I wish to commemorate the tragedy of 11 September 2001. I will never forget the shock I felt when my husband called me in to the living room to see the horrific destruction of the Twin Towers on CNN - 'Live.

New York is my City, where I lived until I was 19 years old. I was brought up there and though I live in New Zealand, I will always be a New Yorker. To me it was incomprehensible that this could actually occur.


A poem I wrote at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan:

It sits on my mind so heavily, I know
Always a sad feeling that's like a small black cloud.
The horror of September 11th, though I say nothing out loud;
It's always with me, but I don't always let it show.

My way of always putting myself in others' places
And always trying to be fair
has now become my enemy I fear
as I envision what the victims must have felt
When doom and death stared in their faces.

The fathers and mothers who could not believe
That they would not see their children again.
The lovers both old and young who could not conceive
what was happening as they burned and died in pain;
In the ashes of sorrow, in the rubble and rain.

Oh what a horrible thing to have perpetrated
to the victims of tower and plane -
men and women who had done no wrong
Their lives destroyed and obliterated
the end of their world in fire and flame.

I feel a great anger since that day
an anger that refuses to go away.
An anger that is mixed up with fear and sorrow
A hurt so deep, and fear for tomorrow.

An anger at the terrorists and those who protect them.
I want revenge as most Americans do.
I'm not a warlike person is true,
but underhand terror cannot be excused.
I want bin Laden to stand accused.

All of his minions brought to task
all his helpers obliterated,
all his supporters devastated
Justice for all is all I ask.

Until the day there's an end to this madness
the day when those who died are avenged
I will exist with this feeling of sadness.
Until America (my country) obtains its revenge.

God Bless America.
Maria Jensson - 30 October 2001
(Copyright 2001)

2002 - A year has passed (yes, it's true!), and although most events that occur in our troubled world are soon superceded by new ones; this outrage has not - it's still the prime event of the new century - I pray that nothing will happen that will surpass this evil.



2003 - Well, it is 2 years on and the world is no better for the events of September 11 2001. However, we innocents have learned a lot in this time. Many political and expediently unethical events have taken place since that day, and have been misrepresented as the result of 9/11. And many other innocents have been sacrficed in the name of power.


Maria, Asgeir and her Hekla Persians.