,
weaken our sense of wonder?
Liz Alden Wily (Kenya), “The Global Land Grab: The New Enclosures”
Over centuries
the elites of great powers,
colonies and new nations
sold off common lands.
Some winners, many losers
In Africa common lands
remain dominant,
helping survival,
stopping pauperization
at least for the time being.
Friederike Habermann (Germany), “We Are Not Born Egoists”
Most people cooperate.
Much research tells us
money incentives
endanger this useful trait.
Capitalist selection
Jacques Paysan (Germany), “My Rocky Road to the Commons”
First an extreme sport
for rugged individ(ua)ls;
Slowly rock climbing became
a sport for many
by commoning’s slow magic.
Stefan Meretz (Germany), “The Structural Communality of the Commons”
Can humans change nature’s laws,
or the economy’s laws?
The Commons approach
says no to the first question,
yes to the second.
Priests and economists say
it’s better to trust
invisible gods and rules
and easier too
than trust ourselves and our rules.
Two part tanka
It’s ironic that
the free market’s rules
deal only with collectives:
suppliers and consumers.
Individ(ua)ls must conform.
It’s ironic that
decisions by commoners
can be flexible,
fair, and allow much freedom
for people with differences.
Spend money, gain goods;
trade goods, gain money;
More and more in today’s world
money’s an end, not a means.
Was that ever less the case?
Two part tanka
Should earth’s resources
be shared and be protected
for future generations?
Don’t those who say yes
love their offspring as themselves?
Should earth’s resources
not be shared or protected?
Don’t the many who say yes
want to maximize
the root of mankind’s evil?
Franz Nahrada (Austria), “The Commoning of Patterns and the Patterns of Commoning"
The ‘patterns’ of the Commons,
not of today’s market state,
like Feng Shui ‘patterns,’
can bring livability
to tomorrow’s world.
Patterns of the market-state
like the patterns of
gen(iou)s architects
though striking to onlookers
don’t work for all occupants.
Antonio Tricaarico (Italy), “The Coming Financial Enclosure of the Commons”
Those who have too much
financial paper
make gold, out of nothing much
and off all of our commons:
Destructive Rumplestiltskins
* * *
In a case of synchronicity, I recently discovered a beautiful poem by Adrienne Rich that is surely a poem about commoners. It’s called “Natural Resources,” and it comes from Rich’s 1993 book, The Dream of a Common Language – Poems:
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save.
So much has been destroyed.
I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”
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