Lost on a generation, or no?

[Idunno]

I don't know if this is a song I was attempting or just a rant. There was a day when songwriting could be a rant. I remember. Dylan, Seeger, Guthrie, Baez, their musical prodigies; where are they now? Where's Abbie Hoffman? I'm not talking political party sideline cheerleaders like Springsteen, et al. I'm talking about writers who put on the gloves with their words.

 

Anyway, it's too long but there's a continuity I can't retain in abbreviated representation. Maybe I'll put it on my gravestone instead.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Once Upon A Nation

 

Once upon a story told

Of a place one could be free

Where books were yet to hold

Tales of its land and sea

And on it shores, the story goes

By the edge of sea and sand

Whispered calls from tidal flows

Told of freedom in this land

 

The people heard the call

And, leaving plow and till

They fled from their oppressors

And all the social ill

They fled from tax assessors

Who never got their fill

They fled from unfair judgement

When bowing heads in prayer

They fled for love of life

Somewhere freedom filled the air

 

And on this land they built

This new home of the free

And fought a war to rest it

From the old world past the sea

And win they did this war for life

This war to hold their land

Death was not an unjust price

For freedom was at hand

 

And then they came to ponder

This new land they had won

To govern was but wonder

They never before had done

For fools they’d known amending

In governmental dress

Sows of surplus spending

Without evil to confess

 

So off they chose to righteousness

From that they’d never stray

They’d be champions for goodness

Their prodigy would say

And by moral execution

With ethics tightly grasped

They wrote their constitution

Forever would it last

 

And the people saw the writing

These words borne of the heart

With all their lofty claiming

It gave them all a start

For how could such entitlement

Though richly penned and sound

Yield the underlayment

Of a nation newly found

 

But now those days are gone it seems

New worlds can’t be found

Where sons may go to find their dreams

Where freedoms still abound

For now such freedom has been lost

Through faulty sense of right

While wrong is served at any cost

By those who’ve lost their light

 

And thus through wars and those who died

This nation has been free

From evil acts of those who’ve tried

To bring it to its knees

But what bewilderment is this

Forever should we rave

To let our government insist

This nation be its slave

 

For all that was and in this light

Dishonor do we do

To those who paid to win the fight

To keep this nation true

Yet one by one we’ve seen them lost

These freedoms won by fire

And as they leave so do the ghosts

Of freedom’s stillborn sire

[LCK]

No tune?