As Diverse Peoples We Came Poem by Thomas Noel Smith

As diverse peoples we came
From distant foreign homes
Strangers to this savage land
An untamed wilderness
Spreading endlessly

We came, each in his own way
And in his own time.
Free, enslaved, indentured, proud, broken,
Longing for tomorrow’s hope
And seeking solace for today.

The land claimed us as hers
Long before we called this “Home”
We left our scarlet letters.
At Valley Forge-our bloody tracks
Spotted fields of ice.
And some men gathered at taverns
While others met in meeting rooms
And penned the destiny of a nation.

And we gathered under one flag
Even as we buried our dead at Richmond,
At Gettysburg.

But we were one.
We stretched ocean to ocean,
To mountain peaks,
To boundless golden plains.
No longer pilgrims, colonists, or immigrants

Factories spewed sparks of life
Into our skies.
In rural fertile fields
Men of the earth harvested their crops
While others harvested our seas.
And each sang his own song,
His anthem of liberty.

And each heard the whispered voices
Of those who have gone before,
Reminding us of how far we have traveled…
Lest we forget, lest we forget

We are one-one with our home
One with our land.

We are one.