[CT-NFB] Poem

[Esther]

hi, Deb, that was a beautiful poem. Thanks for sharing. Esther

Sent From Esther's Awesome and Amazing iPhone 7+

> On Jun 3, 2020, at 7:13 PM, Deb Reed via CT-NFB <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> “Let America be America Again”by Langston Hughes
> 
> Let America be America again.
> Let it be the dream it used to be.
> Let it be the pioneer on the plain
> Seeking a home where he himself is free.
> 
> (America never was America to me.)
> 
> Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
> Let it be that great strong land of love
> Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
> That any man be crushed by one above.
> 
> (It never was America to me.)
> 
> O, let my land be a land where Liberty
> Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
> But opportunity is real, and life is free,
> Equality is in the air we breathe.
> 
> (There's never been equality for me,
> Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
> 
> Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
> And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
> 
> I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
> I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
> I am the red man driven from the land,
> I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
> And finding only the same old stupid plan
> Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
> 
> I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
> Tangled in that ancient endless chain
> Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
> Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
> Of work the men! Of take the pay!
> Of owning everything for one's own greed!
> 
> I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
> I am the worker sold to the machine.
> I am the Negro, servant to you all.
> I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
> Hungry yet today despite the dream.
> Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
> I am the man who never got ahead,
> The poorest worker bartered through the years.
> 
> Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
> In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
> Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
> That even yet its mighty daring sings
> In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
> That's made America the land it has become.
> O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
> In search of what I meant to be my home—
> For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
> And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
> And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
> To build a "homeland of the free."
> 
> The free?
> 
> Who said the free? Not me?
> Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
> The millions shot down when we strike?
> The millions who have nothing for our pay?
> For all the dreams we've dreamed
> And all the songs we've sung
> And all the hopes we've held
> And all the flags we've hung,
> The millions who have nothing for our pay—
> Except the dream that's almost dead today.
> 
> O, let America be America again—
> The land that never has been yet—
> And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
> The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
> Who made America,
> Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
> Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
> Must bring back our mighty dream again.
> 
> Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
> The steel of freedom does not stain.
> From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
> We must take back our land again,
> America!
> 
> O, yes,
> I say it plain,
> America never was America to me,
> And yet I swear this oath—
> America will be!
> 
> Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
> The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
> We, the people, must redeem
> The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
> The mountains and the endless plain—
> All, all the stretch of these great green states—
> And make America again!
> 
> From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, I
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> Deborah J. Reed
> “Live the life you want, blindness is not what hold you back.” National Federation Of The Blind 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CT-NFB mailing list
> CT-NFB at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for CT-NFB:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/elevegnale%40sbcglobal.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20200603/32b30e9c/attachment.html>