<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="auto">Happy Independence Day, every day to every one! May your allegiance align with all that is love, acceptance, mercy, and grace.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Thanks for sharing this well-written poem, Ron. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">We are happy to raise ALL colors on our home...</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Phoenix sends love, peace, and harmony to all on this new day of Independence - and so do I!</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">~ Ed</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div id="composer_signature" dir="auto"><div style="font-size:14px;color:#909090" dir="auto">Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone</div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div><br></div><div align="left" dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Ron Nadeau via Thespiritexpress <thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org> </div><div>Date: 7/5/25 7:57 AM (GMT-08:00) </div><div>To: thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org </div><div>Cc: Ron Nadeau <ron@spirithousehealing.org> </div><div>Subject: [Thespiritexpress] 4th of July Poem </div><div><br></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Enjoy this </span><font size="3">Weekend</font></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3">~We live in a beautiful part of the world ~ a lot of Blessings being counted...</font></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3">w/Love</font></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">~This poem came through on my morning feed:</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>Pledge </b></span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Today is Independence Day. </span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Tomorrow will also be Independence Day. </span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I wave the banner of the present moment.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to no flag, no nation. </span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to no tribe or party.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to no bombs bursting in air.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to silence and a day of prayer.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Patriotism is rebellion. </span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Rebellion is joy.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Cast down the mighty, the masters of war.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to the poor.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to the boy I used to be. </span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The girl you were, the boy in the girl and the girl in the</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">boy before wholeness was shattered by</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">our education.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to hemp and sod.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to the unnamed God,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">to the moon and the tide, to sun and</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">wind and what I cannot know,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">to a light that contains all colors, to the rainbow.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to no belief</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">but an heirloom tomato seed,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">a living coral reef,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">the wisdom in a weed.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">when the fireworks last too long after</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">midnight and sulfur lingers in the air.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to the huddled deer,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">the stray dog in the street, </span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">the shivering sparrow in a bush,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">the veteran cringing in the heat of his</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">most ancient fear.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I don't need more bombs.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I need to hear the gentle bursting of</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">peonies in my garden.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To notice the sun set here as it rises over Gaza.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To greet who ever I see with a breath of peace.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">They don't even need to know,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">something in my chest will melt away the</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">borders of every nation.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Now take off your shoes.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Go slow.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Don't burn the flag.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Unravel its thread.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">We hunger for a common bread.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">With all my relations gathered at birth,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to the earth,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">the infant curled in mother's sea of</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">trust.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance to the dust. </span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To all winged and swimming things, to creatures</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">that crawl or come out at night.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Brothers, sisters, four-legged and two,</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">to you.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I pledge allegiance</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">to you.</span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="white-space: pre;" class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>- Alfred Lamotte</span></p><span style="text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: center; font-size: 16px;">______________________</div></span></div></body></html>