Writers Workshop - Ordinary Heroes

Today, better late than never, I am writing and linking up over at Mama Kat's for her weekly writers workshop.  Hope to see you there too!

Now it’s your turn!

Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and go over to Mama Kat's to add your name to the link list. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!

The Prompts:

1.) Write about a time you shoved someone.
2.) If you were a hoarder, based on your personality…what would you hoard? (better yet, ask someone who knows you well, what they think you would hoard).
3.) First day of school pictures…let’s have’em!
4.) 911 memories.
5.) Your summer recap in a poem and pictures.

I chose to remember my 911 memories.  I have been struggling to write this, and may tweak it a little more yet!

Ordinary Heroes

 by Patricia A Pitterle

What does it mean

To be a hero?

In my lifetime I have seen

Ordinary heroes,

Walking among us.

Men and women

Who, in times

Of trial and distress,

Put their lives on the line

And stepped up to help others.

Perhaps, One of the

Best known examples

Of the sacrifices

Made by ordinary people

Happened not so long ago,

During a time

When people rushed from place to place,

And heroes seemed to be people

Found only in the history books

Of the past.

  

The day dawned

Bright and beautiful,

Full of blue skies

And normal people

Living ordinary lives,

Heading out their doors,

And off to work.

It was, after all,

Just another ordinary, summer day,

In America.

I too, left for work

In the darkness

Of that September morning,

Never thinking

That my life would be so changed.

Never knowing

That my heart would be so touched

By those who lived and died

During that terrible tragedy

In New York City. 

At work, we listened

To the morning news

When the report of an “accident”

In New York City

Made us pause and gather

At the television, where we watched

As American Airlines flight eleven

Slammed into the ninety-third floor

Of the North Tower of

The World Trade Center.

We went back to work,

Each one of us thinking

Of the adversity that

The people in New York were facing.

Soon, we were called again

And we watched with horror

As United Airlines flight 175

Dove directly into the South Tower.

No longer could we convince ourselves

That this was ‘only an accident’.

We watched, riveted,

To the news reports,

As the smoke rolled,

Deep and black, into the sky.

We saw the people struggle

Through the murky haze

One by one,

Staggering into the clean air

Of the safety zone.

Survivors, coming from Ground Zero.

We rejoiced

With each life saved,

Then sat in stunned disbelief

As the two towers fell,

One after another.

Thousands of tons

Of concrete and steel

Tumbling like so many

Children’s building blocks,

Crashing to the ground.

The morning continued

With even more bad news

Two more planes were hijacked

One, American Airlines flight 77

Crashed into the pentagon,

Killing even more American citizens.

The other plane

Crashed into a farm field

Because of the sacrifice of those

Who gave their lives that others might live.    

Two columns of smoke

Billowed up into the sky that day,

Yet, out of the ashes

Of all those tragedies 

Rose a new generation of heroes.

Ordinary and yet, extraordinary.

Men and women who stepped up

And chose courage.

They walked through their own fears

To help others. 

Normal, everyday,

ordinary people, working together

In the midst of adversity,

To change a nation and touch a world.

That is the lesson of 911.

That is what it means to be an American;

Someone who cares, who shares,

Who rescues, who gives,

Who does his job every single day.

An extraordinary hero.

.