On View at the 9/11 Memorial Museum: A Brick From Bin Laden’s Compound in Abbottabod, Pakistan
Bricks can build, wall people in, keep people out.
Bricks can shield, keep secrets, isolate.
Bricks can smash dissidents, act as judge and jury – kill.
Bricks are red as blood.
Bricks can hide murder, hate, terrorism.
Bricks can crumble.

I Visited The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Twice: Day 04/03/2013, Evening 04/05/2013
Look at the Cantilevered benches
like a gaggle of sea gulls
They have landed on the water’s light
Fixed in time uniformly geometrically in the back of the Pentagon
Hear the silence as planes fly over, and traffic moves with time
Listen to the flow of soft light reflecting off stainless steel
Shimmering curves of accordion light babbling on nudging water Like a pulsating heart

9.11.01 (Poem Three)
New York City is a teapot without a cover
Steam was lost in explosions of the World Trade Towers
a city has lost its top hat
but not its soul
a new lid will take its place
steam will build
hear commerce whistle blow

Open Letter To The Statue Of Liberty
Aren’t you tired,
holding up the light of the world?
Only a woman would do such a wonderful thing.
On 9.11.01,
it was hard to watch you cry.

Never let them win
How can I write a poem?
When the news sears my soul-
How can I write a poem?
When I look out my window and see no tower’s lights-
How can I write a poem?
When the smell of death is in the air-
How can I write a poem?
When I knew four people,
Who perished in the fires of the crumbling World Trade Towers.
How can I write a poem?
When a former student of mine turned into ashes-! How can I write a poem?
When I feel a piece of my heart cut out of me. How can I write a poem?
When I want to scream-
How can I write a poem?

I’ll tell you,
One line at a time.
With my mind,
with my heart,
with my soul.
For those who live,
for those who died,
because I have to.

I Visited The Flight 93 Memorial
Peaceful landscape, colored trees
Red Orange Yellow Rust Pine Green
Rolling hills break in trees
Open fields, empty benches
Oh Sacred Ground
Oh, Field of Honor
Here on this site, you took a stand
Rushed the forty-plus one unborn
The first battle cry against terrorism
“Let’s Roll”
“Let’s Roll”
“Let’s Roll”

Takedown Flight 93
Saving the Capitol, you crashed into history
Like the voices of Valley Forge, you left your mark. Where now wildflowers grow
Forty groves of hemlock bloom
And forty chimes will toll

Ground Zero: A Flag For Christmas Poem II, 2001
Placed on a sacred plot
A tree lit in white lights and
Angels dangle from pine branches
Each ornament bears the name of a person killed As smoke rises from Ground Zero
“Oh, say can you see
By the dawn’s early light.”

A Christmas Tree
Topped
Crowned
By an American Flag
We wish you a Merry Christmas
Where you now rest