Artists Registry

In response to the World Trade Center 9/11 tragedy, Ron became a Red Cross Chaplain working for four months at the Family Crisis Center and Ground Zero. Along with hundreds of volunteers he ministered to the needs of those touched by deep grief and sorrow. At the family center he was introduced to the poignant portrait by Bronna A. Butler, "The Rescue," which inspired him to write his poem "The Rescue." Ms. Butler's painting, which stood in the main reception area of the family center, provides an alternative image to the many brilliant, though horrific, photos of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. Bronna says the painting "Is meant to show what the human spirit would feel. Even though our loved ones, heroes and heroines were not rescued as we had hoped, they were rescued" as is sympolically captured in the symbolism created by Bronna Butler.

The poem, "Tuesday Mourning 9/11" was inspired by Rev. Cadmus' moments spent with a young woman, whose husband of three months was killed in one of the planes that hit the towers. Following the Memorial Service at Ground Zero, Rev. Cadmus went with the family to the Family Center to share in the ritual of the distribution of the mahogony urns and American Flags to each grieving family. It is a true statement of love and sorrow, of hope and the human spirit.

"Towers of Light," prayerful in nature and sentiment, was written to commemorate the illumination of hope against the darkness of despair. Rev. Cadmus wrote the compelling words while meditating at the sight of the first lighting of the memorial towers of light, illuminated each year in remembrance of 9/11. Rev. Cadmus creates a poignant image of
Ecliptic tapers of hope
Severing fear from night
Sentinels of the sky
Vesper stars
projected prayers upon the drifting clouds
Ceaseless thoughts of those we love and
For whom we grieve
So they might dance with Pleiades
Instead of being trapped in a mournful trance
of terrestrial chaos.

It is Rev. Cadmus' hope that within the Towers of Light that ......

If humanity would consent to
radiate light from within its heart,
then the world
in all its brilliance
might confound the stars above,
forcing them to deliberate,
from their vaulted firmament,
that they are not the only heaven
and that earth
had come,
at last,
to its
sanity.