Watercolor, Jane Kohut-Bartels, 2009
“This world of dew
is a world of dew,
and yet, and yet…”
—–Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)
9-11
That beautiful morning,
A teasing taste of early Autumn-
The unthinkable happened
And our world stopped turning.
I saw the plane, I saw the fire
I saw the smoke descend like
A blanket of blinding grief
Too late to spare those on the ground
The sight of Armageddon.
Mortar-grey people transformed
Into gritty moving statues,
Holding hands, blinded by smoke,
Move down streets where
Paper, bricks, metal, glass rained down
Like the Devil’s Ticket Parade,
Walked in silence towards the bridges,
Barely a moan I am told,
An Exodus unexpected on this
Morning of such seasonal promise.
I saw worse.
I saw people jump
From the ledges, holding hands,
Some with briefcases
And all I could do
Was howl:
“I will catch you!
Jump into my arms
I will not drop you.
Do not be afraid,
Aim for my embracing arms,
With the last of my life—
I will catch you.”
That day of fire and ash,
Inexplicable funeral pyre,
Of brave souls rushing in
And frightened souls rushing out
And the ash, the ash, the ash,
Covered everything like a silent September snow.
Eleven years later
Grieving when this day approaches,
I hear the words well up in me:
“We will catch you!
Jump into our arms,
We will not drop you.
You will not be forgotten,
With the last of our breath–
We will catch you.”
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2011-2013
–
This poem dedicated to my 100 year old Aunt Jean, the Light of my Life.
Tags: "9-11", A Memorial Poem, dversepoets.com, Jane Kohut-, Jane Kohut-Bartels, Lady Nyo, Painting: American Bald Eagle, poetry
September 10, 2013 at 12:17 pm
I remember this poem. Still so very poignant.
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Hi Nick. Yes, this poem will be posted every 9-11 memorial here. It’s a day of mourning and remembering for Americans, and for many around the world who have faced some of the same terrorism.
Unfortunately, some of your countrymen (women) and some Canadians have thrown contempt upon our 9-11 event: one very stupid Canadian saying that ‘this was deserved’ for the behavior of the US. That 3000 people killed on that day didn’t go far enough to settle the score. And some Australians saying about the same.
I hope that both countries never suffer what we did from terrorists. But if they do, you can be assured that we here in the States will throw our sympathy there. To live through all of this, and it was weeks, months before we could really fathom what had happened, well, it changed us. And much of our lives. We live now, knowing that this can happen again so easily. The roots of terrorism are based in these countries where young men have no jobs, no future because of the corruption of their own governments, and religion is something that this corruption hides behind and inflames this hopelessness.
Thank you, Nick. Thank you for reading, your comment, but most of all, your understanding. See you soon!
Hugs,
Jane
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Such a moving poem. so powerful. That day was the most unbelievable of my lifetime. I remember literally not believing my eyes when I saw the news. It did not compute. love CS
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Hi Sweetie! Glad you’re back! I left something at your blog…
yes, People don’t understand how it changed our lives. My hometown (Princeton) lost over 60 people that day, some we knew. I remember seeing the second plane crash into the tower and we watched it with disbelief. It seemed unreal, like a movie.
That day and the weeks after changed many of us forever. Some people don’t understand, but I think that these are in a minority. (See my comment to Nick). It drew us closer as a nation and it should.
Thank you, CS, for reading and your comment. It was hard to write that poem, there was just too much in memory to do so, but it was something that couldn’t be ignored.
Love, Jane
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 7:40 pm
Great poem… it’s this day … a day of so much bad things… and it has changed our world forever.. I still remember that as a day when things changed…
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 7:42 pm
This is quite good – you captured so many things I wanted to, and failed… Silent September snow – that is the perfect description. Very good writing.
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 8:32 pm
it is hard for me to fathom and think back on that day…i was flying, enroute to florida and put down in atlanta…they cut the tvs and the phones were jammed so we only caught snippets of what was happening…seeing the jumpers…ugh….i watched a documentary shot from inside during it all recently…it rocked me…
good to see you. smiles.
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 8:51 pm
I saw the second plane as it was happening. It was unreal. It has changed our nation and people, I hope…forever.
Good to see you, too, Brian.
Jane
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 8:53 pm
Thank you. It was so emotional sitting there, and then the weeks after. I couldn’t move. I had a friend, a childhood friend, that walked out of NYC, through the tunnels to the Jersey turnpike….for 12 hours I think, and everyone was silent and covered with ash. That was the beginning of the poem for me.
Thank you for reading and your comment. Nice to see new people reading.
Lady Nyo
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 8:54 pm
Yes, I agree, it has changed our world forever.
Thank you for reading and your comment.
Lady Nyo
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 9:22 pm
Like all countries, we have a few idiots here that embarrass the rest of us. And anyone saying that the US “deserved” 9/11 is an idiot of the first order.
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Well, not only an idiot, but someone who, claiming liberalism, internationalsm, is heartless to boot. I wish this on no one, Nick. We saw the second plane crash into the tower, and we saw, was rivetted to the tv for weeks. I remember being in something like a fugue state. I couldn’t function. I could only watch and piece together 11 smallish quilts. Somewhere in the heartland, there was a bunch of women from different churches that met in the basement of one church and put out a call for people to make quilts to send to the survivors first responders. I remember watching tv into the early hours of the morning, my hands piecing the quilts together, and within a few weeks, had enough to send and also to send to elderly relatives. It was the only way I could occupy myself and my mind. It was unreal what we were seeing. It was Hell in all it’s ‘gory’.
Thank you, dearest of friends.
Love, Jane
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 10:36 pm
so beautifully and lovingly expressed Jane… we will never forget.
LikeLike
September 10, 2013 at 11:05 pm
Thank you, Laura….good to see you!
Hugs,
Jane
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 12:23 am
9/11 was three days before my 11th birthday. I remember not even wanting to celebrate my birthday, felt like I would be selfish to celebrate such a thing. That day changed everything, for everyone, forever. Such a touching tribute. Brought tears to my eyes.
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 1:19 am
Alex, you were about the age of my only child, my son now serving in the Navy.
I understand your feelings at 11. It did change our lives forever…and what bothers me are people who are so hard hearted about what happened that day. I’m not talking about Muslim extremests….I’m talking about people from nations who have not felt the hand of terrorism. Yet.
As a dear friend from Australia said: “Idiots”.
This event changed us forever. I keep hearing that , and yes, it did. But as time goes on, we get a bit more distant from those heavy moments of chaos, pathos and terror. I wish it wouldn’t happen again, but the odds of it not are not good.
Bless you, Alex, for your sentiments at 11. I’ll be over to your blog tomorrow.
And thank you, Alex.
Lady Nyo
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 1:45 am
We should never forget. I remember watching those small flecks, flinging themselves from high, on a flight that took way too incredibly long to end….. The shock was so pervasive. I remember no thoughts. I sat motionless watching that mayhem, unable to even form a thought. And then a few moments, and thoughts of wives, husbands, brothers, sister, children began to emerge….. and then, tears, acceptance. I’m still kind of stuck in that phase a little…. We should never forget. Thank you Lady Nyo…
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 1:51 am
Thank YOU, John. I am also stuck. I think that is exactly the sentiment I have, and thank you for mirroring it. We can never forget and if we did, what would that say about us?
I think it is very hard for people NOT Americans to understand that day…and the days after. At least these nations who haven’t felt such a terrorist attack. I know the Brits understand, but so many don’t.
yes, tears….they went on for days…it was shock until I couldn’t cry any more. I do remember going to Kroger (grocery store here) and seeing military guys in the store and stopping to talk to them. They were buying water, basics, and so many others were just buying junk food….life as ‘normal’. I remember feeling so displaced, strange, like the other shoe was going to drop….but when? when?
Well, I don’t know what was worse: the people flinging themselves off the ledges or the ash covered statues slowly walking in exodus. Something we have not seen before, or at least most of us.
A nightmare that didn’t seem to end.
bless you, John.
Jane
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 11:57 am
Jane, I wish you’d send this poem to the White House. Silent September Snow, gray walkers,ash hats, on a day that moments earlier had been crystal clear brilliant and sunny. love CS
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 12:38 pm
Hi CS….that is a lovely thought, but it probably wouldn’t be even registered there. However, a number of people who read this last year (when I wrote it…) thought I should send it to NPR to be read there.
I don’t know…I do know that this day is burned into the minds of so many of us….and each have our own story to tell. I think we all have some common ground connecting our stories, certainly that. But the ‘event’ goes so deep, it’s something we will never complete in the full extent of it.
First, what happened, then the contemplation of where and what we were doing as it happened, and then the aftermath. And how it has changed our nation.
I wrote “9-11” in a few minutes. It was raw emotion and I don’t recommend this for poets to do. Usually there is a lot more to forming our poetry, but then again, something like this strikes at the very foundation of our psyches. It’s really a very simple poem, and toying with it I thought would just muddle it. Dilute the power of our memories and words. The power of this poem is within our collective memories I think, not just my words. And perhaps that is why people have taken to it: it sums up their own ‘you were there’ memories.
Thank you, CS…for your reading and your comments. They are so much appreciated here.
Love,
Jane
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 6:12 pm
Good tribute for the day. The United States Senate has declaired this an official day of Service. You’ve done your part for writing this. Thank you
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 6:18 pm
Hi Ken, that is so kind of you. It is a sad and memorable day. I think all of us have been changed by events. At least I hope so.
Thank you, again.
Lady Nyo (Jane)
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 6:47 pm
What a beautiful and descriptive memorial dear Jane. I hope you are well. It’s good to be reading you again. Getting back to writing myself after my six month sabbatical. Finally moved into the old house – with its creakings, and breaking appliances but it’s all good. That was quite a time for me. My trip to see the colors along the East Coast was planned leaving by rent car on the 12th – to be gone for a month going as far as Nova Scotia and returning through New England to fly out of Boston. We went against the protestations of our family.It was unbelievably memorable. What a time to see America! Be well my friend. I’m sending good and peaceful thoughts to you.
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 7:09 pm
Hello Dear Gay!
It’s so good to hear from you. Your trip sounds absolutely lovely. From one who was from family in New England, I can only understand your excitement during the trip and the season! And being back in your old house! Wonderful. Living myself in a 1880’s house with all the issues, well, it’s home. Hopefully forever.
I’ve been deep into research and study on Shintoism. All spring and summer. I have been drawn towards this for years, and finally decided to do it. Also, have been reading Freya Stark’s books: what a woman of the earlier 20th century and what an adventurer. I think about you when I read her for a number of reasons….her courage, her compassion, and her fruitful writings.
Frankly, I have also cloistered myself: I’ve pulled away from poetry for a number of reasons. One, the groups were exhausting…you know the drill. It was exhausting and fruitless. I needed desperately to do more study and more formal exploration on poetry criticism. Two, I seem to need the briskness of Autumn to write anything poetic. right now I have Meow Mix in my brain.
Nick Nicholson from Canberra, Australia, an old friend and a marvelous writer and photog, is coming here to stay with us in Atlanta at the end of October. He is doing all the graphics for the new book: “The Nightingale’s Song”…that 12 episode story. I am excited because he is a great second eye on these things, and this is the first time in 7 years that we will meet in person. he will take it back, the MS and it will be published out of Australia.
Well, great hearing from you. I have missed you very much.
Love,
Jane…sending back peaceful thoughts to you!
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 7:38 pm
Wonderful to hear all this. I hope to do something similar soon. Congratulations on the book and the research. It won’t be so long before I write you again.
Love,
G.
LikeLike
September 11, 2013 at 8:25 pm
Gay, Godspeed on your own project. People who have never done a book have little idea the amount of pure energy and the troubles within. LOL! I know you do.
I always love to hear from you, dear friend. It’s wonderful that we have kept in touch, and I relish hearing more of what you are up to.
Love,
Jane
LikeLike
September 12, 2013 at 12:51 pm
A moving poem, we will never be the same.
LikeLike
September 12, 2013 at 1:05 pm
Hello Sweetheart!
So good to read you! No, we will never be the same…and perhaps that is good.
Love,
Jane
LikeLike
September 26, 2013 at 12:04 pm
Beautiful and moving poem. I can remember being in awe and not really understanding it all. It took a while to come to terms with the gravity of what really happened. xxoo TR
LikeLike
September 26, 2013 at 1:55 pm
You are so right, TR. I am still coming to terms with what happened. I don’t think any of us will really grasp the full extent of that day….and what is happening today, either.
Hugs,
Lady Nyo
LikeLike