Recently I decided to write a few poems in the style of a dear poet friend, Dennis Marden Clark. This one has stuck in my head as a bit of a prayer during this “election season” so I wanted to put it out there as a potential source of comfort for battle-weary voters like me.
Dennis told me it works better when you sing it so here it is, an untrained voice with no accompaniment so you can imagine we are all sitting at Enliten Bakery and I’m standing at the mic sharing my latest crazy first draft of a poem. Take comfort in the fact that I am more reliably on key than Dennis.
America, the Beautiful(ish)
Oh beautiful, for cloudy skies
for amber waves of gain
for mountains mottled brown and black
for houses on the plains
America, America
God shed His grace on thee
and wake thy soul to mercy’s role
and see as He would see
Oh beautiful, my patriot’s dream
may last not one more year
malignant cities cease to gleam
though washed with human tears
America, America
your peace and grace I seek
uncrown the rude, find brotherhood
from sea to lake to me
Oh beautiful, for immigrants
whose strong, impassioned feet
a thoroughfare for freedom’s want
was never stopped or beat
America, America
must mend its every flaw
look in thy soul, find self-control
make liberty the law
Oh beautiful, for heroes proved
in liberating vote
who more than self their country loved
and mercy more than dough
America, America
may God thy heart refine
till all success be nobleness
and every gain divine
Marianne Hales 