Purple Heart

Unity is strength

born of the conviction - that -

these are worth keeping.

May we remember

the cost. The heart in thee that

ever must prevail.

From many,

one heart.

---<--@

May your heart, America, always be one.

I made a promise that day - never forget.

Dawn will come, this night will wane...

and it shall be 9/12/2001 all over again.

Eagles in the Night

Brave America,

has thy own vision fled thee,

elder Republic?

These skies above us

seem dark - only for a time -

till we find the morn.

For the shattering

must find its own conviction

from our unbelief.

Hence darkness has strength

inasmuch as we forget

we are like eagles...

We are like eagles

that must rise above this night

to believe again...

in God and

in ourselves.

---<--@

Freedom that is free is free indeed.

---<--@

I made a promise that day - never forget.

Dawn will come, this night will wane...

and it shall be 9/12/2001 all over again.

Never Forget

T'was the clear of day

that heralded the approach

of this longest night.

Nobody could know

the distress that was to come

out of that morning...

When the blue of sky,

shattered by the bursting flames,

fell with the darkness!

The towers, the field,

the soldier's shield... lay broken

and the world was changed.

This night was begun

as was the longing for morn -

this hope made us one.

We were all

one accord.

---<--@

That Morning After

I woke up the day after September 11 to a daze -

it was that morning after -

a surreal sense of awe and disbelief -

seem to be draped -

over the whole of the Country from east to west -

everybody seemed to just want to wake up -

and find out it was all just a dream -

that it was all just a dream!

For a moment, just for a moment -

the whole nation seemed to want to forget -

the nightmare that happened the day before -

if only things were all right -

if only we could just carry on with normal living -

if only -

if only -

and then it all began -

everything proceeded from that morning after.

I will always remember that moment -

I will keep my experience of that morning after -

because it is the moment that best encapsulates for me -

the undying hope that was begun -

by the promises our humanity lost the morning before -

and all the many days after -

as the aftermath swept us all away... into today!

When I reflect on September 11 -

here and now -

ten years from where it all began -

and I see all the war and the darkness it has wrought -

I find comfort in that morning...

I will always remember that morning after -

to me, it is just as important as the day before -

because it was in that moment when -

in the midst of all the confusion, the fear, and the grief -

the deception of War and hatred was met

with much skepticism and unbelief -

and the oppression of terrorism, absolutely rejected.

It was the calm before the storm.

---<--@

I made a promise that day - never forget.

Dawn will come, this night will wane...

and it shall be 9/12/2001 all over again.