Monthly Reflection: Kamal (Perfection) – On Poetry

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I think an argument could be made that poetry is when words are put together perfectly. Abdu’l-Baha is reported to have said,

What is music? It is a combination of harmonious sounds. What is poetry? It is a symmetrical collection of words. Therefore, they are pleasing through harmony and rhythm. Poetry is much more effective and complete than prose. It stirs more deeply, for it is of a finer composition.¹

In The Dawn-Breakers, the Bab “quoted this well-known tradition: ‘Treasures lie hidden beneath the throne of God; the key to those treasures is the tongue of poets.'”²

This month we published a piece of poetry by Graeme Duckmanton titled “A Blade of Grass” about the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms and the arc of ascent. I thought I would use this newsletter as an opportunity to highlight other works of poetry, poets and spoken word artists who have been featured on Baha’i Blog over the years because–unlike author and musician interviews–they are rarer gems.

Firstly, let’s explore two musical pieces based on a poem. In this Studio Session, Behzad Khoshmashrab sings “Eshgh Manam” in Persian from a poem by Mansour Hallaj which is cited in a prayer by Abdu’l-Baha.

While I do not speak or understand Persian, I believe this is the same poem Sonbol Taefi sings in “A Lover’s Letter”.

Graeme’s poem was not the first to be originally published on Baha’i Blog: we also shared “Master Gardener” by youth poet Ari Ahdieh and Lorraine Manifold’s “Ten Nooses in the Night” in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the execution of 10 Baha’i women in Shiraz. We highlighted Aaron Blomeley’s “Mother and Father Dunn” poem in video form in honour of the centenary of the Baha’i Faith in Australia. We created a video based on Amatu’l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum’s well-known poem “This Is Faith” and we produced “Switch”, a short film by Kyle Schmalenberg based on a poem that was written purposefully to cast a sense of negativity when read one way, and the opposite feeling when read in reverse.

We’ve also paid written tribute to poets such as Tahirih, Robert Hayden, Amatu’l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum, and Mahvash Sabet, as well as interviewed June Perkins, Andrea Hope, Shirin Sabri, and–most recently–Michelle Goering (who wrote Bird, Watching: Stories, Essays and Poems). Erfan Daliri also shared his personal reflections on the power of spoken word poetry.

In our ongoing curation of other creative expressions found online, we’ve promoted The Prison Poems Project, a UK video initiative based on the poetry of Mavash Sabet, a poem written by Paul Toloui-Wallace as a tribute to the Bab that strives to bring to life the intangible qualities of God, the Creator, as we know them through His Manifestations; Another World, a poignant and thoughtful short film based on a poem by Esther Maloney about how children are coming of age at a time when humanity is also struggling to come to maturity; MDthepoet’s spoken word piece called “Two Wings” on the equality of women and men; and “It is the Story”, the poem that appeared in the film Glimpses of a Hundred Years of Endeavour.

Let’s close this month’s newsletter with these perfect words of Abdu’l-Baha, a prayer in rhyming couplets:

O Lord so rich in bounty, so replete with grace,
Whose knowledge doth mine inmost heart and soul embrace!

At morn, the solace of my soul is none but Thee;
The knower of my loss and woe is none but Thee.

The heart that for a moment hath Thy mention known
Will seek no friend save longing pain for Thee alone.

Withered be the heart that sigheth not for Thee,
And better blind the eye that crieth not for Thee!

In all mine hours of deepest gloom, O Lord of might,
My heart hath Thy remembrance for a shining light.

Do, through Thy favour, breathe Thy spirit into me,
That what hath never been may thus forever be.

Consider not our merit and our worth,
O Lord of bounty, but the grace Thou pourest forth.

Upon these broken-winged birds whose flight is slow
Out of Thy tender mercy newfound wings bestow.

1. Abdu’l-Baha’s words to Mrs. Mary L. Lucas, as quoted in “A Brief Account of My Visit to Acca”, pp. 11–14 [↩]
2. The Dawn-Breakers, pp. 258–259 [↩]

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Sonjel Vreeland

In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.