#341 Backstory of the Poem “Twenty Years After- NYC Fire Museum 9/11 Memorial Program” by Beth SK Morris.

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? This poem was written nine months (December of 2021) after the publication of my poetry collection, “In the Aftermath- 9/11 Through a Volunteer’s Eyes” in commemoration of the 20^th anniversary September 2021.

The poem is an epilogue to the book inspired by my attendance at the NYC Fire Museum’s 20^th anniversary memorial program and facebook postings on “The New Victims of 9/11” group I belong to.

Beth SKMorris: “It’s the NYC Fire Museum on Spring Street, September 11, 2021. I was at the Memorial Service at the museum. This is the presentation of the colors in their dedication room. Photos & stories of all the firefighters killed on 9/11 are on the left” Credit and Copyright by Beth SKMorris.

I workshopped the poem with my Hudson Valley Writers Center group before the New Year and the final form was completed the beginning of January

Beth SKMorris at a poetry reading at the Hudson Valley Writers Center. Copyright by Beth SKMorris.

Click Below to learn more about the Hudson Valley Writers Center

https://www.writerscenter.org/

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I started to write this poem in my mind when I stepped outside the Fire Museum after the 20^th anniversary memorial program on 9/11/2021 and walked a few steps west to the site of the Ground Zero Relief Project, Spring Street Warehouse that procured and delivered supplies to the first responders and recovery crews at Ground Zero and where I volunteered for 5 months, November 2001- March 2002. It was a converted art studio that was outfitted with floor to ceiling shelves for every type of supplies needed for the recovery efforts- from axes to cough drops, rope to jackets. The building is now a design center, but when I stood in front of the storefront, looked down at the cobblestones beneath me, it all came back- twenty years later as if it were yesterday.

Were there any lines in any of your rough drafts of this poem that were not in the final version? And can you share them with us? With the help of my workshop, I did eliminate a lot of text/news details that took away from the flow of the poem. E.g, “hybrid” text information on the types of illness post 9/11 victims are experiencing and kept just one section of a news article from 9/11 Health Watch which is the epigraph for the poem.

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What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? What I would like readers to take away from this poem is that the 20^th anniversary commemoration of 9/11 is not over and done with. It is an event in the history of our city, the country, and the world that should never be forgotten, especially those first responders and recovery workers still battling illness and dying from the toxic effects of Ground Zero.

https://theconversation.com/20-years-on-9-11-responders-are-still-sick-and-dying-166033

Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The most emotional part of the poem to write was staring at the cobblestones in front of “304 Spring Street” where I stood looking down on the sidewalk and crying.

Beth SKMorris: “I took it at the dedication of the Memorial Glade at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in NYC May 2019. Dedicated to all the first responders who have died since 9 /11 from the toxic effects of Ground Zero. The 20th anniversary of the end of cleanup & recovery at Ground Zero will be commemorated this year Memorial Day weekend in the Glade. Volunteers were invited to the dedication & after the ceremony we were invited to leave me mentos on the granite & steel monoliths. I left a poem from my book, some flowers, & took a picture of a hand-painted star made by a school kid from Thailand. All the volunteers received one. I still have it. There’s a poem in book called “Overheard” which describes the event.” Credit and Copyright by Beth SKMorris.

Has this poem been published? And if so where? “Twenty Years After” has not been published yet, but I have begun to send it out. Last week, to the New Yorker Magazine (a VERY long shot), but I will add others during the coming weeks. Ideally, I would like to have it in print around the second important 9/11 commemoration in May 2022- the 20^th anniversary of the completion of the recovery efforts at Ground Zero which I hope to attend at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in NYC.