Arlington, Mass. poet Steven Ratiner heard the news on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 while sitting in a Gosport Chapel pew on Star Island. The events and his setting inspired him to pen the poem “On the Morning We Heard They’d Blown Up the World.”

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Boston NPR station WBUR invited Ratiner to speak about and read aloud his poem, which aired on Sept. 5 during the radio programme “All Things Considered.”

Visit WBUR.org for the full audio clip and the complete poem text.