AFTER TRAGEDY

Noticing

Blue

 Blooming

~*~


Monday night with my writing group downtown,
I wrote these lines in response to a prompt.
I wept when I read them aloud.
(Screen Shot--1st Baptist, Southerland Springs, Texas)

This Child

(for Anabelle Pomeroy)

Motionless now

                under the conflicted sky.

Blood drying

                 tears receding

Along the sharp line

                 where an emerging

Golden sun rising

                 dropped purple shrouds

Falling back into the sea

                 back before we

Swam up on  to land

                 before we took to flight

Before this child,

                  just fourteen, dreamed

She was roller skating

                  right to the edge of somewhere,

Spread her arms, then floating

                  off her mattress

Sailed up through the roof of a country church

                  which dissolved completely.

You know, the way dreams do,

                  she felt the thrill of

Unexpected ascension, so much holier

                  than Holy Mother Mary.

Entirely without shame this child, bursting,

                  sang out loud.

While the choir applauded in unison

                  white light spread

Everywhere, until that's all

                  there was to see--

Till even the brightest stars could

                  not outshine her.

The Story
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/texas-church-shooting/texas-church-shooting-who-were-victims-sutherland-springs-massacre-n818356
~*~


Tuesday it was off to get an x-ray of my right ribs.
an accident at home: in a stupid moment reaching down over a wooden arm chair to retrieve a fallen pen and -crack-but it took a few days to really exhibit it's effect and I suddenly couldn't breathe.
(reading available while I waited)

 Kids camping out at the subway entrance
"IN NEED__PLEASE HELP"

 Then I crossed through the park to
Dr. Robert Schiller
where the x-ray pictures were read and interpreted:
Not a fracture, just a badly bruised intercostal sheath which will take an estimated three weeks to a month of care, warmth and consciousness to heal. Okay.
Then the rains came, a regular deluge pouring from City skies.
Soaked when I reached my first location...
(Baruch College used to be the Childrens Court)

 ...where they couldn't find me on the books!

Trudged on to the right location a few blocks away to vote a straight Democratic slate.
My valiant struggle through the cold rain to register my vote did manage to push democrats over the fat heads of Republican punishers and was a definite mandate expressing rejection of the current National Administration, not that this Democratic gang are pure or perfect, but it's as good as we can manage for the moment,
a restraining wall at least.

 ~*~


At the Zendo Wednesday night
A loss Commemorated

Beloved 12 year old Cat

Carol and I walked together after the meditation

~*~

CLOSURE AGAIN

MONDAY MORNING

9.11.2017

Bagpipes from the thirteenth precinct...

  I photographed from my fire escape on the third floor after the proceedings.

There was silence at 8:45 a.m and  then speeches of course.

  The street was closed.

In 2001 the precinct became Police Central Headquarters since the one downtown had been damaged, and you couldn't get on or off the block without ID for at least a month, maybe more. My memory fails me about time-time stood still.

 It was intense being here then. I had seen people covered in dust staggering, streaming up the Avenues. Everything had shut down. People walked from the towers to wherever they had to go. It was a fearful time. No one knew what would happen next. We were all in deep shock. All street lights were out by sundown adding darkness to the mix. Bus and Train service stopped. We were isolated, shut off from the world. My portable radio kept me informed and I've had a drawer full of candles, a five gallon honey jar of matches, several flashlights, extra batteries, gallons of water and a 'Go' bag ready ever since.

  There were funeral services every other day with ceremonial bagpipers playing for weeks at the local church where I did the garden with Emily Leonard who spent  a good deal of her retirement on the project of establishing a perennial plot.

Looking toward the west I noticed this lovely garden

 I'd not seen it until I stepped out onto the fire escape.

I went down to the street

 This precinct lost many friends...

 and three of it's own

 Neighbors left flowers.

 Detective Brian McLeod

 We sat on the stoop and he told me he lost family and many friends.

It was a somber start to the day.

~*~

 Lunch time Meditation

Tibet House
(see link)

Contemplative Practice as Social Practice

with Susanna Nicholson

~*~
  
Seeing, like a Tourist Sees

Walking East across 14th Street
I looked up. I'd never seen this hand.

 The trappings of devotion for sale at this store

 Friend Wendy introduced me to Helen Chen at "International Haircutters"
and I had a really great wash and cut for Sixteen dollars.

Further East, more tributes

Fire company Five
Among the many heroes of that day.
Of the 2,977 victims killed in the September 11 attacks, 412 were emergency workers in New York City who responded to the World Trade Center included:343 firefighters (including a chaplain and two paramedics) of the New York City Fire Department--37 police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department--23 police officers of the New York City Police Department8 emergency medical technicians and paramedics from private emergency medical service and
1 Patrolman from the New York Fire Patrol.

 Article lists those emergency workers who died while fulfilling their duties at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
(see link)
Heading uptown along First Avenue...

further on...

~*~

 

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

(Thanks by W.S. Merwin)

The singular Image I shall never forget

(only a blurry screen shot)  ~*~

Night
"Tribute in Light" as seen from my neighborhood.
An art installation of 88 searchlights placed six blocks south of the World Trade Center to create two vertical columns of light to represent the Twin Towers in remembrance of the September 11 attacks.It is produced annually by the Municipal Art Society of New York.

LINK

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_workers_killed_in_the_September_11_attacks

https://tibethouse.us/event/lunchtime-meditation-contemplative-practice-social-practice-2/2017-09-18/ https://tibethouse.us/event/lunchtime-meditation-contemplative-practice-social-practice-2/2017-09-18/