"GO AMERICA GO"

We woke up from being born,
and this land of ours
was ours already. We live
in the dream of those who woke
and walked and dreamed before us.

In the pioneer bones of bold
westward-looking women and men,
in the deep thrum of hearts made restless
by too-much book larnin'
and knife-fork etiquette,

in a surge of foaming waves
of humanity rolling across and over
field, dell, prairie, plain and mountain
to pour down the furthermost slopes and break
finally upon the implacable Pacific -
our imaginations are bounded
by the breadths and reaches
of their hearts and minds.

We live our lives
uplifted by their hands. We have
a share in what has been built here.
Our share is what we pass on:
what we preserve, together
with what we ourselves can add.