[ncte-middle] Tower

[Jen Mathis <omouse@yahoo.com>]

While my students wrote in their journal today, I wrote along with them.  
It was difficult to teach and go about a daily routine knowing the pain
and horror thousands of Americans were suffering. I wrote a poem, trying
to express the emotions I had bottled inside as the adult and as the
teacher.  If you feel like sharing it with others, feel free.  We are all
together, despite our differences... and we all feel the pain, but that's
what makes us strong.


September 11, 2001 
(911)

Death, heavy like smoke curls inside me
As people go out like light bulbs
Not with a sudden flash and darkness
But explosion.
Glass shards fly,
Shrapnel digs deep into the air
And swallows serenity whole,
Stifling, blinding, stumbling,
In complete helplessness.

The world has shrunk and
New York is next door.
Watching my neighbors, my friends, my loved ones
Fall silent and dumbfounded
As Hate, not Reason not Faith, takes hold.
Hate, and complete powerlessness…
Or the illusion of it.
 
I've been reminded today that
Pure Evil does exist
And for one moment around me
The entire world falls silent in mourning
And my Faith is strengthened in its resolve
To hold as a Tower of Strength 
That cannot fall.

-Jenny Mathis
Long Beach, CA

My love and strength to all


=====
"I am as bad as the worst, 
but thank God I am as good as the best."
-Walt Whitman