Rodney Frelinghuysen: “Mr. Speaker, no words nor any precious medal can capture the grief and heartache of September 11 better than the words…”

“Mr. Speaker, no words nor any precious medal can capture the grief and heartache of September 11 better than the words of the poem ``The Names'' by Billy Collins, the Poet Laureate of the United States, who gave us this wonderful piece of poetry so eloquently as we met in a special session of Congress in New York last year at this very time. ``Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night. A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze, And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows, I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened, Then Baxter and Calabro, Davis and Eberling, names falling into place As droplets fell through the dark. Names printed on the ceiling of the night. Names slipping around a watery bend. Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream. In the morning, I walked out barefoot Among thousands of flowers Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears, And each had a name-- Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins. Names written in the air And stitched into the cloth of the day. A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox. Monogram on a torn shirt, I see you spelled out on storefront windows And on bright unfurled awnings of this city.”