Quotes about flag, page 20
Cornering Me
I am being cornered,
I lie on one of
Those hot edges of
Walls that burns my
Back, because of the
Brand name of religion,
Caste, creed, gender, race,
Colour, and all that which
God has given to the
Product sent to earth.
Nails of hot water,
Boiling hot water, digs
Into my skin, tearing
The skin apart and
Honouring it with
A flag, the flag of discrimination.
Cold snow chews
Through my skin,
And I stand like a
Half-eaten, leafless tree;
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poem by Nithya Raghavan
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Godwin James
Harry Wilmans! You who fell in a swamp
Near Manila, following the flag,
You were not wounded by the greatness of a dream,
Or destroyed by ineffectual work,
Or driven to madness by Satanic snags;
You were not torn by aching nerves,
Nor did you carry great wounds to your old age.
You did not starve, for the government fed you.
You did not suffer yet cry "forward"
To an army which you led
Against a foe with mocking smiles,
Sharper than bayonets. You were not smitten down
By invisible bombs. You were not rejected
By those for whom you were defeated.
You did not eat the savorless bread
Which a poor alchemy had made from ideals.
You went to Manila, Harry Wilmans,
While I enlisted in the bedraggled army
Of bright-eyed, divine youths,
Who surged forward, who were driven back and fell,
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poem by Edgar Lee Masters
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On Seeing Larry Rivers' Washington Crossing The Delaware At The Museum Of Modern Art
Now that our hero has come back to us
in his white pants and we know his nose
trembling like a flag under fire,
we see the calm cold river is supporting
our forces, the beautiful history.
To be more revolutionary than a nun
is our desire, to be secular and intimate
as, when sighting a redcoat, you smile
and pull the trigger. Anxieties
and animosities, flaming and feeding
on theoretical considerations and
the jealous spiritualities of the abstract
the robot? they're smoke, billows above
the physical event. They have burned up.
See how free we are! as a nation of persons.
Dear father of our country, so alive
you must have lied incessantly to be
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poem by Frank O'Hara
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Six Weeks
A fabricated self seeks independent eyes
Loyal to the last of a dieing kind…
Oh, how could you save them?
What good have they brought?
Too many to feed and not enough kill each other
Off
By now you’ve seen this before
So little time between a world war
Broadening the gaps of nationalism and duty
“Occupy or Die”
Secure the interests of another tiny america
Harmless now; but six weeks came and passed
Welcome home a freshly molded soldier boy
One flag to grace a box
And say a prayer for you, my friend
Nods and yes, yes sir, sir, yes, sir
Ticket tape and adoring fans await
An automatic hero is set upon the stool
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poem by Stephen Lewis
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A Strange Cocktail
In their National flag they do take such great pride
And they feel superior with god on their side
And their leader he tells them of us against they
But when they fight his war from them he's far away.
And not different to their leader is the leader of they
And they too believe everything that he does say
About those they've never met or they never will know
We make our own enemy and we choose our own foe.
A terrorist is someone that society create
And racism and insults only give rise to hate
And terrorism as such is hard to define
Between all out war and suicide bombing where can one draw
the line.
Nationalism, Patriotism and Religion when these three you combine
They make for a strange cocktail like vodka, whiskey and wine,
They stir up strong feelings and hatred takes to flame
And resentment it leads them to great acts of shame.
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poem by Francis Duggan
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Singapore
They grouped together about the chief
And each one looked at his mate,
Ashamed to think that Australian men
Should meet such bitter fate!
And black was the wrath in each hot heart
And savage oaths they swore
As they thought of how they had all been ditched
By "Impregnable" Singapore.
In her vaunted place she squatted the sea
On a base that was Maginot bred
Her startled face looked up at the skies
To the enemy planes o'erhead.
Enemy planes; while ours were - where?
That cry we had heard before
Our hearts were wrung as it rose this time
From beleaguered Singapore.
She brought forth death as her eldest child
With defeat as her second son.
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poem by Dame Mary Gilmore
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The Patriot
The patriot from his walls of brass
Is singing loudly as I pass;
With fearless heart and open eyes,
He shouts the ancient battle cries;
And, where I pause to hear him sing,
A silent crowd is listening.
My country, God bestows by thee
The glory of the world to be
The glory thou alone canst give
To last amid things fugitive.
My country, an ideal form
I see thee splendid in the storm,
Directress of the power divine
That makes the expectant future thine.
My country, all the world shall bow
Before thy peace-conceiving brow,
And all the peoples humbly stand
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poem by John Le Gay Brereton
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MacKrimmon's Lament
MacLeod's wizard flag from the grey castle sallies,
The rowers are seated, unmoor'd are the galleys;
Gleam war-axe and broadsword, clang target and quiver,
As Mackrimmon sings, 'Farewell to Dunvegan for ever!
Farewell to each cliff, on which breakers are foaming;
Farewell, each dark glen, in which red-deer are roaming;
MacLeod may return, but Mackrimmon shall never!
'Farewell the bright clouds that on Quillan are sleeping;
Farewell the bright eyes in the Dun that are weeping;
To each minstrel delusion, farewell! - and for ever -
Mackrimmon departs, to return to you never!
The
Banshee's
wild voice sings the death-dirge before me,
The pall of the dead for a mantle hangs o'er me;
But my heart shall not flag, and my nerves shall not shiver,
Though devoted I go - to return again never!
'Too oft shall the notes of Mackrimmon's bewailing
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poem by Sir Walter Scott
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We Didn't! : : Humour
They've been to the moon and back six times, no less
Got dropped off and picked up, I was impressed
For many years, I never questioned this outstanding feat
Didn't even know others thought there had been a deceit
But recently I started reading what the sceptics had to say
I pondered, I wondered, had we really been betrayed
The flag fluttering in the breeze, footprints etched in dry dust
Shadows at all angles, could it be explained without fuss
“Mythblusterers” attempted to convince us on TV
Except on television, again, there may be tricks you can't see
Prove it on television, come on, it’s got to be done live
With investigators checking and watching that nothing’s been contrived
It was claimed the fluttering flag was under centripetal force
And they even proved it (on television) , I laughed myself hoarse
The footprint: that was explained using magical dust
How this powder was made, well, we were just asked to trust
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poem by Alessandra Liverani
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Stanzas
Up go the beautiful and world-watch'd stars,
Lifting the glory of America,
'Mong the red flags which gleam through masts
and spars
Crowded in gay magnificence, to-day,
Where three score years ago, none found their way,
Of all the ships which left old England's shore:
Up goes the starry flag, on waves which lay
In undiscover'd solitude, when o'er
America those stars first glanc'd from fields of gore!
In friendly beauty floats that free-fix'd flag
'Gainst England's glowing ensign! I could dream
Of times, when the wild bush, each uncouth crag,
And precipice, beside this haven-stream,
Shall yield to one vast city; and the gleam
Of new-born banners shall illumine it;
And these alike be foreign in the beam
Of Australasia's morning. Heaven admit
One patriot spirit here, and Freedom's fires are lit!
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poem by Sir Henry Parkes
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