Poems for Your Midweek

Remembering September 11 + poems about September

Dear Friends,

In “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower,” William Carlos Williams wrote that “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.” It’s one of those adages to which poets cling, steadfast in what is found in poems. I’m among those believers. It’s why I’ve dedicated a part of my life to spreading the good news about poetry.

Please accept this Szymborska today, an impactful poem of witness and memorial precisely because it seems to acknowledge its impotence in the face of tragedy. Here, the poem can act as a record, not as resolution. The closing lines know this: