GLENVILLE — Steven Cafiero of Glenville has worked on the same poem for seven years.

It’s a poem entitled “9/11,” which he wrote to honor his son, Steven Cafiero Jr., who worked for an insurance brokerage firm and was killed on the 92nd floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The poem told of the two planes that hit New York City, the one that crashed into the Pentagon and the one that crashed in Pennsylvania.

“This tragic day, the Eagle stopped flying, joined by the Statue of Liberty crying. Sept 11, 2001, is also the day I lost my own son,” he said in the poem’s concluding line.

Steve Califero Sr. of Glenville remembers his son, who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, with a poem, "9/11".
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Cafiero said his therapy through the years since the attacks has been revising this poem, which he read for about 200 people on Thursday at a Sept. 11 commemoration held at the monument by the Water’s Edge Lighthouse Restaurant.

Cafiero, a professional entertainer, also sang a medley of American favorites as he walked over to the monument and touched the plaque with his son’s name and bowed before a large American flag at half-staff.

Businessmen Pat Popolizio and Jonathan Wells started the commemoration last year after completing the memorial on the west bank of the Mohawk River using twisted beams from the ruined WTC as a focal point. Public officials, police, firefighters, military personnel and community residents joined Cafiero in this second annual event.

Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton said Thursday’s crisp weather reminded him of the weather on that fateful day and those who rushed in to help others and those who lost loved ones. He has a flag in his office behind his desk with the names of the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on that day.

“I am surrounded by their memory and their names and we can never forget, we will never forget. God bless you, God keep you and God bless the United States of America,” he said.

Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, said the attacks brought the country together. “We stood together regardless of our politics.”

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, recalled being in shock and just watching the horrible news on television.

“That day, I couldn’t get up out of that chair,” he said, adding that the attacks left a gaping hole in America. He said the country should honor the sacrifices of the first-responders who helped save lives and the brave passengers that stopped the hijackers on the fourth plane from crashing into Washington, D.C.

State Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, said what makes this country great is “we the people.”

“We the people seven years ago stopped taking for granted the liberties we have every day,” he said.

Throughout the ceremony, people could be seen crying, including Peggy Hohenstein of Scotia, who knows Cafiero as part of a support group of parents whose children have died.

“No matter how many times I’ve heard him read his poem, I still cry. It’s very moving,” she said.