In some way, 9/11 is that,
For me, a series of connections
And disconnections, of telephone
Calls, the ones that went through,
And the ones that did not.
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Copyright Amalie Flynn; 1994 - Present; Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited.-
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- 9/11
- CASANA 3/21/2013
- CNN 9 /11/2011
- I'd Rather Be Making Art 9/11/2011
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- Our 9/11 Tribute 9/11/2011
- September 11th: art, artifacts and remembrance 9 / 11 / 2011
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Press for WIFE AND WAR: THE MEMOIR
- "She's Lucky" in Stars & Stripes 11/7/2013
- Barrington Author Shares Her Story Tonight
- Give the gift of military history
- How to Help War Vets Struggling with Emotional Numbing 2/17/2015
- Lit Chat 9/12/2013
- Mention by Time Now Blog
- Peter Molin on Time Now 9/28/14
- The Waiting: 'Stateside,' 'Wife and War," and the Hale Koa
- These Almost Widows-Amalie Flynn's Wife and War 10/2/14
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- America the Gun in Atticus Review 10 / 13 / 2014
- Excerpt in STARS & STRIPES 11/7/2013
- Excerpt on Blogs of War 10/16/2013
- Excerpt on Medium / Words After War
- Excerpt on Words After War 2/4/2014
- Integra Center 11/20/2013
- LINE on 3 Quarks Daily 3/29/2012
- NO on Speaking of Apraxia 2/3/2014
- The New York Times 8/19/2012
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- TIME 9/28/2011
- Wife in The Literary Review 5 / 2014
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September 11 
Beautifully haunting post… look forward to checking out more of your blog.
Yeah, great post too.
I remember calling and trying to get in touch with my relative… All the phones had busy signals. Thank you for this post. We must never forget our heroes.
I found myself watching a tribute this morning — and bursting into tears. And it was the voices on those haunting messages that inspired the tears.
I can’t even imagine how it would have felt to get a message. Or worse, how it would feel NOT to get one.
Thank you for sharing this…
I found myself watching a tribute this morning — and bursting into tears.
Me too. Even the story about Gwyneth Paltrow’s near-accident with a pedestrian in NYC may have saved that pedestrian’s life….made me teary-eyed. Almost getting hit by Paltrow’s car caused this woman to miss her usual subway train that would’ve arrived at the WTC. She had to take the next one; by the time she got to work, one of the towers had already been struck.
Those stories are so wonderful becuase they show us without a shadow of a doubt how interconnected we all are. They highlight how that one simple decision on our part has a wave of action that at some point really will reach around the world and throughout time. You blog is spectacular! Well done!!! AmberLena
Wonderful project Amalie. I hope you continue your posts.
I remember exactly what I was doing, who told me about it, and who I told about it when it happened.. and I live thousands of miles away from the U.S.
My heart goes out to the families of people who lost their lives on Sep 11, 2001.
Very moving, and beautiful in a simplistic way. I was watching the TV specials about 9/11, and it just saddens my heart still when I think about that tragic event. On a brighter note, congrats on making Freshly Pressed; well deserved.
This post gave me the chills. I remember hearing the first plane go overhead and thinking to myself, “Why is it so low”. I remember hearing the explosion and thinking to myself, “With that, the world has changed”.
teapartjoed–Thank you for that last sentence. I thought the exact same thing. also thought that but it was after I thought, “MY GOD, what about all the people that are on the floors below, all the way to the PATH. They were the ones I couldn’t get out of my head as I watched the firey hole for days burning……It looked like an opening to Hell. How many times I had taken the escalators up from the train station and would occasionally stop on a floor to buy Toys for my son….Christmas, Star Trek, May the Force Be With You, blow up swords that glow in the dark. Yes, I don’t think a whole lot of those people that were shopping and got caught made it out. I was grateful to hear the trains had already been stopped by the Port Authority though…Thanks for the shares everyone.
Beautiful. I’m working on a 9/11 piece myself. We all remember in different ways and your blog is a fantastic way indeed!
9/11 isn’t the 356th day of the year?
Apologies, blindly posted without checking the rest of the blog before, idiotic me. It is a haunting post though!
beautiful.
-grace
lovely. simple and perfect. thanks for sharing!
So sad. I remember that day 😦
I was at a Zen retreat for the first time as a young college student with a friend. It was very startling and surreal to be in such a peaceful place and hear that across the country (I live in California), there had be an act of violence of this magnitude. The retreat was secluded and had no electricity or phones except in the business office. Everyone who had relatives in NY flocked to call their relatives and probably some that did not did so as well. Everyone else who was at the retreat went to the monastery that day, even my companion who is a confirmed atheist. I stayed back in the kitchen because I needed time to myself finding the right feeling to feel. It took me a long time to feel normal, although I think the world will never be the same.
Now I have a friend who is Muslim and lives in Brooklyn. He has great feelings about what happened. He definitely considers himself an American more and more since he is in his mid-twenties and has been on the continent since he was 14. It’s definitely true that the world will never be the same.
Interesting
Beautifully written and painfully honest.
Touching tribute.
never forget 9/11
Thank you for your blog. It’s beautiful. Here is a link to a song I wrote as a memorial to my friend Rod Wotton who died in Tower 2. http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_6818540
May we all have some healing from this.
thanks for this post! great!
http://www.javidsuleymanli.com/
This is a wonderful post. Really touching, I remember that day clearly. I lived in NY and it was my birthday. I’ll never forget it.
Powerful.
KEEP UP THE GREAT JOB!!!
Wow…with so few words, such incredibly powerful emotions are evoked. Beautiful.
Thank you for sharing…
My brothers just flown out to take part in the memorial service, thoughts go out to everyone that suffered that day,
Wonderful piece. My class and I were watching this event on the news. I had to explain to 12 special education students what had happened.
beautiful.. I live in Norway,and we recently experienced something awful too, so all my thoughts go out to all of you who were affected.
Thank you for the beautiful, raw posts. I know I shall spend a part of the coming days weeping.
Right! Even those that did not witnessed, find their sentiment tangled in an emotional rollercoaster that is hard to revisit. But it’s here to stay.
Job well done!
deadly connections! good reflection.
So glad that your post was chosen to be freshly pressed. Our hearts ache as we remember.
Powerful !!
Thank you.
I love the tragic simplicity in your blog…A constant reminder to never forget that humanities worst enemy is itself
I will never forget grabbing my cup of coffee, turning on the tv, and watching as the second plane hit. And the people jumping to their deaths. It was just horrifying.
Such a tiny collection of words for such a monumental tragedy, yet you capture it with haunting reality. Thank you for sharing…
Those are beautiful and haunting words. It’s important to remember 9/11. Thanks for doing this.
9/11 is in my memory, I hope that it will not happen again.
Unbelievable that it has been 10 years already.
Incredible insight and beautifully written. Here is my inside look at joining the military on 9/11.
These are the best Lines i ve ever heard regarding that fateful day.
Condolences to the Families & Friends of the Victims, who lost their loved ones. Thank you for sharing it.
~ Vaishnavi
For, JIVRAJ TEA LTD.
http://WWW.J9TEA.COM
http://jivraj9teaindia.wordpress.com/
touching!
A heart breaking day. Never forget!!
That’s captivating and beautiful
No matter what, nothing is worth people’s lives, no money, no oil, no power, nothing! US, I am morning with you every year and I can’t describe the feelings inside me…
Haunting . . !
Fascinating!
so simple yet so eerie words.
Your poem leads me to believe that you personally suffered one loss or more. I’m sorry for your loss.
I was out walking the dog, got back to hear my dad saying America was at war, sat down, watching the news and saw the second plane hit, incredibly saddening moment in history.
IT WAS A CALAMITY OF MONUMENTAL PROPORTION THAT WILL REMAIN INDELIBLE,IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA.
Well written, so poigniant.
very good though about it,
Simply mesmerizing !
Beautiful post and project. Thank you for sharing. Peace.
I love this.
i like your words.
greeting from Argentina
Beautiful, poignant writings. Hoping in time that we can collectively find ways to move beyond re-living the grief, to re-finding our joy. http://findingourjoy.wordpress.com/
Beautifully written, nice post!
Unbelievably harrowing
Great post…..9/11 for me brought lots of hurt. I not only found out about those that lost their lives, but I also found out a couple hours after that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.
awesome ! thx
Simple,Touching and great post
Great post, congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
9/11 tribute and GIVEAWAY post here:
Unbelievable
This was a haunting post but It beautiful at the same time. I also just posted a 9/11 piece
Its a pity the terrorists suceededed ten years ago. I feel sober each time I remember this gruelsome act. In remembrance of the 911 incidence, may their souls rest in perfect peace
I’m from Bulgaria, I have nothing with America, but I’m so sad for those people who deid. I cant stop my tears…
great and beautiful
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This was the most consequential day of my life, and my generation. Thanks for your words.
Sad…
Haunting……
Simple and very profound statement…
I had wanted to go to an opera this December in Manhattan, a favorite of mine. I have a kitty who needs daily medicine, but even without that I knew I was ultimately going to see it in HD live here in California and not go to Manhattan. I’ve just given up on the idea of even visiting Manhattan again. I visited once when I was in high school, and the one thing I liked the most was the WTC. It was so big and so spindly and fragile looking from a distance, just the most wonderful thing I’d ever seen.
It’s so stupid, but even now, 10 years later, there is a part of me that figures that if I don’t see the new skyline with my own eyes, it didn’t really happen. I know what the lower Manhattan skyline is supposed to look like, and I don’t want to see it with that ugly hole gouged out of it. Ever.
😦 so sad and haunting…
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I’m a Muslim and I want you to know that Muslims do not accept what happened on 9/11.
My heart goes out to all the families who lost their loved ones on that day. May they rest in peace.
Your post is very touching and straight to the point…fascinating!
I was just eight when the towers fell. My best friend and I were playing connect four during recess, when our principal came outside and told her she needed to pack her things, and that her aunt was here to get her. We didn’t ask questions, she was excited to be leaving school early, and I was envious of her for that.
Three hours later, I learned about the tragedy through confusing video images and my mother’s shaky words.
My best friend and her sister stayed at the end of their driveway for two weeks waiting for their father to come home.
He never arrived.
Although the years make it somewhat easier, the excruciating pain and the remembrance of the lives that were stolen and thrown away remain vivid against the passage of time. History keeps on repeating itself, and we can only pray to someday see the end of this vicious cycle of hatred and disunion.
Your blog is beautiful, and the blissfulness in front of the real meaning is quite chilling. I look forward to reading more of your work. We all share very different perspectives on the one event that shook the entire world.
This is exquisitely beautiful! I live in DC and the most jarring thing at first after the plane hit the Pentagon was not being able to connect with anyone. When the earthquake happened just recently, we didn’t think “natural disaster,” we all thought terrorist attack! The worst was standing outside our office buildings trying to call our families and them trying to call us — those moments of silence were chilling. Thank you for the beauty..
Completely unbelievable! Though honestly I never realized how tragic it was until we had the same happening in Norway.. Heartbreaking
Thank you for your tribute. Your blog is very beautiful and touching.
Beautifully put
Truly haunting. Thank you for this post.
Hopefully it never happened again. God bless
Lupus symptoms
Beautiful.
Beautiful. Thank you!
http://www.thewriteteacherdotcom.wordpress.com
Thanks for the tribute.
beautiful
I watched a video a few days ago, which had been posted on Tumblr. Due to the nature of the site, I wasn’t able to see the title of the video, but I decided to watch it anyway, as it was evidently a phone call from someone within the Twin Towers as the attack was happening. The 911 lady on the phone was asking the gentleman to remain calm, but his descriptions of the scenes inside were just… indescribable. You could feel his fear and confusion, and it was just awful. At the end of the video, the first tower collapsed and you could hear this man on the phone screaming, ‘Oh God, -‘ and then the line disconnected. Hearing that literally made my heart stop. Clicking on the video to go to the original website, I saw in the title that this was this man’s last phonecall before he died, and I haven’t been able to get his last few moments out my head ever since.
Your poem just reminded me of this, so I thought I would share. I won’t post a link to the video though because I’m sure people can find it if they wanted to. It’s just unimaginable, the entire thing. And your poem’s simplicity opens up an entire world of complexity, which is reflective of people’s mindsets and emotions. A beautiful poem, that is also so very sad.
Beautiful.
this is a great project you have here.
keep it up,
mengler
nice*