deed

SONG: Deed I Do by Ella Fitzgerald: https://youtu.be/Vj4gbky1QCU

POEM: Heid Erdrich: The Theft Outright (excerpt):  … Such as we were we gave most things outright (the deed of the theft was many deeds and leases and claim stakes / and tenure disputes and moved plat markers stolen still today . . .) We were the land before we were a people, earthdivers, her darling mudpuppies, so the stories go, or emerging, fully forming from flesh of earth …

QUOTE: Theodore Roosevelt: The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly …