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Poetry after 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets (2002), edited by Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians, presents forty-five poems written in response to the terrorist tragedies. Featured poets include Stephen Dunn, Hal Sirowitz, Molly Peacock, and Alicia Ostriker.

The poem “9/11,” by Robert Pinsky, a former U.S. poet laureate, was commissioned by the Washington Post for the first anniversary of the attacks and was published on September 12, 2002. It is available at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/poems/july-dec02/9-11_9-11.html from Online Newshour.

Frank O'Hara's “Why I Am Not a Painter,” from his 1965 collection Lunch Poems, is a breezy response to all of his admirers who wondered why he became a poet. As a founding member of the New York School of poets, O'Hara was greatly influenced by the contemporary art scene of the 1950s.

W. H. Auden's “September 1, 1939,” published in his Selected Poems (1940), was written to...
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