The experiences collected below led me to think that the sorrow that so
many people felt on this occasion is neither false nor an artefact of
manipulation by the media.
I see it as an effect, firstly, of someone having the courage to act
publicly with true feeling (in the manner described by Hannah Arendt in
'The Human Condition' as the vita activa, or life of action, that reveals
presence in the world), resembling the mourning of JF Kennedy, Mahatma
Gandhi, Marylin Monroe, John Smith, and many others who lived openly in
public.
Secondly I see Diana as having become (consciously or not) a renewal of the
earth goddess displaced by masculine myths in so many mythologies and
religions, particularly the Protestant, and which themselves underly what
is wrong with technology and modern life (its masculine-abstraction and
denial of feelings and of things earthly as divine).
And, now I think of it, I perceive a third and greater effect: the extended
presence of everyone, in both print and electric media, as a single entity,
unified and a-moral, a society beyond the boundaries of cultures, nation
states or theories, even this. Including the paparazzi, our extended eyes.
For in any medium it is we who extend outward into the objects, not the
objects reaching us.
I like to think that we are all 'parts of the cyberepic' now that the
individuality of modernism (and of print?) has been overtaken by our
collective electric presence.
And the writers of poetry, the first or only artform so far to accept and
to transcend a mechanical medium, should be the last ones to criticise
others for attempting the same, I believe. Yes, I agreed with Lawrence
Upton's criticisms when I first saw them but it was Karlein van den
Beukel's comment that provoked me to send this.
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
(The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, Faber & Faber, London, 1955, p 93)
(about 1200 words follow - apologies if it is too long for you or your disc)
THE ART OF EVERYONE IN LOVE AND SADNESS
AND SOME ARE ANGRY
some of the messages to Diana
with the thousands of bouquets outside Kensington Palace,
1 September 1997
**********************************************************
H R H DIANA
MOTHER (in red)
THE WORLD HAS LOST
A QUEEN
*
Two knitted white teddies with 'DON'T FOLLOW ME I'M LOST' on the chest of
one of them
and this message:
Dear William and Harry
I'm so very, very sorry and my heart aches,
I hope these two teddies find their way to you. They come with lots of love.
May God give you strength. My prayers die with you.
love Maria X X X
*
To Diana Princess of Wales
from Sandy and Simon, London W6
We never really appreciated you. You did so much good for people throughout
the world. This country has lost its shining light and there is no-one to
replace you. All those who have criticized you must surely be filled with
regret, knowing it is easier to criticize than to praise. It has taken your
death for us to truly value you.
*
Two worn ballet shoes of small size tied to the railings. I did not see any
message.
*
A man brings a black bag containing three bouquets
'from people in Amsterdam
and one for a complete stranger who could not make it today.'
He reaches up to put the bouquets on the spikes.
*
Four flint pebbles on a small sheet of paper on which is written:
DIANA
YOU BROUGHT LIGHT TO OUR LIVES.
NOW MAY YOUR SPIRIT LIVE IN US.
MAY WE CONTINUE YOUR WORK
IN THE ORDINARINESS OF OUR LIVES.
YOU HAVE SHOWN US HOW.
*
Diana
>From the Tuesday Club.
Royal Observer Corps Association. Bedford.
In our thoughts.
*
TO DIANA
SORRY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY.
LOVE VICTORIA
age 8
*
DEAR DIANA
You have given happyn's to lots of pepols lives
thank-you
Georgian Altman age 7
*
THE ROYAL FAMILY
NEVER RESPECTED YOU DI
BUT WE THE PEOPLE DID !!!
*
DIANA REGINA IMPERATIUM
E NESTRE STELA
OF THE WORLD
WE WILL LOVE YOU IN INFINITY
THE ONLY TRUE ROYAL PERSON
ZAGREB, CROATIA
*
An additional message added to one attached to a bouquet:
DODI - YOU HAD A KIND FACE
REST IN PEACE WITH DIANA
*
DIANA
SUCH A STUNNING & CLASSY LADY ...
WE WILL ALL MISS YOUR BEAUTIFUL SMILING FACE.
R.I.P..
YOUR FRIENDS IN CUMBRIA
*
A message on a card from a child including
the footprint
of
'our marmalade cat'.
*
DIANA, QUEEN OF HEARTS
We all played our part in creating you. We must accept our part in
destroying you.
However, you used your greatness to show the ills and wrongs of the world.
You were a messenger from GOD.
We will miss you terribly and will always remember you.
We love you X X.
*
FOR A STAR
(and the drawing of a yellow star with black edges)
*
DIANA & DODI
KHUD-AHA-FIS
(and a message in Arabic)
Sefa & Shameen
*
WE WILL MISS YOU MORE THAN WORDS CAN EXPRESS
YOU WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED AS THE QUEEN OF OUR HEARTS
WHY DID IT HAPPEN?
WITH MUCH LOVE
JAN, RICHARD, NICKY & ANNA YOUNG, RICHMOND
*
a realistic drawing of Diana's face
*
a child's drawing of a smiling figure with the message:
PRINCESS DIANA
I LOVE YOU
CRISTINA LOPES
*
diana you are angel
*
a queen of hearts playing card with the message:
FROM: THE PEOPLE
*
message on a wreath:
THANK YOU FOR BEING OUR FRIEND
*
DIANA
YOU TOUCHED ALL OUR LIVES
AND WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU
ROSALEEN X X X
*
from one of your milliners
(with a drawing of a hat)
love Zena
(and one white rose)
*
on a large piece of cardboard:
A COMMON ROYAL
1961 (photo of Diana) 1997
A REGAL COMMONER
OUR PRINCESS
with about twenty candles of various shapes and sizes
*
DIANA 31.8.97
YOU STOOD FOR THE HEART
COURAGEOUSLY
LIKE A WARRIOR FOR LOVE
a drawing of a heart
MORAYS
*
SAD DI:
PRESS ARE TO BLAME
then the text of a letter from Mrs Bernadette Griffins to a newspaper which
ends thus;
(I HOPE MY THOUGHTS ARE WRONG)
*
DIANA - PRINCESS OF WALES
NO PRESS IN HEAVEN.
REST IN PEACE.
THANK YOU FOR CARING
LOVE GLENN & ZOI X X X
WILLIE AND HARRY
*
NOW WILL SOMEONE PLEASE LOOK AFTER THESE BOYS?
Don't let their lives be ruined like Di's. She wouldn't let it happen so
neither should we.
Love you miss you Di
CHEERS. ANNE & NICKY
*
a man's necktie tied to the railing
*
a black balloon from
MRS S THRONE & FAMILY, PETERBOROUGH
*
a large notice in gothic lettering:
DIANA
PRINCESS OF WALES
GREAT LADY
GREAT SHAME
MUCH SADNESS
P. Rose
*
people touching and caressing a police horse
*
thousands of bouquets on the grass and attached to the railings of
Kensington Palace
others against a long wall and on the park railings
some in the trees
some on the seats
and one on its own, a long way from the others
and many candles burning
*
a tv person interviewing a little girl
'why did you put flowers?'
(ugh)
******************************************
messages on the park railings:
*
TABLOID EDITORS/ MR MURDOCH & CO
Take a look in the mirror.
While she gave love & tried to do good,
you sneered, chased her & made money out of her.
She deserved better.
*
I LOVE YOU.
FROM all-people
FOAGHET YOUR (a deleted word)
The PRincess diANA
your smiLL. and your PIctchure In my HEAD
BY BY
(and a drawing of a heart)
*
ANGELIC DIANA
The glorious angel of hAven,
LOOK At us we are mourning.
The history is ashamed of what a man can do.
Your sons are crying, there is no one there to hug them like mama did.
There are no words strong enough to describe the pain in our hearts.
Down to aggressive PAPARAZZI
(newspaper photos of William and Harry)
*
IF YOU CAN,
SWITCH MORE SUNSHINE ON FROM UP THERE
AND LET MORE SUNFLOWERS GROW
ROSIE & JON
*
and then it became too dark to read more messages
*
as I walked away I passed a couple selling candles off a card table in the
street
*
later I waited for a bus beneath a poster for The Times newspaper
it shows an x-ray of a football moving into the net
with a bullet superimposed on the ball
this ad is sick doctor Murdoch
what is the cure?
*
as I walked there through Mayfair and Hyde Park
through the expensive world in which Diana had lived since childhood
and after seeing someone selling a huge pile of newspapers with
'a sixteen-page tribute to Princess Diana'
I didn't want to continue
it began to seem like a manufactured event
but when I saw the thousands of people and the flowers and messages that
they had brought
I changed my mind
for this seemed to be many people acting as one
and in good mind
responding to love, not to harshness
as we all moved slowly as a single body of silent people
mostly women
mostly prosperous-looking
many with children
and of many nationalities
along the palace railings
I found myself copying out some of the inscriptions
the ones that seemed to me to reveal something of the person who had written it
not those in the conventional phrases
romantic or religious
I was almost crying as I copied out some of them
***********************************************************
(C) 1997 john chris jones
You may transmit this to anyone for any non-commercial purpose
if you include the copyright line and this sentence.
with apologies for appropriating the words of so many
none of whom left an address
I hope that if some of them see this
they will be glad
the imaginary rock foundation
is a recognition
of the art of everyone
(apologies to members of the list to whom I have already sent this collage)
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