I heard Mayor Bloomberg recite the last several lines of an American Poet Laureate Billy Collins (2001-2003), a poem called The Names. It's hard to get any meaning from any stanza of poetry, let alone from the last few lines of any work, let alone from an unknown bit of verse from an obscure (as most American Laureates are) poet; everyone knows Shakespeare, and no one really struggles to understand his context or where it fits in the 'here and now'. The lines were meant to be moving, I'm sure, and perhaps the poem, in it's entirety, is.

I understand the reasoning behind The Names... it's what we do each year on September 11. We recite the names of 3,966 people taken from us (not counting terrorists). But it didn't truly resonate... not for me it didn't. There was no great history behind it or depth to its tone. There was nothing truly great about the poem itself except the reason Collins felt compelled to write it. Perhaps it was the Mayor's poor delivery. I've always felt poetry is best received from the author's own voice-- only he knows where all the hidden emphases lay.

But there was a real American poet at Ground Zero yesterday. Real as in, we know you and love you.

Paul Simon performed a muted and ethereal version of The Sound of Silence. He knew where all the hidden emphases lay.



The song is both dirge and warning, and while its tone fit the mood of yesterday's memorial, I wonder at its appropriateness. But there's at least one woman in the video above who both appreciated Simon's performance, and sang along.