By Shyam ( © Shrikrishna Kashyap 9-21-01 )
Written just after September 11th, 2001

Gone are the towers, gone are the buildings;

Gone are the men, gone are the women;

Gone are the weak, gone are the strong;

Gone are the young, gone are the old;

Gone are the timid, gone are the brave;

In the burning towers of hope and despair,

Gold and silver, flesh and bones

Dust mingled with blood…

All buried in the rubbles,

Gone are all these and much more!

New York and Pentagon,

Rumbling and crumbling,

But America is holding high its pride and prestige,

Above the tongues of flame

In the firmament of a new era of recovery and hope.

No evil can mar the spirit or its glory

The good Lord as the witness, the evil doers will feel sorry.

The spirit soars high in the changing skylines and the blazing horizons.

America the beautiful will be more gorgeous

With crimson hues and golden cascades!

We, in St. Francis of the Woods mourn
the dead and the maimed as we did years
ago in the disastrous terrorist attack in Oklahoma,
and pray with all our loving hearts and
benevolent minds that the human race may see the horizons of glowing glory.

Cherish sanity, give up vanity, triumph over evil and march with the Lord in
peace, harmony and tranquility, upholding the eternal values, devoid of hatred and
enmity, spreading peace and love into eternal life.

PEACE, PEACE, PEACE!