"With Their Eyes," a very evocative and moving play written by Stuyvesant high school students right soon after Sept. 11 and first performed in 2002. It was revived this fall and performed at Stuyvesant with original cast members/writers in the audience.

Is it still too soon to really capture 9/11 in art?
http://flaneur.me.uk/09/capturing-911-in-literature-is-it-too-soon/

Mark Hofreiter's graphic novel entitled "The One Who Lived--a Fable Against Grief in Two Parts" is an illustrated tale of shock, heroism, grace and redemption. Scroll up through the 80 panels that began ten years ago with the anguish of 9/11. It’s a hopeful alternative to so much tragedy--a story told in pictures, a visual prayer for peace.
http://911graphicnovel.wordpress.com/page/10/

"When The Eagle Cries" by Iced Earth.

The song that I always think of when I'm haunted by 9/11 is U2's MLK.

I was in my mid 20s and living in NYC on September 11th, 2001. My brother, a senior at Cornell University at the time, sang with the Cornell University Glee Club and the a cappella subset of the Glee Club, The Hangovers. At a campus-wide vigil following 9/11, my brother managed to sing this beautiful song in front of 20,000+ students, faculty, staff and other community members (I watched as it was streamed on the internet). In May of the following year, at his graduation from Cornell, my brother again sang MLK in front of thousands of graduates and their families gathered in Schoellkopf Stadium. I don't know how he did it. That song will always be with me.

An artistic work that goes beyond the horror of 9-11 to explore its hope and challenge for humanity is the multiple award-winning "We Are All Connected" by Michigan singer/songwriter Jim Bizer ("Connected," 2004). Listen at:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jimbizer2

a poem from 10 years ago... I do not know the author but I cling to her words.

To Those Who Perished

I used to live among you,
I walked with you,
Brushed shoulders and hips with you
Felt your energy and enthusiasm
Your New York aloofness
And even your weariness.
I saw it all in your faces and in the way you walked
Day after day.
Now your souls reach out to me
Touching me,
Asking for help that I cannot give.
I grieve for all of you
And for your loved ones,
Feeling much deeper grief than I.
But the awe, the wonder of your presence
Even in this city of wonders
Will never be forgotten.

Julie Burton

New York Times Metropolitan Diary, October 1st, 2001

My husband and I were sitting in a bed and breakfast in Callistoga, CA when we heard about the “plane accident at one of the Twin Towers” from one of the other guests at the breakfast table. They were leaving to catch a plane back to NYC that day. Once we got to a television we slowly and sadly discovered what had already transpired while we slept. We realized we needed to cut our Napa Valley trip short, because the only way home was by car.

We rented a car and pretty much fixed the radio dial to NPR. But luckily, we randomly picked up U2’s latest album on cassette, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.” I can’t say why we chose it, but had not really heard many tracks and thought we needed some break from the news of destruction.

Though it was not inspired from 9/11 events, it was amazing in its connection. It seemed like EVERY song was relevant. Eerie and haunting (Walk On, Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of) but at the same time theraputic (Beautiful Day, Elevation, and, of course, New York).

Driving through the Salt Flats, Rocky Mountains, Kansas plains, with not an airplane contrail in sight and hundreds of American flags suddenly flying at every roadside, it was the soundtrack of an amazing journey.

http://afterthe11th.blogspot.com/

For a unique and emotional perspective of 9/11, I recommend that your read "River Chronicles" by Jessica DuLong. While her book focuses mainly on her relationship with a very special boat -- the John J. Harvey Fireboat - in it she recounts how she and her crew members witnessed the tradgedy and pressed the aging fireboat back into service to help the FDNY. It's an amazingly raw, accurate and well written account that brings back all the terror and emotion of the day -- but leaves you feeling proud and uplifted by the stories of the everyday heroes that responded.

My friends and family were in and around the city at the time. We personally "lost" a lot of folks. A week after the "event" My partner and a few close friends saw Laurie Anderson at Town Hall as we had planned months ahead... We had all walked from various locations in Manhattan and met at Grand Central to proceed together to Town Hall... Laurie's words (especially about the "event") and haunting strains profoundly put it the week into perspective. The city was so quiet; similar to a blanket of snow... but felt safe... I recall seeing buckets and buckets of flowers in front of a closed building, I thought that a "bodega" or Korean Deli forgot to take the flowers in... then I realized I was in front of a Firehouse...

I see that John Sprung has posted his lyrics for his incredible song "Remember Me". Please make sure this song is played. This song will touch the heart of anyone who listens to it and should be part of the permanent memorial. Thanks Tom Anderson

Bryan Charles' novel "There's a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From."
This memoir was incredibly moving in the way that it encased the horror of 9/11 within a coming-of-age narrative. It is written in a boyish, matter-of-fact tone, describing a young writer's journey to New York City to pursue his dreams, only to find himself working on the 72nd floor of the 2nd tower in Morgan Stanley on 9/11/2001.
The author survived, and his description of escaping the building, despite its brisk tone or maybe because of it, moved me to tears.

The North Shore church on Long Island, where I am a soloist, lost two prominent and well-loved members in the Towers. I was asked to sing James' Taylor's song, "You Can Close Your Eyes" at one of the funerals. Apparently the man used to sing it often to his children, tucking them in at night. It contains the refrain, "I don't know no love songs, and I can't sing the blues anymore, But I can sing this song, and you can sing this song when I'm gone". So simple, but I will NEVER forget those kids' faces as they heard this message from their Dad from beyond the grave, and I still cannot hear the song ten years later without breaking down. Thanks for the chance to share.

Lucy Kaplansky's "Land of the Living" moves me every time I hear it.

I like to add "Reading of the Names," by The Aldente Brothers (Tony Leventhal & Jon Morrell),
is a song honoring the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and was inspired by the annual September 11 Memorial Tribute of the reading of the names. 
Video: http://youtu.be/t_eHbOs_ArE
As a born and raised New Yorker with a deep connection to the city, Tony was inspired to write "Reading of the Names" directly after 9/11 while struggling with the events of the day and coming to terms with the world around him. Together with his brother, Jon Morrell (The Aldente Brothers), he recently recorded the song for the upcoming anniversary, bringing back the feelings of 2001.

As I experienced the shock of 9/11, I was (and have continued to be) reminded of an ancient poem (350+ years old) by John Donne that captures well the emotion of that day entitled "A Burnt Ship". A link to the poem (which does not reference any specific event) is: http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/burntship.htm

Seattle singer-songwriter Jim Page's post 911 collection of songs entitled Collateral Damage----has unusual perspectives that question blind patriotism. "Who are they and why do they hate us?" is a song of note.

Not for the faint of heart but for the questioning mind!

I hope I am not the first to suggest "Memorial" for orchestra and chorus composed by Rene Clausen. Rene was commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association for the first anniversary of 9/11 to create a piece for their use because their annual meeting was scheduled for NY in 2002. Reports of the three performances, two at Lincoln Center and one at Riverside Church indicated Dr. Clausen had done pricesely waht your are seeking, guiding our response to the event and helping us survive the confrontation.

http://www.studio360.org/2011/aug/12/beauty-tragedy-artists-reflect-september-11/

Meira Warshauer's "In Memoriam, September 11, 2001. An evocative, haunting work, of which the composer says, "I wrote these sketches during the days of watching the horror of the attacks of September 11: the collapse of the World Trade Center,
the attack on the Pentagon, the plane crash in Pennsylvania.

I didn’t have a piece in mind, or consciously set out to write one. But the sketches seemed to belong together, afterwards, and to fit the solo cello.
It is my way of holding each other in our loss.

It reflects my sadness, our collective sadness
the loss of loved ones
looking for survivors, not finding...
Hoping it isn’t true, disbelief...
it is true...
The slow motion collapse of the towers--
with that collapse, all of our losses
our national sense of invulnerability gone

humility
interdependence
prayer

This link is to a free download of the clarinet/cello version, by CROSS ISLAND: Joseph Rutkowski, Jr., clarinet; Suzanne Mueller, cello.

Year of the Snake by Dan McCarthy

http://www.danmccarthy.org/PRINT.DETAIL/99125.yearofthesnake.html

the top of the print contains 4 panels, each with a silhouette of a jet flying high above. The bottom panel is a row of houses illuminated by the blue glow of televisions.

Ani DiFranco's 'Self Evident' is the best, bravest, post-September 11th song, in my opinion. Ani poetically and poignantly interwove our collective horror about the day with brave social critique. Ani gave voice to that which very few were willing to say at the time.

On the radio show you asked listeners to send in a meaningful piece of literature or art that made an impression at the time of the tragedy. For me it was Ani di Franco's "Self Evident."

The film "The Saint of 9/11," narrated by Ian McKellen, is a very moving documentary biography of Father Mychal Judge.

Happy Birthday. 9/11 is someone's birthday and their life deserves to be celebrated too.

My new video:

http://youtu.be/-ikOwbCTxUo

An attempt to address the things that aren't discussed when we talk about 9/11, what it felt like to be there.

People have commented that they think this poem is beautiful; then, as you brought up in your discussion in the last program, their expression changes and they say "well you know what I mean. . " Though some license is taken, this poem is composed mostly of observations. If I recall correctly, the dust from the World Trade Center reached China in about a day.

911 (poem 2)

the rain will weep

There is sacred dust everywhere
on the roof
under the table -- hiding from the rain
dust lies thick in some places
collects in little pools
aggregates
they lay in the streets the dust
as thin as skin
congregate where the waters run
like at the market
some dust is mixed with particles
some with burned little shreds of paper
memos forever unknown
not sorted filed
in some places the rivulets from the wash
leave rib like impressions,
structures in the mud
as if the mud must breathe
must create lungs anew for a last breath
to say the unsaid
before a last gasp
infinity
and then the center
collapses
for the center could not hold
things flew apart
dust of an international soul has taken flight,
off to Asia my lovelies
dear sisters and brothers
you shall travel
and the rain will weep you
all over the world . . . . . .

Post 911 ?9 days?

Artists create to share, so here you go:

I did a version of our national anthem shortly after the attacks. This is not a political statement but an emotional one. I'm grateful that Brian Lehrer used it on his show's 5-year Sep11 memorial.

The recording is here:
http://biggerthanabreadbox.com/SSB_short-fade-in.mp3

Anyone is free (and I do mean free) to use it for any purpose so long it is in the spirit of the intent, and is properly attributed.
"Our National Anthem", arranged and performed by John Freund.

Thanks for listening, I hope you find some meaning here.

Bruce Springsteen's "My City of Ruins". I know that it was written before 9/11, but when he performed it live for the national WTC benefit in the week that followed, it became indelibly tied to 9/11 in my mind. It is a song of loss, but also of hope. Even after 10 years, it is impossible for me to listen to it without weeping.

artist: Linda Eder
Song: Even Now
for all those who lost someone:
a powerful voice singing even though you're gone, all the love you gave will be remembered

I like poet X.J. Kennedy's take on the day after:

September Twelfth, 2001

Two caught on film who hurtle
from the eighty-second floor,
choosing between a fireball
and to jump holding hands,

aren't us. I wake beside you,
stretch, scratch, taste the air,
the incredible joy of coffee
and the morning light.

Alive, we open eyelids
on our pitiful share of time,
we bubbles rising and bursting
in a boiling pot.

At the risk of sounding immodest, I'd like to share with you the lyrics to a song I wrote, entitled "Remember Me." I was a witness to the 9/11 attacks, and was inspired to write this song when I saw "Remember Me" photographs posted across the street from Ground Zero. (c) 2001
"On Murray near the Hudson River, stands a makeshift fence, and posted there for passers-by to see, are photos of the fallen from that grim September day, on on each one, the words 'remember me.'
Kevin looks out on the world through bright and shining eyes, a fireman his father bade him be. Led fifty people down the smokey stairs of Tower Two, and then went back for more, 'remember me'
(cho) Remember those just starting out and others nearly done. All races and religions, all victims, every one. And each is looking down on us, and makes this fervent plea, 'pick up where we left off, remember me.'
I am Yolanda, and before I dove into the sky, I loved to ski and dance and sang off-key. I left behind a promising career in high finance, and a fiance I hope remembers me.
Tony is the gentle man behind that fierce mustache, he knew he'd be a cop since he was three. Yolanda crushed him when she fell in an ending unforerseen. He gasped in disbelief, 'remember me.' (cho)
Debbie is a pert and pretty civil engineer, she was working for the Port Authority, she knew the lone escape route and showed many folks the way, but lingered far too long, 'remember me.'
Lucky Trevor Jackson dodged a shell in Vietnam, survived the blast in 1993. But luck ran out on Trevor when a mountain of debris muffled his last words, 'remember me' (cho)
Richard Wu was busy when he saw the plane approach, he was gauging shifts in foreign currency. He called his wife upon the cell to tell her, 'kiss the kids, and I love you more than life, remember me.'
'I was working as a waiter in the Windows on the World, a citizen it was my dream to be. And yes, my name is Ibrahim and I too died that day, take pity on my wife, remember me.'
Remember how we used to laugh and live and love and play. Remember how we perished on what seems just yesterday. For all the things we said and did and what was yet to be. For all these things and more, 'remember me.'
There was no paradise awaiting those who crashed the planes. In hell they're damned for all eternity. And painful ever in their ears shall piercing ring the names of the innocents who cried 'remember me.'
So, I'm thinking of the tattered flag our firemen held high, and the forty heroes on Flight 93. And I'm thinking of 3,000 friends who didn't have to die, and of they're final wish, 'remember me.'
(final cho.) Remember those just starting out and others nearly done. All races and religions, all victims, everyone. In New York, Pennsylvania, and in Washington, D.C., they rest on hallowed ground, 'don't tread on me, pick up where we left off, remember me, and just keep on keepin on, remember me.'

I was conducting an early morning passenger travel survey at Seattle's SeaTac Airport when someone got off a bus and said an airplane flew into a tower in New York. I had noticed that the sky was unusually quiet for the past 10 or so minutes since those redeyes are landing about that time. I stayed around for about another 30 minutes then went home and turned on the tv for the rest of the day. However, the music I played continuously was the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong version of "Autumn in New York". It was recorded at Capitol Studios,Hollywood on July 23, 1957. The original Verve LP issue is "Ella and Louis Again". After 10 years it is still beautiful and evocative.

Ryan Adam's - New York
It was written and recorded before 9/11, but it really is this prophetic love song to the city. Even more significantly, Ryan recorded a music video with the NYC skyline including the twin towers... on 9/7/2001. It was a song that really said what we all wanted to say to everyone in the city, in the refrain:
"But I still love you, New York."

I wrote the song LET US RISE IN LOVE a month after 911 in part wondering how Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. would have counseled us in the after math, and in part wondering what gift I could give to a child born two weeks after. This song has been recorded by Sweet Honey In The Rock®.
Ysaye M. Barnwell

LET US RISE IN LOVE
Dear one,
i never thought that you would witness such a time
i hear you cry.
Dear one,
there is a reason for these things, but there’s no rhyme.
i hear your whys.
I don’t have the answer to your questions
I don’t have the answer to your prayers
But i know this is a moment of transcendence
If only we will take the time to care.
Let us, let us rise in love
Let us, let us rise in love
When the universe is polarized by hatred
When we ourselves have been baptized in fear
When some of us are paralyzed in principle
When there’s anger in the falling of each tear
Let us, let us rise in love
Let us, let us rise in love

Dear one,
our world has changed in just the twinkling of an eye
i hear your cry.
Dear one,
a part of each and every one of us has died.
i hear your whys.
I don’t have the answer to your questions
I don’t have the answer to your prayers
I know this is a moment of transcendence
If only we would take the time to care.
Let us, let us rise in love
Let us, let us rise in love
We have been voyeurs of foreign pathos
The tide has changed, and now we grieve at home
Though we’re victimized by terror, we’re not innocent
Where's the courage to change what we’ve condoned?
Let us, let us rise in love
Let us, let us rise in love
(As the sun sets
we can set our hearts to listen
As the moon sets
we can set our minds to change
As the stars appear twinkling above us
we can rise higher than high in love)
Let us, let us rise in love
Let us, let us rise in love
Ysaye M. Barnwell (c)2001

William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition has a subtle, evocative 9/11 theme. The heroine's father disappeared in New York City that day, and while researching a very different matter, she learns more about his final hours. The story is delicate, full of life's randomness and complexity, and in the end, its warmth.

'Overcome' by Live always reminds me of 9/11. I had no words to describe it, and I still don't.

Peter Ostroushko
Hymn: Page 9/11

The Canadian sports writer James Duthie wrote an emotional and very well written article on September 15, 2001, entitled "The Final Toll" .

Hole In The Sky
http://home.earthlink.net/%7eh3jukebox/holeinthesky.mp3
by Hugh Blumenfeld
http://www.hughblumenfeld.com/
still haunting

Maybe not pretty, but this is my sincere feeling, from a hillbilly hip-hop poem I wrote on the first anniversary of 9/11:

Years From Now
Our children,
Our children's children
What's gonna be their 411 on 911?
No one won? ...

I pray we may testify and signify
Their immolation dignify
Let us not use their deaths -
Let us not continue to use their deaths -
For acts ignoble and mean to justify

Let us rather Moses go down instead
Into & unto that sacred heart chakra
That in us all resides
There where reside in spirit those that that dark day died
They have made it twin spired sanctified
There too should we reside
Abide there awhile
Until we can decide
The Tao true to do
Then purified
Vision clarified
Clear eyed
Gird and go forth anew

Lest years from now
Our children
Our children's children
They look up at us with accusing eyes
As they turn from the rubble & the holes in the lines of the cities skies
Where once stood the Golden Gate out there in Cali State
Where once stood the Sears Tower, the London Tower, the Eiffel Tower
Come some unfathomable future hour
Gone the way of One & Two Tower
Saint Peter's Dome & the Dome of the Rock
The Sepulchre, the Ka'bah, the Taj Mahal
In the desert out here, the dove fair San Xavier
Where all of 'em stood the sorrow of the empty air
As las miha, los miho
They cry and cry out to us
How dare
You
On the brink of not just a new
Century
But a new millennium, leave us this legacy
And all we can do is rattle and stammer and stutter and shrug
Ahhh-ah I'm sorry
I'm sorry my daughter my son
My granddaughter my grandson
But it was 911 and no one won

(Entire piece is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOv-7ch9yiU

Caveat: there is a a cuss word or three)

Moby's "Sleep Alone" from his album 18. I'm not a huge Moby fan, nor am I a fan of art that centers on national tragedies - it often seems contrived and somehow opportunistic. But this song captures the feeling I had when watching people jump from the Towers on the news that day with a simple eerie beauty. It gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Thank you for your commitment to exploring the diverse ways this event shaped us.
I worked on and around "The Site", later to be known as Ground Zero, for the full nine months.
Agree with the Springsteen "Rising" album as the one to capture the feeling of the response to that event at that time.

Personally, Matchbox 20's "Going Home" always reminds me of working down there. I heard it on the radio while stacking clothes and hauling supplies in Stuyvesant High School which was a support center for weeks following. Somehow it reminded me that there was another world outside the bizarre, isolated planet that we worked in. It was the horn section of that song that pulled me out. I still smile at that one.

Other songs, not written about it, but I find make me think of down there, downtown, the pile, the pit, the people:
Beth Orton, "Concrete Sky" - mournful, but hopeful and sweet. The obvious connection of literally a concrete sky and all the trees, buildings covered with dust and ash. - "..harder than a heartbreak too"

Radio Head, "Fake Plastic Trees". Lyrically unrelated, but captures the space, loneliness, tragedy that was the WTC site. With drawn out lines like "And it wears me out, it wears me out", and " if I could be who you wanted...", and the tragically appropriate, "But gravity all ways wins"

Joseph Arthur, "Even Tho" - the line "Even tho I'm here you know that I'm already gone" . Captures the state many were in afterwards when you spoke to them.
And the beautiful expression:
"No one to hold
The world will make a dream
And a prayer out of our bones
To find where we belong
Our shadows will remain
Even after we are gone "

Dave Matthews, "The Space Between"
"The Space Between
The tears we cry
Is the laughter keeps us coming back for more
The Space Between
The wicked lies we tell
And hope to keep us safe from the pain"

Snow Patrol, "Chasing Cars"
"If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world? "
- Expresses the sense of being possible down there at the time to escape by being with someone else.

"Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life"
- The way it's sung, really gives you a sense of something better outside the gray garden of the dead that was at the core of the site.

i would mention three works to add to the list:

1 - Don Delillo's "Falling Man" a great, short novel centered around 9/11 that really captures the moment.

2 - chapter 4 from Jessica DuLong's memoir "My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work that Built America". In this chapter, she recounts her days at Ground Zero, running Fireboat John J Harvey, which was pumping water from the Hudson to fight the fires. Her vivid and immediate writing helps you feel what it was like to be there like nothing else I've read.

3 - Kate Fenner's song "Twin Griefs" from the record "Horses and Burning Cars". This song really evokes the confusion everybody felt in those first days after the attack and it's a very moving song.

In the winter of 2001-02, the New York Youth Symphony commissioned three emerging American composers under age 30 to write works for the orchestra's three-concert seriees in Carnegie Hall for the 2002-03 season. To demonstrate unity with a city that had been demoralized, the composers were asked to write works using New York City as their theme. The reference to 9-11 was understood, and the works these three young Americans wrote were thoughtful and profound, but not lugubrious. Philip Rothman wrote "Morningside Run," referring to his bright mornings while jogging; Matthew Tommasini composed "Torn Threads Re-Woven" in reference to a shop window near Ground Zero with its sign reading "RE-WEAVING"; and Brian Herrington wrote "If I Forget Thee," inspired by Faulkner's acceptance speech for the 1950 Nobel Prize in which he said, "I decline to accept the end of man." Taken together, these three works offered solace, inspiration, and joy at a time when New Yorkers and all Americans were grieving.

I think that Steve Reich's Tehellim would be appropriate.

emma's revolution, has two very moving and healing songs about the tragic events on 9/11 day.

emma’s revolution (Pat Humphries and Sandy O) were moving from NYC to the Washington DC area over 9/11. When the only response from the government and the corporate media was “war and retribution,” the duo wrote “Peace, Salaam, Shalom” and sang it at an impromptu peace march in DC that week. Less than a month later, they led the song at the first peace rally in NYC after 9/11, where over 10,000 people sang “Peace, Salaam, Shalom”. Since then, the song has been sung around the world and called the anthem of the anti-war movement.

“A year & a half ago, 100,000 of us gathered at the Seattle football stadium to see the Dalai Lama and 500 of us who rehearsed for several months to sing behind him sang your 'Peace, Salaam, Shalom.' I thought you'd like to know." -- A note handed to Sandy at their show in Whidbey Island, WA.

Written in early October 2001, “If I Give Your Name” was inspired by the stories of family members of undocumented workers killed on 9/11. In 2002, “If I Give Your Name” won Grand Prize (Folk) in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. The song was sung for the families of workers (regardless of their documentation) who died in "Windows on the World," the restaurant atop the World Trade Center, and continues to be sung for communities working on immigration rights, and every year at the NYC restaurant workers 9/11 memorial ceremony.

“'If I Give Your Name' is the best song, ever written, anywhere.” --PHYLLIS BARNEY, Executive Director, Folk Alliance International, 1995-2005

Listen to both songs at http://www.reverbnation.com/emmasrevolution and learn about emma's revolution at http://emmasrevolution.com/.

Long Island's very own Gathering Time Trio has by far the best song I have ever heard about 9/11. The song is "Halley's Comet" and every time I hear it, I am moved to tears.It is a reminder to all that we only get once chance...don't let it pass by...

It's here on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szPVnnYxNhE

Halley's Comet
by Stuart Markus
Performed by Gathering Time

"It was 1985
when Halley's Comet came in view
and if I didn't see it then
it would be a long, long wait I knew

I lived in a college town
where streetlights made stars hard to see
To see it well I had to walk
up to the school observatory

Though it was often on my mind
I somehow never found the time
it had all but vanished when
I knew I'd missed my chances then

After college I moved on
to a Brooklyn neighborhood
From my window I could see
Where the two twin towers stood

The outdoor observation deck
that I remembered as a kid
I meant to check it out one day
but all those years I never did

Though it was often on my mind
I somehow never found the time
I saw them crumbling, burning when
I knew I'd missed my chance again

People, places all appear
as if they always will be here
It's always easier to say
I'll get to that another day

Now in that tower I didn't know
I had a friend from long ago
The years went by, we'd grown apart
I thought about her even so

From time to time It crossed my mind
to call her and get back in touch
As good as my intentions were
my efforts didn't come to much

Though she was often on my mind
I somehow never found the time
I saw her in the papers when
I knew I'd missed my chance again

I hope I live to 95
I've got a cause to stay alive
When Halley's comet comes again
I'm going to think of you my friend."

I was living in Brooklyn on 9/11 and saw the towers burning from the roof of my office building. In December that year, I went to see Kiki and Herb's Christmas show with some friends, and they performed a song by Stephen Merritt (I believe it's called You should see it in the Snow) that was a tribute to the beauty and strength of NYC. There wasn't a dry eye in the house!

I live 3 blocks from the site of the tragedy.
I was home, on my roof, watching. I saw what no one should have see, ever. A month later I was in Bloomington, IN working on a documentary about classical music. In my hotel room I saw U2 on Letterman perform New York. The tone, the message all hit home. I wept. It was the beginning of a long healing....

I was stunned by Art Spiegelman's black on black cover for the September 24, 2001 edition of the New Yorker. What seemed to be an all-black cover revealed, on closer inspection, the silhouette's of the towers--it packed an astonishing emotional punch.

This image was also used for the cover of his later book "In the Shadow of No Towers." Although this book eccentrically includes a bunch of comic book history, Spiegelman's visual account of his own experience of the event is one of the most personal and affecting I know of.

Although there are more useful photographs of the event from a journalistic standpoint, I'm still astonished by Jerry Spagnoli's daguerreotypes, made looking south from the roof of the Chelsea building where he has his studio.

Joel Meyerowitz's long-term documentation of the cleanup is unlike anything else produced in the aftermath of the event and succeeds in conveying the scale of what happened as measured against the bodies of the workers who labored on "the pile."

And finally, returning to the New Yorker, there was the brilliant double-cover on September 11, 2006. In the first, an image representing wire-walker Philippe Petit (who famously walked between the towers just after they were opened) walks against a white background. The page underneath is a second image of the wire-walker walking on air with buildings and the footprint of the towers below him. Amazing.

As for images of 9/11 that will stick in your mind... Imagine the workers who went down into those "smoldering" (?) pits _ weeks!! after the Twin Towers were > > struck, blown to dust, & dropped.
The soles of their boots melted & burned under their feet in a kind of residual "Thermite" Hot-Foot effect.
Somewhere, at the Ground Zero Memorial, I can imagine a pair of these ruined boots standing on top of a tall pedestal >
Just another artistic reminder of our > > gullibility & > > blind stupidity.

Hope in Chaos is the extraordinary true story of one average New Yorker who found herself amongst the chaos of Ground Zero in the days immediately following September 11th. She would remain there for four months working amongst the rubble with an unlikely team of civilian relief workers. Hope in Chaos explores the struggles and triumphs of a group of young New Yorkers who answered a call to action and found their strength in a city that had been shaken to its core. It explores not just the challenges of 2001, but of returning to the “regular world” after such a life-altering experience. It is ultimately about the need for each of us to actively create good in this world through our actions. You can find more information at www.hopeinchaos.com

Starring Heather McCuen herself, and directed by Broadway’s Holly-Anne Ruggiero the show will premiere in New York this September at the Richmond Shepard Theater to coincide with the 10-year Memorial. It will run from Sept 7-10th inclusively.

I would second Lisa's note. Pig Iron's Love Unpunished expressed the days' panic, fear and humanity. The piece made perfect use of the "up and down" movement of our emotions and the ascending and descending vision of our own humanity.

Pietro Costa's grace, serves as a memorial for the victims of 9/11.
It is composed of red neon rings suspended from a 20 foot ceiling, forming a swaying tower of light. Around it's base, in the form of a wreath, Costa places individual strips of paper representing the victims of September 11th; including their names, ages, employers and job titles. Read more details here: http://t.co/bRAOa5d

Rufus Sewell reading Simon Armitage's 9/11: Out of the Blue is the best & most moving poem I know of dealing with 9/11. The cinematography is fabulous too. My cousin Evan Gillette died in the Tower that day.

"The Hands That Built America"

Though this is a song on the "Gangs of New York" soundtrack, the song was written post 9/11 and per Bono, directly speaking to 9/11 with its last verse. Overall though, the whole song speaks to the diversity and resiliency of NY and its history as the island at the center of the world.

For me, the line "It's early fall, there's a cloud on the New York skyline Innocence, dragged across a yellow line" is visceral because I was there working at the pit post 9/11.

This is my suggestion...
S.

"The Hands That Built America"

Though this is a song on the "Gangs of New York" soundtrack, the song was written post 9/11 and per Bono, directly speaking to 9/11 with its last verse. Overall though, the whole song speaks to the diversity and resiliency of NY and its history as the island at the center of the world.

For me, the line "It's early fall, there's a cloud on the New York skyline Innocence, dragged across a yellow line" is visceral because I was there working at the pit post 9/11.

This is my suggestion...
S.

The reference to Captain America reminded me of this Guy Forsyth song.

Yes I wanted the people who did this to pay with their lives. Yes I am thankful Bin Laden is dead. and yes, I owe so much to the men and women of the our Armed Forces, and their families, but I can't get the feeling of these words in this song out of my heart and mind:

"And get away with it. Get away with it. We Americans are freedom-loving people and nothing says freedom like getting away with it.
We went from Billy the Kid to Richard Nixon, Enron, X-on, O.J. Simpson...
We used to dream about heroes, but now it's just how to beat the system.
So where to we go to dream now? Up on the roof of the projects, straining through the city lights to see if they've built golden arches on the moon yet?
Self-medicated, pacifated, trying our best to stay distracted, living life according to the TV set.
Corporations owning nations, telling us "don't change the station, it's the only safe way to win the human race."
I wonder how the world sees us.
Rich beyond compare, powerful without equal, a spoiled, drunk, 15-year-old waving a gun in their face.
It's been a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time.....
Since I felt fine

Tom Paxton's song "The Bravest" is a testament to the firefighters. It is on his "Looking for the Moon" album.

It makes me tear up every time I listen, and I have to repeat it two or three times.

The chorus goes:
Now every time I try to sleep
I'm haunted by the sound
Of firemen pounding up the stairs
While we were climbing down.

The most moving 9-11 composition (not a memorial or requiem as noted below in the composer's own words) would be "On the Transmigration of Souls," by John Adams, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, haunting, moving, a testament to life and loss that has universal resonances. John Adams says:
"In an interview Adams explained: "I want to avoid words like 'requiem' or 'memorial' when describing this piece because they too easily suggest conventions that this piece doesn't share. If pressed, I'd probably call the piece a 'memory space.' It's a place where you can go and be alone with your thoughts and emotions. The link to a particular historical event - in this case to 9/11 - is there if you want to contemplate it. But I hope that the piece will summon human experience that goes beyond this particular event."

The beautiful song "Revelations" was written by singer songwriter, Blaise Smith. I first heard it on KPFA where it was played often in the days and weeks after 911. Here is the iTunes link if you want to check it out:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/blaise-smith/id35331765

I remember hearing an interview on NPR with a man who had been a first responder to the plane crashes on 9/11. He worked for hours in the dust and destruction of that day until he was exhausted physically and emotionally. He said he sat in his car and Five for Fighting's song 'Superman - it's not easy' cam on the radio and he started to cry. He said the song summed up exactly how he felt. I can never hear that sad little song without thinking of that man sitting weeping in his car, covered in dust.

My husband was very moved by a story he had heard about one of the only family members who did not take the settlement on behalf of the victims. Her name is Ellen Mariani and her husband Neil was killed on United Flight 175.

Ellen never accepted that the full story was being told. Part of taking the money was a promise to essentially be silent from that point forward. My husband wrote The September 11th Song and dedicated it to Ellen, although there was no personal connection.

One day, the phone rang and a woman's voice asked for Papa Dish and when I asked who was calling, she answered "Ellen Mariani". My heart raced. Someone had found the song online and told her about it. She had been amazed to learn that anyone was so aware of the details of her situation.

The music and lyrics are available as a free download at Papa Dish Music.

I was going to cite Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close but you beat me to it. However, I "read" the audiobook, and what has stayed with me the most is the repetition of the phrase "planes crashing into buildings" about midway through. On first hearing, I was annoyed at having it repeated endlessly and thought, yes, yes, we know. But the combination of the grief in the actor's voice who did the reading and my own memories of seeing that moment on TV, over and over and over and... At any rate, I now think it was sheer brilliance.

In addition to Bruce Springsteen's The Rising which is a brilliant rememberance of that awful day U2's song A Beautiful Day reminds me a lot of that day and it was a beautiful cloudless day and then everything literally changed in a few horrendous hours.

This poem touched me then and many times over the years, evoking day-to-day action and directions on how we can choose to move forward ... with simplicity and grace.

Wage Peace
by Judyth Hill, September 11, 2001

Wage Peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and fresh mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the words for thank you in 3 languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the word seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.

Two songs that have been written about 9-11 that have moved me are Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" and another song by folksinger, Carrie Newcomer, "I Heard an Owl." The chorus of Carrie's song is:
Don't tell me hate is ever right or God's will
These are the things we put in motion ourselves
And the whole world weeps and is weeping still
Shaken, I still believe the best in all we can be
And the only peace this world will know will only come from love.

Written long before 9-11 but equally touching is Paul Simon's "American Tune." The melody is very old, based on the hymn, "O Sacred Heart Sore Wounded," which is very fitting as it is about the Passion of Christ. Simon's lyrics evoke so much about what happened on 9-11, but also about the beauty of our country and the fact that so many of us came to the US from other places.

Many's, the time I'v been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away Irom home

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
we're traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what went wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassunngly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hour
and sing an American tune
But it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest

I would like to invite all interested to visit the 9/11 music peace website www.raceforthesky.org.

Following the attacks, NYC cultural institution City Lore mounted an exhibit, "Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning" at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan. Inspired by the spontaneous acts of creativity and expression that City Lore preserved from the city streets, I commissioned composer Richard Pearson Thomas to set three of the found poems to music, a work for voice, violin and piano entitled "Race for the Sky." The work premiered on 9/11/02 at the New-York Historical Society, and has been performed numerous times since across the country. The history and development of "Race for the Sky" - including free downloads of the music - are all now on the web at www.raceforthesky.org.

Images from the days right after the attacks, captured brilliantly by documentary photographer Martha Cooper, as well as reflections from numerous sources, are included. Martha Cooper's new book, "Remembering 9/11" will be celebrated by the Brooklyn Arts Council this coming September 6, details here: http://www.brooklynartscouncil.org/documents/1715.

Please join all of us who have been a part of the award-winning project "Race for the Sky" in sharing a tribute to the vitality of the creative human spirit in the midst of death and destruction. Visit www.raceforthesky.org and share your thoughts.

In memory of all those we lost that September day,
Lisa Radakovich Holsberg

If we're going to talk about Springsteen's album The Rising, my vote goes to the song, 'Into The Fire,' an anthemic ballad that pays a breathtakingly beautiful tribute to the heroes who died while rescuing the innocent on 9/11. Here's a few haunting lines from that song:

"You gave your love to me and lay your young body down
Up the stairs, into the fire
I need you near but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs into the fire

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love"

This is something that I would like to see added to the Studio360 9/11 Cultural Short List.

To me, the most dramatic and the most memorable music following 9/11 is a short piece that appeared frequently on television. It's actually a sponsored ad by Visa. It's not a newly written music, but a rendition of "Give My Regards to Broadway" that is so memorable to me that I can't describe it adequately.

The video captures New York City with numerous scenes, all in black and white. The music is Judy Collins singing a part of the song "Give My Regards to Broadway, " and the scenes and music are beautiful.

The video ends with a simple statement in black and white saying "The curtain will never go down on New York City."

Not only does the music, scenes, and statement show the resolve of New York City, it shows the resolve of America.

The video can be seen on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1alEg2lFaQ

As far as I'm concerned, all other specially written music is distant second.

Fredrick Matos
Annapolis, MD

My ghost story, "There's A Hole in the City" set in the Village in the days just after 9/11 was broadcast on WBAI on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 and is scheduled to open their 10th anniversary coverage.

It was published in 2005 has won awards and been republished multiple times.

http://www.rickbowes.com/links/theres-a-hole-in-the-city/

Pat Forde's short story, "In Spirit", appeared in the September 2002 issue of Analog. This astounding piece of near-future fiction suggests to us what deep justice and redemption might look like, both for the victims and for the terrorists. My wife and I read it separately, and we were both moved to tears. Perhaps it is science fiction's ability to set a story in a slightly different reality that gives it the ability to get behind our emotional barriers. In any case, I recommend this story highly. You can find it on-line at http://www.analogsf.com/Hugos/spirit.shtml .

"Once" by singer/songwriter Ayse is one of the most beautiful 9/11 songs that I've heard to date. The instrumentals evoke an eerie melody that sets a Pink Floyd-like mood ...I've seen Ayse in concert and she sings this song with such emotional brilliance...I couldn't find any video of her singing this but did find that someone had posted their video of her singing the piece. Just type: "9/11 song, Once" ...the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRhuc-QFv-Q
It's from her album, "How Long 'Til"...Song #8...A very moving piece indeed! I purchased this from her concert...I'm sure if you google it....Here it is: www.aysemusic.com.

I especially like Mark Erelli's "The Only Way" from his CD "Hope and Other Casualties". I heard him play this live in Hartford CT before it was even recorded for the CD and it really spoke to me.
Because Hope was NOT a casualty for me, nor I suspect, for Mark:
"It was a nightmare
no tongue can tell
The streets of New York City
looked just like the gates of hell.
In a flash
the smoke and the ash
pouring down like rain.
"But they circled wagons
and they gathered round
as they bravely pulled our brothers
and our sisters from the ground.
And I know
that we owe them more
than to be afraid.
"SO I'M GONNA LOVE
I'M GONNA BELIEVE
AND I'M GONNA DREAM
BUT I'M GONNA ROLL UP MY SLEEVE
AND GIVE EVERYTHING UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO GIVE
THAT'S THE ONLY WAY I KNOW HOW TO LIVE."

In addition to Bruce Springsteen’s song “The Rising" of which I played extensively as soon as it was released, the song by Don Henley "New York Minute" haunted me.
Although written before 9/11 - the words conveyed the over whelming loss and confusion, when so many disappeared, and never returned that tragic day, and many with nothing left to even bury. It haunted me then, and still does today. Ironically, the alblum Henley originally recorded it for was his 1989 album The End of the Innocence and then it was later included as part of the Eagles alblum "Hell Freezes Over"

"New York Minute"
Harry got up
Dressed all in black
Went down to the station
And he never came back
They found his clothing
Scattered somewhere down the track
And he won't be down on Wall Street
in the morning

He had a home
The love of a girl
But men get lost sometimes
As years unfurl
One day he crossed some line
And he was too much in this world
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
Things can get pretty strange
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

Lying here in the darkness
I hear the sirens wail
Somebody going to emergency
Somebody's going to jail
If you find somebody to love in this world
You better hang on tooth and nail
The wolf is always at the door
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
Things can get a little strange
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

And in these days
When darkness falls early
And people rush home
To the ones they love
You better take a fool's advice
And take care of your own
One day they're here;
Next day they're gone

I pulled my coat around my shoulders
And took a walk down through the park
The leaves were falling around me
The groaning city in the gathering dark
On some solitary rock
A desperate lover left his mark,
"Baby, I've changed. Please come back."

What the head makes cloudy
The heart makes very clear
The days were so much brighter
In the time when she was here
But I know there's somebody somewhere
Make these dark clouds disappear
Until that day, I have to believe
I believe, I believe

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
You can get out of the rain
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this book yet, but the one that really resonated for me was, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Foer. I've read a lot of good books, but not very many that compelled me to contact the author when I was done. This book told the story of 9/11 from a child's perspective, it was beautiful, sad, touching and yet, funny. If you haven't read it, you should.

The Jess Walter's 2006 novel "The Zero" which portrays in the altered psychological state and perception of a heroic policeman the total loss of the known life in the aftermath of that day.

Sorry - just left a comment and thought of something I wanted to add on Battlestar Galactica. It also really explores how you maintain your own humanity in the face of such an attack and in war. And it really does NOT sugar coat how difficult that is.

Your interview with the S. African fiction writer helped spark this: Battlestar Galactica was an amazing way of exploring the challenges our society faced after 9/11. Humanity is nearly decimated by a surprise attack by the Cylons, human/cyborg hybrids created by humans, who then rebelled. Not unlike our government's own role in the creation of the Taliban by supporting the ant-Soviet insurgency in the 1980s.
But the core of this show was how the decimated civilization, reduced to a convoy of ships in space searching for its mythical planet of origin - Earth - retains its humanity in the face of continuing attacks. Will a democratic government be maintained? How will captured Cylons be treated? These questions are even more complex because the Cylons look human, and in fact we learn that some of the main characters have fallen in love with Cylons, and we even learn some of the humans ARE Cylons.
In the second season, the Galactica encounters another battleship that somehow escaped as well. And through that particular crew we see a very different paradigm of how civilization can respond to such an attack. The captain rules with an iron fist, has no compunction about killing people who dissent, and crew members are encouraged to treat captured Cylons like animals, including raping and torturing them.
Again and again as I watched the show through the years, the parallels to our own society resonated constantly. Should we sacrifice our civil liberties in order to remain safe? Were these just niceties that had no place in a time of war? Or were they the very essence of our society that we should protect more fiercely than ever in the face of assault?

I agree with the caller you played: "Sept 11 at the Shambhala Center" by the Roches--there is an innocence to this song that I find heartbreaking.

"A Friend is Dying", the last segment of"American City Suite" by Cashman and West

New York composer Richard Pearson Thomas’ Race for the Sky for soprano, violin and piano. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, New Yorkers left poems on the walls, fences, and sidewalks of the city. Mr. Thomas set three of the poems written during this time for Race for the Sky. The first, To the Towers Themselves, anonymously penned, was retrieved by the NYC Parks Department, probably from the area around Union Square. The second, How My Life Has Changed, was written by visual artist Hilary North, who was also an employee of Aon Corporation which was located in the South Tower. Ms. North was late to work that day, as the election polls in Brooklyn were taking unusually long. The third, don’t look for me anymore, was found posted at the Wailing Wall in Grand Central Station. The poet was Alicia Vasquez, a Westchester County resident who worked in a midtown Manhattan law firm. All three of these poems were featured in the long-running exhibit Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning at the New-York Historical Society in 2002.

Click on the link below if you want to fall apart like a cheap suit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cRR7q5eck4

(The band is Action Toolbelt, the song is Trip and Fall. Keep the Kleenex handy, folks!)

"Hunting For Witches" -Bloc Party

I was sitting, on the roof of my house
With a shotgun
And a six pack of beers, six pack of beers, six pack of beers.
The newscaster says, "The enemy is among us"
As bombs explode on the 30 bus,
Kill your middle class indecision,
Now is not the time for liberal thought,

So I go hunting for witches
I go hunting for witches
Heads are going to roll
I go hunting for..

90's,Optimistic as a teen.
Now its terror
airplanes crash into towers, into towers, into towers.

The Daily Mail says the enemies among us,
Taking our women and taking our jobs,
All reasonable thought is being drowned out by the non-stop baying, baying, baying for blood

So I go hunting for witches
I go hunting for witches
Heads are going to roll..
I was an ordinary man with ordinary desires
I watched TV, it informed me
I was an ordinary man with ordinary desires
There must be accountability
Disparate and misinformed
Fear will keep us all in place

So I go hunting for witches
I go hunting for witches
Heads are going to roll

I was an ordinary man with ordinary desires
I watched TV, it informed me
I was an ordinary man with ordinary desires
There must be accountability
Disparate and misinformed
Fear will keep us all in place

The Diviners by Rick Moody

(More of a commentary on America pre-9/11, but its hints about 9/11 are memorably chilling.)

Also, of course, Jonathan Safran Foer

I'd suggest the Beastie Boys, "To the 5 Boroughs"

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. A stunning, beautiful, hearbreaking book about the loss and grief too many of us went through on that terrible day.

AFTERMATH
david mahler, 9/11/2001

And now, there is nothing but the
sadness;
the uneasy calm and quiet of the
aftermath,
the safety seeming to enfold us
as the hot smoke did before.

Now is only sadness;
no fear nor anger to detract us
from our loss,
though still uncounted and unknown.

Here's a 6-page essay written in response to 9/11, explaining why several major religions can both preach reverence for life yet also inspire people to kill -- www.paulbernstein.info/relkill.pdf . It was commissioned by the Center for Psychology & Social Change in Cambridge, Massachusetts in October 2001, yet still seems very helpful for understanding many of today's conflicts, both inside America and in certain parts of the world, such as the Middle East.

Comic books, being an iconic American medium, have always served as a relfection for our nation, and with the two biggest publishers both having their headquarters in New York, they responded to the attacks in a very noticeable way. The attacks seemed to remind the creative talents behind the super heroes that these characters were about something and stood as symbols of what is best in the American people as they adapted to a country now forever changed. Chief among these was Captain America; the Star Spangled Avenger who was brought back to his roots as a soldier fighting for his country. The hero who once punched Hitler, was now fighting the terrorists who were plotting against his country. The style of artwork by John Cassady on the series brought a sense of stark and gritty realism to a fictional world of costumed heroes and villains.

See a video sound poem of
The Alpahbet of the Dead: 2002, September 11, and Beyond (text below) on You Tube:
The Alphabet of the Dead: 2002, September, 11 and beyond (no text line breaks below)

And the wind rose to kiss their lips and the dust rose and whirled around them and touched their shoulders and brushed their cheeks. And the wind swirled to stroke their foreheads and wipe their tears. And they walked into the open-air mausoleum, and the names read became a poem, and the names became a chant, and the names became a prayer.

And the dust blew in their eyes and the dust blew into their mouths and dust blew onto their tongues and into the crevices of ears and spoke like no speech could ever speak. And a circle of honor was set, a ring, in the center of the open grave,
like a hole in the earth, like a place of resurrection, like an empty circus ring.

And from a distance, from the view of birds and gods, a living wreath was formed, surrounding the ring with those who mourned for those who died. All the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, children and daughters, sons and cousins,
aunts and uncles, and the couples and strangers, hand and hand, descending.

And there were dogs, and cats, and birds, the animals, the loyal pets who waited
and waited and waited and died waiting. And all the names, all ages, all sexes,
all religions, all strata, from many countries, from many states, from all boroughs, all people, a family of strangers. The dust of angels, of unsuspecting soldiers.

It is painful to listen to the list of names, numbing to listen to the names, necessary
to listen to the list of names. The names become a poem, the names become a prayer. And what have we learned from this beyond that men can weep out loud
in public and embrace each other in grief and that race means nothing? Beyond that people will still talk on cell phones in the street, even while the alphabet of the dead is read aloud? Beyond that we must live for today but plan for tomorrow?

In this pit, all the living wear the same face, lips tight with corners down, squinting between tears. The living gather earth and dust into plastic bottles, what little they can take home. Dust of angels now angels in a bottle, Genies in bottles, wishes never to come true. Some pick up pebbles, perhaps pieces of bone. Small relics in this rubble, what little they can take home. And every year the list of surnames with different faces scroll down my TV screen, to tell me we are one. That all that is left is dust tells us we are one. That we all cringe with dust in our eyes tells us we are one on this beach, desert, tightrope, consecrated ground.

by Mary Crescenzo

Grace of Grief
8/11/2001

'Tis grace that grief comes in waves
We are not meant to feel grief all at once

'Tis grace that shock
is part of the process

There is much to adjust to
now & in the future

'Tis grace that taught me
to allow grief to have it's way with me

Grief dosen't care
what was planned for the rest of the day
or how much needs to be done this week

I felt most battered when I resisted what grief offered
When I surrendered I was carried
by the waves & grace prevailed

SEBness
this was written the morning of 8/11/2001 1 month before Flying out of Logan airport on a seemingly ordinary Tuesday.

Alan Jackson's "Where were you." spoke about were people were on 9-11. Two of them really hit home for me as it effected, a grade school teacher of mine and myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9PwWkV4HQ4&feature=artist

We're doing a play at the New York International Fringe Festival right now, starring John Finn (COLD CASE, GLORY, THE X-FILES) about the recovery effort at Ground Zero, and the effect it had on NYC's firemen and policemen, and their families. This play, called BREAK, has been in the works for nearly 10 years. Find out more at www.Louiserozett.com.

Emma's Revolution have a beautiful song, If I Give Your Name, which talks about the many undocumented workers at the World Trade Center who would never be counted among the victims of the tragedies of September 11th. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

I listened to James Taylor's "Fire & Rain" a lot around the first anniversary. Multiplying the confusion and deep sadness by the tens of thousands who lost their families and friends made the song resonate that much more than it had before.

For me, it is definitely Rufus Wainwright's song, from his album Want One, titled "11:11".
I know that Rufus was in Manhattan that day, that he and his friend Sean Lennon and others all went, where else, up to Yoko's apartment immediately, in The Dakota. And it true motherly fashion amidst the chaos, Yoko took them all upstate for a safe haven... This song evokes the tragedy and the deeper realization of that everything-changing day.

Woke up this morning at 11:11
Wasn't in Portand and I wasn't in heaven
Could have been either by the way I was feeling
But I was alive, I was alive
Woke up this morning at 11:11
John was half-naked and Lulu was crying
Over a baby that will never go crazy
And I was alive and kicking

Through this cruel world
Holding a notion of you at 11:11
Tell me what else can I do
What else can I do?

Woke up this morning and something was burning
Realized that everything really does happen in Manhattan
Thoughts were of characters and afternoons lying
And you, you were alive

Oh the hours we are separate
11:11 is just precious time we've wasted
So patch up your bleeding hearts
And put away your posies
I'm gonna have a drink
Before we ring around the rosies with you
Oh the hours we are separate
Oh the hours we are separate
11:11

Walking Forward
Looking Back
Lesson from the World Trade Center: A Survivor's Story
Photos and narrative.
John Labriola.

Although it was written before 9/11, Wilco's "Jesus, Etc" has always been an eery, prescient and moving song that evokes that tragic morning for me like no other.

When Wilco does it in concert and thousands of people sing along (and sometimes as at MassMOCA's Solid Sound Festival Jeff Tweedy steps back and allows only the audience to sing), it stands as an elegy to those departed and a message of love and life to the rest of us.

Spike Lee's film "25th Hour" serves as the directors reaction to/depiction of post 9/11 New York City. While the attacks and their aftermath do not play a role in the story, we are ocassionally given stark reminders (title credits taking place over footage of the memorial light towers, a characters apartment overlooking Ground Zero) that these New York charcters are living, struggling, existing in a new world, one that is immeasurably changed, but continuing to move just as quickly and harshly and beautifully as it always had and always will.

As a New Yorker who had to continue on with my life as downtown still smoldered for months on end, I find it to be an apt acknowledgement on the times.

'September 11 at the Shambala Center' by The Roches on their album "Moonswept" - still pulls tears from my eyes. So healing, so perceptive, so compassionate...so brave.

Alan Jackson"s"Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" was the only song of any genre that I heard on the topic of 9/11 that wasn't didn't speak of revenge. It spoke to me of remembering every man's humanity and the things that are truly important; God,family and love. Hope Carr from Mississippi,I wish I had come across that photo. As a mississippian alsothat one speaks to me."and the greatest is love"

"Sympathy" and "Far Away" from Sleater-Kinney's "One Beat" album. (Ironically, not long after this album debuted, "Morning Edition" had some kind of commentary complaining how so little art had come out of the attacks; I guess S-K was a little too avant for NPR's radar.)

I suggest listening to "Trapeze" by Kati Mac.

http://www.gordongreen.com/audio/sept_12_2001.mp3

From the day after.

September in Alaska by Bryan Bowers.

On a visit to Chicago with my husband and friends, I chanced upon an exhibit downtown named "Here is New York", through the window from sidewalk I could see strings of rope strung from one wall to the other, photos were hung like clothes on a clothesline. I had to enter to see what this was. Inside I learned this was an exhibit of photos taken by people, mostly average bystanders who were in New York at the site of the World Trade Center when the planes hit and the buildings imploded.
There were thousands of photographs. Each showing an unfolding human tragedy in a way that nothing else could. Among the thousands of photos was one photo that stood out. A man from neck down wearing a dirty white t-shirt with these words written on it:
Love Thy Neighbor
Thy Poor Neighbor
Thine Immigrant Neighbor
Thy Jewish Neighbor
Thine Addicted Neighbor
Thy Gay Neighbor
Thy Black Neighbor
Thy White Neighbor
Thy Muslim Neighbor
Thy Crippled Neighbor
Thy Christian Neighbor
Thine Atheist Neighbor
Thy Latino Neighbor
Thy Homeless Neighbor
from his neck to the hem of the t-shirt
it was a call to forgiveness in a very bitter time. I bought a copy of several prints, but that one hangs next to my bed to this day, always reminding me ...

year and a half after i lost my son, who was 11. every morning i woke up thinking how i could have saved him, which amounted to nothing. moved to the other coast; i could no longer travel the highway which he had died on; hence new england. got a job where i punch in and forget, delivering construction supplies, and hear of the first plane strike in ny. second plane; realize what is afoot.
head back to the shop to watch tv and fellow employees agog at what has happened. start crying when i see the guy jump headfirst from the top of the building. know that a parent, which turned out to be thousands, watched the death of their children.
afterwards, i heard "flying" by living colour. seemed appropriate.

John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls," for orchestra, adult and children's choruses. Commissioned by the NYPhil to commemorate 9/11. Adams:
"Not only the the transition from living to dead, but also the change that takes place within the souls of those that stay behind, of those who suffer pain and loss and then themselves come away from that experience.”
It's beautiful.

I have two daughters. The older one's first day of high school was September 11, 2001. The younger one was in the third grade at a Manhattan public school. I can't remember how long after, maybe a year or so, the younger one brought home a book for us to read together about a family dealing with the aftermath of that tragedy. I thought, "Oh, no this is going to be awful." But, no, it was exceptionally well written and helped a young person understand what it might have been like to be a family which lost someone that day---Joyce Maynard's "The Usual Rules".

William Finn's song cycle Elegies is a celebration of life through stories of death. The show moves from losses of Finn's friends and family to the national tragedy to which we can all relate: the attacks of 9/11. The show ends with a duet entitled "Goodbye/Boom Boom" which depicts the horrors of September 11th in a very personal way: A husband's final phone call from the falling tower to his wife and child at home. As the duet becomes a cacophonous ensemble piece, Finn musically settles the dust with the ballad "Looking Up," expressing both the physical and emotional holes left in New York City, and concludes the show with a hope filled reprise of "Goodbye". I feel this group of songs depicts so many complex emotions surrounding that day, and has the ability to, without falling into sappy emotional manipulation, accurately demonstrate how it feels to look to the future after the anguish of loss.

You can't listen to Beth Sorrentino's "Beautiful Day" and not be moved. Easily the most beautiful, personal, poignant song about 9/11 I've ever heard. This song should be played on a loop at any memorial that finally ends up being built...

Pig Iron Theater Co's "Love Unpunished" personalized the fear and bravery of people escaping the towers. It was incredibly moving and subtle and beautiful.