{"id":433,"date":"2007-09-11T08:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T06:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michelgurfinkiel.com\/blog\/?p=433"},"modified":"2021-01-14T21:13:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T20:13:48","slug":"september-eleven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/michelgurfinkiel.com\/blog\/en\/september-eleven\/","title":{"rendered":"September Eleven"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

An English poem. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I stand for Empire. So many hierarchies
\nUnder the One Crown, so many races
\nIn grand order mixing
\nAt durbars, and markets,
\nAnd harbours, so many rituals
\nTo the One God and the Many Ones.
\nEmpire is vista. Earth’s ends
\nNearer, time shorter, more notes
\nOn logbooks, more friends to call.
\nOr ebriety. I am drunken
\nWith the ever-accumulating
\nWealth of the world.
\nGold. Silver. Diamonds. Ore.
\nThick oil deep from deserts.
\nCoal from the recesses
\nOf hell. Timber from paradise.
\nTrunks red or black,
\nEbony, cedar, mahagonny.
\nLet it come to me loaded on
\nIron cars and cursive boats,
\nOn camels and elephants,
\nBy air, on eagles wings, let it
\nCross deserts wide and ascend
\nSpiraling roads under the one sun.
\nFor those are the wars
\nOf the Lord. And let me then give profusely,
\nTo every one, let me dissipate,
\nAs much as I have amassed. Transmute riches into alms,
\nWealth into art. From all nations tribute
\nBuild houses for all nations.
\nKaravansarails. Colleges. Basilica.
\nGates. Malls. Stock Exchanges. Hospitals.
\nNeither greed nor plunder,
\nVerily, but love. The unending
\nOutflow of love for the world of God.
\nWaters roaring and falling
\nFrom rocks so high.<\/p>\n

For Empire is
\nWhat it was even before
\nBeing thought of.
\nNot by my sword, not
\nBy canons and fire
\nHas it been wrought out of nil.
\nRather by spirit only. First was love.
\nFirst was God’s word and Adam
\nGiving a name to every animal and
\nStone and plant in God’s world.
\nAnd Adam then studied the world
\nEven deeper and understood
\nThe fabrics hidden of salt and sand,
\nAnd why storms and winds cut asunder
\nThe sky. And dominion was given to Adam
\nOver the world he learned to know. And those who kept
\nAdam’s heritage they
\nInherited the earth. They bound the lesser breeds
\nInto royal service and purpose,
\nNot by sword or canons, but rather
\nBy knowledge and cypher and numbers,
\nAnd proper names for the ways of the earth.<\/p>\n

Empire stands and will
\nNever dissolve
\nEven if the One Crown is gone
\nAnd durbars are no more under
\nThe one sun. Once joined  together
\nRaces will forever each for the other
\nLong. Or so do I dream all my dreams
\nAlong. Can I now forsake the smell
\nOf foreign flowers and the sight of trees
\nUnknown. Can feast now be held around me
\nWithout dark wine and dark
\nFiery pepper. Can I deny having slept
\nWith daugthters from over the seas. Am I not
\nWilling to free my servants, my pupils,
\nAnd learn from their lore too. Have peers not been
\nTraded for equals, and scepters for codes.
\nWas not my dominion a mere preamble
\nTo communion, measure for measure
\nAnd love for love under the sun.
\nMistaken can I be. Can Adam be so wrong
\nAs not to see rebellion’s  fiery thunder
\nIn Cain’s fiery eyes.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

© Michel Gurfinkiel, 2007<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

An English poem. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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