Thursday, September 11, 2014

REMEMBERING

It has taken years to write this simple poem.  I actually think I had to learn how to write it.  I offer it today as a humble tribute in honor and in memory of . . . all of us.

Learned on 911
By Judith Cullen
(c) 2014

Early morning phone call
the unbelievable
forcing myself not to
lock into the TV for hours
Hoping
Praying
like the death of Diana
that it wasn’t true.

Pressing on determined
beneath skies
now menacingly empty
forcing myself not to feel
Guilty
Overcome
others depending on me
to be calm, and present.

No personal claim to this
no friends or family
imperiled or extinguished
just another American
Citizen
Nation
as blindly united as
indiscriminately targeted.

They had no idea
that morning
moving off on their way
focused on tomorrow
Victims, Survivors
Family, Friends
that this would contain
their singular finales.

What touched me then?
what lesson that day
would absorb itself
into the fabric of me
Forever
Changing
the piece of this having
enduring meaning.

Never again, from that day
to this day, ever
would I depart with
inconsideration or anger
Goodbye
I Love You
You never, ever know

what moment will be the last.

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful! And really makes you think.

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  2. Every single line of your poem is a tower unto itself. This piece goes beyond words. It is an unspoken reality that most can not or will not recognize how one moment changed the fabric of the world's quilt. It is poems and heart stories like yours that make us remember and feel again.

    I LOVE You
    You never, ever know

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the thoughtful, soul-filled compliment. I am glad that the words of my heart, the lesson I have carried with me these 13 years, touched you. ~ Blessings!

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