EXCELLENT — Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Pity the Nation

This poem written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 2007 couldn't be more relevant to these times. A powerful and tragic illumination of what has never been more deeply true of America than today. This is why we rally and march, why we speak the truth and refuse to be silent, and why we grow in solidary and fierce loving actions on behalf of our nation and all nations and all beings. 

We didn't slide into the nightmare of these fascist times overnight. And now we are all needed to do our part, whatever that is, to dismantle the brutal, dehumanizing, violent, criminal and sociopathic forces of hatred, greed, and delusion which seek to dismantle whatever threads we have left of democracy in America. We also act out of the deep awareness of knowing that that which imperils our nation also threatens all of life across our planet. I am heartened by how our numbers grow and grow! We are all connected, all family, all in this together! — Molly

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 2012.

Pity the Nation

Pity the nation whose people are sheep

And whose shepherds mislead them

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars

Whose sages are silenced

And whose bigots haunt the airwaves

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

Except to praise conquerors

And acclaim the bully as hero

And aims to rule the world

By force and by torture

Pity the nation that knows

No other language but its own

And no other culture but its own

Pity the nation whose breath is money

And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed

Pity the nation oh pity the people

who allow their rights to erode

and their freedoms to be washed away

My country, tears of thee

Sweet land of liberty!

— Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

https://poets.org/poet/lawrence-ferlinghetti