Two Thousand One, Nine Eleven

TomB

Administrator
Staff member
From a friend, via email...

_______________________________


TWO THOUSAND ONE, NINE ELEVEN

Two thousand one, nine eleven
Five thousand plus arrive in heaven
As they pass through the gate,
Thousands more appear in wait

A bearded man with stovepipe hat
Steps forward saying, "Lets sit, lets chat"
They settle down in seats of clouds
A man named Martin shouts out proud
"I have a dream!" and once he did
The Newcomer said, "Your dream still lives."

Groups of soldiers in blue and gray
Others in khaki, and green then say
"We're from Bull Run, Yorktown, the Maine"
The Newcomer said, "You died not in vain."

From a man on sticks one could hear
"The only thing we have to fear.
The Newcomer said, "We know the rest,
Trust us sir, we've passed that test."

"Courage doesn't hide in caves
You can't bury freedom, in a grave,"
The Newcomers had heard this voice before
A distinct Yankees twang from Hyannisport shores.

A silence fell within the mist
Somehow the Newcomer knew that this
Meant time had come for her to say
What was in the hearts of the five thousand plus that day.

"Back on Earth, we wrote reports,
Watched our children play in sports
Worked our gardens, sang our songs
Went to church and clipped coupons
We smiled, we laughed, we cried, we fought
Unlike you, great we're not"

The tall man in the stovepipe hat
Stood and said, "Don't talk like that!
Look at your country, look and see
You died for freedom, just like me."

Then, before them all appeared a scene
Of rubbled streets and twisted beams
Death, destruction, smoke and dust
And people working just 'cause they must
Hauling ash, lifting stones,
Knee deep in hell, but not alone

"Look! Blackman, Whiteman, Brownman, Yellowman
Side by side helping their fellow man!"
So said Martin, as he watched the scene
"Even from nightmares, can be born a dream."
Down below three firemen raised
The colors high into ashen haze
The soldiers above had seen it before
On Iwo Jima back in '44

The man on sticks studied everything closely
Then shared his perceptions on what he saw mostly
"I see pain, I see tears,
I see sorrow - but I don't see fear."

"You left behind husbands and wives
Daughters and sons and so many lives
Are suffering now because of this wrong
But look very closely. You're not really gone.
All of those people, even those who've never met you
All of their lives, they'll never forget you
Don't you see what has happened?
Don't you see what you've done?
You've brought them together, together as one."

With that the man in the stovepipe hat said
"Take my hand," and from there he led
Five thousand plus heroes, Newcomers to heaven
On this day, two thousand one, nine eleven
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
I think it's a great poem and I can see the song in it.

In fact, I would like to take that challenge, with your friend's permission of course.

PM me or email me if you're interested!

(- Steve -)
 
P

ponderingz

Guest
Wow, that's an amazing poem...

I'm in awe...

I think he/she expressed something I've had turning in my heart for a while...

:)

And I'd love t' hear a song, I think it would be great.
 

TomB

Administrator
Staff member
In an effort to find out where he got the poem from, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet and now I'm having an email problem ( :( ).

I'll try to let you know when I'm back up at full speed.
 
D

DÛke

Guest
Spiderman:

Would it matter if the number wasn't actually "five thousand plus" but "two thousand plus"?
Of course. "Five thousand plus" is the number of people died on "Two thousand one, nine eleven." :) <duh!> Saying "two thousant plus" is an understatement...yet again, the whole deal itself is an overstatement -- in my opinion. I've got nothin' ta complain about...

So...I'll just leave this thread unnoticed before corrupting its stream of peacefulness.

:)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
That's what I'm getting at.... the actual death toll is NOT 5000, it's more like 2700 or so. There were a lot of duplications on casualty lists that they finally sorted out.
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Take your time, Tom. I haven't really started writing yet, school hit me pretty hard last week.

(- Steve -)
 

TomB

Administrator
Staff member
AOL is such a P.I.T.A....:(

And I heard from my friend. Apparently he got the poem from somewhere online a few months ago (which explains the numeric discrepancy), but he doesn't remember exactly where (it was a few months ago) so I really don't have any more info for you.

Sorry...:(
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Well, since I don't want to infringe on anyone's copyrights, I'll just cut the project and leave it at that.

Oh well...
(- Steve -)
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Wow, how'd you find that out? I think I'll email him as soon as possible. Maybe the project isn't cut yet!:D :D

EDIT: I found him too!

EDIT AGAIN:
Whoa, apparently Paul Spreadbury owns his own marketing/advertising consulting firm. He's had 20 years of consulting experience! What am I supposed to say to him, "Hi, I just read your poem online and even though I'm some loser college student with no professional composing experience, I'd like to set your poem to music. What d'ya say?" Right...

(- Steve -)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I wouldn't exactly put it that way, but the gist is fine. Just say that you're interested in putting the poem to music. The worst he can say is no...
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Good news!:D :D

I emailed Paul and he replied back and he said yes! I'm so excited!! I've already got some work done, except I haven't started writing the vocal melody yet.

I'll let you all know when I finish!

(- Steve -)
 
G

Gizmo

Guest
Is genuinely surprised you know that only around 2,700 people died. I hadnt seen that reported on any US media broadcasts we get over here, they all still refer to the 5,000 dead.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, unfortunately, it's one of those things where it's easier to refer to the "original" and easier to remember number of 5,000, especially for televised newscasts (where I assume you have to be quick about your newsbites so it's not worth the effort to suddenly change the casualty number without doing a full-blown story on it in the first place). But I believe most news articles have mentioned it and/or made the change; just yesterday I read in the Baltimore Sun something about how 9 of the 19 hijackers had their luggage searched on 9/11 because they were on a "list" (suspected hijackers? can't remember) but since no explosives or recognized weapons were found (box cutters were allowed back then and not recognized as possible weapons), they were allowed to fly. And it mentioned 3000 casualties from that day, which is either rounding up for print's sake or I was off by a couple of hundred.

The point is that it's not 5000 :)
 
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