I want to know the country whole.
The country:
the country with its upturned plains and teeming back bays
the country carved, sliced, and served in red and blue
the country broken
the country of my birth and of exile’s long longings
the country promised and made new along with heaven
I want to know the country whole.
Whole:
all of it
comprehensively
in stereovision
restored
communing
saved
I want to know the country whole.
To know:
to see
to experience
to probe
to taste
to receive
to anticipate
to desire
to love
Heartlands 
3 responses to “To Know the Country Whole – A Definition in Poem”
The last time I felt the country so fractured was in the late 60s. War protests and the resulting counter-protests. Civil Rights battles still raging. So soon afterward came Watergate and Iran hostages. I think, worn to a nub, we more or less coasted numbly into the 80s and then into economic and peace bubbles of the 90s. Not that either decade was without conflict, but it stayed at a manageable level. Since 9/11, we’ve become more reactionary than I can ever remember being. And divisions more viciously hostile.
The knot in my gut is familiar, even if unwelcome. Never has Christmas hope been so precious and the Church so desperately needed.
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[…] I interviewed Ayers about his book and the course of history in general. In three segments on Heartlands, you’ll get a lot of what we talked about. In this segment, we discuss the political […]
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