Songs of Our Nation: Lost in Translation, Our Vanishing Soul Finding Its Way is a new collection of social-conscious poetry by Raymond Kulick.

There’s a moment in every Raymond Kulick poem where the headline becomes the heartbeat. Songs of Our Nation is built entirely on that moment, eight chapters, dozens of poems, one long look at the country we’ve built and the soul we’ve misplaced along the way.

I invite you to join me on a journey to look a bit deeper at the American soul. Right now, it feels like our country is standing at a crossroads, lost and uncertain. We’re walking down the final stretch of an “American Dream” that seems to be fading with every sunset, and it feels like we’re reaching a tipping point where there’s no turning back.

But I believe the lessons of our past can still light the way forward.

Through these poems, I’m sharing my truth. This is my way of holding a mirror up to our culture—the good, the bad, and everything in between. I’ve always believed that the hardest battle is the one we fight within ourselves; mastering that inner strength is the only way to truly wake up. We have a massive task ahead of us if we want to reclaim who we are in this 21st century. It feels like we’re dangerously close to the edge, and we need to find our way back to the source—the spark that can ignite a new reality for the next generation.

Think of this as my personal diary of our society and a journal of the things we experience every day. I’m just a storyteller, writing down what I see and what I hear. My goal is simple: to help revitalize the American consciousness and push us toward a new level of understanding.

I want to use poetry to open minds and, hopefully, help resurrect and awaken the heart and soul. It’s a journey that never really ends, but it’s one I think is worth taking. I hope you enjoy this look back at our culture—and a glimpse of where we might be heading.

~Raymond Kulick

This isn’t a book that sits quietly on a shelf. It’s protest literature with a melody running underneath it — Raymond writes the way a songwriter writes, in verses and choruses, because for years that’s exactly what he was doing: crafting lyrics before he ever called himself a poet. You can hear it on every page. These poems don’t just read — they want to be sung, performed, shouted from a stage.

What’s inside

The book moves chapter by chapter through the fault lines of American life:

• Chapter One — Children’s Issues: latch-key kids, broken homes, runaways on Sunset Strip. Poems like “Searching for the Lost Chord” and “Children of the Night” don’t flinch from what falls through the cracks.
• Chapter Two — Women’s Issues: the commodification of femininity, objectification in advertising and media, and a call toward balance between masculine and feminine energy.
• Chapter Three — Media and TV: how the screen shapes — and warps — what we think we want.
• Chapter Four — Politics and Government: power, wealth, and the machinery that keeps both running. “Fall of the American Empire” and “The New Great Wall of China” sit here.
• Chapter Five — Inner City Hardships and Life: the other side of the velvet rope, where “The Badlands” and “King of the Dumpster” live.
• Chapter Six — Health Issues and Addictions of Society: the quick fixes we reach for and what they cost us.
• Chapter Seven — Visions of Past and Present: dreams, intuition, and the parts of ourselves the modern world trains us to ignore.
• Chapter Eight — A Dedication to My Father: the book’s emotional center. Written after Raymond’s father, Andrew Kulick, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, this closing chapter turns from social commentary to something more personal — a son honoring a steelworker, union man, and lifelong believer in standing for what’s right. The poem “My Father Has Cancer” and the closing piece “The Longest Ride” — written about the flight home for his father’s final days — are among the most affecting things in the book.

The collection closes on a line from Plato: one who is not afraid of the truth is truly free — which, by the time you reach it, reads less like a quote and more like the whole book’s mission statement.

The voice behind it

Raymond Kulick grew up in Barberton, Ohio, the son of a blue-collar steelworker and a mother who taught him that love comes first. He spent years writing music and rock-opera lyrics before turning that same instinct toward social commentary — which is exactly why these poems have rhythm baked into their bones. He describes the work simply: art as a mirror, meant to make people look twice at what they normally look away from.

Illustrations throughout the book are by Dan Kubat.

Why it matters now

Raymond started this collection decades ago and kept building it — through chapters on media, politics, addiction, and inequality that, if anything, feel more current today than when he first wrote them. Songs of Our Nation isn’t nostalgia. It’s a long-held mirror finally getting held up.

If you want poetry that doesn’t apologize for having an opinion — that trades subtlety for urgency on purpose — this is the book.

Book Available Now