Pity The Nation - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

[Larry Robinson]

Pity The Nation 
	(After Khalil Gibran)

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose
sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully
as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by
torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but
its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation--oh, pity the people who allow
their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

	- Lawrence Ferlinghetti



"the path to heaven
 doesn’t lie down in flat miles.
         It’s in the imagination
                  with which you perceive
                           this world,
 and the gestures
         with which you honor it.”

		- Mary Oliver



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