America the Beautiful - Poems & Pledges

America

by Herman Melville

I

Where the wings of a sunny Dome expand
I saw a Banner in gladsome air-
Starry, like Berenice's Hair-
Afloat in broadened bravery there;
With undulating long-drawn flow,
As rolled Brazilian billows go
Voluminously o'er the Line.
The Land reposed in peace below;
The children in their glee
Were folded to the exulting heart
Of young Maternity.

II

Later, and it streamed in fight
When tempest mingled with the fray,
And over the spear-point of the shaft
I saw the ambiguous lightning play.
Valor with Valor strove, and died:
Fierce was Despair, and cruel was Pride;
And the lorn Mother speechless stood,
Pale at the fury of her brood.

III

Yet later, and the silk did wind
Her fair cold for;
Little availed the shining shroud,
Though ruddy in hue, to cheer or warm
A watcher looked upon her low, and said-
She sleeps, but sleeps, she is not dead.
But in that sleep contortion showed
The terror of the vision there-
A silent vision unavowed,
Revealing earth's foundation bare,
And Gorgon in her hidden place.
It was a thing of fear to see
So foul a dream upon so fair a face,
And the dreamer lying in that starry shroud.

IV

But from the trance she sudden broke-
The trance, or death into promoted life;
At her feet a shivered yoke,
And in her aspect turned to heaven
No trace of passion or of strife-
A clear calm look. It spake of pain,
But such as purifies from stain-
Sharp pangs that never come again-
And triumph repressed by knowledge meet,
Power delicate, and hope grown wise,
And youth matured for age's seat-
Law on her brow and empire in her eyes.
So she, with graver air and lifted flag;
While the shadow, chased by light,
Fled along the far-brawn height,
And left her on the crag.

America The Beautiful

Our Pledge and Banner

by R.E.Slater

The pledges and anthems I grew up with included in my mind fair play, social equity, justice for all, and a mindset of serving humanity as guiding first principles.

We pledged to America to grow into and become these first principles not because we had already obtained these results but because we were maturing towards those immeasurable ideals.

That what Americans embraced positionally they would become practically by their ensuing, assuaging actions.

America to me was never about nationalism nor a confused or conscripted patriotism. Of unhallowed racism and derelict duty to humanity and nature.

America was about living up to its ideals through each of us reaching out to the other personally and together in kindred spirits of helps and aide.

My amazement came when finding such pledgers and banner-keepers paying lip-service to America's first principles.

Whose chosen silence and inactions darkened America's duty of doing what was right. Of speaking out for the good and beautiful.

This kind of America I cannot pledge to. Pledging commits one to action, not inaction. Of vouchsafing the rights, liberties, and properties of the unloved other.

Not to keeping the status quo but by uplifting it that it becomes all-inclusive. A solidarity of human spirit to human spirit bespeaking peace and unity.

And when we do not, to call out our fellow Americans to live up to its Bill of Rights and our living Constitution as dissenting peoples advocating for whom we must become. Nor for whom we must not become.

America is a nation united in all these things moral and right.

America's banners are lifted high because its people strive for love and unity at all times and in all weathers, fair or evil.

This is the America I believe in and wish to make happen with those of similar spirits. The America of the people, for the people, and by the people.

R.E. Slater
October 26, 2020

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
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

I Hear America Singing

by Walt Whitman

I Hear America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics--each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat--the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench--the hatter singing as he stands;
The wood-cutter's song--the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
The delicious singing of the mother--or of the young wife at work--or of the girl sewing or washing--Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day--At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.

I Am The American Constitution
by Katherine Kay Graven

March 16, 2007

I am the American Constitution.
Do you know my name
There is not to be a substitution
I am not to be changed

I am the American Constitution
I do not waver in what I preach
For common men are my leaders
It is God’s wisdom that I speak

I am the American Constitution
For my people I am here to protect and serve
The ones who are weak among the government
But though me they can still can be heard

I am the American Constitution
I was blessed with a soul of my own
Was born from a bloody Revolution
Making my peoples demands known

I am the American Constitution
My life is ending my words are being ignored
There is a Fascist government revolution
Satan himself is knocking at my door

I am the American Constitution
And my name is being marred
In the grips of unlawful persecution
Because a government wants me disbarred

I am the American Constitution
My fathers spoke of being free
Children get to know my contributions
Your voice is the only thing protecting me.

If I am sent to my execution
Where will that lead my country’s soul
For I am the American Constitution
That keeps American’s Government under control.

~~ The US Constitution As a Poem  ~~

https://www.overthinkingit.com/2015/09/17/the-u-s-constitution-is-a-poem/

Bill of Rights

by Sue Landers
April 13, 2018

Bill — a document sealed — as in a sign or small picture — to lend authority, credence — to make official what are — rights — ruled — what is proper fair and fitting — what was heretofore implied or inspired — to enumerate, ratify — to make real — to make the abstract concrete — poetry, poems

We have rights — protections that must be protected — protection written into the body of a nation — shaping the shape of it:

• Faith and speech
• guns or grievance
• no army in my house
• no taking of my land
• no searching no seizing
• grand speedy and jury
• nothing cruel or unusual and oh yes —
• I do love peaceably assembling.
• I do love petitioning the government for a redress of my grievances.
• I do love my soldier free home.
• And maybe I could love the security of a free state if all were truly free.
• As I would love my government to be fair and predictable.
• Because I believe, I do — I want to — to believe
• in a government of the people,
• and the unalienable rights of all the people
• never to be surrendered,
• always to be fought for,
• or retrieved.

History of the Most Important

Documents of the United States

The American Bill of Rights

https://constitution.laws.com/bill-of-rights/american-bill-of-rights

October 18, 2020

The Bill of Rights (1791)

Known as the Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution were officially ratified in 1791. The Bill of Rights offered American citizens undeniable rights, essential for maintaining a free country.

The liberties offered in the Constitution ensured Americans that the central government would not abuse its power through tyranny or unjust actions. The Bill of Rights also offered the ability to express opinions and thought freely without the fear of government persecution.

Written by James Madison, the first 10 Amendments in the United States Constitution were originally met with skepticism. Led by Alexander Hamilton, the anti-Federalist party believed that the inclusion of individual rights into the Constitution was redundant and frivolous.

The Bill of Rights was adopted 3 years from the original drafting of the United States Constitution. Considering the historical implications, the process to include the Bill of Rights into the Constitution was fairly quick. However, the influences upon which it was built stem back centuries prior.

After the United States won the Revolutionary War and subsequently earned its freedom, the adoption of a Constitution was necessary for establishment purposes. The Revolution was spawned through injustice enforced by the controlling British Government. American settlers grew embittered from constant taxes and wrongful convictions.

Although the Bill of Rights was created to free Americans from a powerful central government, its influences, ironically, stem from British doctrines and literature. The following are three substantial precursors which influenced the adoption of the Bill of Rights into the United States Constitution:

The Magna Carta (1215)

In 1215, tired of immoral taxing and arbitrary actions committed by the King, a group of English noblemen forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. The legendary doctrine guaranteed common citizens such fundamental rights as the government must be fair and reasonable with their actions; individuals are guaranteed a trial by jury and due process of law.

The basic rights offered in the Magna Carta originally were awarded solely to noblemen. However, the rights were eventually extended to all people of society. The Magna Carta diminished a Monarch’s absolute power and enabled all citizens basic rights which impede tyrannous actions.

The Magna Carta is still recognized as an initial breakthrough for common citizens in regard to limiting governmental powers. Like all civil codes, the United States Constitution used the Magna Carta as a foundation upon which to build.

Petition of Right (1628)

Although the Magna Carta officially limited the powers of the Monarchy, it was often by the King and his unjust policies. As citizens grew furious over the Monarchy, the Parliament, or the English legislature grew in influence. Parliament eventually refused the approval of more taxes issued by King Charles I and forced him to sign the Petition of Right which prohibited the government from unlawfully arresting people and housing troops in private homes without consent from the owner. This petition clearly influenced the Third Amendment (prohibited soldiers from quartering on an individual’s private property) and the Fifth Amendment to the United States constitution.

British Bill of Rights (1689)

This document guaranteed all British subjects the right to bear arms and petition the King. This British version of the Bill of Rights also protected citizens from excessive bails, fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. The British version protected far fewer rights than the American Bill of Rights. However, the United States Constitution clearly adopted provisions (protections against excessive fines, punishments, and bails) found in the 8th Amendment, as well as a direct adoption of the 2nd Amendment (right to bear arms.)

Amendments and provisions of the Bill of Rights were undoubtedly adopted through British doctrine. However, a slew of domestic individual liberties existed before the ratification of the United States Constitution. Before the creation of the English Bill of Rights, many colonies recognized individual liberties through their own constitutions. For instance, in 1636, Rhode Island established itself as the first colony to recognize freedom of consciousness. In 1641, Massachusetts created the Massachusetts Body of Liberties which detailed a list of protected rights for the individual colonist. In 1649, Maryland extended the right to practice any religion.

Perhaps the greatest influence for the creation of the Bill of Rights can be found in The Virginia Declaration of Rights. Created by the author of the Bill of Rights himself, James Madison, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was published on June 12th, 1776. The Virginia Declaration offered 16 individual rights to its citizens, many of which were repeated in the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution.

BILL OF RIGHTS

by eberg4181

July 6, 2018

The Bill of Rights- our First Ten Amendments

They ensure our Rights and Freedom

Limiting the Control of our Government

Giving us Powers when we most need them

 

The First Amendment gives our rights

To Religion, Speech, and Press

Congress has no Right to Interfere

With what we want to Express

 

The Second Amendment Gives us our Guns

Our right to Keep and Bear Arms

It gives us the Protection that we Need

To Stay Away from Harm

 

The Third Amendment Keeps out the Soldiers

Out of our Homes they go

We no Longer have to Quarter our Enemies

We have the Right to say, “No”

 

The Fourth Amendment Protects us from the Unreasonable

Searching and Seizing of our Property

No more Issuing of Warrants without Reason

Or Just for Mere Curiosity

 

The Fifth Amendment Gives us Due Process of Law,

Freedom from Double Jeopardy, and Self-Incrimination

No Being Held for Crime Without Evidence

And, in court, no Self-Condemnation

 

The Bill of Rights- our First Ten Amendments

The key to America’s prosperity

Many Thanks to James Madison

You have left an unforgettable legacy

United States Bill of Rights

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution, and written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the U.S. Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in earlier documents, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), as well as the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and the Magna Carta (1215).

Due largely to the efforts of Representative James Madison, who studied the deficiencies of the Constitution pointed out by anti-federalists and then crafted a series of corrective proposals, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment on September 25, 1789, and submitted them to the states for ratification. Contrary to Madison's proposal that the proposed amendments be incorporated into the main body of the Constitution (at the relevant articles and sections of the document), they were proposed as supplemental additions (codicils) to it. Articles Three through Twelve were ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15, 1791, and became Amendments One through Ten of the Constitution. Article Two became part of the Constitution on May 5, 1992, as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Article One is still pending before the states.

Although Madison's proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government. The door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The process is known as incorporation.

There are several original engrossed copies of the Bill of Rights still in existence. One of these is on permanent public display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

~  Go to Wikipedia article for more detailed explanation of each right  ~

Approval of the Bill of Rights in Congress and the States[68]
Seventeen Articles Approved by the House August 24, 1789	Twelve Articles Approved by the Senate September 9, 1789	Twelve Articles Approved by Congress September 25, 1789	Ratification Status
First Article: After the first enumeration, required by the first Article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.	First Article: After the first enumeration, required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred; to which number one Representative shall be added for every subsequent increase of forty thousand, until the Representatives shall amount to two hundred, to which number one Representative shall be added for every subsequent increase of sixty thousand persons.	First Article: After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.	Pending: Congressional Apportionment Amendment
Second Article: No law varying the compensation to the members of Congress, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.	Second Article: No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.	Second Article: No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.	Later ratified: May 5, 1992 Twenty-seventh Amendment
Third Article: Congress shall make no law establishing religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, nor shall the rights of Conscience be infringed.	Third Article: Congress shall make no law establishing articles of faith, or a mode of worship, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition to the government for a redress of grievances.	Third Article: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 First Amendment
Fourth Article: The Freedom of Speech, and of the Press, and the right of the People peaceably to assemble, and consult for their common good, and to apply to the Government for a redress of grievances, shall not be infringed.	(see Third Article above)
Fifth Article: A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the People, being the best security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person.	Fourth Article: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.	Fourth Article: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Second Amendment
Sixth Article: No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.	Fifth Article: No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.	Fifth Article: No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Third Amendment
Seventh Article: The right of the People to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.	Sixth Article: The right of the People to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.	Sixth Article: The right of the People to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Fourth Amendment
Eighth Article: No person shall be subject, except in case of impeachment, to more than one trial, or one punishment for the same offense, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.	Seventh Article: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case, to be a witnesses against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.	Seventh Article: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Fifth Amendment
Ninth Article: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.	Eighth Article: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favour, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.	Eighth Article: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Sixth Amendment
Tenth Article: The trial of all crimes (except in cases of impeachment, and in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of War or public danger) shall be by an Impartial Jury of the Vicinage, with the requisite of unanimity for conviction, the right of challenge, and other accostomed [sic] requisites; and no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherways [sic] infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment by a Grand Jury; but if a crime be committed in a place in the possession of an enemy, or in which an insurrection may prevail, the indictment and trial may by law be authorised in some other place within the same State.	(see Seventh Article above)
Eleventh Article: No appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, shall be allowed, where the value in controversy shall not amount to one thousand dollars, nor shall any fact, triable by a Jury according to the course of the common law, be otherwise re-examinable, than according to the rules of common law.	Ninth Article: In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by Jury shall be preserved, and no fact, tried by a Jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.	Ninth Article: In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by Jury shall be preserved, and no fact, tried by a Jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Seventh Amendment
Twelfth Article: In suits at common law, the right of trial by Jury shall be preserved.	(see Ninth Article above)
Thirteenth Article: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.	Tenth Article: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.	Tenth Article: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Eighth Amendment
Fourteenth Article: No State shall infringe the right of trial by Jury in criminal cases, nor the rights of conscience, nor the freedom of speech, or of the press.
Fifteenth Article: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.	Eleventh Article: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.	Eleventh Article: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Ninth Amendment
Sixteenth Article: The powers delegated by the Constitution to the government of the United States, shall be exercised as therein appropriated, so that the Legislative shall never exercise the powers vested in the Executive or Judicial; nor the Executive the powers vested in the Legislative or Judicial; nor the Judicial the powers vested in the Legislative or Executive.
Seventeenth Article: The powers not delegated by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it, to the States, are reserved to the States respectively.	Twelfth Article: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.	Twelfth Article: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.	Ratified: December 15, 1791 Tenth Amendment

~  More Poems of America  ~

https://www.poemhunter.com/poems/america/page-1/32075/

Poems by Louise Glück

All Hallows

by Louise Glück

Even now this landscape is assembling.

The hills darken. The oxen

sleep in their blue yoke,

the fields having been

picked clean, the sheaves

bound evenly and piled at the roadside

among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:

This is the barrenness

of harvest or pestilence.

And the wife leaning out the window

with her hand extended, as in payment,

and the seeds

distinct, gold, calling

Come here

Come here, little one

And the soul creeps out of the tree.

"All Hallows" from The First Four Books of Poems by Louise Gluck. Copyright © 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1995 by Louise Glück.  Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source: The First Four Books of Poems (The Ecco Press, 1995)

* * * * * * * *

Aboriginal Landscape

by Louise Glück

You’re stepping on your father, my mother said,

and indeed I was standing exactly in the center

of a bed of grass, mown so neatly it could have been

my father’s grave, although there was no stone saying so.

You’re stepping on your father, she repeated,

louder this time, which began to be strange to me,

since she was dead herself; even the doctor had admitted it.

I moved slightly to the side, to where

my father ended and my mother began.

The cemetery was silent. Wind blew through the trees;

I could hear, very faintly, sounds of  weeping several rows away,

and beyond that, a dog wailing.

At length these sounds abated. It crossed my mind

I had no memory of   being driven here,

to what now seemed a cemetery, though it could have been

a cemetery in my mind only; perhaps it was a park, or if not a park,

a garden or bower, perfumed, I now realized, with the scent of roses —

douceur de vivre filling the air, the sweetness of  living,

as the saying goes. At some point,

it occurred to me I was alone.

Where had the others gone,

my cousins and sister, Caitlin and Abigail?

By now the light was fading. Where was the car

waiting to take us home?

I then began seeking for some alternative. I felt

an impatience growing in me, approaching, I would say, anxiety.

Finally, in the distance, I made out a small train,

stopped, it seemed, behind some foliage, the conductor

lingering against a doorframe, smoking a cigarette.

Do not forget me, I cried, running now

over many plots, many mothers and fathers —

Do not forget me, I cried, when at last I reached him.

Madam, he said, pointing to the tracks,

surely you realize this is the end, the tracks do not go further.

His words were harsh, and yet his eyes were kind;

this encouraged me to press my case harder.

But they go back, I said, and I remarked

their sturdiness, as though they had many such returns ahead of them.

You know, he said, our work is difficult: we confront

much sorrow and disappointment.

He gazed at me with increasing frankness.

I was like you once, he added, in love with turbulence.

Now I spoke as to an old friend:

What of  you, I said, since he was free to leave,

have you no wish to go home,

to see the city again?

This is my home, he said.

The city — the city is where I disappear.

* * * * * * * *

Cavan Images/Taxi/Getty Images

Afterword 

by Louise Glück

Reading what I have just written, I now believe

I stopped precipitously, so that my story seems to have been

slightly distorted, ending, as it did, not abruptly

but in a kind of artificial mist of the sort

sprayed onto stages to allow for difficult set changes.

Why did I stop? Did some instinct

discern a shape, the artist in me

intervening to stop traffic, as it were?

A shape. Or fate, as the poets say,

intuited in those few long ago hours—

I must have thought so once.

And yet I dislike the term

which seems to me a crutch, a phase,

the adolescence of the mind, perhaps—

Still, it was a term I used myself,

frequently to explain my failures.

Fate, destiny, whose designs and warnings

now seem to me simply

local symmetries, metonymic

baubles within immense confusion—

Chaos was what I saw.

My brush froze—I could not paint it.

Darkness, silence: that was the feeling.

What did we call it then?

A “crisis of vision” corresponding, I believed,

to the tree that confronted my parents,

but whereas they were forced

forward into the obstacle,

I retreated or fled—

Mist covered the stage (my life).

Characters came and went, costumes were changed,

my brush hand moved side to side

far from the canvas,

side to side, like a windshield wiper.

Surely this was the desert, the dark night.

(In reality, a crowded street in London,

the tourists waving their colored maps.)

One speaks a word: I.

Out of this stream

the great forms—

I took a deep breath. And it came to me

the person who drew that breath

was not the person in my story, his childish hand

confidently wielding the crayon—

Had I been that person? A child but also

an explorer to whom the path is suddenly clear, for whom

the vegetation parts—

And beyond, no longer screened from view, that exalted

solitude Kant perhaps experienced

on his way to the bridges—

(We share a birthday.)

Outside, the festive streets

were strung, in late January, with exhausted Christmas lights.

A woman leaned against her lover’s shoulder

singing Jacques Brel in her thin soprano—

Bravo! the door is shut.

Now nothing escapes, nothing enters—

I hadn’t moved. I felt the desert

stretching ahead, stretching (it now seems)

on all sides, shifting as I speak,

so that I was constantly

face to face with blankness, that

stepchild of the sublime,

which, it turns out,

has been both my subject and my medium.

What would my twin have said, had my thoughts

reached him?

Perhaps he would have said

in my case there was no obstacle (for the sake of argument)

after which I would have been

referred to religion, the cemetery where

questions of faith are answered.

The mist had cleared. The empty canvases

were turned inward against the wall.

The little cat is dead (so the song went).

Shall I be raised from death, the spirit asks.

And the sun says yes.

And the desert answers

your voice is sand scattered in wind.

* * * * * * * *

All Poems by Louise Glück

https://www.poemhunter.com/louise-gluck/poems/

* * * * * * * *

Louise Glück

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louise Elisabeth Glück (/ɡlɪk/;[1][2] born April 22, 1943) is an American poet and essayist. She has won numerous major literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, National Humanities Medal, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Bollingen Prize. From 2003 to 2004, she was Poet Laureate of the United States. In 2020, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal".

Glück is often described as an autobiographical poet; her work is known for its emotional intensity and for frequently drawing on myth, history, or nature to meditate on personal experiences and modern life. She was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. She began to suffer from anorexia nervosa while in high school and later overcame the illness. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University but did not obtain a degree. In addition to being an author, she has taught poetry at several academic institutions.

In her work, Glück has focused on illuminating aspects of trauma, desire, and nature. In exploring these broad themes, her poetry has become known for its frank expressions of sadness and isolation. Scholars have also focused on her construction of poetic personas and the relationship, in her poems, between autobiography and classical myth.

Glück is an adjunct professor and Rosenkranz Writer in Residence at Yale University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

* * * * * * * *

American Poet Louise Glück Wins Nobel Literature Prize

https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/american-poet-louise-glck-wins-nobel-literature-prize

The New York-born poet is a faculty member at Yale University.

by Associated Press, News Partner

Updated Oct 8, 2020 12:19 pm ET

NEW YORK CITY — American poet Louise Glück won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for her "candid and uncompromising" work, which looks unflinchingly and with biting humor at the losses and traumas of family life.

She joins a handful of American poets who have received the prize, which has been dominated by novelists throughout its 112-year history. The last American to win was Bob Dylan in 2016.

She is also one of the few women — the 16th female Nobel Literature laureate.

The Nobel Committee praised Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal" in the citation read during the announcement in Stockholm by Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.

Louise Glück, with President Obama, has won
the  Nobel Prize in Literature | AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

New York-born Glück, 77, who is a faculty member at Yale University, made her debut in 1968 with "Firstborn," and "was soon acclaimed as one of the most prominent poets in American contemporary literature," the committee said.

Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, said Glück's 12 collections of poetry were "characterized by striving for clarity." They include "Descending Figure," "The Triumph of Achilles" and "Ararat."

Olsson said her verses, which often draw on classical influences and examine family life, were marked by an "austere but also playful intelligence and a refined sense of composition."

Raised in a family with Hungarian Jewish origins, Glück has spoken of how a teenage struggle with anorexia, and the therapy she received for it, influenced her incisive writing. She was attending George W. Hewlett High School in Hewlett at the time.

"Louise Glück's voice is unmistakable. It is candid and uncompromising, and it signals that this poet wants to be understood. But it is also voice full of humor and biting wit," Olsson said. "This is a great resource when Glück treats one of our great topics, radical change, where the leap forward is made from a deep sense of loss."

The committee noted her 2006 collection "Averno," calling it "masterly" and "a visionary interpretation of the myth of Persephone's descent into hell in the captivity of Hades, the god of death."

Glück is the recipient of many awards, including Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry and the National Humanities Medal.

She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for "The Wild Iris" and the National Book Award for "Faithful and Virtuous Night" in 2014. She was U.S. poet laureate from 2003 to 2004.

The Nobel Prize, which includes a 10 million kronor (more than $1.1 million) prize, comes after several years of controversy and scandal for the organization that awards the literary accolade.

In 2018, the award was postponed after sex abuse allegations rocked the Swedish Academy, which designates the committee that chooses the literature winners, and sparked a mass exodus of members.

After the academy revamped itself in a bid to regain the trust of the Nobel Foundation, two laureates were named last year, with the 2018 prize going to Poland's Olga Tokarczuk and the 2019 award to Austria's Peter Handke.

But Handke's prize caused a storm of protest: A strong supporter of the Serbs during the 1990s Balkan wars, he has been called an apologist for Serbian war crimes. Several countries including Albania, Bosnia and Turkey boycotted the Nobel awards ceremony in protest, and a member of the committee that nominates candidates for the literature prize resigned.

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize for physiology and medicine for discovering the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus. Tuesday's prize for physics honored breakthroughs in understanding the mysteries of black holes, and the chemistry prize on Wednesday went to scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool.

Still to come are prizes for outstanding work in the fields of peace and economics.

* * * * * * * *

American poet Louise Glück wins Nobel Prize in Literature

https://apnews.com/aa1bc53e501100aa3b93f8eacfde9028

by Hillel Italie

October 8, 2020 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Louise Glück, an American poet long revered for the power, inventiveness and concision of her work and for her generosity to younger writers, has won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Nobel Committee on Thursday praised her as “candid and uncompromising” in granting a rare honor for a U.S. poet, with Wallace Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Frost among her predecessors who were bypassed. Glück spoke briefly to reporters waiting outside her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, saying she felt “agitation, joy, gratitude.”

Glück is a former U.S. poet laureate who had already received virtually every honor possible for a poet, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for “The Wild Iris,” the National Book Award in 2014 for “Faithful and Virtuous Night” and a National Humanities Medal in 2015. She is just the 16th woman to get the Nobel for literature since it was started in 1901.

“As one of our most celebrated American poets, we are thrilled that Louise Glück has received this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature,” Michael Jacobs, chairman of the Academy of American Poets, said in a statement. “Her poems, her overall body of work, and her utterly distinctive voice, present the human condition in memorable, breathtaking language.”

A native of New York City, descended in part from Hungarian Jews, Glück began reading poetry obsessively as a child, and by her early teens, she was already trying to have her work published. She struggled with anorexia as an adolescent, later saying that her eating disorder was less an expression of despair than of her desire to free the soul from the confines of her body, a theme that later arose in her work. The 77-year-old Glück has drawn from both personal experience and common history and mythology, whether revisiting the final section of “The Iliad” in “Penelope’s Song” or the abduction of Persephone in “Persephone’s Song,” in which she imagines Persephone “lying in the bed of Hades”:

“What is in her mind?/ Is she afraid? Has something/ blotted out the idea/ of mind?”

Anders Olson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, said that “Glück seeks the universal, and in this she takes inspiration from myths and classical motifs, present in most of her works. The voices of Dido, Persephone and Eurydice –- the abandoned, the punished, the betrayed -– are masks for a self in transformation, as personal as it is universally valid.”

Glück’s poetry collections also include “Descending Figure,” “Ararat” and “The Triumph of Achilles,” winner of the National Book Critics Circle prize in 1985. It contains one of her most anthologized poems, the spare and despairing “Mock Orange,” in which a flowering shrub becomes the focus of a wider wail of anguish about sex and life: “How can I rest? / How can I be content / when there is still / that odor in the world?”

Glück’s legacy extends beyond her own work. Currently dividing her time between Yale University and Stanford University, she has called teaching one of the few pure joys of her life and has mentored many younger poets, including Claudia Rankine, author of the acclaimed “Citizen” and a current work, “Just Us.” Rankine, who studied under Glück at Williams College and is now a colleague at Yale, praised her as “incredible” teacher who valued the work above all.

“I remember the rigor, the wit and the patience that she showed me as a 19-year-old student trying to learn what there was to learn about getting inside the craft of writing poetry,” Rankine told The Associated Press on Thursday. You would hand in something and Louise would find the one line that worked. There was no place for the niceties of mediocrity, no false praise. When Louise speaks you believe her because she doesn’t hide inside of civility.”

Nobel laureates receive a 10 million kronor (more than $1.1 million) prize and are usually feted at a banquet in December, but the event was canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, her longtime publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux announced that a new collection, “Winter Recipes from the Collective,” will come out next year. A previous work, the career retrospective “Poems 1962-2012,” jumped into the top 100 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list soon after her Nobel was reported.

Glück has enough experience winning awards to be skeptical of their importance. In a 2012 interview with the Academy of Achievement, she said that how she feels about a prize often depends on what she is working on at the time and whether she feels it’s worthy of praise. Glück also found that the rewards were temporary.

“Worldly honor makes existence in the world easier. It puts you in a position to have a good job. It means you can charge large fees to get on an airplane and perform,” she said. “But as an emblem of what I want — it is not capable of being had in my lifetime. I want to live after I die, in that ancient way. And there’s no way of knowing whether that will happen, and there will be no knowing, no matter how many blue ribbons have been plastered to my corpse.”

The literature prize comes after several years of controversy and scandal for the organization that awards the accolade. In 2018, the award was postponed after sex abuse allegations rocked the Swedish Academy, which names the Nobel literature committee, and sparked a mass exodus of members.

After the academy revamped itself to try to regain the trust of the Nobel Foundation, two laureates were named last year, with the 2018 prize going to Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk and the 2019 award to Austria’s Peter Handke., who has been called an apologist for Serbian war crimes. Albania, Bosnia and Turkey were among the countries boycotting the Nobel awards ceremony, and a member of the committee that nominates candidates for the literature prize resigned.

—-

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London, David Keyton in Stockholm and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.