This prayer/song is based on “New Colossus,” the sonnet by Emma Lazarus appearing on a plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Those familiar with the sonnet will recognize the images and phrases reflected here. It’s offered as an antidote to the attempted hijacking of the message of the Lazarus poem. Here’s another prayer/poem based on “New Colussus,” called “Against Detaining Children.”
Sing with Liberty: Psalm of Protest 15
Sing with Liberty,
For the Mother of Exiles weeps at our sunset gates,
Weeps for her battered proclamation
Twisted to shut our sea-washed shores
To the innocent
Fleeing violence and deprivation.
Sing with Liberty,
For we too were once among the tired and the poor,
Our parents and grandparents
Were the huddled masses
Journeying to a land where they could breathe free.
Sing with Liberty,
Sing with Emma,
Sing with the generations,
The wretched refuse
Washed upon our teeming shores,
Who built this nation,
Who hold us accountable to defend our legacy.
Sing with Liberty,
For from her beacon-hand
Still glows a world-wide welcome,
Flickering now,
But not yet extinguished.
And we will continue to sing with Liberty
The song of freedom,
Beckoning the homeless,
The tempest-tost,
To the lamp at our golden door.
© 2019 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com
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Postscript: See also: “O Freedom: Psalm of Protest 14,” “#MeToo, No More: Psalm of Protest 11,” “A Dream of Columbine: Psalm of Protest 13,” “Voter Suppression: Psalm of Protest 12,” as well as “Psalms of Protest 1, 2 and 3,” Psalms of Protest 4, 5 and 6” and “Psalms of Protest 7-10.”
Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.
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