Author’s note: the poem below is written to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Trump. We are in a time when, as never before, the Free World is in dire need of strong and wise leadership. The famous phrase “The times call forth the man” appears to be very much relevant for this era – and history may very well recognize Donald Trump as that man.
America!
Marking the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Donald J Trump, leader of the Free World.
Oh, giant of the western hemisphere!
Colossus of the gently setting sun!
Where liberty is held supremely dear
And fight for truth and justice never done.
A nation born in blood and revolution;
A hardy people struggling to be free,
Who gave the world a dazzling Constitution
And partied on the waterfront with tea.
A nation built by huddled immigrants
Fleeing persecution, poverty and war:
Arrivals in a land of innocence
Where other Nations had arrived before.
A nation torn apart by slavery
That battled for its very life and soul;
That witnessed acts of signal bravery
Exacting catastrophic human toll.
A nation forged anew in wars abroad:
In carnage on the Marne, the Somme and Aisne;
And then on Juno, Utah, Gold and Sword
And Omaha, where many fell again:
The children of bedraggled immigrants
Returning whence they came to save that world:
Blood spilt again with old belligerents
And freedom’s flag on ancient lands unfurled.
But other wars and conflicts, too, contrived
To cause dissent and tear that soul apart;
Yet still this Nation under God survived,
So indestructible its prayerful heart.
Oh, home to multitudes and teeming peoples
Of every shade of colour and belief,
To soaring skyscrapers and graceful steeples
And landscapes of imponderable relief!
Oh, complex melting pot of many races!
Oh, blazing image of modernity
Whose mountains, forests, plains and mighty places
Evince the Mystery of Eternity!
America!! You tower above us all
And like a rocket, climb towards the future.
What epic tale could ever so enthral
As yours from wagon train to bit computer?
What heights will you, America, not scale?
What frontiers fraught with danger not traverse
As now, with courage unafraid to fail,
You gaze upon the boundless universe?
God speed, America, we honor you
And call you here to witness on this stage
A President with instincts bold and true
And dawning of a coming Golden Age!
Paul Martin Freeman’s book of whimsical verse, A Chocolate Box Menagerie, is published by New English Review Press and is available here.
