We have to pray for the people who died during the terrorist attacks.

— Ion Codrescu, Romania

Autumn storm—
New York asters
prostrate    blooming

— Lee Gurga, USA

... my pain and prayers for those who have losses and will have losses, and for those who stand and will be standing ... on Judgment day.
 

S.O.S.
circling our planet
with smoke

— Roderick Stewart, Canada

 
I see many faces in New York:

     face of hate of the perpetrators

     face of death from workers and passengers

     face of fear of facing death 

     face of despair for unuttered love 

     face of panic not knowing where to hide

     and what to expect

but also:

     face of faith calmly accepting death

     face of love comforting each other

     face of compassion from the public

     face of caring for the wounded

     face of grief of kins of those who perished
 

the face of death is everywhere

     death of lives

     death of hopes and dreams

     and

     death of peace

   innocence crumbles
   among New York rubble
   September rain

© 12 September 2001
— Victor P. Gendrano,USA

 
innocence falling
shreds of human confetti
a stunned world watches 
 

early wake-up calls
cell phones in airplane hell
voices from heaven 

— Deborah P. Kolodji, USA

Crack of dawn, far from home, I shuffle over to the motel office for coffee and a stale doughnut only to find the staff standing mesmerized in front of the TV.

“They’re bombing the World Trade Center!  The Pentagon!”

Forget Oregon’s sandy beaches.  We spent most of the next few days like the rest of the nation:  glued to the TV.  Pearl Harbor all over again. Except this time an unknown enemy.  An enemy who used our own planes as bombs. Commercial planes.  Our own people as suicide bombers. Our families and friends.

We watched the plane hit the tower over and over.  Shrank back from flame and falling rubble.  Rejoiced as survivors stumbled out into the open, gasping and coated with dust.  The blind man and his dog, safe after going down flight after flight of stairs, greeting the firemen as they rushed upward. We wept with with the CEO of Cantor-Fitzgerald, late to work because he took his kindergartner to the first day of school.  His entire staff - everyone - lost.  Wept with wide-eyed children, standing on the sidewalk, watching, waiting, hoping for their mothers to come out.  Their fathers.
And we watched the Palestinian children too.

We watched the towers fall, over and over.  Stared at the gap in the Pentagon. Watched Air Force One going back to Washington, fighter planes at its wing tips.  And then, all our planes grounded, all our flags flying at half mast, all our public events cancelled, we looked at rubble.  Tons and tons of rubble.  And listened to talking heads, hour after hour.  And then finally, a definitive moment: we watched the Wallstreeters go back to work, picking their way through the rubble, briefcases in one hand, waving flags in the
other.

Horrified, sickened as we were, we had to admire the planning, the execution of this attack. Its outright originality. Its daring.  But why these particular targets?  The Pentagon, yes.  A symbolic strike at our military might, often arrogantly used.  We can almost sympathize with that.  The World Trade Center as a symbol of our financial might? Or not just ours, but everyone’s? Is this the old problem of the Haves vs. the Have Nots as my Political Science Professor at the U of Wyoming used to rant about, banging with his fists on the chalkboard at those words written there? What about the millions, the billions, the trillions we’ve poured into aid for the rest of the world?  Does that count for nothing? And were we supposed to just crumble and give them - whoever they are - what they want - whatever that is?  How little they know us.
 

   flags at half mast
   to mourn our dead
   ships out to sea

— Jean Dubois USA

 
September 11—
mothers and fathers said
goodbye that morning

besmirched sunrise—
their effigies in smoke
twin towers

broken Pentagon—
the retired colonel sees white
crosses in the smoke

lost fireman—
all his family's pennies
in the fountain

twin tower's smoke
joins the Milky Way—
early winter

— Nancy Stewart Smith, USA

We watched in shock and disbelief as the events of Sept the 11th unfolded on CNN in Singapore. We have a choice now, as never before, to make decisions that affect the collective future of all of humankind — a collective choice to choose a more peaceful, and peace-loving world, a choice to build bridges and work with other nations in securing this ideal, a choice to choose justice, and not revenge, a choice to spread love and hope, not fear and anger..a choice to choose life over death..

Let us choose wisely, and spread our thoughts, support and love to those who have lost family and friends in what must be one of humanity's most testing times...May Love prevail.
 

watching the news—
my 6 year old asks
are those real planes?

— Harsangeet Kaur Bhullar, Singapore