America’s Journey Towards Greatness
Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
Nations rise and nations fall
All struggling for greatness
None is found without default
All have weaknesses and strengths.
The paths that lead to greatness
Are not without suffering
The journey of America
Follows similar outcomes.
Her greatness is unquestioned
As leader of the Free World
A champion of human rights
Upholding civil liberties.
Yet America must confess
The cost of human sacrifice
That made her country great
At price of others’ freedom.
A “Great America” was made
By slavery’s economy
With a cotton industry
Of labor without payment.
By blood, by sweat, by tears
Our nation thrived and flourished
Once seized by Britain’s stronghold
She enchained Mother Africa’s wealth.
America gained her freedom
By a labor of servitude
To garner her democracy
Advanced by stalwart slogan:
“All are created equal
With Liberty and Justice
Dispensed for all her peoples
By race, class, color, and creed.”
America became great
Seeking liberty for all
And as a nation of immigrants
Struggling to become one people.
Her journey has been faulty:
Sloganeering racism and sexism
Uprooting other cultures
Both indigenous and foreign.
“Together as one people
And unified in vision
With equality and justice for all”
Must be her common dictum.
America hails as leader
Of freedom for all peoples
For all nations and all cultures
Showcasing her promise of greatness.
The future holds bright promise
Democracy must then prevail
It comes with obvious sacrifices
Of sharing wealth with justice.
A nation’s wealth and greatness
Endure with Loving Kindness
With laws that treat all equal
Conducted without prejudices.
As nation of the Free World
Her mission must continue
With leaders working together
With a common goal of equity.
United in that effort
Beyond party affiliation
Trusting in God Almighty
To be their advocate.
This then must be the pathway
As leader of the Free World
Granting those rights of passage
Welcoming all in equal partnership.
May God grant this nation
The Peace she seeks for all nations
To govern by Faith, Hope, and Love
With Liberty and Justice for all.
About this poem
Out of Many One People: The Individuated Journey of America to Attain Her Destiny: Over its 240 year history, America’s journey towards greatness has revealed a story of blood, sweat, and tears, of civil war, of the bondage and freeing of slaves, of women’s suffrage and the gaining of women’s right to vote, of gender and marriage discrimination, and of multiple challenges to the American pledge of democracy and the formation of a democratic government. As we forge into the future of a brave new world of the twenty first century, the hope must be that America will maintain its pledge of one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. This eighteen-stanza four-line 7-7-7-7 metered unrhymed freestyle poem, “America’s Journey Towards Greatness,” is composed to suggest that just as our individual goals, consciously or unconsciously, are teleologically designed towards self-fulfillment, even more so is the goal of the United States of America as a nation teleologically designed to fulfill its promises of equal justice for all. God Bless America! Especially in times of a strident Marxist-oriented Critical Race Theory (CRT) philosophy that is currently pervade in America and spreading throughout the world, may God bless, preserve, defend, nurture and strengthen the nucleus of the nuclear family! more »
Written on July 27, 2022
Submitted by karlcfolkes on July 27, 2022
Modified by karlcfolkes on April 21, 2023
- 1:58 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | abxx bxxx xCxx xxde xffx xxxx exfg hbix daxh fejg hgae kijb bxlb bbhl cxkf xgfx xCxx gxxa |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,130 |
Words | 395 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"America’s Journey Towards Greatness" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/132663/america’s-journey-towards-greatness>.
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