We Are the Ones
The first to circumnavigate the globe,
To map the continents and island chains,
To climb the highest mountain peaks, to probe
What lies beneath the waves and underground,
To reach the north and south magnetic poles.
We walked upon the moon, and now we’re bound
For Mars. We drive invention, innovation.
We build, create, and make discoveries
That benefit mankind in every nation.
We are the ones.
Great Inventions of Western Minds
The following, while but a partial list,
Should be enough to give you mental grist;
___So let’s begin,
___And dive right in.
Those two intrepid brothers, whose name was Wright,
Who soared at Kitty Hawk as first in flight;
The Model T, produced by Henry Ford,
A black jalopy masses could afford;
The washer, dryer, stove, the microwave,
Appliances galore—the time we save!
Sikorsky’s whirlybird, the open sleigh,
The bus that takes the kids to school each day;
The trolley car and Conestoga wagons,
The Colt revolver, grills and Gatling guns;
The telephone and color television,
The lenses that provide corrective vision;
The bicycle, the tricycle, the train,
The ribbed umbrella keeping off the rain;
The safety pin, cement, and Goodyear’s tires,
The siren, hose, and truck for fighting fires;
The reapers, mowers, seeders, separators,
The tractors, threshers, combines, cultivators;
The laser, radar, sonar, satellites,
The incandescent bulb and traffic lights;
Computer chips, the Internet, AI,
The grinders, jigs, and molds of tool and die;
Refrigeration, air conditioning,
The toilet, shower stall, and modern plumbing;
The clocks and watches, measurements of time,
The weather station’s instruments of clime;
The printing press, the cardboard box, the pen,
The gear and goggles for our fighting men;
Hot air balloons and subways underground,
The supersonic jets at speed of sound;
Elastics, plastics, radio, fiber optics,
The zipper, dynamite, vaccines, robotics;
The stethoscope, the periodic table,
The microscope and underwater cable;
Is this enough? If not, there’s more, much more:
The sandwich, buttons, Braille, the grocery store…
Cheryl Corey is a poet who lives in Connecticut. “Three Sisters,” her trio of poems about the sisters of Fate which were first published by the Society of Classical Poets, are featured in “Gods and Monsters,” an anthology of mythological poems (MacMillan Children’s Books, 2023).
Cheryl, I love both of these poems. It is difficult to imagine going to Mars, but it is on the agenda. What a great idea and feat to use couplets to identify a host of Western inventions and accomplishments. Although I recognize every one of them as a historian myself, few would think of the sandwich! Great job!
Thanks, Roy. The poem was on my mind for the past year and involved some research into the inventions. You could go in a million directions, from the simple to sublime.
What a brilliant and varied list of accomplishments — which we almost always take for granted. Thank you, Cheryl! Thinking of these tings lifts the spirit.
Correct, Cynthia. So much of what we use and enables us to live in relative comfortable is taken for granted.
Which “ones” are we? An almost infinite series of single achievers, you seem to say, Cheryl. You’ve been thinking and making tick marks on the benefits that could produce an endless poem. And these days the grocery store with so much more than groceries is the place to keep counting!
Margaret, I recently read a biography of Tesla. He described Americans as being “a thousand years” ahead of every nation in the world. I was true then, and it’s true today. What is it that made the West, and America in particular, so unique? Individual liberty? A near-perfect combination of economic, social, and political conditions?