Raymond A. Foss Poems

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In some ways, he is standing
on their shoulders, fulfilling
their dreams, his dream
made real, in this moment
this fragment of time

Their histories converging, joining
two speeches, one this night
one just beyond the horizon
just outside my memory,
beyond his memory too
those forty-five summers ago

Turning a page, on our nation’s history
unimaginable that day
alive in this special night
both giving voice to their hope
their faith, their prayer for this land

Their words echoing, ringing
merging in our minds, our hearts
a dream, a journey, a down-payment
inexorable progress, committed now,
like water through a crack in a dike
a torrent, open waters, living
freedom achievable for our people
coming for our people, even if,
just beyond the horizon still

August 28, 2008
on the Presidential Nomination acceptance speech by Barack Obama,
the I Have a Dream speech by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
on August 28, 1963, and the comments on NPR today of
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC, and
Representative John Lewis, D-GA

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