Today is the anniversary of 9-11. Lots of important poems have been written about this day, including Lucille Clifton’s “September Suite” poems written the week of the tragedy, Billy Collins’ “Names” and “Photograph from September 11″ by Wislawa Szymborska.
Click on the above links and read and/or listen to the poems. Then write about what the date means to you if you are old enough to remember that tragic day. Or write about another day in history. Some time ago, I wrote on the day JFK was assassinated. I remember being in grade school and hearing the news. I also remember the week-long events associated with the president’s death. How can we forget these monumental days in our lives?
Lamentations Upon the Death of a Nation
—Oh, it’s a fine and useless enterprise trying to fix destiny. – Barbara Kingsolver
I was ten.
The nation had just witnessed a riderless horse, a reversed boot,
a black-veiled widow with her children in blue.
Wide-eyed, we stood at attention
before black and white television images,
but our hearts sagged like London Bridges.
Why has the young and beautiful fallen? And in such a tragic way?
Was this his destiny? Did he sense it?
How about hers? Is it ours, too?
How will the kids spend Christmas? What will Santa gift them?
Will she smile again? Will we?
Why did the light go out at this moment?
Is the new frontier still an option?
Dare we skip rope, play hide and seek?
Will ooo eee, ooo ah ah become a dirge?
Will the nation crumble? How about our world?
Does the man in the moon cry now?
Surely heaven exists. Or is it like Camelot?
The cortege passed. We understood.
We would never be young again unless –
unless Merlin effects a magic spell or
the Round Table dubs another pure of heart
to rekindle the torch, to seek the Holy Grail.
First published in Literary North, 2020
Photo by Robin Jonathan Deutsch