Lest we forget—September 11, 2001

              Several years ago, before sister Barbara retired from her career as a church musician and moved back “home”—to Little Rock, she began a community chorus, the NoVA Lights Chorale, in Arlington, Virginia.

                The group’s inaugural performance was on Sunday, September 11, six years ago. In honor and memory of this date in history, the chorus prepared a program, “The World Sings for Peace.”

                A partial listing of the music follows by title, composer, history and, where necessary, a translation. I have permission to share this in hopes that the selections will engender your own thoughts with hymns that mean something to you.

                “Da Pacem Cordium,” a traditional Latin text meaning ‘Give peace to every heart.’

                The reading of a hymn written especially for the Tenth Anniversary of September 11^th by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, “O God, Our Hearts Were Shattered.” Her hymns can be found on the websites of many denominations.

                “For Peace,” text and music by Jane Marshall and composed for the World Council of Churches’ Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010)

“Ose Shalom,” traditional Hebrew text; music by J. Leavitt. Translation: ‘The one who makes peace in the heavens, may he make peace for us, and for all Israel, and let us say Amen.’

                “Workin’ for the Dawn of Peace” combines two Civil War songs arranged by R. Jeffers.

                “Like Rain Upon the Mown Field” is based on Psalm 72; music by K. Lee. Sung in Korean.

                “Prayer of St. Francis,” the text attributed to St. Francis of Assisi; music by R. A. Bass.

                “Amani,” text and music by A. Snyder. Swahili translation: ‘We are singing our song. This is our song of peace.’

                “Iraqi Peace Song,” is a traditional Iraqi lullaby arranged by L. Tennenhouse. English interpretation by K. Iveland: ‘Peace to the world. Peace to my country, my love. Peace to your dreams. Peace to your children. Underneath the whispering trees, where our sons and daughters are free; in the beauty, we will see through your eyes of peace.’

                “Pacem,” traditional Latin, music by L. Dengler. Translation: ‘Give us peace. And on earth peace to all of good will.’

                “Sing for Peace,” words and music by J. Papoulis & F. J. Nunez.

                The final piece was the beloved hymn, “Let There be Peace on Earth.”

                For my service music tomorrow, I’ll play “For the Healing of the Nations,” “Weary of all Trumpeting,” and “O Day of Peace That Dimly Shines” – all from the United Methodist hymnal.             

                May your thoughts and mine be on ways to promote peace beyond merely singing and listening.

Also, let’s not forget Harvey and Irma’s myriad victims, and concrete ways (money and/or brawn and prayers) to assist them. UMCOR, Salvation Army and others are trusted places to send funds. Or perhaps, as Salem UMC is doing, send a love offering to a known church official who’s in the affected area and with whom you have communicated.

                 

               

Lest we forget—poetic musings for 9-11

LEST WE FORGET!

              I have no original or meaningful words as a memorial to the 9-11 event except in mine and another’s poems. There are probably no words—except in poetry—to grasp or deal with or meditate on the horrific happening.

From my September 2012 haiku booklet, a lamp to work by, the poems on September 11, 12 and 13 follow: --World Trade Towers/ “attacked … aflame …/ aground” (a quote from the state paper’s editorial on that day)

--medical teams/ volunteers of all colors/ in hospital green (Ibid);

--two days later, / he pulls his “9-11” shirt/ from a jumbled drawer. (Billy)

 My brother in California designed t-shirts for the family memorializing the day. On the front is a photo of the Statue of Liberty and on the back, block letters in a frame say “A Day to Remember, 9 – 11 – 2001”. Billy, age 22 when the poem was written, and I, still wore our shirts and I hung (and hang) the flag each year since. And I’ve already worn my shirt this year.

Searching further, I remembered that a poet friend in southern Missouri wrote a book of elegies called The Silver Cord. I asked via email if he would give me permission to use some of his poems for this column. Dale Ernst of West Plains, formerly of Eureka Springs, was glad to oblige. “That’s exactly what I wrote it for,” he said.

SLIPPING THE STEEL – “Must go, can’t stay the course/ upstream, even if I wanted to. // Slipping the steel. / Slipping the body. // In a flash of shimmering light--/ instant fusion, of this world and that …// then the deep blue, of gone.”

MORE AND MORE – “More and more, it seems/ I am walking through myself--/ a disappearing act, or should I/ say, an ongoing act moving on. //To where I don’t know. // When we wave goodbye, / there is the very strong feeling/ that it could be the last time.”//

ASHES – “Here we all are on this old river bank, / a place you and I walked many times/ on summer days—sometimes talking, / sometimes not—it didn’t really matter, / just being here was enough. // Now I stand here—silver vase in hand-- / with family and friends. // Everyone says their farewells/ in their own way—some with a prayer, / some with a simple goodbye. //

“As I raise the vase and cast your ashes to/ the waters, the wind picks up, as if on cue, / sending them far out over the river. // It may have its way, carrying the remnants of your/ earthly form away, but within, you still abide; / our spirits now dancing on eternal currents—as one.”//

Pat, again: If you would like more poems like this, The Silver Cord by Dale Ernst, can be purchased from the Book Store at thebookpatch.com.