> Brecht has a poem somewhere, written during the Nazi
> years, called "Germany, Pale Mother," or maybe those
> are the opening words. Anyway, it goes like this:
and here's a poem written by Ed Sanders :
O America! how I thirst for you to shine
& swirl in peace
on your tiny globe
out on the arm of a Spiral Galaxy
we call the Milky Way
swathed in a sheath of glowing gas
100,000 light years across!
I am singing you America
I am singing your wilderness
your smoggy cities, your art
& your wild creativity!
I am singing your crazy inventors
I sing the Hula Hoop & the Harley Hog & the oil of Hopper
& I am singing your schisms & controversies
O Nation, Vast & Seething
Day & Night & Dream!
War and secrecy
make writing America
a twistsome thing
and how many thousands of times
have I shook my head with the
ghastly sudden knowledge
of this and that
but how many thousand more
have I smiled at the millions
who have made my nation a marvel.