So May the Goddess Speak

I am the Goddess--welcoming you home.

Your death-strewn pilgrimage is ended when

You see my arm uplifted. On my loam

You are a kingly commoner; all men

Are peers. No feudal lord, here, has a place.

There is an alchemy within my farms,

My shops and temples, that will leave no trace

Of hunger-specters--or of war-alarms.

With eagle-pinioned valor keep my hearth

A citadel for true democracy--

The chrism of whose love will heal the earth

And planet-far erect an Empery

Of Peace. So bid me live and wave unfurled,

My Glorious Banner over all the world.

Poet's Reed

Sonnet Sequence, First in Democracy Contest

Giant-Slave

I journeyed in the valley of despair

Where stalked the spectre of the yet-to-be.

While terror bade my faith and courage flee

I waited for the atom's deadly flare.

I visioned a chaotic dying earth

Wearing the sackcloth in its misery.

Then came a flashing from Eternity

And eagle-pinioned hope achieved rebirth

I saw a giant slave with gentleness

Working our farms and mines; whose touch will bring

Freedom from toil and pain ... and give the stars

To man, his master, by his power to bless,

The strength of Atlas in his whispering.

I walk with faith beyond fear's prison-bars.

Midwest Chaparral

Third in Citrine Contest

Letter from Korea

O Dad, what are you doing with my land
While I am here where barren soil is red
Lighting the lamp of hope in this dark strand,
Rekindling fires of liberty long dead.
America, the Eden of the earth!
Oh, keep her clean and strong and firm in right.
When I return to her, I want rebirth
Where peaceful horsemen ride the steeds of light.
Last night it seemed I saw the Goddess weep,
Reaching her arms to you beseechingly,
And to the other fathers there asleep
All drunken with the wine of apathy.
O Dad, it seemed I heard within my dream
The clang of chains above the Eagle's scream.

Different

Sing on O Sea!

Sing on! Sing on, O sea! your lyric swelling
To join the anthem of the spheres above:
"Lilies of peace will bloom, their beauty telling--
The earth a great DEMOCRACY OF LOVE!"

Cradled in arms of war, steel-hard and colder
Than winter's crystal eyes, my babyhood
Knew only sword-thin laughter. Then when older
I saw war leap in flames, and understood
Man's urge to God ... Storm-wild the sea was crying.
Fear-drugged, I heard it call, "I lead to peace!"
Then gently as mother lullabying
It crooned the melody, "Release! Release!"

Across hope-crested waves I came and found her,
The Lady of the Lamp, to welcome me,
Her torch held high illuming all around her
While lapping waters whispered, "Liberty!"
Here in her sanctuary, lilting laughter
Flows from my lips; I walk on living sod,
My paeans rising high to Heaven's rafter--
Freedom is holy, makes men kin to God.

O Lady of the Lamp of Hope, continue
To light the darkened trailways of the world:
Restore the fractured faith, the soul's torn sinew;
Bid God's vast reels of joy to be uncurled.

Open Gate

They come,
A throng of weary pilgrims
Pitiful in their deformities of limb and soul:
Children with eyes empty of laughter;                                                          
Youth burdened with the weight of dead dreams,
Their eyes great, dark, haunted pools
Where moonlight never dances;                                                                  
The elder ones feel only the tide receding,
Tasting the bitter wine of frosted fruit.

Standing in awe
Before the welcoming Goddess,
Their eyes--but burned out embers--
Relight with flickering sparks of faith.
Rusted lips, long divorced from smiling,
Yield to the lubricant of hope.
Bone-lean fingers caress gaunt throats
That too long have felt the choking leash of fear.

Yearningly they come to the portals of Eden--
Looking beyond they see
The green acres of democracy,
The lilied fields of peace ...

The Goddess smiles.
Her arm uplifted in blessing,
She hears the prelude to their song
Whose melody will swell into a triumphant chord
As, laboring in her fields, her shops and temples,
They will know the joy of which they dreamed,
The peace they thought to find only in Heaven.
With bowed heads, reverently they enter
The open gate, the gate of America.

America Speaks to Her Children

"America decadent!" do you say
Of me who nurtures you, who gave you birth?
In tears you pray for my return to worth?
Rise from your knees. Let your hands keep my hearth
The clean and sacred shrine it was the day
Your nation's reverent fathers knelt to pray
For God to guide their minds, and through them sway
The destiny of freedom on the earth.

You are the banner of the Royal art.
Then clothed in robes of tolerance and grace
Drive "money changers" from my holy place.
From your own eyes bid beams of lust depart
That you may view the Temple in my heart
And see God's image in a brother's face.

America, I Sing My Praise

Beneath the Eagle's outstretched wings, I view
Your greening acres of democracy,
Your lilied fields of peace. Held in God's hand,
You are His ensign to the troubled world!
For hallowed by the Pilgrim Fathers' prayers,
Your land is HOME to all who enter through
Your open gates illumined by the Torch
Held high--
America, I sing my praise!
Your heart, a chalice high uplifted, brims
With love for little children; (Hear their laughter,
Their dancing footsteps down your avenues.)
For star-tall youth with eyes where dreams are mirrored;
For elder ones who drink fulfillment's wine.
On those grown fragile, gently do you place
A silver crown, then on the last dim trail
You lead them safely to the Gates of Dawn.

Your love is all-embracing, and your arm
Is long to reach across the sea to feed
The hungering. Your tender heart is torn
By might's cruel lash ... Now when, in love, your voice
Asks but a simple thing: Peace for all people,
We whom you nurture rise and give our pledge
To build a shrine of love inviolate
Within the Temple of Humanity.