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It was my great good fortune to be accepted into Joseph L. Grucci's Poetry Workshop in the spring semester of 1962. Without a doubt it was the most life-enhancing course of my entire curriculum at Penn State; it inspired a lifelong love of the craft, both as a reader, and as a writer. This poem is based on my impression of Checkpoint Charlie during military service in the Cold War. It was updated to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the fall of the wall. Berlin Wall: Rest in Pieces. This word written on the land in blood with brick and bristling wire, spoken by submachinegun, read by searchlight and the dishonored sun, was proven false each day as the life it would have defined risked death, not to live its lie.