Twenty-five years ago, in the days following September 11, 2001, Sister Carol Krolikowski put into words the grief, anger, devastation and, ultimately, compassion she witnessed in the wake of that unimaginable day. Written a few weeks after the tragedy, her poem, What Color Is Compassion?, captures both the darkness of that moment and the extraordinary humanity that emerged.
As we remember the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11th, Sister Carol’s words remind us that even amid fear and destruction, compassion can rise: people reaching for one another, serving one another, and holding one another tenderly. We remember the lives lost, the families forever changed, and the courage and compassion that continue to call us toward one another.
WHAT COLOR IS COMPASSION?
I know the color of rage
It’s an insidious wearing away
Like the virgin oaks
Felled for a tabletop and profit.
I know the color of rage
Mountains sliced and trimmed
For further production and profit.
I know the color of rage
In the mistreatment
Of livestock and some animals for research
For further pseudo-development and profit.
I know the color of rage
When we view the panoramic world
With color-blind pin-hold imaginations.
Raging colors streaming
Non-compliant – paralyzing fear
Utter destruction and desolation:
8:45 Flight 11
9:06 Flight 175
9:40 Flight 77
9:00 plus Flight 95
Earth opening her charred arms
In a blaze of haunting screams
Shards of glass, ringed edges of love on solitary fingers,
Mountains of transcripts toppled, that unfinished card game,
Pentagon files and secrets crumpled with an empty
Cappuccino cup twisted on a half torso with a face
Lipping: “I love you!” all ways and forever, rings out
To family and friends.
I’ve known compassion
It was an ash gray today
In the emerging servants
In the hand-held stethoscoped
The rubber-booted, the security-badged
Humanity holding humanity
Ever so tenderly.
These angels, towered up with bravery
As a world of humanity towered down
Meeting on a staircase
Now.
Layered one on top of each other.
I saw compassion
Like I’ve never seen it before
In a blaze of resurrected
RED – WHITE – and BLUE.
Carol Krolikowski, IHM
September 26, 2001
[Original in Publications]