The Empty Shoes Memorial – Remembering 9/11

The 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks is upcoming which will serve, as it does each year since that terrible day, as a reminder of the lives lost and the dedication to make sure those lives are never forgotten. In that spirit of remembrance and honor for the victims of the largest terror attack in American history, the Christian music station in the New York/New Jersey Metro area, Star 99.1, is planning an Empty Shoes Memorial.

The memorial is going to be designed with an empty pair of shoes for each person lost that day in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the planes involved in the attack. The total number of 2,996 pairs of shoes will be collected from the community around the entire NY metro area in the months leading up to the event in September.

The Star 99.1 crew was in Old Bridge, NJ today and will be in Brooklyn this weekend, and in two spots in New Jersey: Union and Jackson, next week. Please check their website at https://star991.com/index.php/events/empty-shoe-memorial for more information on this unique and compelling idea to honor those who tragically lost their lives on that fateful day in our nation’s history.

The events of 9/11 will be forever etched in my mind and for many of us we have similar sentiments and pain that has still not healed. This event will give our community the opportunity to join together to honor those victims and to celebrate their lives.

I will now share some poetry I wrote about that day:

“Sky Fall”
In the blue sky that fateful morning
It all came crashing down with no warning
Lives ended, innocence trampled, hope lost
Evil pervasive, good extinguished, society tossed –
Upside down, backwards, the towers collapsed
The entire world, everywhere, collectively gasped
Earlier that morning from the sky would fall –
My Dad throwing to me a white baseball
I was supposed to that day get on a flight
My Dad had a feeling something wasn’t right
The night before I had a bad feeling too
Throughout the morning that feeling grew
Though what happened I never anticipated
Instantly so much shock, sadness was created
My Grandpa was on a plane somewhere that day
From the sky it did fall safely landing in Raleigh
So many lives cut short, so many months of fear
Why are they gone and I’m still here?
So much rain like tears from the sky fall
So much has changed, yet nothing changed at all
From the sky will fall rays of the Sun
To show us all our journey has just begun
“Darkness Then Light”
Evil comes in all of its darkness
Hatred for those they’ve never met
An unspeakable act of destruction
Shattering the lives of so many at once
My mind cannot comprehend it
I wake up some days, think it’s –
A nightmare that it never occurred
Then I feel the warmth of the Sun
The light fills up the room
I realize that good will prevail
I rise to take advantage
Of the blessed gift of life
I move forward to honor those lost
I have time they did not receive
I have an obligation to do right
To love and serve all others
To inspire and to live in the light
The light of a blessed new day

“America No More”
You know what scares me?
It’s if America ceased to be
If I lost all of my freedom
If I lost all of my liberty
Someone told me when I could go and come
That is what truly scares me
If I couldn’t say what I feel
If I couldn’t offer God praise
If I was stripped of the American ideal
I would exist as if in a haze
If someone told me what I had to write
If I was told what I had to believe
I would rather just lose my sight
The loss of beloved America is more than I can conceive

Thank you for supporting this event and May God bless you!

(All poetry copyright protected by Frank J. Maduri – No copying or redistribution without express written consent of the author.)