"Just before sunset on
September 11, I drove up to the National Cathedral. From Beauvoir I could look down on all of Washington-- the Capitol, the
monuments. The Pentagon itself was obscured by trees, but a huge plume of smoke rose up and hung over most of the view. Helicopters
buzzed low over the city like dragonflies. Standing on this sweet, innocent ground--where little children learn and play with
their friends--and looking out at the distant signs of horror, I could feel in my bones what I previously knew as an abstraction:
that we live in a good and blessed place, but evil is never far away." -- Quote from
a card placed in one of the glass towers of Stephen Rueckert's sculpture, 911
911
Voices
of St. Albans
Towers filled with poetry, drawings and memories
from the hearts and minds of students, faculty, staff, family and friends of St. Albans School for Boys, Washington D.C.
Designed and created by Stephen Rueckert
2002
Steel, Etched Glass and Paper, 24" x 24" x 50"
Comissioned by St. Albans School for Boys, Washigton, D.C. with permission
by The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society, Boston, Ma.
Dirge without Music by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in
the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the
wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate
dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter,
the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom.
I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently
they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But
I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Expressions by members of the St. Albans community, young
and old, contained in the towers of Stephen Rueckert's 911 sculpture commissioned by St. Albans School
"An exquisite morning--crisp, clear, bright, and
fragile. Then a pillar of black smoke boiling up from the other side of the Potomac. With it, lives, fragile and precious,
were lost. Now every exquisite morning, we remember."
•
"A day that will always be remembered as the day America's
heart was broken and it took us by surprise." (student 10 years old)
•
"In memory
of my beloved wife, who enhanced the life of everyone. Thank you for the fifty years of love and adventure. Ours were the
best of times."
•
". . . We have mourned; we have wept; we have hung our heads. Now it is time
to fix the problems that led to tragedy."
•
"Events like September 11th make you stop and wonder;
what could drive someone to do something so cruel, so hateful, that would shake an entire nation, force changes almost desperately
drastic, and drive fear and vindictiveness into the hearts of more than 250 million people? The answer is; there isn't one
for anything from religion to experiences, from government to parents." (tenth grade student)
