Artists Registry

Hey everyone! My name is Christopher Kelly, I'm not a poet. (Although the Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries claim that I am). The word poet is used far too loosely in my opinion, much like the word hero, which I am neither. I consider myself merely a poetry "enthusiast". I am also a retired New York City Police Officer, (Midtown North Precinct) who spent a great deal of time down at Ground Zero. Writing these "poems" was a source of great comfort to me and a way of sorting through all the heartache and sorrow I experienced down there. I am not ashamed to say that several tears fell on my paper while writing some of these recollections if you will, and I suppose that's a good thing. But I love each one of them dearly. I have submitted these "enthusiastic" attempts at poetry to the 9/11 memorial for several reasons. First and foremost I think it is very important for people to get an idea of the rescuer's point of view, straight from the heart. Secondly I want people to know how much this incident affected us and how it continues to affect us and our families. For me personally, I lost my cousin Tommy, a NYC Firefighter whom I was very close with growing up. It was also the second time my family had been victimized by terrorists. My cousin Kathleen was a college student aboard Pan Am flight 103 when it was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie Scotland. And while I have undergone sinus surgery, suffer from asthma, diminished breathing among other things, others lose their battle from 9/11 related illness almost daily. And when the end comes for me it won't be for the aforementioned reasons. No, I think my death will come as a result of a broken heart.