Where Have You Gone America Newly Revised

This a revised and updated edition of a poem I recently wrote and posted.  I'm interested in your comments, especially if your read the previous version.  Thank you for reading and providing your honest opinion(s).   

Where have you gone America, where have you been?
Where are the places I used to roam
Long ago with family and friends?
Where are your steeples and spires pointing 
Upward, skyward bound?  Are they still there
Where I last left them 
Back in my home town?  God fearing people 
And places, filled with traces of 
Humanities hopes and dreams; 
Sky scrapers, chance takers, 
Sweet Land of Liberty.   
And I hope you haven’t lost the grandeur
Of the Rocky Mountain Range; 
The Blue Ridge, Black Hills, Sierra Nevada, 
And Northern Cascades.
Are your wonderfully winding rivers still running
And forest trees growing tall
Like the pioneer days   
Before the Pilgrims came to call? 
Do your hearts still yearn 
For what might be earned 
Through the sweat of the brow and tears?
Do people still sing and dance by the moon
Because freedom’s still free so I here?  Some fear 
You may be falling
From the crow’s nest where you’ve been 
While the waves are growing stronger
And you’re losing too many old friends.   
While I still wave “Old Glory”
In these hurricane like gales, 
‘Cause I’ve seen other places 
And many sad faces  
Where everybody fails.  
Where life is pathetic, miserable, vile;
Without freedom of expressing 
Barely a thought worthwhile.     
Not that you don’t have a few
Stones in need of shining;
You’ve made some mistakes 
But it’s still not too late; 
Changing course is a matter of timing.  I believe
In you America, you’re
The cradle, bosom and grave 
Of all that I am and will ever be
In you, my heart still craves.  
Though some may vehemently disagree 
The right to do so sets them free
Paid for by the last full measure
Of friends and lovers, sons and daughters,
Fathers, Brothers in Arms,   
Souls unraveled from earthly travels, America
You’re a long, long way from gone.  
From my view and this direction
This reflection from the glass;
Half full instead of empty,
Troubles always pass.  Sooner or later
Come what may the pendulum always shifts;
Left and right, day and night, America,
You’re still the world’s greatest gift.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2011


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Date: 9/22/2011 5:42:00 AM
(Cont)I am definitely not in a better position to actually know how life is over there, but I know people here who would luv to get settled there. I have an American friend whose perceptions on life have helped change me & made me who I m, a better & more intelligent person. He is agnostic in his belief of God by the way.
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Date: 9/22/2011 5:31:00 AM
I respect your luv for USA, & I respect u for expressing it in this spectacular manner. I also agree with Liz 100%. In my opinion, however, America is paradise on earth as far as the land & the people living there are concerned (whom I have personally come across). V were once on a flight NY to Boston, couldnt land due to bad weather, when my dad had angina attack. The plane landed in an emergency and my dad was taken to the hospital straight away, right from the plane. This, u dont c here.
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Date: 9/21/2011 4:53:00 PM
Terry, I agree with Tony in that the contradictions define the character of this country. But Britain has already gone through it and continues to fall and Canada is going that way too but not in such a spectacular fashion, at least not yet. Your write is full of the sadness with that tinge of hope that it might get better and you continue to say what needs to be said with passion and such sadness. What made the country great in the berginning was their belief in God .and sad to say, He has been pushed aside for the most part. God bless dear friend.
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Date: 9/21/2011 4:20:00 PM
I know many people from around the world and their view of America is that we are amazing and exasperating, filled with generosity and indifference, open and warm and segregated and exclusive. We are arrogant and humble. We are brilliant and stupid, in short, we are a contradiction. What they don't know is that all of those contradictions are what make us strong. We are all of those things because we are so many things. That was the experiment and it still continues.
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