Thoughts on a 9/11 poem

Adam Zagajewski (bio), a Polish poet, had the poem "Try to praise the mutilated world" published on the back page of The New Yorker immediately following the September 11 attacks. Here's a journal entry I wrote in response:

Adam Zagajewki’s “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” is a 9/11-themed poem that I really connect with. When reflecting on it, the aspect that stands out to me and speaks to me the most is the simplicity he uses when framing the world. His imagery evokes memories of beauty and good from my own life, and I get an overwhelming sense of calm after reading the poem. Yes, he seems to be saying, the world has been broken. It has been mutilated. However, for all this bad, there is equal good. In fact, he may be saying there is MORE good than bad. I think it’s incredibly significant that he talks about the “gentle light” and ends the poem by saying that it “strays and vanishes / and returns”. Light is so often used metaphorically in religion, and for me it really gives the poem an almost spiritual feel. Yes, the light always returns – in spite of the difficult events we all live through, the unspeakable atrocities and horrors that we can’t even comprehend in our own sheltered lives. This is a declaration of the triumph of the light: it will always be present! What does the poem say to me? That there is good in this world, there is beauty, there is light; and if nothing else, it is worth remembering that this light, although it sometimes seems impossibly far away, always returns.

Also, I think it's a "declaration" in the sense that i don't sense ambivalence on his part; rather, it seems like absolute wisdom from one who's lived through the bad and seen the good. The poem doesn't ask questions - instead it makes a declaratory case for its point of view.