A personal memoir
This is an unapologetic personal memoir of this date five years ago. It is not intended to be any kind of commentary or analysis.
Yesterday, the Senior Pastor at my church, Paul Goodrich, made a brief statement about the anniversary of 9-11. Rev. Goodrich noted that it is important to focus not so much on what happens in life, but rather on what we do with what happens in life. He said that "God is always working for good in spite of what may be happening around us. And even as those tragic events were occurring some five years ago, God was already at work, working for good. We may not have seen it, but God was working for good in the midst of those utterly tragic events." He asked each of us to ask ourselves if we have continued to work for good after those events. Rev. Goodrich's words spurred me to write what follows.
My mother, Shelia Campbell, wrote the following poem.
DreamBones #3
a voice comes tunneling
between the skyscrapers, and men
hunt down corners
to hide in, hoping the sound
is some new alert and not the last
prelude
children in the park drop
their toys and, looking up,
listen
leaves uncurl their ears
in wonder, making cover
for the terror-stricken
no four horsemen of the apocalypse
no fire, no sword, no cracking
of the earth
just a voice tunneling between
the skyscrapers, a wind moan
amplified, asking
why
© 2005 by Artis Lingua (reprinted by permission)
Although my mother's poetry was not published until 2005, this poem was written in 1976.
My mother's poems were published posthumously. She went through a 13-year ordeal of illness in which literally every day was slightly worse than the one before. That ordeal ended at approximately 5:00 p.m. on September 11, 2001.
My father, sisters, and I all had a similar thought hours after her passing, and many others subsequently expressed it to us without knowing we had already thought it. My mother's soul was ready to leave this world, and she felt she would go to comfort those many souls who were not expecting or ready to leave this world on that fateful day. I fully realize that this might seem biased, but it would have been in keeping with how my mother lived her life. For years she had a sign in her office which read "The joy of a Christian is to know her life serves." She practiced what she preached in that regard, even as her physical body was being inexorably and systematically ravaged.
I do believe, as Rev. Goodrich said, that "God is always working for good in spite of what may be happening around us" because I have seen that and experienced it. And I believe I witnessed it in my mother's physical death on September 11, 2001.
Yesterday, the Senior Pastor at my church, Paul Goodrich, made a brief statement about the anniversary of 9-11. Rev. Goodrich noted that it is important to focus not so much on what happens in life, but rather on what we do with what happens in life. He said that "God is always working for good in spite of what may be happening around us. And even as those tragic events were occurring some five years ago, God was already at work, working for good. We may not have seen it, but God was working for good in the midst of those utterly tragic events." He asked each of us to ask ourselves if we have continued to work for good after those events. Rev. Goodrich's words spurred me to write what follows.
My mother, Shelia Campbell, wrote the following poem.
DreamBones #3
a voice comes tunneling
between the skyscrapers, and men
hunt down corners
to hide in, hoping the sound
is some new alert and not the last
prelude
children in the park drop
their toys and, looking up,
listen
leaves uncurl their ears
in wonder, making cover
for the terror-stricken
no four horsemen of the apocalypse
no fire, no sword, no cracking
of the earth
just a voice tunneling between
the skyscrapers, a wind moan
amplified, asking
why
© 2005 by Artis Lingua (reprinted by permission)
Although my mother's poetry was not published until 2005, this poem was written in 1976.
My mother's poems were published posthumously. She went through a 13-year ordeal of illness in which literally every day was slightly worse than the one before. That ordeal ended at approximately 5:00 p.m. on September 11, 2001.
My father, sisters, and I all had a similar thought hours after her passing, and many others subsequently expressed it to us without knowing we had already thought it. My mother's soul was ready to leave this world, and she felt she would go to comfort those many souls who were not expecting or ready to leave this world on that fateful day. I fully realize that this might seem biased, but it would have been in keeping with how my mother lived her life. For years she had a sign in her office which read "The joy of a Christian is to know her life serves." She practiced what she preached in that regard, even as her physical body was being inexorably and systematically ravaged.
I do believe, as Rev. Goodrich said, that "God is always working for good in spite of what may be happening around us" because I have seen that and experienced it. And I believe I witnessed it in my mother's physical death on September 11, 2001.
posted by WCharles @ 9/11/2006 04:53:00 PM
4 Comments:
Powerful words, WCharles. And full of emotion.
What was the inspiration for your mother's poem? Seems so appropriate to 9/11.
Indeed, the poem is appropriate to 9-11, but I don't know that I would use "inspiration."
Before she died, my mother talked at great length with my oldest sister about publishing her poetry (most of which was written before 1980). If anyone would know about the background for this poem, it would be my sister. When I posed your question to my sister, she said the poem was purely visionary. My mother indeed had a prescient quality about her.
I had not read any of her poetry until several months after she died. As you might imagine, I got chills when I read DreamBones #3 for the first time. To think that it does seem to foreshadow 9-11 is enough, but add to that the fact that she died on that very day...
No need to apologize. However, had you waited just a little longer, you could have commented on the next post. :-)
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