Welcome to Poetically Yours. This segment highlights poets from northern Illinois. Today’s episode features Carol Obertubbesing.
Obertubbesing grew up in Union City, New Jersey and saw the New York skyline every day of her life until she left. In 1969, she became part of the first coed class at Princeton University. She said that was the defining event of her life.
The Princeton Alumni Weekly published an article she wrote about her experience as one of the first women to attend Princeton. She returned to Princeton almost every year for reunions and other events and now serves as Regional Vice President for the Class of 1973. In 2019, she organized a national conference held in Chicago to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Undergraduate Coeducation at Princeton. Last year, the University gave her the Distinguished Service to Princeton Award.
Obertubbesing has served on the Board of Woodstock Folk Festival since 1993 and has organized the festival’s virtual performances for the past two years.
She’s worked in public tv and radio. She was the director of Outreach at WGBH, and at PBS she was the associate director of the Elementary and Secondary Service. She said she is an avid listener of public radio.
Obertubbesing is remembering 9/11 on its 20th anniversary in this week’s poem. It's called "Where Do We Go?"
Where do we go when the tall buildings fall
Precious lives are lost
And the odor of death fills the streets
We bear witness and build a peaceful world to reunite.
Where do we go when those who are supposed to save us
Cannot save themselves
And the memorials fill the streets
We use our common humanity to quell the fright.
Where do we go when even rescue dogs tire
Their days and ours lacking in hope
And signs of loved ones lost fill the streets
We treasure the small moments when stars shone bright.
Where do we go when the bombs come
Freedom, justice, and dignity are gone
And refugees fill our streets
We listen, learn, reflect, care, and write.
Where do we go when truth no longer matters
Facts are alternative
And hate signs fill the streets
We raise our voices and let them take flight.
Where do we go when our leaders divide us
The Golden Rule no longer matters
And fighting fills the streets
We stand for each other with all our might.
Where do we go when our feet can no longer dance
Music no longer heals
And silence and despair fill the streets
We join in new songs to reach a new height.
Where do we go when love is masked or fades
God doesn’t seem present
And darkness fills the streets
We turn to each other and give each other light.
Where do we go when all else fails
We remember, we believe, we act
We join our neighbors to fill the streets
We hold each other through the night.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
