I DREAM A WORLD
I dream a world where everyone
will have enough to eat,
a roof above their head, warm clothes,
and shoes upon their feet;
where everyone shall learn to read,
to measure, think, and write,
where none against their neighbor takes
up arms, or seeks to fight;
where every faith may speak its truth,
where free the press may flower,
where citizens may meet in peace,
and all speak truth to power;
where sickness has a common cure,
and few in sickbeds lie,
where health for all’s a common good,
and death itself shall die.
-
Author:
Robert Southwick Richmond (
Offline) - Published: January 18th, 2021 14:28
- Comment from author about the poem: This morning National Public Radio (NPR, in the US) issued a poetry challenge in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King: write a poem in response to Langston Hughes (1902-67) I Dream a World. This poem, in four verses, shifts from short meter to common meter, and I wrote my response entirely in common meter, with his abcb masculine rime scheme. \r\nHeres the NPR link, which includes the original poem:\r\nhttps://www.npr.org/2021/01/18/956827920/poetry-challenge-honor-mlk-by-describing-how-you-dream-a-world\r\nThe twelfth line is shamelessly plagiarized from Bayard Rustin (though commonly attributed to George Fox), the sixteenth from Isaac Watts.
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Comments6
Good write Robert.
Good straightforward job your poem, which I liked for its simplicity.
Comments by author a little more complicated, but I enjoyed a trip to NPR, as slivers of it's output do end up on ABC (Aust Broadcasting Commission - our public radio). However I never investigated further.
Thanks for that Robert. My favorite of the day.
I love your poem. Let's hope that dream becomes reality!!!
Good write Robert, may it all come true one day.
Andy
Still waiting to find out if I'm on NPR! Guess it won't be before Thursday.
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