Of Dust, Paper, and Steel

[JoelJosol]

There is silence in the white space where there are no words to read,
unsure where is here or there, the near or far, the up or down,
only stillness where time appears congealed, undefined. Am I
floating? The pavement, unseen, sticks to my feet.

What is the sound of black smoke when a poem burns like Twin Towers,
its lines give up, collapse into a heap of bodies of pages, dumped
from the sky, into that open space, with unfinished thoughts?
On the ground, the words had split apart, paper from meaning.

Is there art in twisted metal, shooting from piles of concrete and shards
of glass? Or in the new daylight against pale walls and broken windows,
piercing the left-over mist among the quiet dead? Here, the brave
races to a black door, to enter into white, undefined spaces

where no sound escapes, no colors are seen, no memories
of black smoke and the weight of onrushing ground.

NOTE: Remembering 9/11 tragedy.

[bob]

Yes Joel:

911 was a horrible tragedy. It will be embedded in the minds of all who witnessed it...personally or on TV. I have personally recorded tapes here at home.

Note however, the small inscription printed below your poem... Of Dust, Paper, and Steel is what also caught my attention.

("Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either.") - Ann Lauterbach).

I considered her statement incomplete. "Words are important keys that unlock the mind's vault to store bits and pieces of pictures. These pictures enable us to mentally review again and again scenes such as 911 ." It is from these pictures we develop strengths which allow us to guard against these horrific episodes ever happening again. Fortunately, not all words we store, create ugly pictures. There are memories of pleasant and happy word episodes by which we use to survive as well.

R.G.Jerore

[JoelJosol]

Bob, thank you for sharing a similar point of view of a very great tragedy. 

You are also right that words do matter. 

Ann L. is in a way like John Ashbery in the way they write poems where words are just objects and not necessarily carry the usual meaning they represent. There is this school called Language poetry where they write "inaccessible" poems which can be considered equivalent to abstract art in the visual arts. For a time, I enjoyed writing such poems.

[tonyv]

Joel, this is terrific. I love how it meanders yet remains on point.

On 9/17/2020 at 11:33 AM, JoelJosol said:

Ann L. is in a way like John Ashbery in the way they write poems where words are just objects and not necessarily carry the usual meaning they represent. There is this school called Language poetry where they write "inaccessible" poems which can be considered equivalent to abstract art in the visual arts. For a time, I enjoyed writing such poems.

And that is something I can appreciate very much. Thankfully, the art form, poetry, is vast.

Tony

[JoelJosol]

Thanks Tony for the read. 

I tried writing poetry as fun, random words with no apparent coherence and unified meaning. I will post some of them someday here.

 

[David W. Parsley]

Something is disturbing the poet, right from the start, but it's just abstract, right?  But then comes the sucker punch of the 'sound of black smoke' and a simple poem ignites 'like Twin Towers' - what a pairing of two highly original phrases!  Nothing abstract now and the reader is in for the full ride now, experiencing the trauma of a ground where 'words had split apart', 'paper from meaning' among thoughts that, like interrupted lives that were thinking them, would never be finished.

Powerful,
 - David

 

[JoelJosol]

HI David,

Thanks for simulating the experience of that day. What struck me hard were the people jumping off the buildings caught on television that inspired this piece.

[David W. Parsley]

Hi Joel,

Yes, that is an unforgettable image, isn't it?  See also stanza 3 of my poem from a few years back,  "What the Future Dares".

Thanks Again for This Piece,
- David

[JoelJosol]

Remembering 9/11 using poetry.