Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Britons you stay too long
quickly aboard bestow you
and with a merry gale
swell your stretched sail
with rows as strong
as the winds that blow you.

And so they turned the page
and left the land behind
and steering by the stars
slipped through the bars
of the world’s cage;
not knowing what they’d find.

And cheerfully at sea
success you still entice
to get the pearl and gold
and ours to hold
V I R G I N I A
earth’s only paradise.

The colony they made
under a hotter sun
did not alas stay
we threw away,
clutching our sea trade,
all that their courage won.

Where nature hath in store
fowl, venison and fish,
and the fruitfullest soil
without your toil
three harvests more
all greater than your wish.

They wanted to kill the Indians
which we would not permit.
Hatred and rage
filled up that page;
consider if you can
the world without it.

And the ambitious vine
crowned with his purple mass
the cedar searching high
to kiss the sky
the cypress, pine
and useful sassafras.

So beautiful it was
and some of it remains
but the bitter seeds
of carelessness and greed
have smothered much because
even the air is stained.

Whereas the luscious smell
of the delicious land
above the sea that flows
the clear wind throws
your hearts to swell
approaching that dear strand.

Stump skyscrapers stand
where once the luscious smell
came out in welcome.
The cars’ ceaseless hum
in that throbbing land
vibrates like a stopped bell.

And in regions far
such heroes bring ye forth
as those from whom ye came
and plant our name
under that star
not known in our North.

A mighty nation hums
and the new country mends
what the old ones broke.
The bright moon woke
to their feet. Whatever comes
may we stay friends.