From the Editor

On Sept. 26-29, 2002, poetry devotees celebrated the fifth annual NC Rumi Festival held in Chapel Hill.  The festival, of course, is dedicated to sharing the value of the work of the 13th century mystic Mevlana Jelaluddin ar-Rumi al Balkhi, better known to the west merely as Rumi.  The timing of the festival usually coincides with Rumi's birthday.

The groundswell of recent interest in Rumi comes at a time when it seems the path to the future is creating more anxiety than hope, more fear than confidence. I also think Rumi's poetry, with its dancing and whirling, its drunkenness, its lions, its sexuality, its Christian-Muslim religious embrace, offers comfort rather than doubt, and, for many, provides a glimpse of a creative and spiritual possibility.

In looking forward, there comes this backward glance, a check of direction, in no matter what we do -- whether its the business of ideology and the nation, or the more earthly business of English departments and their everyday concerns for effective instruction, grades, assessment, and faculty retention, along with the growing concern posed by cyberspace possibilities.  What would a 13th century mystic poet have to do with that?  In honor of the poet and the recent celebration, here is a Rumi check poem, a backward glance poem, perhaps another way to the future, a future that always takes us home.

"The Lame Goat"

You've seen a herd of goats
going down to the water.
The lame and dreamy goat
brings up the rear.

There are worried faces about that one, 
but now they're laughing, 
because look, as they return, 
that goat is leading! 

There are many different kinds of knowing.
The lame goat's kind is a branch
that traces back to the roots of presence.
Learn from the lame goat, 
and lead the herd home.