Names written in the pale sky. Names rising in the updraft amid buildings. Names silent in stone. Or cried out behind a door.

Posted on by Live & Learn

Notes:

  • Post Title: From Billy Collins’ poem “The Names” dedicated to the victims of September 11 and to their survivors.
  • Photo Source: New York Post, Photos on the World Trade Center Attacks.

37 thoughts on “Names written in the pale sky. Names rising in the updraft amid buildings. Names silent in stone. Or cried out behind a door.”

  1. It was on a Tuesday morning like this one, 17 years ago, like many people I remember quite exactly what I was doing at that time, some events do leave a deep mark; some bad and sometimes good ones too, like July 20 th, 1969, we’re capable of the worst and the best, unfortunately it seems that the worst happen more often.

  2. No words. I was in midtown watching this ominous, fetid cloud roll towards us inexorably. It was a silent messenger with a message never to be forgotten

  7. 2977 victims….. I returned from my lunch break (UK) and heard the BBC news, ran into the building with wobbly legs and a hard beating heart, and phoned franatically HH to go on the web to get the latest news and enquire if all this could really happen! It was a time when Dial Up was the ‚latest‘ and ours was SO slow….
    17 years later, it‘s still unthinkable – and the heart is heavy once more.

  8. I was in the UK on vacation. It staggered me that buildings so large could collapse like that. What I remember most about that time is how kind the Brits were to me and other Americans. The Canadians were also kind too.

  13. I was in Boston for an annual physical. The waiting room had a TV and we watched in horror as the first tower was hit, thinking it was a terrible accident. When the second tower was hit, it was clear we were wrong. I cancelled my appointment, headed back to the South Shore to pick up my daughter (a junior in high school) and spent the rest of the day at home, watching the news.

  16. Years pass, even bringing to adulthood a new generation.. or two, or three; still, a tragedy’s trauma always seems like the horror happened just yesterday. Indeed, this one, too. Sending out love and sending up prayers for all who grieve.

  17. 9/11 happened three months after our son died in 2001. Every anniversary reminds me to say more “I love you’s” and never to take this moment for granted. 🙏🏻

  20. I don’t recall which airplane took off from which airport. But for some odd reason, only when I’m at LaGuardia airport I think of 9/11. Not even when I’m in the heart of New York city.

    It’s not the prettiest airport, as you know! But people walking in all direction make it beautiful. Humanity specimen at LaGuardia is exceptionally beautiful. And it always makes me think of 9/11.

    The monsters who did it! Sitting there waiting to execute the unthinkable. Non of this beauty got them to stop and question what they were about to commit. None of them? Not even one. And they were many.
    It is sickening how f***ed up they were, still are.

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