Saturday, December 15, 2012

IN REMEMBRANCE OF SANDY HOOK...

The details of exactly what happened are still unfolding, but seven adults and twenty students were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut December 14th. A lone gunman broke into the school to kill his mother as part of a vendetta to wipe out his family before killing himself.

As the country deals with the traumatic aftermath, our resident poet Nancy A. Hansen has written the following...


SANDY HOOK 12-13-12

I have no tender words
To comfort those
Who have lost loved ones
To senseless violence
I wouldn't know what to say
That could convey the aching, oppressive feeling
Weighing down my spirit 
With long chains of lead
Nothing seems appropriate
Except to cry out, “WHY???”
Knowing there are no simple answers

How can you say to someone
Who’s had everything that matters
Torn asunder in a few horrific moments,
“I’m so sorry for your loss?”
It seems hackneyed and trite
And markedly overused
In an antiseptic way
Separating us who still have our lives intact
From what has happened to innocent strangers
Via some careworn expression 
Of clinical consolation
Tossed about like macabre confetti
It doesn't lighten my soul
And does nothing for their sorrow
We all know I came home
To a world still unmarred
Yet they’ll never feel safe or peaceful again

I can’t imagine what it would be like
To have my life so abruptly changed 
At the hands of another
I hope I never have to find out
Because I’m not sure I could bear it
And I’ll readily admit
Today I was glad my boys are grown
That my grandchild is safe
And my family remains unharmed
On my side of the state
Because I can’t forget
This could have happened anywhere
To any one of us
In this world of violent decisions
Long planned in remorseless hatred
Fueled by bitter divisiveness
In a society too busy to notice
Some of us are struggling far too hard 
Just trying to cope
With what we have been dealt
Had the time and place been different
It could have been any of us
In the news tonight

So solemnizing this day
When terror struck
At a place called Sandy Hook
I’m simply writing 
Whatever came to mind…
Today I found myself praying 
Ever so fervently
This never has to happen
To anyone
Anywhere 
Ever
Again

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