American Dreams
I
Dreams of new realms, refuge outside
The scepter’s and the crozier’s reach:
Dour, black-clad zealots braved the seas,
The cold, gray waves, the churning tide,
To glimpse upon that distant beach
A hostile waste where north blasts freeze—
An untamed, virgin world to build
Their Shining City on a Hill.
Slowly it rose and flourished, filled
With light and learning, thrift and skill.
II
Dreams of a new home: pioneers
Glimpsed Mississippi’s farther shore,
Saw empty, endless plains unfold
Towards fabled sunset lands, frontiers
Where streams hid gold and mountains ore,
And kind earth bore a hundredfold.
Through raging flood and snow-capped peak
And burning waste and warring band
Of hostile braves they trekked to seek
And found at last their promised land.
III
Dreams of new life: tired eyes beheld
The bronze colossus hold her flame
Aloft to greet great human streams—
Slow steamers, ocean-tossed, that held
Hordes of uprooted folk who came
With nothing but strength, will, and dreams.
Behind them, dynasts’ ancient strife;
Their ancient tongues and tribes behind.
Theirs was new land, new tongue, new life—
New worlds to build, new life to find.
IV
Dreams of new heights: mind, will, and hand
Wrought works of steel that proudly bore
A people to whom dreams gave birth
Flying across their once-wild land,
Into the very skies, to soar
Above the clouds, across the Earth,
And far beyond, to loose Earth’s bond
And kiss the heaven-spangling stars,
Ever upward, ever beyond!
The dream remains! The quest is ours!
Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. He has published four books of poetry and his poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in various literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel.
These are dreams indeed, Adam, and distinctively American, in the sense of aspiration. In relatively few lines you give an impressive summary of major themes in American history. And what a history it is, well worth pondering. We cannot help but feel a certain exhilaration in your telling. It seems America offered a scope for aspiration that the Old World did not. Now we are onward to the stars, though to what extent that will be possible I don’t know. There is, in any case, a grandeur in the sheer reaching for something better, and your strong, stately verses make that clear. It’s good to read poetry with spirit like this.
The key is “The dream remains! The quest is ours!” The future is up to hard-working, right-thinking people.
A fantastically good piece, Adam.
Very inspiring, Adam.