A Two Americas Poem

I wrote a poem this week, and it was inspired by a poem about Lebanon that was written by Kahlil Gibran. Here is his poem in an Instagram post.

I don’t really write poetry, and I don’t think mine is very good, but I was happy enough with it that I thought it might be a first poem of… well, I don’t know how many. But I figure that when you feel inspired, you should get it out of your system.

You can read the poem below, but it also has its own page on this site (because I was still getting used to how the categories work, and moving things around messes up the permalinks).

---

You have your America, and I have mine.

You have your America of division, of walls seen and unseen,
And I have my America of hearts open and burdens shared.

You have your America, where power is measured by who is made to suffer,
And I have my America, where lifting others is seen as strength.

Your America looks at scarcity and fears that kindness is weakness,
My America finds abundance in the belief that compassion is courage.

Your America is a contest where one must lose for another to win,
My America is a chorus of different voices, each striving to make a beautiful song.

You see a nation of threats and of enemies in neighbors,
I see a nation of dreams, of strangers becoming kin.

Your America clenches fists and abandons those still outside the dream,
My America reaches back, knowing justice is a road we still need to walk together.

Your America admires the powerful and the privileged.
My America grows arms that build and minds that seek,
    Voices that teach,
    Hands that heal,
    Hearts that dream.
Your America is fleeting, built on grievance, anger, and fear.
My America is enduring, rooted in hope,
    It is imagined in many minds.
    It is held aloft by many hands
    It is waiting quietly in many hearts

It will outlast the storms, the shadows, the voices that call for division.

My America belongs to all who believe in one another.

Inspired by Kahlil Gibran