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In Memory of....; My way of lighting a candle
Topic Started: Sep 8 2006, 08:09 PM (264 Views)
Eileen
Junior Carp

Requiem for a Nation

I said a prayer today
For everyone who was snatched away
Each one loved by someone here.
Each one loving those out there.
My soul cries out to return
This lesson I don’t want to learn.
My heart screams out in aching mime
Please take me back before the time
When glass and steel wore flaming crowns
When towers burned and tumbled down
When people ran in terror bound
To find safe haven on the ground.
Before the time when nations cried,
Before, before, before they died.
Erase the days that swiftly came
Filled with anguish and acclaim
When fathers dug on hands and knees
To find their sons in the debris
When firemen swore no man would be left
Their families alone and bereft
When citizens stood hand in hand
All across this stricken land
Looking for some release
And hoping for a lasting peace

These are the moments that mark our days
In mysterious and indelible ways
They take their place in line beside
Other heroes that have died
A few within the sad litany
Contained inside our history
A list of names, dates and faces
All taking their hallowed places.
They call to us to reach within
To rise above and to begin
To honor their shortened span of days
In simple, quiet, heartfelt ways
Not with only tears and grief
But with our smiles, however brief
For those who now smile from above
To guide our steps with their love,
To grant to us their joy of living,
And to honor them with our giving.
And now today I pray instead
Not for release from this path I tread
But for the courage to continue on
To greet each and every dawn
Carrying their joy along with me
Throughout my personal history.

And in the final analysis
All that I can say is this:
I am changed, I am changed
And that must be enough.


Eileen Taylor
Written over the course of the year following 9/11/01




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JBryan
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I am the grey one
That is wonderful.

Thank you for sharing that with us.
"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne


There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it".


Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.

Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

From The Lion in Winter.
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Eileen
Junior Carp
Thanks JB!



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Dewey
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HOLY CARP!!!
It's beautiful. Thank you.
"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
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M&M's
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Fulla-Carp
Very beautiful. Thank you.
My child shows GOOD CHARACTERIZATION in an ongoing game of D&D
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Well done.. bravo.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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apple
one of the angels
i still have that poem.. and was hoping all could see it again.
it behooves me to behold
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Bravo!
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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TomK
HOLY CARP!!!
Thank you, Eileen.
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Eileen
Junior Carp
Thank you all for your kind words. Mostly, I keep my poetry to myself, but this one told me that I needed to share it and keep sharing it.

It was a terrible day for all of us is certainly true, but for me it is more personal than that. For most of the day on 9/11, I thought that I too was a widow. My husband was in NYC on business and had an 8:30 am meeting on one of the top floors of tower 1. We didn't know that at the last minute, his meeting got changed to the afternoon and he was safe in midtown all morning. I related so closely to those that lost loved ones because for so much of the day, I thought I was one of their number.

I really do feel that I carry them with me everyday and I live my life very differently now that I did before. The radical changes are to many to number but I am a more whole person because of it.

And so I share the poem......and maybe someone else will change just a little too.

Eileen
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