Eloquent In Their Despair

Firefighter's Prayer
by David Cochrane

Our training took place on stairs
In a brick-built tower leading nowhere
With glassless windows issuing false smoke
The concrete crumbling to fine dust
With the incessant passage of rubber booted feet
Sweltering equipment to the scene of some imagined fire.
Hours over years spent on such stairs
The action of climbing them so grained into my mind
That the flutter of fear seems superficial by comparison.

And this Tuesday morning
In my heavy gear and helmet
Stairs lined by the subdued and stunned
Elegant in morning pressed clothes and fresh deodorant
Eyes eloquent in their despair for me
They shuffle down as I lumber sweating up
Each stair the rhythm of my mantra
Ah Jesus,
Ah Jesus,
Ah Jesus,
Ah


When the Towers Fell
Galway Kinnell

Some with torn clothing, some bloodied,
some limping at top speed like children
in a three-legged race, some half dragged,
some intact in neat suits and dresses,
they straggle out of step up the avenues,
each dusted to a ghostly whiteness,
their eyes rubbed red as the eyes of a Zahoris,
who can see the dead under the ground.

And then by trying to transform them:
As each tower goes down, it concentrates
into itself, transforms itself
infinitely slowly into a black hole

infinitesimally small: mass
without space, where each light,
each life, put out, lies down within us.

designed by Faith Ringgold,
featuring panels made by students ages 8-19

down
by Jesse Glass

down
it came

down
from

the
autumn

sky

down
it came

down

& every-
one

rose

& wept
in the

city

(my
city)

& some
were
fly-
ing

& some
were
fall-
ing

& some
were
run-
ning

& some
were
burn-
ing

where
were

you
listen-
ing

watch-
ing

then?

in the
shat-
tered
earth?

in the
broken
air?

in the
oily
fire?

in the
tainted
sea?

where
were
you

listen-
ing

watch-
ing

then

when
every-
one

rose

& lookt
at the
sky

lookt
at the
sky

where
they
stood

in my
city

&
wept
?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*A song from last September.

*9/11 in the Arts: An Anniversary Guide from The New York Times.

*What Does It Mean to Be Civilized

The Miss Rumphius Effect is hosting this week's Poetry Friday round-up.