"Of Thee I
Sing"*
John Daleiden
Fifteen poets from
seven countries—Australia, Canada, India, Poland, Romania,
Trinidad, and the United States, participated in the July 2008
flag / patriotism haiku thread.
Australia
|
Canada
|
India
|
Poland |
România |
Trinidad & Tabago |
United States
|
The word patriotism
comes from a Greek word meaning fatherland (Latin
patria <
Greek patris, πατρίς)—a
love of one's country that includes connections to the land and
people, including customs and traditions, pride in its history,
and devotion to its welfare.
A patriot
of each land where she lived...
she can't explain it.
# 72. Zhanna P. Rader, US
Patriotism
denotes positive and supportive attitudes to a homeland:
patriot—
shopping every day
since 9/11
# 76. Bill Kenney, US
Patriotism covers
such attitudes as pride in its achievements and culture, the
desire to preserve its character and the basis of the culture,
and identification with other members of the nation:
On their flag
the sword and the shield—
on ours a dove
# 93. Vasile Moldovan, RO
Patriotism is an
ideology—it
often promotes patriotic attitudes as desirable and appropriate—occasionally it is
international in scope:
the dragon dances
at the Olympics; the furl of
nation flags
# 91. Gillena Cox, TT
Patriotism has
ethical connotations—it
implies that the homeland is a moral standard or moral value in
itself:
Oh, Canada—
out of the spotlight
is where she shines
# 22. Kristin Reynolds, CA / US
Patriotism also
implies that the individual should place the interests of the
nation above their personal and group interests—sometimes individuals
sacrifice their own life:
my country, 'tis of thee...
soldier's coffin
draped in the flag
# 04. Karen O'Leary, US
POW/MIA flag
flies thru the night—
not forgotten
# 03. Peter Pache, US
dog days
a pow/mia flag
hangs limp
# 51. Josh Wikoff, US
Governments promote
an official patriotism which has a high symbolic and
ceremonial content—the
expression of the common good of the political community.
National monuments, and
veterans days and
commemoration ceremonies are
typical examples:
standing tall:
a grand nation
raising the flag
# 37. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
Occasionally,
patriotic acts of individuals are controversial—actions that are contrary to
a specific governmental position—acts that some individuals
view as examples of civil disobedience:
An act of selfishness—
the partition of India in haste;
Unpatriotic.
# 73. Aju Mukhopadhyay, IN
patriotism:
it is the patriot's duty
to protect us from the government
# 55. Ed Baker, US
Patriotism relies
heavily on symbolic acts, such as displaying the
flag, singing the
national anthem, participating
in a mass rally, placing a patriotic
bumper sticker on one's
vehicle, or any other way of publicly proclaiming allegiance to
the state.
a paper poppy
on the old vet's lapel . . .
Memorial Day
# 99. Catherine J.S. Lee, US
Skippy and his mates
under the Southern Cross
hopping to it
# 59. Barbara A Taylor, AU
Here, a grandfather
preserves the "stories" of "the heroes" by passing them on to a
new, younger generation:
bedtime
my grandfather tells again
about the heroes
# 90. Jacek Margolak, PL
In the haiku above
each of the poets expresses patriotic feelings; this is my
personal haiku offering for the patriotism theme:
our flag aloft—
the land where I live
with pride and love
# 94. John Daleiden, US
*Of Thee I Sing
is a
musical set in the
White House, with a score by
George and
Ira Gershwin and a book by
George S. Kaufman and
Morrie Ryskind. It opened on
Broadway in 1931 and ran for
441 performances. It was the longest-running Gershwin show
during George Gershwin's lifetime; it was the first
musical comedy to win the
Pulitzer Prize for best American play
in 1932, signaling the genre of the American musical had come
of age.
