Today’s poem was sparked by a New York Times crossword clue. I am a devotee of this word game 365 days a year. I always learn something new. Usually the new snippet of knowledge is something from the worlds of sports or contemporary music or television shows or popular culture in general, areas where I have gaping deficits. (I do just fine with Latin phrases, classical mythology, U.S. presidents long out of office, world geography, Victorian literature, and extinct automobiles like the Edsel.)
Today, I learned that the Statue of Liberty’s internal stairs, the structure allowing humans to climb up for sweeping views of New York City’s harbor and skyline, is actually two intertwining staircases! Yes, 162 steps up and 162 steps down encircling each other, step by step, in the form of a double helix. I have never (yet!) visited Liberty Island but since girlhood I have longed to do so. Soon! Meanwhile, I travel there in my imagination rather often.
I do not think my own sparked poem, “Inside Liberty,” will become a deathless classic, like the sonnet engraved at the base of our shared icon, written by Emma Lazarus:
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightening, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus
(This poem is in the public domain.
In 1903, the lines were inscribed onto a bronze plaque
and attached at the base of the Statue of Liberty.)
I did, however, enjoy a few hours of thinking about this subject, noticing again the coin on the money clip in my wallet, passed down to me by my father, and thinking about what is of value in the traits and ideas we inherit and pass on. I was especially struck by the intention of welcome designed into the Statue of Liberty–and her eloquent, silent commentary on current events. I hope you enjoy these photos of actual currency, and that your days are spent in richly rewarding ways!
LESLIE
