America Poems | Poemist

Popular America Poems

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

......

The Dream Of Wearing Shorts Forever

by Les Murray

To go home and wear shorts forever
in the enormous paddocks, in that warm climate,
adding a sweater when winter soaks the grass,

to camp out along the river bends
for good, wearing shorts, with a pocketknife,
a fishing line and matches,

or there where the hills are all down, below the plain,
to sit around in shorts at evening

......

A Nation's Strength

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

......

Mama, Come Back

by Nellie Wong

Mama, come back.
Why did you leave
now that I am learning you?
The landlady next door
how she apologizes
for my rough brown skin
to her tenant from Hong Kong
as if I were her daughter,
as if she were you.

......

I Am Waiting

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting
for someone to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting

......

Recent America Poems

Flag Bearer Political- potentially triggering

by Arvin Dassad

America, the land of silent classrooms,
where freedom takes aim in open hallways.

They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend,
but when she strides in with stars in her eyes,
her trauma buried beneath her skin,
and blood staining the black leather of her boots,
who does she fight for now?

I raise my hand high, trembling,

......

Freedom Should Not Be About Race

by Hébert Logerie

All of us should know by now that there’s one race:
The Human Race. Narcissism and nepotism
Are destroying the very febrile fibers of our society
Greed and narrow-mindedness, at an increasing space
Are eroding our soil like mites devouring the mechanism
Of our ingenuity. This is odious. What a sad and sorry pity!
Freedom is about being at liberty to do things on our own
Freedom is about being in control of our destiny
Freedom is about using our God-given talent to be
And to do whatever inspires us at dust, at dawn

......

Are we too late - America's plight

by Dr. Robert Ippaso

How did we get to where we are,
America - the one undimming shining star,
A land of freedom, of unbounded pride
Where no one needed run and hide
For their religion or mere thought,
Democracy - the very heart of what was taught.

Now the Media drums a beat
That too many rush to heed,
Politicians seem at war

......

A Dreamy Democracy In Danger

by Hébert Logerie

This is not what we were taught in school
Fights, mayhems, police arrests and brutalities
In the soiled streets. Compatriots, it’s never cool
To see so much blood and so many fatalities.

Competing banners are everywhere. A ticker-
Tape parade has gone wrong. Terror and horror
Got together for the wrong reasons, at the wrong
Place. There are too many obscenities in the song.

......

What Is It That I See?

by Jeffrey Pipes Guice

As I look across America
What is it that I see?
A once strong and proud republic
That was all about opportunity...

As I look across the land
What is it that I see?
Hungry little children
With their arms stretched out to me...

......