Liberty ParkSummer 2002 - Volume 6 Number 3 Mixed media acrylic "Liberty Park" by Kitty Evers, MD Liberty Park--WTC911 By Kitty Evers, MD J Seward Johnson's "Double Check" Bronze business man Suit covered in ash Debris everywhere Briefcase open Staring down at his waiting work. He'll never get to that.
Did he know Death waited instead? Everything around him transformed Rendered unrecognizable In the moment The sky rained down.
Poor bronze man You are a stand in For all of us That awful day.
You are Everyman's son. You are Everywoman's child Still sitting impossibly frozen Amidst the dust and debris.
Hate leads to this.
What is there left to say? What is there left to mourn?
No more music No more sound Struck dumb To feel what has come to pass.
And what the poet said is true:
"This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper."a
a The Hollow Men, TS Eliot In the aftermath of the bombing of the World Trade Center Towers, many searched for ways to find meaning or solace. Art and poetry
became useful expressions of the search. A photograph of J Seward Johnson's sculpture, "Double Check," in Liberty Park, near the World Trade Center, was the inspiration for this painting and poem. In the midst of a normal day, a maelstrom raged around this "Everyman." It is fitting that in the months since the tragedy, this sculpture has become a memorial of sorts, representing those who died in the bombing of the World Trade Center Towers. |
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