9/11 – Grits and Grains

For one day only – my poem Today

Here is a play on words,
a fundamental question.

Is the I a number that marks a beginning,
or, is that I me with rather less feeling,
as in number with a silent b?
Is this a play on words,
or, a play on numbers with words,
a play for today, November 1st?

Here it is: 1 11, 11/1 or 1/11 –
depending whether you’re American
or not, All Saints Day,
when the air’s cleaned of mischief
when the I’s come out to play,
1 11, the first eleven, the perfect team.

The play goes on.
Picture that All, for all the saints,
its two ll’s standing as one,
seeing as one, holding hands,
a love’s embrace.

Or is it illness we see
under the spill and spell
of numbers – III, iIIness –
to make a season to remember
the dark days of the fall,
when another I joins the ranks
of the ones of one and eleven

to make 11/11 a day when the evil of war
became an anvil
for the forging of peace?
Is this a play on numbers,
or a poem that builds today?

There are other acts, other dates,
nothing ever begins with the first.

Take, for example, 911, our 11/9
which we’ll call 9/11
for its hallowing of American soil.
911, the emergency number,
our 999. The 9 followed by the twin towers,
all the ones destroyed
when the ground reduced to zero.

Picture those 1s
and you’lll see there’s never one alone.

Ceiling to floor, ceiling to floor,
each 1 towering,
one copying another,
each office a cell
a spreadsheet of humanity,
each one working part of their lives,
one of a family,
one of a community of so many other ones.

And then came Hamas on a day
which belongs to the same season of war.
Did that mark a beginning?
Was that the start of things
as the Israeli right claims?
Or was it just
the extreme one
in a string of grievance and reprisals?

7/10 we’d call it,
a high mark of history,
possibly the end of a nation.
Israel has always known its numbers,
the seven days of creation,
the ten, the measure of God’s authority.
They multiply those numbers
to sum up the fullness and perfection of life

or to ask the question of the times –
how many times must we forgive?
Is it 70?
Is it just 70?
Good news responds:
It’s not just 70. It’s 7 times that.
It’s so many times we’re bound to lose count.
There’s no going back to number 1
and whatever its cause.
No one ever started it.

>Maggi Dawn’s blog led me to Charles Strohmer‘s excellent piece on the contorversy surrounding this year’s 9/11 anniversary. News coverage has been centred on the threatened Qur’an burnings – which has taken over from this solemn time of remembrance.

Elsewhere, Strohmer draws attention to Greek theatre and the development of theory. he writes:

“in the theatrical culture of ancient Greece, … their words for theater and theory meant very nearly the same thing. Theatron (our theater) meant “the seeing place,” or the “place for seeing” or “viewing” the performing arts. (Similar meanings are found in the Latin and French for theater.) Theoria (our theory) meant “looking at,” “seeing,” “viewing,” which for us today has come to indicate speculation or contemplation as opposed to action.”

This is a good way to look at learning. When we see “interplay” and “interaction” we draw conclusions – or formulate theories – which then inform our responses. In the UK we have a strong tradition of “Remembrance” to remember those who have lost their lives in war. There is great theatre attached to Remembrance, with veterans parading and showing their respect, the wearing of poppies, and the re-play of wartime experiences. This helps us “to see” and “find meaning” and shapes our responses.

Imam Rauf

The media have been sucked in by Rev Terry Jones’s stunt for his planned Qur’an burning. The real action for spotlighting is the thing that Jones is complaining about. He has missed the plot – and the reality is summed up by Strohmer who describes the real purpose of the project Jones is re-acting against. That purpose seems to me to be a really faithful attempt to make sense of what is happening based on the theory that “a broad multifaith coalition can help to repair the damage that has been done to Muslim-American relations over the past fifty years.” (from What’s right with Islam by Imam Rauf)

Here’s what Strohmer says:

The Park51 project is somewhat modeled after the famous multi-use 92nd Street Y. The wide-ranging programs for their proposed community center would include recreational facilities, such as a swimming pool and gym; exhibition space; conference rooms for education and forums, such as about empowering Muslim women; space for weddings and parties; day care and a senior center; areas for interfaith activity and prayer spaces for Jews, Christians, and people of other faiths; and cultural spaces, including a 500 seat theater for the performing arts. In other words, the center will be open to everyone and anyone.

Tag: 9/11

Today

>9/11 #9