9/11 inspires book of poetry

WASHINGTON, Sep 13, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The most moving part of the commemorative ceremony marking the second anniversary of 9/11 was when the children came forward one by one to name mothers and fathers lost in the rubble of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. From time to time as the sad litany of names rolled on, a child would call out to a missing father or mother as though expecting a reply, and then the resulting silence brought home to a nation watching on television the real meaning of loss.

Recalling the ceremony this week, Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave said she had felt a growing desire to somehow reach out to those children with words of compassion, encouragement, and hope. The result is "Healing Light: Thirty Message of Love, Hope and Courage" (New York: Glitterati Incorporated, 96 pages, $30), a collection of verse prayers inspired by the children of 9/11 but suitable for a reader of any age who needs to lift his or her spirit. The book, says its author, is "for all those who strive to overcome the adversity of life and who seek comfort, joy, strength...to meet the challenges of today."

Though de Borchgrave had never written any poetry before, she says the words came pouring out of her onto the page, and within a month she had produced 30 delicately crafted gems -- points of light in a world darkened by devastation and terror, inflicted by both man and nature. The language is simple, meditative and, above all, honest. She has taken to heart Keats' admonition that poetry should be "unobtrusive, a thing that enters into one's soul and does not startle or amaze it with itself, but with its subject."

"My message is simple, the need for courage to overcome the fear within us, for hope to rebuild after the devastation of a tragic event, and for love and faith," de Borchgrave said Tuesday. The poems invoke a non-denominational diety, and the gorgeously reproduced, and largely unpublished, Indian Mughal miniature paintings as illustrations are both perfect visual counterpoints and serve to emphasize the book's universal application. "the details of the emotive animals, brilliant stars, and glorious flowers in the miniatures conveyed the same emotions (as the poems) and completed my message," she said.

The book preface is by India's foreign minister, K. Natwar Singh, who calls it "an inspirational reflection of a cosmic connectivity that binds the human race together in its quest for ultimate understanding." The foreword is by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Egyptian-born former Secretary General of the United Nations, who describes the work as "an oasis of compassion and inner calm."

That universality is also evident in the fact that some of the verses are a perfect fit for Hurricane Katrina. The poem "Sudden Gale" starts: "When change descends/like a sudden gale/Let my spirit be first/to stand and prevail./When wind and rain/ challenge the sun,/Let my step remain firm/until calm is won..." But generally Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave's benign vision of nature would do credit to St Francis of Assisi. The sun "warms our path/ in pursuit of peace;" life can be as fleeting as "the leap of a gazelle;" robins "sing on boughs of grace."

De Borchgrave may be new at the verse game, but she has a natural gift for metaphysical imagery, as in "Reveal the harmony/ between the rose and the bee As I seek the balance of life/on both land and sea./ Crystallize my existence in a drop of dew/ Sparkling, ephemeral/ with strivings of every hue./ Ignite my soul/ with the kiss of the sun/ And spur good deeds/ until my time has come."

De Borchagrave, the wife of United Press International's editor at large Arnaud De Borchagrave, previously wrote - with John Cullen - "Villard: The Life and Times of an American Titan."

Copyright 2005 by United Press International.