9-12 2001

"After great pain a formal feeling comes" , Dickinson.

"The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs", Dickinson wrote. We

waved banners and hugged/ me and my neighbor who otherwise

I want to scratch his face. Jews and Christians found a way,

where before there was none. It was warmer in that tintype

of Grandad up north being nice to the Chippewa  Indians. TARGET

ran out of flags to sell. There was no 'poor' East side of Detroit.

Janae had learned to count her toes. Even the hardened, cynical 

were patriotic. Dems and Repubs sang "God Bless America" on

the floor of the congress. Comforted that Bush was going to get the evil doers.

I  miss the morning of 9-12/ the hope of revenge even as the

dust was settling; even as  fire officials were tallying up the lost.

We all knew where we were when it happened. What we were wearing.

Ate. What television program was interrupted. Who came over to

say " did you see"? "Yeah girl, I saw and it was crazy".  Did you see

those jumping from the building tops?  But it was hot, we mused

and the fires were only rising. Would I jump? Would you. Or just

ride down with the bricks and steel to the floor?   What small

amount of me is you, when hell topples over. Remember the day after. 

Reviews

[Eilis]

I thought your quoting of Dickinson’s formal feeling was the perfect punctuation to end your look into us. Even though you begin with it, it is not until the end that I come back and feel that funeral moment that I remember feeling the day after. Where we gathered around the grave of before and vowed to move forward without fear and with a resolve to be bonded in the sense of belonging to something sacred, threatened, potentially lost. The loss began there but it took time to distill into the hate and division we are living in today. Solmaz Sharif wrote a powerful book of poetry called Look that tries to elucidate the experience of Americans of Middle Eastern origin as citizens after 9/11. Americans have often rallied around a ‘common enemy’, and just as often misunderstood what they were rallying around. I like how your poem makes me think of a eulogy. It is the good we draw attention to at the wake and the grave side. The eulogy memorializes the myth and beauty contained in what is lost. But we always end up coming face to face with reality sooner or later. I remember watching the statue if Saddam fall and feeling a sense of pride and triumph for what we were being told we were doing abroad. Time tells the truth or fiction of all things. This poem reminded me of so many things I had forgotten. Our strengths and weaknesses are so often intertwined. I thought of that so much as you ended on the question of hell and commonality. We get lost in the wrong details sometimes and miss the map that will lead us safely home. Great poetry.

[h d e rushin]

beautiful record my friend. We do get lost (yet sometimes deliberately) as the "details" of what appears as "truth" gets clogged up in our collective resolves to be "correct". The internet, for instance, gives even the smallest, the frailest , the most emotional, the least thoughtful, strength to call patriotism the mission of the sacred and dissent the bellows of the misguided. Thank you so much for your insight....dana

[redzone]

I guess it is possible to say that all those who claim to be americans could put aside their deep seeded animosities, the day after.... but I was no more a patriot to the lie of america as a victim, as the 'good guys' on the 12th, than I was on the 10th when british and american jets bombed an Iraqi village claiming it was a radar instillation, just one of the many terrorist attacks made on people of the middle east... it is ironic, supporting either side of these two systems (jihad vs. mcworld) has proven only that it strengthens both... what the increased patriotism of the days after the 11th has proven is that the revenge and wars waged have created great chaos and bloodshed to the people of the middle east... and the bloody hands will never come clean....

I realize that I may have offended you and others who read my comment, but it my firm belief that friends need to tell the truth to each other even when that truth may go up against long held beliefs....

[h d e rushin]

no offense my friend. And you are as correct in your resolve as you are in your passion. Archie Bunker had that line in "All In the Family" where he reference a time (Queens, New York time) where there was no Arab people. What he meant was that they weren't a part of our daily discourse. When bombs are dropped on innocent people in a pursuit of getting the bad people, then bombing can no longer be rationalized. Thanks for your insight and it's always refreshing to know that what Frank Ohara said was true about poetry..."You can't hide behind it"/ dana

[barleygirl]

To be honest, I always dread this date every year, & it's worse this year becuz it's the 20th anniv. What I hate is that the same storylines get hashed & rehashed. That's why I love your poem becuz you tap into a feeling that hardly anybody ever remembers or celebrates. Yes, we did feel a surge of patriotism & you spell this out with sharp relatable details. Also, the brotherhood between us & other countries was at an all-time high, as well. Hard to look at the 20 years of war that have intervened, tho! Those were the days. Thanks for reminding us (((HUGS)))

[h d e rushin]

I put my flag out on that flag holder on my porch reserved for veterans day and the fourth of July as a reminder of "sacrifice" the noun not sacredly the adverb. 20 years flew by just like the next 20 will fly by but the memorials will become less burdensome and the names lost on that day, less mournful even to those who loved them. But what are we now if we can put aside our partisan divisions for just 24 hours only to return to our insurrectionist devices. Patriotism means that we are wise enough (not grave enough) to carry it forward to the next generation and then the next one after that. thanks for your insight my friend. dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

anyone quoting emily is tops in my book, and I am not talking the topps baseball cards, but could be.

I always had an Al Kaline card every year when I was a kid.
The day after...yes, everyone came together, even if it the thought was revenge...we were united...didn't last .....that question of jumping or not....I would have ridden down...too afraid of heights to jump...
Hell is here on earth... we go through it....and heaven is something to hope for.
Emily loved writing about death from the perspective of the dead...and maybe her favorite word was "tomb."
This write really brought me back...I was watching WGN that morning, was off from school...and saw the second plane as it hit the second tower....I could not believe what I had seen.
Impact in this write, dana.
j.

[h d e rushin]

that Kaline rookie card is selling for $250 on Ebay lol. But like a card that our foresight and prudence allowed us to keep in a safe place when we were little kids, our emotional selves wont allow us to look away when that second plane plows into the south tower. Because we value our selves and the selves of others, we still cannot comprehend the Devils commitment to want to die for a cause. What if there is no God. No 72 maidens of modest gaze whom neither man or jinni have touched before them. All do respect to Islam but some things in the afterlife are too fantastic a safe house for the soul to be safe from capture or discovery. Emily is my favorite as you can tell. She was shrewd and astute and from the yellowing pictures of her politic self, she still speaks to us.....all of us...thanks for your insight my friend...dana