Response to a Poem

photo found at www.secondedition.wordpress.com/2007/09/11

As we approach the anniversary of 9/11 I can’t help but think of all the victims of this horrific event and their families. While reading “Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa Szymborska, it brought back such strong emotions of sadness, fear and anxiety. I remember getting ready for work that day and turning on the television. I was about to witness a plane crash into the second tower and shortly thereafter, I watched the towers collapse. What was going through these people’s mind as this day unfolded right before our eyes? “They jumped from the burning floors -/one, two, a few more, / higher, lower” (lines 1-3). I will never forget the chill that ran through my body as I watched these people jump, never to be seen again. Did they know what they were doing? Were they in such shock that they actually believed by jumping they would survive? “The photograph halted them in life,/ and now keeps them/ above the earth toward the earth” (lines 4-6). To me this describes the end of these people’s lives. Wherever they were in these buildings, whatever they were doing, whatever they were thinking, it is all just a flash that is burned in our hearts and minds. I too can only do two things for them, pray and remember. http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks/videos#911-timeline

photo found at http://www.jennqpublic.com/index.php?s=september+11

“She thinks she will be set free” (line 7). Joy Harjo, describes a desperate and all to common woman, in her poem, “The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window”. This woman is so relatable I feel, not only to me, but to so many women who wish they had done, or not done, various things in their lives. She has regrets, but also joys. She wants to let go, but wants to be saved. She wants to be seen, not just for who she is, but for what she is. A woman. A woman who once was a child without a care in the world, has grown up much too fast, and now struggles with all the demands of her life. She has lost herself in everyone else. Is there anything left of her? “But she is the woman hanging from the 13th floor window, / and she knows she is hanging by her own fingers, her/ own skin, her own thread of indecision” (lines 46-48). She is a woman and she is strong. As she picks herself up and reclaims herself, she is thankful for her life. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/joy_harjo/biography

Works Cited:

Wislawa Szymborska, “Photograph from September 11” from Monologue of a Dog.

Source: Monologue of a Dog (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005)

“The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window” from She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo. Source: She Had Some Horses (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006)