The sky took back the space the towers borrowed
While the destructive forces rendered them unstable
Three thousand souls ascended the holy rubble
While a nation looked on in sorrow
Millions ’round the world stood stunned and shaken
As those who hijacked the Koran cheered on.
All Americans grieved and shared their losses
As flags unfurled across the land.
Celebrities and charities raised money for the relatives living
While Springsteen sang about the Rising.
Laguna Woods author and poet Charles Redner recently wrote this poem to honor the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and the thousands of lives lost.
Since it was an attack that drew the United States into a long war, Redner felt that presenting the poem on the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21, would be appropriate.
He also wrote “War No More,” a longer poem inspired by historic conflicts such as the Vietnam War.
“I think a poem could stop a bullet,” Redner says. “The arts and humanities are important for the moral well-being of humanity.”
Concerned Citizens of Laguna Woods celebrated Peace Day at Clubhouse 7 with a program called “Poems for Peace,” featuring readings of poems by residents and two guest poets. After the readings, guests enjoyed a wine and cheese party where they mingled with the poets.
Carol Glenn, president of the Old Pros theater group, organized this year’s program with Concerned Citizens member Latifah Taormina, an originator of the concept of deploying poetry for world peace.
“We put together an interesting mix of poems and music and concepts to make it festive,” Glenn said.
On tap were poems read by residents Barbara Goldstein, David Dearing, Lee MacMorris, Robbi Nestor, Sunita Saxena, Glenn and Taormina.
The two guests were award-winning Iranian poet Rooja Mohassessy (“When Your Sky Runs Into Mine”) and California performance poet Emmanuel Williams, who added a dramatic flair to his reading.
Goldstein, 94, read the opening poem written by her, titled “Peace! Peace! Peace!”
Dearing and Glenn teamed up to read award-winning Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s “Think of Others.”
“I play David’s conscience,” Glenn said. “David will read a line, and I will, as his conscience, tell him what he should be thinking.”
Glenn has her own unique take on Peace Day.
“Peace for me goes back thinking about each one of us as a beautiful soul that needs to connect,” she said. “When someone walks down the street, give them a smile. It could turn their life around.”
Glenn said she draws inspiration from Raggedy Ann books that she, her daughters and grand-daughters have read. So she included in the program Raggedy Ann creator Johnny Gruelle’s poem “Goodness, Kindness, Friendliness.”
“It’s all about how we want to be treated and should treat others,” she said.
Taormina has been a peace activist since the 1960s in San Francisco, she said. She did her college thesis on the poetry of William Butler Yeats – “especially his imagery of self and soul.”
She also credits her father’s recollections of fighting in the Pacific region during World War II for her activism. “What he could never forget has likely influenced my passion to work for peace,” she said.
Taormina got the idea for Poems for Peace during a 2012 Peace Day celebration in Austin, Texas, in collaboration with the city’s arts community and the Subud International Cultural Association (SICA), an organization she volunteered for, she said.
During that time, she became acquainted with British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley’s nonprofit Peace One Day.
“I tell people Poems for Peace began as an idea that just popped into my head when I was reading about how Jeremy Gilley started Peace One Day in the U.K.,” the Village resident said..
“‘What will you do for Peace Day?’ was his question. Poems for Peace popped into my head, so I put that down. The very next day, all kinds of marketing material arrived that would connect my efforts with Gilley’s – including a way that my audiences could connect with his big Elton John concert that would conclude his Peace Day celebrations that year.” (That concert took place in London in 2012.)
Through SICA, Poems for Peace spread around the world – which didn’t surprise Taormina.
“Our holy books, our love songs, our anthems, our nursery rhymes and riddles are all in verse. No matter the language. Even the heartbeat of the unborn child beats in an iambic rhythm,” she said.
Recently, Taormina discovered that UNICEF hosts a Poems for Peace website featuring the poems of children in Ukraine and other areas of conflict. Find it at unicef.org/children-under-attack/poems-for-peace.
Among the poems read at the celebration were Maya Angelou’s “Amazing Peace,” Walt Whitman’s “This Is What You Should Do,” Pablo Neruda’s “Prayers for the Earth,” Sara Teasdale’s “Peace” and Rolf Jacobsen’s “When They Sleep,” along with poems written by residents.
