By Amber Layton
UHCLIDIAN STAFF

"As the soot and dirt and ash rained down, We became one color. As we carried each other down the stairs of the burning building, We became one class..."

Cheryl Sawyer, lecturer in the counseling department in the School of Education, began her famous poem about the Sept.
                                                                    Above: Cheryl Sawyer

11 attacks with these words, which have now circled the globe by e-mail approximately 3,000 times.

On the anniversary of Sept. 11, the children from Emma Booker Elementary School in Florida read Sawyer's poem. This is the elementary school at which President George W. Bush was speaking during the Sept. 11 attacks. Peter Jennings at ABC News also read Sawyer's poem on the air during the Sept. 11 anniversary.

Sawyer has been counseling people for 25 years. If there is a disaster or situation that involves trauma she is out working with children and their families, helping them cope with the situation.

On the day of the Sept. 11 attacks, Sawyer was at home, sick in bed. She could not help. She was not able to use her skills to console others in their time of need. Sawyer said she laid on the couch, upset, because there was nothing she could do until her husband of 25 years handed her journal to her and said, "Shut up and write."

"One" was created 15 minutes later.

Sawyer's poetry is very personal to her. She has never before felt a desire to share her feelings with the world. This time, the feeling of helplessness compelled her to share these feelings with her mother. Sawyer e-mailed the poem to her mother who, in turn, e-mailed the poem to all of her friends.

The poem traveled around the world in five days. The power of the Internet was at hand. There are at least 800 Web sites that currently run the poem.

Sawyer has received countless e-mails asking her permission to use the poem. Memorials, newsletters, church services and funerals have used the poem to express their feelings about the tragedy. The poem has been made into a CD three times.

In addition to the national coverage, the congregation of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr.'s church, also read the poem as a part of their service on the Sept. 11 anniversary.

Sawyer has received several e-mails from around the globe praising her poem. Requests have poured in from Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam and several countries in South America.

The Dominican Nuns of New York City awarded Sawyer with the Veritas Medal. Veritas means truth. She was flown to New York by the nuns to receive the medal at their baccalaureate ceremony.

Praise continues to pour in from around the world. Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia has been using Sawyer's poem in speeches throughout the year. Cleland has requested that Sawyer fly to Cleveland in October to meet the three people who saved his life in Vietnam and read the poem at a conference.

Chicken Soup for the American Soul used the poem as a headliner on the book's Web site.

"I wrote this poem as a healing process for myself," Sawyer said. "I saw the devastation caused by the attacks. I saw people helping people that they wouldn't have before. It didn't matter what color you were... who was boss and who was janitor... if you were old or new." "I counseled with my pencil more than I could have ever done face-to-face in my entire life," Sawyer said. "I am truly overwhelmed, grateful and thankful."

All money received from the distribution of her poem has been donated to charity to help the victims of the tragedy.

Read the poem

Top of Page | Front Page