NC Poets on 9/11: Nancy Simpson’s “That Day”
Nancy Simpson, a N.C. Arts Council Fellowship recipient, is the author of three poetry collections: Across Water, Night Student and most recently Living Above the Frost Line: New and Selected Poems published in 2010 by Carolina Wren Press. She co-founded N.C. Writers’ Network West, a nonprofit, professional writing organization serving writers living in the remote mountains west of Asheville. Her poems have been published in literary magazines and reprinted in the books Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains and Word and Wisdom: 100 Years of N.C. Poetry. She lives in Hayesville.
THAT DAY
It was a clear day across the vista,
mountain ridges tufted with red oaks
and sugar maples turning a bittersweet orange,
joy in my heart a moment exploding
before I learned ships sank in lower Manhattan,
the fleet of two. On their decks passengers
from different nations traveling together,
screamed for their lives. Some tried to fly
through portholes. That day,
I learned the meaning of the word
machination: a secret scheme of artful design
intended to cause evil, that September day,
joy in my heart gone gray as ash.
RSS
Lovely words with a heartfelt message, Nancy.
Wonderful poem Nancy!! love the imagery and movement of the lines moving toward disaster.
Lovely poem. Ran a gamut of emotion in very few lines. Last line beautifully effective in describing her feelings that day.
Nancy, This poem is beautiful, really powerful. The way you contrasted the beauty of the day to the horror of the event makes your poem infinitely meaningful. Since our son-in-law had a very narrow escape walking between the two ships, I was particularly affected by your poem.
Rachel Bronnum
A visual piece of art. THAT DAY is a tribute to your quality writing and a reminder to everyone just how suprising that day was. It’s etched in our memories as awfully as the day JFK died.
Thank you for sharing this fine work.
I love love Nancy Simpson’s writing-but this one is stellar even for her. Makes me know I was down the road a few miles from Nancy-but we were both feeling the same thing.
Nancy, Your lovely poem describes perfectly the contrast between a day of perfection,and the moment that day was splintered into a Hellish nightmare by man’s inhumanity to man. You put it so well. You always do. Thank you, Nancy.
a poem that moved me unexpectedly from a lovely setting to a crime scene. amazing!