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Posts Tagged ‘patriotism’

Dear Mr. Whitman,

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 20, 2025| 13 Comments »


 
 
I want to hear America singing
all those varied carols you mentioned.
But it’s noise now, Walt, more shouting
than song. As if volume makes a leader.
Any singer knows being louder
just makes discord, and harmony
needs constant attunement
to every other singer.
I want to hear America listening.
Want a citizen chorus that knows
our voices are only as good as our ears.
I want a new song that begins
with a silence that stretches
from sea to sea—like the silence
right before the curtains part
when the whole body leans in
to wonder what comes next.
And when the many parts do arise,
glorious in their differences,
I want to hear inside them
the careful attention that tunes
them to each other, I want
to hear in our song the deep listening
that makes even dissonance
beautiful.

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Revolution

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 5, 2025| 3 Comments »


After the political rally, standing on the corner
was the man in the pink flamingo onesie
and the handlebar mustache playing ukelele,
singing “This Land Was Made for You And Me,”
surrounded by folks still carrying their signs
for Peace, Diversity and Equality, and though
no one was listening, though there were no news trucks,
no microphones, no megaphones, and no way
any politician would hear their voices or see their signs,
there they were, singing and showing up despite,
and this was the moment that made me believe
in the path—not just the grand marches toward freedom,
but also the thin trails marked with courage and creativity,
small moments I can follow like bread crumbs
till this country again feels like home.

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Watching the American Flag Fully Unfurled

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 2, 2025| 15 Comments »


 
 
I say I love the still days best,
but today it’s the wind that thrills me,
how it moves the air
and blows old leaves
and whips my hair
it shifts the dunes
and roars through trees,
and shreds the clouds,
makes canyons moan,
and melts the snow
and spreads wild seeds,
makes energy,
and transports desert sand here,
 
but what I love best today of wind
is how it equalizes the atmosphere,
brings cool to what’s warm,
bring warm to what’s cool,
I love that it’s created by difference
and it diminishes difference, too.
What wind does our country
need now?
What great invisible force
could appear to equalize us
and whirl us into one?
Oh the wind, how it charges
the air today.
Just rise up, it seems to say. 

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Dear America,

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on July 3, 2024| 10 Comments »

Dear America,
 
 
today I will parade
not on your main streets
but mostly alone amongst
your aspen groves,
will praise your purple
mountain’s majesty,
your scarlet gilia,
your vast blue spruce.
I will praise the public land
beneath my feet
where someday soon
hawk’s wings will rise
from untouched duff,
and I will glory in
your spacious skies,
how quiet they can be.
America, just today
one of your sons
arrived with a giant
bouquet of rhubarb
he cut from his own wild yard—
a small proof of what
your finest citizens do—
find ways to support
other citizens,
no matter their color,
no matter their stripes.
America, in my one-woman
parade, with every step,
I am cheering for you.

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