Innocence Is like an Open Door

 

A poem for Independence Day (USA):

 

Innocence is like an open door:
Not safe, but requisite to being free.
Darlings of our rhetoric, we wonder,
Evil as the rest but for our words.
Perhaps we know what horrors are in store,
Even as we dream of what might be,
Needing, as we preach and teach and plunder,
Defenses that would Xanadu preserve.
Even so, the freedom we are for
Now stands for all a common legacy,
Called forth by masters tearing worlds asunder,
Embraced by slaves consumed with righteous hunger,
Destined to dispute those whom it serves.
All innocents must keep their hopes at sea,
Yearning for an ever-distant shore.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Just Stay. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/innoce.html. For more poems for Independence Day (USA), go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

Poem of the Week

July 1, 2010 #588
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is an Independence Day (USA) poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Is this the beginning of the end?
Now is when we start to fall?
Debtors to both foe and friend,
Eventually obliged to all?
Perhaps we can pull out of this,
Electing leaders who will lead,
Not stuck in this paralysis,
Dreading most what we most need.
Each must give that all might gain,
Nor ought we shun the sacrifice.
Could we but bear the healing pain
Equally, we'd pay the price.
Dependence on another's will
Assumes that we their coffers fill,
Yielding ever to their advice.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon