teaching/learning on 9/11
we had
each and all
been moving somewhere
somehow
on plains
in vales
of smoke and ash
then met
where
our collective breath held now
for
news
gaze enough
to see
to hear
from our devices
and
for some
of us
having to employ our senses
so
much closer in
thus goes that day
in hours
our
classroom experience
where
systems and who knows the frame
of Providence
by
unknown dimensions
set for us
by which
we
had been gathered
c l couch
photo by Zhuo Cheng you on Unsplash
To the Dark Towers Came
The news said
that
a private plane
had hit
one of the towers
of
the World Trade Center.
I felt awful for
the pilot
and the passenger.
I had to get to school.
I listened
to the radio
on the way. The news
was
still confused.
I got
to school and walked from
the car to the building
where
the classroom was. I
entered
the room to find
the TV on,
everyone staring. Then
I found out
what happened,
that
the towers were gone, one
tower then
the other.
The planes were
jet liners. Commercial
planes.
Hundreds of folk
were
running toward
the site
to try
to rescue thousands.
No doubt
these responders looked
up
to see
the buildings there,
made of air
and memory.
C L Couch
Photo by In Memory of Yan Ji on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
We Dial 9/11
x
Remembering is easy
Even through news windows
I can’t imagine
Falling all the way
Except in nightmares
The kind that say
Should we find the ground
In dreams
We die for real
x
For real
All the passengers
The bombers
In New York
In Pennsylvania
In Washington, D.C.
We have their names
To honor them
As best we may
Collectively
And with each heart
Directly changed
By impulse
Will
And so
By degree
x
Then with remembrance
Names on stone
Or marble
So many flags flying
At half-mast
And also living on
Quite normally
For it is part of normal
To be changed forever
Yet
Clean our houses
Shop outside
Do business that we have to
And if sponsored right
With satisfaction
x
There is life
We have it while we have it
Theirs is somewhere else
We study
But don’t really own
It seems
x
We’ll have to follow
Then we’ll know
We all will know
How we remembered
Through this life
And in pausing
x
Through moving on
Bearing more metal weight
Each time
x
Go to Shanksville
Pass by the Pentagon
Visit the enormous squared
Marble
Set with names
And moving water
In New York
x
Remember
Pray for heaven
Then
For mercy
Somehow
Upon the Earth
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Dawn McDonald on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Awful Day
x
A strategic
Maybe a cosmic
Joke
For terrorists to play
On us,
Choosing the day that means
Emergency
x
This year
The President is at the Pentagon
The Vice President is in New York
x
I was teaching then
And only understood in parts
I heard a part
And drove to work
Entered the classroom
The TV was on
x
Then the sorting-out began
With news,
With
People we knew who might have been there
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Julien Maculan on Unsplash
Downtown Manhattan view from Brooklyn on September 11, 2001
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Dead and the Quick
(9/11)
x
It is a day we lived
Through,
Those who lived
x
Like D-Day
Like Hastings
For the English
Or the entry of the Nazis
Into Paris
For the French
Like the storms in Indonesia
That killed thousands
In 2004
Like the killing
Of a good man
In Haiti
Recently
Wrecking the nation
For a time
Upon hurricane
And earthquake
x
They are history
Beyond the idiom
And by those now gone
We rebuild and build
And sometimes pledge
Anew or new
We will take greater care
Cosmic care
Next time
x
We might learn
If we should learn something
From allegories that were
Flesh and bone
And blood
Except that being found
Is good
Being remembered
Parochially,
Sometimes globally
x
Forever with a double
Meaning,
9-1-1
How peaceful to be by
The memorials
A quiet place to count
And then to cry the names
Peacefully
x
This place
These places
Are all over
Hopes we might be united
Everywhere
For once
An hour and a day
And then for keeps
For keeping
All the Earth
And us
For longer
So much longer than
The bugled ceremony’s
Time
x
C L Couch
x
(9/11/21, 11/9/21)
x
9/11 photographs exhibition at photography festival Rencontres Arles 2019
Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Ash
(11 September 2020)
x
Today is bright with gray
In my part
A good, sad color for remembering
Thousands lost, then hundreds
More in first-responding
And millions to the nation for
The grieving
A holocaust must happen now and then,
It seems
Babel, Rome to the Goths
Constantinople to the Christians
Germany to the Jews
Lockerbie
And all the despotisms that have set
Fire to nations
And for a time burned ours,
Though we have to speak to freedom, now
x
We have to know
The idea matters
Of democracy
Over agenda
The vote over manipulations
Free-to-choose over robbing choices
From us
And then there are the harder notions
Love over hate
Forgiveness over condemnation
Though I struggle with that last shade, too,
Wishing wanton killers
All to hell
While me and mine
And victims
Go to paradise
x
The good Muslim wasn’t there
To kill the Christians, Jews, Muslims
Hindus, Buddhists, Jainists, and all who take the
Way
Agnostics and atheists
Belief or lack thereof was not a standard
Everyone was worthy
To be killed
The only thing of value to the killers
A notion of terror
Destroy the enemy
Without a real plan for what is next
Since the aim has no success
With which to deal
x
The main thing for us now
Is knowing the dead
To take those on the wrong side
Of anger
To place them inside good, quiet parts
Of Earth
In New York, Pennsylvania
Washington, D.C.
And all the family and the military plots
Required in so many places
To read words over these
And offer prayers
x
Terrorism is its own failure
We are free to think on better things
A purer world
Filtered like our water
And our better thoughts
With restraint, awareness,
And love, all love
In stronger, wiser forms
Certainly than they
Who went without
Picked up the devil’s way
With unearthly explosions
Without a thought
The brain shellacked with scorn
And counting people
Like matchsticks,
Too ready to burn
x
Though death is complicated
Murder, more so
And those of us in sunshine
Have to learn
Yes, certainly remember
Be smarter for the future
That arrives each day
Becomes the present
In which we clump the ash
Plant it, hope for
Fine returns
In crops and beauty
Sustenance that will destroy
Sin’s purpose
Hate’s agenda
Turn over like the soil
On which we stand
And where those of us
Still here—and we are here—
Must grow
x
x
coda
x
There have fires elsewhere
Many parts burn now
Inside the head
And through our hearts
Piercing the abdomen
On which our other organs sit
We should not forget
The hungry and the powerless
Who have food and will withheld
All the rescuing required
God and our better parts
Bless them and keep them
All the rescuers
x
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x
x
9/11 Memorial, New York City, USA
x
9/12
The day after
Tolling bells
Half-mast (extra) flags now
Put away
Speeches back in boxes
For the next time
Normal life
The better victory
Goes on
C L Couch
We shot this in our kitchen a couple of years ago. We are always looking for interesting (and fun) ways to shoot our products.
Shot by Stephen Hocking
Photo by Tracey Hocking on Unsplash
Runnymede
(written by hand in the courthouse)
twelve, I think
peers
a jury of my peers
white male
probably I’ll fit
maybe too well
I hope there’s justice
I hope it’s clear
I’m nervous and already bored
there’s a crowd
I don’t like crowds
I have a book
I have this
C L Couch
The Jurors (2015), an art installation at Runnymede sculpted by Hew Locke to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta.
WyrdLight.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41110769
Emergency Calls
(remembering 9/11 in the USA)
Today in my part
We are remembering
A horrific attack on innocents
By crazy people
This kind of murder happens
Elsewhere
My country is not the battleground
So often
Syria, Yemen, Colombia, Myanmar
The Philippines, Somalia
Sudan
We’ve sometimes had a hand in these
That might have made the crazy
People crazier
Enacting their cause here
On this day, we remember here
Where death came to passengers,
Firefighters, office people, and
The rest
Companies of normal people
Noncombatants, we would say
If this were anything like war
Between fair nations
I suppose on planet Earth
Wars and war-like actions must
Happen in someone’s yard
The playing fields, business places
Farm, and town
We have few dedicated battle zones
The DMZ, maybe ocean surfaces
And depths
Air and now we think to weaponize
Space, above and beyond
So war must happen close to home
Inside
And things warlike, if not war
Which then we call killing
We call it murder
And I suppose on someone’s ugly surface
There is a plan to do it again
Pray that we stop it
And praise those who do
But as we honor peace
So may we honor them:
The victims, those who ran toward
The concussions of air and sound
And matter
Turned into explosion and horror
Metal, blood, and bone
All those who died first
First helpers
And the many who were saved
Who are with us, still
We are here
Remember
Celebrate
Pray for cessation
Pray for profusion
The horror gone
And peace prevail
C L Couch
By United States v. Zacarias MoussaouiCriminal No. 01-455-AProsecution Trial ExhibitsExhibit Number P200066Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Russavia using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15252009
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