[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 137 (Friday, October 12, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               MEMORIAL FOR THE HEROES OF SEPTEMBER 11TH

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                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 12, 2001

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the horror, pain and anger of the catastrophe 
of the World Trade Center Towers on September 11th defy description in 
words. Nevertheless, in memory of the thousands who died, poets, 
musicians and artists of all kinds must make the effort to express our 
sorrow, appreciation and hope. The following RAP poem is one of the 
numerous attempts to call forth hope out of this unprecedented 
devastation.

                           Towers of Flowers

     Pyramid for our age
     Funeral pyre
     Souls on fire;
     Monumental Massacre
     Mound of mourning
     Futures burning
     Desperate yearning
     Excruciating churning;
     For all the hijacked years
     Cry rivers,
     Feel the death chill
     Iceberg of frozen
     Bloody tears;
     Defiant orations of Pericles
     Must now rise
     Out of the ashes
     Jefferson's profound principles
     Will outlive the crashes.
     Funeral pyre
     Souls on fire
     Lincoln's steel will
     In the fiery furnace;
     Mound of mourning
     Futures burning
     Desperate yearning;
     Thousands of honored dead
     Perished in pain
     But not in vain,
     Martin Luther Kings courage
     Will scrub the stain;
     A new nation
     Will overcome its rage
     And for peace
     March forever fully engaged.
     Souls on fire
     Funeral pyre
     Pyramid for our age;
     O say can you see
     The monument of towers
     Ashes hot with anger
     Mountain of sacred flowers
     Under God
     Blooming with new powers.

     

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