Murmururing Insects Poem Analysis

The catastrophic September 11th attacks are a difficult, emotional topic to reminisce upon—but what if there was a peaceful method to memorialize the attacks without instilling fear? Electronic poems are one of those methods as they vitalize poems into stories that readers can interact with and understand. Otagaki Rengetsu and Ingrid Ankerson’s “Murmuring Insects” is an electronic poem that utilizes sounds, images, and texts that provide readers with the opportunity to interact and peacefully remember the attacks of 9/11.
The poem’s initial scene establishes a peaceful mood by the sounds of the murmuring crickets at night, the black transitioning to blue background color, and an image of the moon (Ankerson and Rengetsu). Simultaneously, the words that form the title
When “air” is clicked, a soft, Japanese tune and a voice of a witness explaining the horror of people jumping off the Twin Towers are played (Ankerson and Rengetsu). The words of the poem plummet, the jet’s vapor trails brightens to represent the planes that crashed into the towers, and the “flocks of departing geese” represent the people flying through the air as they depart from this world (Ankerson and Rengetsu). The “earth” section represents the chaos in the city with voices of shocked civilians and ambulance sirens in the background, and the background color turns green to portray the “in the weeds” line of the poem (Ankerson and Rengetsu). In the “water” section, the sounds of the Japanese tune and voices of reporters describing the tragedy are heard. The words of the poem “tears like dew well up in my eyes” form a tear under a transparent image of an eye and eventually forms the crescent moon in the background when it falls (Ankerson and Rengetsu). Like the media during this time, the murmuring insect sound is constantly playing and repeating throughout the