Special Feature: In the Shadow of 9/11, the Lone Vote/Voice against the War on Terror

Selected Poetry for California Democratic Congressmember, Barbara Lee, who cast the sole vote after 9/11 against “Forever Wars” (Now On the Need for the Afghan War Inquiry, Democracy Now Interview, September 10)

twin towers

repeating their absence

day after day

World Haiku Review, January 2007

Bill Kenney

"I rise today, really, with a very heavy heart, one that is filled with sorrow for the families and loved ones who were killed and injured this week," intoned California Democratic Congressmember Barbara Lee, her voice trembling with emotion as she spoke from the House floor on September 14th, 2001...

in Bryant Park

2,753 empty chairs

not a breath of air

yards & lots, 2012

Jack Galmitz

An Unofficial Story

for Oskar

ink-black:

smoke trails a life

from the north tower

Another sleepless night. Winter moonlight on the empty side of her bed. From the bedside table, she picks up A Place of Remembrance: The Official Photo Book of 9/11. She stares at the book for a moment. Tears roll down her face as she rips out some of the pages. With a sigh, she puts the torn-out pages in reverse order. When she flips through them, dozens of people are flying through the windows back into the building.

Editor's Choice Haibun, Cattails, May, 2015

Chen-ou Liu

(Note: The haiku is a revised version of my vertical haiku below:

ink-dark

smoke

of

a

life

jumping

from

the

north

tower

Shot Glass,7, June 2012

"This unspeakable act on the United States has really forced me, however, to rely on my moral compass, my conscience, and my God for direction. September 11th changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States."

two light beams shining

where there were once twin towers –

my son, my daughter

Grand Prize, 15th International “Kusamakura” Haiku Competition

Jack Galmitz

Bush stood proudly

under Mission Accomplished

I recall 

that lingering smell

of my friend's patriot socks

NeverEnding Story, October 29, 2020

Chen-ou Liu 

"However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning…Let's just pause, just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control."

inspired by the 9/11  Memorial Fountain 

at the footprint

of each tower that once stood

vast emptiness

( loss and grief ) surrounded

by four walls of water

NeverEnding Story, September 12, 2016

Chen-ou Liu

Congressmember Barbara Lee closed her historic speech with a plea for peace and diplomacy we all should remember:

"I have agonized over this vote. I came to grips with opposing this resolution during the very painful yet very beautiful memorial service. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, 'As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.'"

All That Remains

endless war

or full troop withdrawal?

at the airport fence

an Afghan girl stares at clouds

with darker shades of gray

last Americans

lifted off the embassy roof

in Saigon --

now some hundred Afghans

cling to a moving US plane

the face

of an Afghan girl 

who stares

into the camera

at us ... at Death

Death

a dust-faced coalman

unfolds

one body bag, then another ...

gathering dark in Kabul

NeverEnding Story, August 30, 2021