ON BEING WOVEN

There's a game that's remembered in Iran called moshaereh, which
means, "being in company with poetry." One person says a line from
Rumi, then the next person must begin a Rumi line with the word the
first person's ended with. And so on for hours, I'm told, before television
deadened the psyche, a family or a group of friends might continue. Rumi
was not the only poet used. It might be Hafiz, or Attar, or others. Poetry
wove together the fabric of community and kept it lively. We have nothing
comparable, except perhaps the nights of trading poems back and forth that
sometimes happen in gatherings.
  In December of 1273 when Rumi died, representatives of every major
religion came to his funeral. In the midst of the crusades and violent
sectarian conflict he said, "I go into the Muslim mosque and the Jewish
synagogue and the Christian church and I see one altar." And he made it
clear in other places that someone who considers religion or nation an
important human category is in danger of severing the heart from its ability
to act compassionately. This is a radical idea now, but Rumi held the
conviction in the thirteenth century with such deep gentleness that its truth
was recognized.
   - Coleman Barks, "The Essential Rumi"