Gregory Richard Barden Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

nine-eleven 1

then ...

we watched
a world weeping
blood …
a villain's twisted hope
humanity's horror
steel like butter
melting …
strange birds in stranger
air - flailing …
sirens in chorused agony for
those whose voices
were silenced …
perfect azure vault, stained
with poison ...
breath of ashen
brutality -
the incense for an
evil anointing …
a somber search for
survivors -
for bodies, answers, hope
for God ...
death screamed at
the sky and
opened the keep -
truth tumbling into the
darkness …
two decades down, yet
it still trembles
whispers ...

waits.





~ POETRY AGAINST POVERTY ~

( photograph of twisted metal taken at backside of Ground Zero by Anne Buber )

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Alison A Smith nee Howarth September 13, 2026 at 2:25 AM A stark, deeply affecting free-verse tribute that lets fractured lineation mirror the shock, chaos, and enduring aftershock of September 11. Images such as “steel like butter,” the once-“perfect azure vault” stained by poison, and the closing sequence—“trembles / whispers … / waits”—give the poem a haunting sense of grief that has not receded with time. Its focus on silenced voices, rescue, and the search for meaning honours the scale of loss with solemn restraint.