Overcome

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 VICTIMS

This site is dedicated to the victims of September 11, 2001 tragedy.

Recent events in the U.S. have left me, like most, wanting to do something to help. As a writer and poet, I find it's hard to focus on anything else in the wake of the tragedy.

I've written the poem below in the hopes it might be, in some small way, a comfort during a difficult time.

By: Marc Duane Anderson

OVERCOME

I'll never forget

watching, impossibly silent

horrifying images flashing before our eyes,

malevolence come like a thief in the night,

punching a hole in our lives,

piercing our hearts with injustice.

I strain to understand how over the course of a couple of hours

we are offered a different version of our world.

Something once so powerful

subdued by pain and suffering,

reduced to ashes,

a tidal wave of smoke and debris

that would leave our world in mourning,

the news so bleak,

grief and heartache

where our hope had been

and there's no way to weather

this impossible storm.

Stunned and saddened,

with heavy heart,

wanting to do something useful with my anger,

I hug my children

as if it were for the first time

but can't help but think of those who were lost

who can't be hugged again,

love that's unable

to find its intended home.

If only our tears could bring them back.

Then comes the flicker

of frail candlelight

soothing hopelessness, fighting for air,

a faint struggling glimmer,

but a glimmer nonetheless and

I had no idea

so many united could cast such a glow

amplified by voices in vigil

united in prayer.

Shining through,

along with the light,

gestures of solidarity

that stretch around the world,

a groundswell

of resilience

rising through the land,

as a river comes to overwhelm its banks,

bringing

determination

to restore our world to order,

dedication to ensuring

this will never happen again

and it dawns on me

our day-to-day worries have faded into obscurity and

we take nothing for granted as we

reach out to each other

and I realize

they have failed

for what was meant to tear us apart

is bringing us closer together.

Marc Duane Anderson

Sarnia, Canada

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