BS: September 11 - Poem

Subject: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 06:10 PM

September 11

In these awful times, as we struggle to understand what is happening to our world, we must keep in mind the events of the recent past.

At dawn on September 11, he received his orders.
While others would attack the citadels of commerce and defence
To his team would go the greatest honour,
That of targeting the President himself.

They would attack by air the central symbol of the Infidel's power
— The Presidential Palace.
And they would take out this obscene man
And all who stood by him.

"Democracy", the infidels called it.
Let them call it thus
And carp at the virtue of "elections".
Elections were fallible.
And now things had to be put right.

He had chosen his team well.
While others might quake at the magnitude
Of their mission, they would not flinch.

They boarded the aircraft carrying with them the hopes of all true believers.
They had the support, too, of powerful friends abroad,
Of a courageous foreign government that supported their cause,
Equipped them, trained them, and put up cash.
And when victory was won and the revolution complete
It would recognise them, and give them honour.
To it, too, must go the glory.

The plan was meticulous.
His destiny — and that of his colleagues — was in his own hands.
Flying low, he turned the aircraft towards the capital
And prayed his aim would be true.

The attack succeeded.
The president, given warning by developments elsewhere,
Chose to stay in his residence and dared them do their worst.
He was dead by evening. His regime — like his palace — rubble around him.

He made a final broadcast to the nation. Here is part of what he said:
"This is surely the last opportunity I will have to address you... With my life I will pay for defending the principles Dear to our nation… these are my last words".

And so they were. On September 11, 1973 Salvador Allende, President of Chile died, refusing to flee an air attack on the Presidential Palace. His murderers, a military putsch supported by the government of the United States,overthrew the democratically elected government
and established a rein of terror that saw thousands murdered.

Thus did the date September 11 first associate terror with the United States.

Keith McKenry

Subject: RE: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 06:23 PM

Many people are now in Heaven
Let's remember September 11.
Amen

Subject: RE: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 06:37 PM

Something I wrote, oddly enough, on September 11, 2003.
It possibly fits both events. It has a sing-song sort of tune, but I'm not likely to sing it much.

All Roads Lead Home

All roads lead us home,
No matter where we're from.
We must live within the walls we've made;
With what we have become.

And what have we become, who've stood,
And watched the hellfires borne of hate,
And said it's for the greater good --
We had to act, we could not wait

Love it is a child of hope.
A quiet voice that asks us why.
And those who close their ears and turn away,
Must know that child will die.

Dark the gathering clouds,
And fierce the coming storm.
One day we will look back and recall,
How we were safe and warm

Before the fires rained down,
To cleanse the world of love and guilt,
To rid the world of conscience and of law,
And all the false things we had built.

All roads lead us home,
No matter where we're from.
We must live within the walls we've made,
With what we have become.

Subject: RE: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: Nerd
Date: 11 Sep 04 - 06:42 PM

Keith McKenry is a lovely guy and a great reciter. I also like the parallels between the two September 11s.

But I can't say I like the poem! Sounds like a Reader's Digest article chopped up into small half-lines....

Subject: RE: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: The Shambles
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 03:24 AM

Hiders In Caves

These hiders from light
Talk boldly of fight
They tell an unconvincing story

These hiders in caves
Send young men to their graves
To die, they believe in glory

What is this cause?
These holy wars!
You may choose to pay the ultimate price
But do the misused?
Have the right to choose?
Those who will share their sacrifice?

These hiders in holes
These sellers of souls
These market dealers in doom

Hiders behind skirts
They nurture their hurts
With arms that reach out from the gloom

Why the cry?
An eye for an eye!
That retribution be both swift and ruthless?
Is it the master plan?
That each and every land
Be filled with the blinded and the toothless?

These hiders can lie
The dark blinding their eyes
Safe from those that would kill them

These hiders may hide
They're safe inside
Let them have their holes……and then fill them

Remember the hole in the ground that was George W Bush rushed off to, on September 11th?

Subject: RE: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: beardedbruce
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 07:50 AM

Sonnet 15/09/03        On 9-11                DCCCXLIX

Two years have passed, the dust has cleared away,
The wreckage all removed. Yet, are we changed
From what we were before? What can we say,
To families with lives all rearranged?

Two years have passed, but are we still afraid
To face unreasoned hate? Can we ignore
That others find out freedoms foul, and prayed
To kill our children, to our pain ensure?

Two years have passed, and ghosts are quiet, but
What have we done to give them any rest?
Has a swift sword of justice struck, to cut
Down those that hurt us, or have we failed test?

How can we rebuild all those lives cut short?
What future remains while such evils sport?

Subject: RE: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: InOBU
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 09:03 AM

Scales of Revenge

Words Lorcan Otway, tune Bold Robert Emmitt

Oh America's fired a cruise missile, and it's killed my brother's son
Now I must lay my hopes aside and learn the way of the gun
Oh why and how can they do such things, why bring such grief to me
Now I will go and seek revenge for my faith and my dignity

Oh some men from Saudi Arabia, have killed my old school friend
He was never a part of any war, why bring him this awful end?
Oh why and how can they do such things, why bring this grief to me,
Now I will go and seek revenge for my friend and for my country

Oh the helicopters came last night, and we fled into the dark
But American bullets flew from above, killing my wife, my love,
Oh why and how can they do these things, why bring this grief to me,
As generations of Afghans before, I'll defend this poor country

My son, my son, he will never return, in a foreign war he lies slain
He was fighting for his home and hearth, on some barren Afghani plain
Oh why and how can they do these things, why bring such grief to me
Send troops, send troops, to far Iraq, to stop this insanity

And here I sit and I watch the world, as blood is shed for blood
And I can only wonder why and how can we stem this flood
Oh why, oh how can they do such things, on justice's bloody path,
And who will be left to say in the end, we've balanced the scales at last

Don't stop, don't stop for our martyred dead,
or one inch of blood soaked soil,
But stop, oh stop for the love of your child, in fields of hope now toil
Oh how, oh why can't we begin, by putting grief behind
We can not ever pay for the dead, by paying another in kind.


That is part of it...

Subject: RE: BS: September 11 - Poem
From: InOBU
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 09:04 AM

Mistake above... the Tune is Willie o' Windsbury...

and here is a bit more...

Engine 33

Words Lorcan Otway, Tune Bold Rober Emmitt

Flashing lights and no sirens, all emergencies over
The motorcade passes, with the heroes who fell
And all on the streets stop, and in silence bear witness
Such sorrow and thanks, no mere words can tell

Who ever can forget the gray ash covered engines
coming back from the alarm like no other before
Such pain for survivors, to embrace all the families
Of comrades so loved, now on that distant shore

Chief Downey, Father Mike, First Deputy Feehan
Peter Ganci and many, too many, to tell
Your memories we'll honor We n'er will forget you
You brought hope to the horror when the two towers fell.
      

Remember Tim Stackpole, how he prayed in the wreckage
In that terrible fire that took two of his friends
So horribly injured he fought to recover
To return to his ladder and to die with his men

So now to acknowledge, just one of the many
Engine 33 Ladder Company 9
There's 10 empty places around their table
10 fallen brothers who fell on the line

Remember Kev Pfiefer, Mike Boyle and Keith Maynard
Jeff Walz, Brian Bilcher, Robert King, Dave Arce
Gerarde Baptiste, Robert Evans, John Tierney,
10 lost out of 40 from one company

And though we mourn them, they're still on the job now
Though they have fallen, they're still standing tall
Their spirit will bolster their sisters and brothers
Their unseen presence will answer each call

So tell all your children to tell all their children
never pass a firehouse without a brief pause
And thank all the heroes who work on those engines
Each day they risk all in humanity's cause