On to Better Days
In this 250th year of the USA,
this nation of 340 million goes its way.
Which way that is, nobody knows. How could somebody know?
There are too many individuals to make that so.
Each person has life, liberty, pursuing happiness,
and goes about their lives the best they’re able, more or less.
Yet freedom in a land, like this is hard to comprehend;
where one feels bound, another bounds off to another end.
And happiness means many things to many people too;
where one is thankful for one’s life, one has another view.
And yet despite all of Time’s changes, the Republic stays,
its people hoping that it will go on to better days.
Bruce Dale Wise is a poet and former English teacher currently residing in Texas.
Hope for our future depends on curbing current chaos and that we don’t suffer consequences of social culture loss. We do not know what our future may hold, but we have the will and way to make it gold.
On the hopeful side you are, Bruce, considering your title and final words. There is careful nuance. First half of the poem explains that “better days” depends on individual judgment. This is perhaps more important in the United States than elsewhere. And you the poet state explicitly that given the number of opinions, it’s impossible to know even about the present. Second half of the poem goes over the triad of values mentioned in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Again you point out, whether any American or dweller in America is satisfied in regard to these, varies wildly. But in the last line you deliver a statement of hope felt by the people in general. This is where your poem is more thoughtful than it may seem. Underlying our dependence on individual views, and probably because we agree to value individual views, hope for the future can overcome despair, even in the face of things as daunting as the national debt.
Nice job in a dodeca, if I remember the name of your form correctly.
I remember the USA at 200. Who would have though the direction taken since, and who can predict the direction of the next 50?
That said, precepts like the pursuit of happiness, remain a constant.
Thanks for the thoughtful read, Bruce.