Son of Jackie Norton shares words his mother lived by

Jackie Norton’s pocketbook, recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center, is with her son, Jason Seymour, in Santa Barbara, Calif.

“A friend asked me rhetorically, ‘How can I talk about the answers of life when I don’t even know what the questions are?'” Seymour told the Bangor Daily News. “So it has gone with responding to the incredible outpouring of kindness, sympathy and love that has come to my family since my mother and her husband were tragically killed on American Airlines Flight 11,” he wrote.

“I would like to share with you one of the things found in her pocketbook. Among all the pictures and usual things a mom might have was a small piece of worn newspaper, brittle and frail from the years she carried it with her. On it was a poem, a poem from her grave. I encourage all to read, think about and reread this poem. Ironically, it is entitled ‘Go Travel,'” by David Dejong.”

Go Travel

Speed away with the yearnings

Reject familiar presentiments

Against foreign scenes, forget

Parents with predicaments

And treasured complacencies

Accept the tones of evanescence

Fathom even newness dashing

Along your way and shiver

With delight when a city flashes

Like a star across a river.

Make joy with every enchantment

And push it through a happy

Wicket, but solemnly swear to leave

All familiar mores behind with

The bucket in the covered well.

“Thanks for the advice, mom. I love you.” – Jason Seymour.