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POETRYETC  2003

POETRYETC 2003

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Subject:

Re: Snapshot: Strangers on a Train

From:

Anny Ballardini <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and poetics <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 07:34:13 +0200

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (76 lines)

Hello Kenneth and Deborah,

I wanted to say that I did it on purpose not to mention Sept 11 in my
snapshot, when something hurts and you know it hurts other people too, I
just try to repress it. It anyhow came out, and I cancelled the line.
As a great believer in the action of opposing forces, here is the best
example that destruction unites more than any other human attempt.
With affection, anny

From: "Kenneth Wolman" <[log in to unmask]>


> At 08:20 PM 9/10/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >Thanks Ken. What a great irony.  I hate thinking about tomorrow. One of
my
> >site visits is to the preschool on Mt. Prospect Avenue where the children
> >saw the planes hit. I've been so happy since we moved out of earshot of
the
> >airport in Newark. Today's weather was like that morning--crisp and clear
> >and gorgeous. It felt like 9/11 today and driving on the turnpike past
the
> >airport and the lanes of planes landing, it felt unsettling.
>
> I have that morning burned into me.  Everything I did from the time I
> exited the PATH (the train that runs between Newark and Manhattan) at
> Christopher Street, glimpsing the Towers at what I suppose was a minute
> before the first plane came in, then the events of the day: seeing the
> first Tower on fire from a half-mile away, uttering hate-filled yet
> icy-calm curses I could not imagine myself saying, speaking to both my
> children--one in Boston, the other in Baltimore--to let them know I was
> okay.  The latter, with whom I'd had a strained relationship since I left
> in 1997, said "Daddy, I love you" before he hung up.  I sat at my desk and
> bawled like a child.  Then walking north--for it was still a beautiful
day,
> I suppose--to Pennsylvania Station on 33rd Street and by some miracle
> getting on the first train out when the station was reopened to Jersey
> traffic.  And the first train out was going to my station.  It looked like
> something out a newsreel of a population transfer in India in 1947, but it
> didn't matter.
>
> The traumas hit later.
>
> >We don't have anything planned at work like the "ritual" last year. I
have
> >three social work interns beginning their placment. I've been thinking
> >about John Tierney, a probie firefighter who died and Sean and Helen his
> >parents in Staten Island.
>
> My only ritual is a piece of clothing.  On 9/11/01 I was wearing a pair of
> black Tony Lama western boots.  I wore them last September 11 and I shall
> wear them again tomorrow.  Stupid as this may sound, I consider them lucky
> shoes.
>
> I was so fortunate...nobody I actually knew died on any of the planes or
in
> the WTC itself.  The woman on the train was real, of course, but it's also
> true that I didn't know her except to trade glances.
>
> I know a guy down here who took a vacation day that 9/11 to go
> waterskiing.  He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald.  He still does.  He told me
> that his entire desk--all his trading associates and subordinates--died
> that morning.  Last year someone asked him "Are you doing anything special
> on the 11th?"  "Yes.  I'm going waterskiing again."  Same way I'm wearing
> those overpriced boots that carried me away from that cloud of smoke and
> pillar of fire.  Memorials, all.
>
> Ken
> -------------------------
>
> Kenneth
> Wolman                     http://www.kenwolman.com
> http://kenwolman.blogspot.com
> "Sometimes the veil between human intelligence and animal intelligence
> wears very thin--then one experiences the supreme thrill of keeping a cat,
> or perhaps allowing oneself to be owned by a cat."--Catherine Manley

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