from "Return Again, Traveler" by Norman Rosten

Dreaming of peace and sunlight forever
we spanned a sea by a strange rumor,
across the long horizon with the late sun burning
into its curved sky, holding our prow against the star:
Believing in a free place, believing the earth
was still free for us if we believed it!
(The rumor said: Here is your land,
come and get it, march over it,
come and take the valleys in your hands!)

Our blood was clean and we had hope;
we let fall into the water our simple clothes:
it was our wish to arrive beautiful.