Thursday, September 11, 2008

9.11.01 Remembered





from September 1, 1936 by W.H.Auden

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
...

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame

11 comments :

  1. What an absolutely stunning collection of drawings...I have chills...A very sensitive post...Art and the written word make powerful companions.

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  2. The poem (very well chosen - and not one I was familiar with) sent a chill down me.

    I like your style in these sketches. The simple monochrome works very effectively.

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  3. very expressive sketches! It's already been 7 years!!! Good thing to remember...

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  4. I am truly amazed at your colletion and power your envoked in them. Stunning!

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  5. These drawings are really wonderful! And Auden is one of my favorite poets--powerful words. He always touches me.

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  6. These sketches are wonderful Barbara. Did you just do them - or are they part of your previous work? If now, can you share a source for the photos that you used?
    Shirley

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  7. These sketches were based on TV and newspaper images. I did these sketches on the September 11th and 12th 2001. Having lived in NJ for many years with the Twin Towers as a part of my daily life and with family working in Manhattan on 9.11, sketching while glued to the television in the mid-West was almost a form of meditation and prayer.

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  8. Thank you all for your comments. I always appreciate hearing from you.

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  9. Great drawings--and what an absolutely perfect and fitting poem.
    I used to cut school and go watch the construction on the WTC (my father was a civil engineer and built skyscrapers and roads in NYC, though he didn't work on the towers) and I was engaged in Windows on the World (and honeymooned in New Orleans! Perhaps unsurprisingly, we divorced)--I feel they bookended a major part of my life.

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