
<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">hi, Deb, that was a beautiful poem. Thanks for sharing. Esther<br><br><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Sent From Esther's Awesome and Amazing iPhone 7+</span></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Jun 3, 2020, at 7:13 PM, Deb Reed via CT-NFB <ct-nfb@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div dir="ltr"><span>“Let America be America Again”by Langston Hughes</span></div><div dir="ltr"><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><div data-v-101110cb="" class="card-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex: 1 1 auto; padding: 1.25rem; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(30, 30, 30, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-v-101110cb="" class="poem__body px-md-4 font-serif" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 3.8vw;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Let America be America again.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Let it be the dream it used to be.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Let it be the pioneer on the plain</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Seeking a home where he himself is free.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">(America never was America to me.)</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Let it be that great strong land of love</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">That any man be crushed by one above.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">(It never was America to me.)</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">O, let my land be a land where Liberty</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">But opportunity is real, and life is free,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Equality is in the air we breathe.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">(There's never been equality for me,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?</em></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?</span></em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the red man driven from the land,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And finding only the same old stupid plan</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the young man, full of strength and hope,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Tangled in that ancient endless chain</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Of work the men! Of take the pay!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Of owning everything for one's own greed!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the worker sold to the machine.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the Negro, servant to you all.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Hungry yet today despite the dream.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I am the man who never got ahead,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The poorest worker bartered through the years.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">In the Old World while still a serf of kings,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">That even yet its mighty daring sings</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">That's made America the land it has become.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">In search of what I meant to be my home—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And torn from Black Africa's strand I came</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">To build a "homeland of the free."</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The free?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Who said the free? Not me?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Surely not me? The millions on relief today?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The millions shot down when we strike?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The millions who have nothing for our pay?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">For all the dreams we've dreamed</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And all the songs we've sung</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And all the hopes we've held</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And all the flags we've hung,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The millions who have nothing for our pay—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Except the dream that's almost dead today.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">O, let America be America again—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The land that never has been yet—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And yet must be—the land where <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">every</em> man is free.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Who made America,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Must bring back our mighty dream again.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The steel of freedom does not stain.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">We must take back our land again,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">America!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">O, yes,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">I say it plain,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">America never was America to me,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And yet I swear this oath—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">America will be!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">We, the people, must redeem</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">The mountains and the endless plain—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">All, all the stretch of these great green states—</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: -32px; margin-left: 32px; display: inline-block;">And make America again!</span></p></div></div><div data-v-101110cb="" class="card-footer bg-white" style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 2rem 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: transparent; font-family: "Founders Grotesk", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(30, 30, 30, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><div data-v-101110cb="" class="card--poem__attribution text-muted-dark font-sans p-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.8rem; line-height: 1.56; padding: 1.2rem !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">From <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes</i>, published by Alfred A. Knopf, I</p></div></div></div><span></span><br><span>Sent from my iPhone</span><br><span>Deborah J. Reed</span><br><span>“Live the life you want, blindness is not what hold you back.” National Federation Of The Blind </span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br></div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>CT-NFB mailing list</span><br><span>CT-NFB@nfbnet.org</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org</span><br><span>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for CT-NFB:</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/elevegnale%40sbcglobal.net</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>