A Nation of Minds
A nation is not the soil alone,
nor flags that dance in borrowed air;
it lives within the thoughts we own,
the silent truths we choose to wear.
Before the roads are carved in dust,
before the towers kiss the sky,
there grows a seed — belief or rust —
in how we live, in how we try.
Where minds are bent to quick reward,
and duty bows to selfish gain,
no law, no throne, no spoken word
can build what hearts will not sustain.
But where a people rise to say,
“The work is mine, the fault as well,”
there dawns the slow, enduring day
no force of night can truly quell.
A nation blooms from inward sight,
from discipline no eyes applaud;
for those who shape their minds aright
will one day shape the hand of God.
So seek not change in crowns alone,
nor wait for saviors dressed in might;
the truest power ever known
begins within the way we think.
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