"Not Forgotten"
"Not Forgotten"
Time has narrowed,
increasing so fast.
With no escape,
nothing will last.
32 ever so freightened,
broken hearts are vast.
Fear building courage,
their moment shall never pass.
********************************
Virginia Tech holds a special place in the hearts of our family, having a daughter as a graduate of Virginia Tech and one son which is currently attending Virginia Tech Engineering. The events which occurred on 4/16/2007 saddened us deeply. We choose to remember the heroes that day, all who gave their lives, were injured, assisted in the recovery and of course, our law enforcement officers.
Mike Hammack
2007-05-02
Mike Hammack
eng
Lost But Not Forgotten
LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
They lost their life on that fateful day
April 16th together we pray.
No motive, no means, to commit such a crime.
What began a Monday morning,
lost like a drop of a dime.
A community, our school,
Virginia Tech that is.
What turned into a tragedy.
once known as a serene state of bliss.
It was a snowy, cold, spring morning
when their world came to a halt.
A day of great remembrance
full of pain, grief, and fault.
No one can possibly
express this magnitude of distress.
To hold their hand in silence
and mourn those we miss.
Where do we go from here?
Is there any place to turn?
To change the hands of time
And take away their fear.
Through the darkness of night
until the break of a new day.
Please remember our HOKIES
This, I ask you to pray.
Elizabeth Patterson
Elizabeth Patterson
2007-05-02
Elizabeth Patterson
eng
Weeping At The Mount
Weeping At the Mount
The Lord is weeping at the mount
What has happened to his dreams?
He prayed and prayed for a single purpose
That we would live in peace
After generations and generations we have forgotten
That little thing called love
While God chose his Son, one and only begotten
So that we may simply come
Instead we choose to see ourselves
Instead of looking out
Light turns a dark shade of greed
We have turned from love, without a doubt
Taking what isn't ours, what others need
Lives, money, property and jewels
Like honey to our eyes
We turn from wisdom, and become great fools
While the Lord is weeping at the mount
What happened to what we shared?
Everyday is new, let's turn around
Let's show each other extra love and care!
*Every time a murder or robbery happens, we're throwing stones at Jesus on the cross! Don't brush this off, because hate, jealousy and anger we hold on to are also forms of throwing stones!
Kelly Warren
2007-05-02
Kelly Warren
eng
Virginia Killings - We Know Not
We know not your name
We know not your height
Nor your weight
Nor your burdens
The things that brand you
We know not the reason
We know not the thoughts
Nor the sorrow
Nor the regret
The things that brand you
We know not who you are
We know not who you want to be
Nor who you could be
Nor who you should be
The things that brand you
To me you are a killer
To her you are a savior
To him you are a bastard
To them you are nothing
Is this why
In the end
They paid
With their lives?
Is this why
In the end
They won't see
Her again?
Is this why
In the end
She is alone
And all she can do is cry
You've killed
Daughters
Sons
Fathers
Mothers
Friends
Grandsons
Granddaughters
Nieces
Nephews
Cousins
Aunts
Uncles
Brothers
Sisters
Lovers
You've hurt
Daughters
Sons
Fathers
Mothers
Friends
Grandsons
Granddaughters
Nieces
Nephews
Cousins
Aunts
Uncles
Brothers
Sisters
Lovers
You've hurt
Me
--
<b>Author's Comments</b>
This is my worst poem I've yet to write, but the things that happened today, Monday, April 16, 2007, have really touched and upset me. This beats slicing, so I figured whatever. Comments are disabled b/c I really don't like this.
(C) Keithlee Spangler a.k.a. fickshonal a.k.a. Bella
If you are unaware as to what happened in Virgina today, here is a [link] to read it. Byes for now.
--
Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 16, 2007: <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53399599/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53399599/</a>
Licensed under a
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License</a>.
Keithlee Spangler
2007-05-24
Brent Jesiek
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5
eng
SONG: 'That Way' by lithiumfailed
I woke up today
This mirror doesn't reflect me
No one that I know of
Has time passed so quickly?
Did you give the final shove?
Save us from evil
Save us from evil
Is this what I've become?
A heart left untouched
My wounds have come undone
I hold your lives in a clutch
((Save us from evil))
And all I have to say
((Save us from evil))
Is that I never walked that way
((Save us from evil))
Can the night save the day?
((Save us from evil))
I woke up today
Is this the end of me?
And all I'd hoped to be?
I can only save myself
Through the blood of someone else
((Save us from evil)
I cannot walk this way
((Save us from evil))
I will not live to say
((Save us from evil))
That I walked that way
((Save us from evil))
I can't wake up today
And all this pain I see
Reflects right back at me
I've been where you were before
But I ignored that door
((Save us from evil))
I'm proud to say
((Save us from evil))
I never walked that way
((Save us from evil))
I've finally found my day
((Save us from evil))
My eyes are open today
Save us from evil
I woke up today
--
<b>Author's Comments</b>
Inspired by the events at Virginia Tech. Rest in peace :heart:
MayB
--
Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 18, 2007: <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53516419/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53516419/</a>
Licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License</a>.
lithiumfailed / MayB
2007-05-24
Brent Jesiek
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License
eng
VT: In Memory of Virginia Tech
<u>VT</u>
<b>Written by Al Shoemaker
In memory of those who died at Virginia Tech, May they always be with us</b>
<i>This poem is dedicated to all that were lost,
Because someone wanted power and lives were the cost
For all the ones that sat there in fear,
For all the ones that shed many tears,
And for the ones who lost their loved ones, so kind and dear
We give a salute to all of them that tried to protect,
From a foolish madman that had a defect
Admiration should be given to all those that went to a better place,
Because their bravery shined, that moment they looked death in the face
For all the ones that suffered grief,
We hope very much that their pain will only be brief
Many sat there in caution, petrified like stone,
As that bad man took many lives, before he took his own
This is for all the ones who managed to stay so strong,
During that horrible moment, that felt so very long
They had to be so brave, to be so filled with hope,
And we wish good for the families, who are now trying to cope
Now is the time to spread peace and love,
In remembrance of the ones that now float above
No one knows why this era has already become such a sad time,
But now we must stand up, to prevent such similar crimes
We must stop other things from going on now,
How this became such a scary world, no one really knows how
We need to stop murders, racism, gang violence and gay bashing,
And we need to stop theft, violence, and window smashing
So let's help all the victims, families, and survivors and show that we all care,
Help them on their feet and help them recover from this scare,
And clean this death and sorrow out of our air,
So now we want to give love, to those whose dreams were wrecked,
And everyone else, who was there at Virginia Tech</i>
--
<b>Author's Comments</b>
It was very tragic, what happened a few days ago at Virginia Tech, so I wrote this poem in honor of the victims, survivors, families, and everyone else related to Virginia Tech, and to inspire others to help the cause. May all the lost ones rest in peace.
--
Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 18, 2007: <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53501916/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53501916/</a>
Licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License</a>.
Al Shoemaker
2007-05-24
Brent Jesiek
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5
eng
From Out of the City for April 22, 2007: Death and Memory (April 22, 2007)
128Kbps MP3 12.5M
The poet presents three works; the poem "April 16, Blacksburg, Virginia" about the Virginia Tech shootings; the poem "at a former lover's graveside" about the death of those we have loved and "the taste" a new song by his band, the Gods of Love.
This item is part of the collection: <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_audio">Open Source Audio</a>
Author: <a href="http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator:%22William%20F.%20DeVault%22">William F. DeVault</a>
Date: 2007-04-22
--
Original Source: <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/City20070422">http://www.archive.org/details/City20070422</a>
Creative Commons license: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/">Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0</a>
William F. DeVault
2007-06-15
Brent Jesiek
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0
eng
In praise of Nikki Giovanni
Virginia Tech's vigilant professor of English is a true leader
<b>Philip French
Sunday April 22, 2007</b>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2062610,00.html">The Observer</a>
<b>The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday April 29 2007</b>
In the article below we said, when referring to Virginia Tech , that 'Edgar Allan Poe enrolled there in the 1820s'. He was, in fact, a student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The Agricultural and Mechanical College, Virginia (Virginia Tech) was established in 1872.
---------------------------------------------
This has been an extraordinary week for Yolanda Cornelia 'Nikki' Giovanni, born in Knoxville, Tennessee 64 years ago, called by some 'the Princess of Black Poetry', up in the African-American literary pantheon with Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. A poet, essayist and political activist since her teens, Nikki Giovanni was a friend in the 1960s of the revolutionary Communist academic Angela Davis and the gay black polemicist and novelist James Baldwin. More recently she went bravely, recklessly public as an admirer of the late, embattled rap star Tupac Shakur.
Since 1987, Giovanni has been a professor of English at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, an enormous multicultural campus now universally known as Virginia Tech. Edgar Allan Poe, among the first American poets to win wide acclaim in Europe and a writer with a peculiar understanding of madness, enrolled at the university in the 1820s. At that time, Virginia was a slave state, and after the Civil War it retained educational segregation until the 1950s. When the Korean-born, American-raised Cho Seung-hui marched out last Monday across the Virginia Tech campus, killing as he went, we have his demented account of the aggressive, vengeful thoughts that went through his mind. We have a more lucid idea of what went through the mind of his teacher, Nikki Giovanni. Cho's stories, conduct in class and general demeanour had excited her concern, suspicion and fear, which she conveyed to the university authorities.
Last week, Virginia Tech provided Giovanni with a proper platform to speak on behalf of the university, its faculty and student body. She delivered her brief, beautiful 'chant poem' at the university's memorial service, and it brought together a heterogeneous campus. Her fresh eloquence was in marked contrast to the event's principal speaker, President George W Bush. The term 'Hokie', by the way, suggests some ancient Indian tribe. It was in fact coined at Virginia Tech in the late 19th century as a communal cheer, a version of 'hooray' or 'yeah', and became the name of the college's sports teams.
<b>Nikki Giovanni's 'chant poem'</b>
We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of Aids, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007.
--
Original Source: Guardian Unlimited
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2062610,00.html">http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2062610,00.html</a>
Philip French
2007-08-09
Adriana Seagle
Eve Thompson-Acting Permissions Executive:permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
eng