Last week was the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster; today is the eighth since Columbia; this is from my files regarding that event.
Columbia RIP February 1 2003
There was with the words a sense of deja vu not from the Challenger but
Nine-eleven first.
There was with the words unbelief because
They were so unemotional however rightly used;
Unbelief and shock and nothing else this day of news.
Who could any other news choose?
There was with the words the silence of grief
Followed and followed and followed by the same news
Damnable repetition of videotaped sights--solemn, silent, soundless.
-2-
How alarming must a word be to wallop me?
How much must hurt (or must much hurt)
To break the hardening of experiences past,
That sorrow breaks through at last?
-3-
Compassion--somehow compassion must be felt and extended
That this grief be mended,
Though there will be holes that cannot be patched
Doors no longer latched
Sorrow that cannot be matched;
Compassion--somehow compassion must be made real
Not merely sorrow's zeal--
And time that can some things heal
And others bring to starkness
In every morning's darkness;
Compassion--in deed not just word
That God's grace be heard
And hearts be changed
As He arranged
Before time took shape and earth and sky
He knew today these seven would die
He knew, He planned, all in His hand
And in His hand as well out days
All days
So in sorrow to Him bring praise.