It was mid afternoon here in Holland, a bit before 3 pm local time. I was in a meeting, when someone came in and said a terrible accident had happened in New York, apparently a sports plane hat hit the Twin Towers and to turn on the tv, CNN International.

We had just turned it on when the second plane hit the other tower. Disbelief. First immediate thought: terrorist attack, WW3. Terrible sadness, shock, anger. Of course the meeting was over and I sent everyone on my department home.

Went home myself, my younger sister called. Crying. Meanwhile saw the images of the crash in the Pentagon and heard about the crash of flight 93. Talks about more planes being hijacked. Confusion, anxiousness. It was hard to control my feelings, crying. I felt the pain. To get my thoughts together, I sat down and wrote a poem "Nightmare from the Sky", penned it down within 10 minutes.

The tv stayed on for the next 72 hours. I think I only slept about 8 of them. Meanwhile I have a different view on what happened that day, but the sadness over the loss of so many innocent lives remains till this very day.