I NEED A NEW PLEDGE

 

Do you feel like you need a new pledge of allegiance? Write one stating your allegiance to anything and email it to: ineedanewpledge@gmail.com.

New pledges will be added at the bottom of the page.

Click here for Guidelines.

 

NEW PLEDGE

I pledge allegiance to the mind
of the united seers of wilderness.
And to the psychosis we’ve left behind,
I say,
You are fear.
You are useless.
Evaporate, once and for all.

Richard Loranger
Oakland, CA

 

I pledge allegiance
to the people
of the lost grace
of america
and to the humanity
which will not stand
for this annihilation
disappointing god
until there is liberty
and justice
for all

Poet AF
San Diego, CA

 

I pledge allegiance to Poetry –
United in words
and to the Breath for which they stand,
Many voices, under Sky
with listen and speak for all.

Gary Glazner
Chicago, IL

 

I pledge allegiance to the Human Race,
and the myriad permutations therein.
There will come a day
We must join together
To fight an unimaginable foe.
Our duty: In time, accepting
We have much more in common
Than arbitrarily chosen divisions.
May we join together as one race, united,
With acceptance and hope for one and all.

Wayne Goodman
San Francisco, CA

 

Sonoma Charter School’s Pledge to the World

I pledge allegiance to the world
To cherish every living thing
To care for earth and sea and air
For peace and freedom everywhere
You have been given the gift of a new day
Receive it, use it as a lifelong quest
for knowledge and understanding
So that you may likewise be a gift to the Earth
And all her inhabitants

Sonoma Charter School
for International Peace Day 2017
Sonoma, CA
contributed by Steven Meloan
CA

 

[plague of allegiance]

disruption is paramount
in rewiring system and structure
from the baseline of the soul’s survival
within these instinctual cities of our being
as well as thru the scenic tributaries of tactical advantage
outside our walls

change will chalk its initials
upon new monuments to humanity’s highest truth
while toppling the bygone monoliths of lies and oppression
that only the most callous and clueless of our collective species
continue to hold sacred.

Edward L. Canavan
North Hollywood, CA

 

I pledge allegiance in the blind
To the alleged point of anything
And to the remembrance of all I knew
Who trusted me to follow through
With gratitude and hazy IPA for all.

David L Cooper
Oakland, CA

 

I pledge allergies to my cats
And the apartment we share with my girlfriend
2 doses of levocetirizine
Air filters and vacuums for all

Hilary Brown
Chicago, IL

 

I Pledge Allegiance to Seeing and Making

I don’t pretend to understand
How words
Or a basket
How making
How shelf mushrooms on a
Stick how
Ripe and
Unusual fruit
All orange on a tree in the
Fog can stop the
Bleeding as well as
Cobwebs or
Anything else that splits the
Blood proteins and helps
Organize clotting and I
Know that my
Gingerbread or
Honey rolls can’t
Heal every wounded thing
With more to come
Still I
Pledge to make to
See
Somehow
Every day
Until I can’t and
Maybe we
Rewire this place
Maybe we can help it heal

Kim Shuck
San Francisco, CA

 

NEW PLEDGE

I pledge allegiance to what is kind
of the united spirit of chaos.
And to the psyche, collective and personal,
both shadow and light, signifying love,
integrated with intention:
With all that I am and all that I have,
under the sun
with beauty and joy for all.

Debby Segal
Berkeley, CA

 

I pledge my being to the Unity of life and to the Earth, our home
indivisible, without limitations saving only what is required to uphold
the equality and dignity of All.

I give my breath to poetry and to the autonomy of everyone who creates
and expresses in verse unlimited by anyone’s, including my own,
favor, validation, or understanding.

Anita May
Crockett, CA

 

I pledge allegiance to the love
that gets us through the night,
and to the compassion
that lends a hand,
even to the hate-filled and ignorant,
and to such friendship freely offered
as brings together
work of justice and play of freedom
forever, for all

Glenn Ingersoll
Berkeley, CA

 

I pledge allegiance
to my Self
& also to my Other

for which I stand &
also stand
with a whole another

between two wholes
which make a half
& also oneanother

Ed Go
Brooklyn, NY

 

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE BODY!
To your body, specifically
To the curve of your neck
To your laughter in the dark
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF=EVIDENT
That the love between lovers keeps life itself alive
The two become One (sometimes)
FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN YEARS AGO
Our Ancestors were preparing us genetically
To articulate new truths for the complex days we find ourselves in now
Ask not what your country can do for you
‘Ask what you can do for your country
MY COUNTRY-TIS OF THEE!

Michael Kelly
Austin, TX

 

I pledge my allegiance
to bygone mensroom walls
those scribble rosetta invitationals
directly above the reeking urinal,
even tho’ according them all
well everybody’s always in
better shape than me

so I pledge to the ceiling too
to which I’ll let fly my explosive
expectorates right after adding my
comments to the anonymity
of those smelly-handed
piss-braggadocios

let me drip then on the next
desperate scribbler’s my
ambuscad’l intent, yea
might go desiccate up
there, spit’s thin dry
stalactite above ye

look up, this my pledge
warns, or stare straight
at the wall-scribe’s omen :
your downcast gaze can’t
avoid my slimy drip, nay
I am the very him who
pledged it here, first !

Ralph La Charity
Cincinnati, OH

 

InSaints

~ for Marian Anderson
Aug 13 1968 – Nov 4, 2001

to the InSaint

saints in their allegiance
to rabid artists ruthless
in their revolutions
by microphone   wild pen   loud paint

to the InSaint

insane for her relentless wrestling
with cemeteried living, the civilized
dead who nest in churches burning
starving for scripture that saves

to the InSaint

the bruised, back patched
street protector, policed & caged
their evicted street codes
molested   murdered   arrested

to the InSaint

armed with reason & courage to rescue
the queen hemmed inside his soul
or the bold butch unleashing
an honest man from her iron breast

to his InSaint

daughter, now a sex worker
her vandalized bedtime
stories trafficked by a vagrant
father drunk in her underpants

anointed, InSainted she survives
by hijacking his narrative
this is her body, at her cost

it’s not for free

to the Beaten

InSaint, those weathered by fists
the pummeled InSaints craving sour
blood in their broken noses, swollen
mouths harboring savage mantras

& feral
unspeakable
secrets

to the Sinner

InSaint disappointed
in this world’s repetition, basking
in dirty water baptisms, hungry
for a wilderness god, for afterlives

where mouths are stitched
with pearls stolen by pirates
where eyes are cataracted
by clouds made by ferocious angels

fallen

to every InSaint

waging war in rotten worlds captured
by the callous & tyrants
I hear your fire
from lemurian trenches

I wave your flag
in every battle

I pledge
my allegiance.

K.R. Morrison
Bay Area, CA

 

LEDGE

I pledge allegiance to
flapping prayer flags across the planet
and through my mind
All sentient beings have been my kitten
Her head on my thigh
as I stare at the blank wall
I pledge to a dream that wakes on a non-existent couch
& laughs
The end of America has been voted in
Head touching floor in a bow to a statue
that is my secret heart
Tea offering to the Protectors
in the crisp December night

Marc Olmsted
Portland, OR

 

I pledge allegiance to you and me,
the collective of our humanity,
and from the capitalist nightmare we wake
one world, interconnected, beautifully woven, with recognition and love for us all.

I pledge allegiance to all things weird and all things unconventional,
and to the rebels, with visions wide, one new and pulsing world, red with joy, unbridled and ecstatic forever.

Deborah Perry
Boston, MA

 

I Pledge Allegiance to The American Dream

The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be
better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each
according to ability or achievement.
—James Truslow Adams, Epic of America

For the young sailor whose chin rests on weathered wooden rails
Below full sails, as he peers into distant horizons,
To seek the dawn of a new day in a new world …
For the patriot, whose faith trumps fear, who clutches his rifle near,
As he gazes across morning mists hanging above the verdant fields of
Lexington, of Concord,
Daring to believe that he will, one day, be free to call himself
An American…
For the African slave sitting on splintered steps of a worn wooden
Shack,
Smoke rising from hearth fires, the remains of the meager meal,
Clasping calloused hands together to pray for his deliverance…
For the immigrant whose hands grip cold metal rails,
Eyes stare at the Lady of the Harbor
Her torch held aloft to light the way to freedom…

I Pledge Allegiance to
the Constitution of the United States of America,
that Constitution that so many of our politicians today
swear to uphold each year – with crossed fingers behind their back.
I Pledge Allegiance to
the welder, the bricklayer, the fireman, the teacher,
the policeman, the professor, and the poet,
who work each day in their own way to ensure the fulfillment of
promises that that Declaration made first so many years ago…
I Pledge Allegiance to
Black and White,
Yellow, Brown and Red,
Gay and Straight,
Young and Old
Who have faith that this day will be better than the last,

That their cause will be worthy of sacrifice,
that their lives will be lived in liberty,
that the pursuit of happiness will forever be guaranteed—
and that America will give hope
for all who dare to hope,
who dare to pay
the price to dream.
I Pledge Allegiance to
The American Dream.

Christopher Bogart
Eatontown, NJ

 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

“The first time I ever saw an American flag / was on a can of Budweiser.”
– John Dorsey, from Iron City Independence Poem

When did they steal the flag, wrap
Themselves up in it waving a bible,
Keeping it for themselves alone?
Why did we let them have it?
Why didn’t we claim it as ours?

When did I start to fear the flag
I used to proudly salute as a boy?
When did seeing it flying, double-barreled,
From the back of a big, old, rusty
pick-up truck cause me to recoil?

They arrested people for burning a
flag in protest of the killing done in
our names in Viet Nam, Cambodia.
Said it was disrespectful, we were traitors.
But they emblazon it on beer cans,
beach towels, snot rags, underwear,
skimpy bikinis for their women, paper
plates and napkins for their 4th of July
bar-b-ques. They wipe their greasy
mouths and shitty asses with its image,
then accuse me of disrespecting it,
threatening violence in defense
of their flag while they monetize it
in every conceivable marketable way,
making as much money as they can,
selling what they claim to be sacred.

M.J. Arcangelini
Santa Rosa, CA

 

I pledge allegiance to the fish who sing to the rising sun
to the mother squirrel who fights a snake to save her kit
to the seagull who, in mid flight, pecks the neck of an eagle until it releases her friend
to the divers who free a whale from nets and garbage
to the cat that leads a blind dog
to the goat that leads a blind horse
to the swan hugging the neck of the man who saved her
to the ones who play their instruments for wounded elephants and four legged creatures
I pledge allegiance to all the creatures who suffer at the hands and doings of humans
and all the beings who are working to heal them
I pledge allegiance to sea, earth and sky
and all the gods, angels and witches that seek
renewed ancient ways to restore our mother
to her true self

Kimi Sugioka
Alameda, CA

 

I pledge my breathing
to our days
in a united state of embrace
and to the fulfillment
of desire’s whispers
pure elation
under queer blue skies
with memories
of just us
forever.

Jeffrey Bryant
Los Angeles, CA

 

I pledge allegiance to my scars in the United States of Intuity
And to the pubic hair for where it stands
One libation
Under the Goddess
With Liberty and Justice for Gaza!

Anah-karelia Coates
Madrid, NM

 

I pledge arraignment
to the felon of the
unaccountable stags of
a married coward &
to the recovery
for which we stagger
one drunk trying
to stay sober
one day at a time
for the next four years

Sunfrog
Cookeville, TN

 

I pledge allegiance to the fire from which knowledge comes
…..and to the renewal for which it stands

no, I pledge allegiance to the forest
…..to each trunk that lifts to sky
…..the mighty rooms of acorns’ tiny houses
the bark, the xylem, the leaf nest egg

I pledge allegiance to the phosphorous to which
…..we will all return, and to the rolling universe
………its spider legs the gallop with which
time fills our eyes, our mouths, knees fingers bones

and to the soil cupping the volcano heart
of this world, where blood can be a river, mountains grow deep
…..into sky, their long history of rubble and fold,
………and the rivers run always down to the sea.

Tobey Hiller
San Rafael CA