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Baha'i Poets - Famous and Not So Famous - I

© Lloyd Madansky

I was looking at the upcoming events a few days ago and noticed that National Poetry Month was in April. With that information, I thought that I might try and write about Baha'i Poets. It was a nice tie-in; and, after all, the Baha'i Writings uplift the arts. Shoghi Effendi (Guardian of the Baha'i Faith) wrote: "Although now is only the very beginning of Baha'i art, yet the friends who feel they are gifted in such matters should endeavor to develop and cultivate their gifts and through their works to reflect, however inadequately, the Divine Spirit which Baha'u'llah has breathed into the world." Abdu'l-Baha wrote: "If a man engageth with all his power in the acquisition of a science or in the perfection of an art, it is as if he was been worshipping God in churches and temples." It was with this in mind that I started to research poetry and poets within the Baha'i Faith.

Little did I realize where this research would take me, what I would learn, and who I would meet along the way. It has been quite a learning experience for me. Not only that, it brought up some old memories. So, first:

A little about me,

And poetry

Sorry about that, but I could not resist. My first experience with poetry was probably good old Mother Goose, but what I remember most from my childhood was a little book called A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Lewis Stevenson. My father still has the copy my mother read to me, and I still look through it when I visit. Then, somewhere between the first and third grades I found a late night/early morning talk show that I would listen to if I happened to wake up at those odd hours. One morning I happened on this show and the host read The Highwayman. I hung on every word. I can still remember, "And the highwayman came riding-- Riding--riding--" Another night, I happened to wake up as he read Edgar Allen Poe's The Bells. I can still hear the ringing of those bells. Those two poems are favorites of mine today, some 40+ years later. I do not know who the host of that show was, but he and the poems he read those two nights made a lasting impression on me. I thank him.

Now, enough about me. I have found out that a Baha'i Poet does not just write poetry about the Baha'i Faith, but that they are Baha'is who write poetry. At this point, I feel I must say that poets and poetry have been a part of the history of the Baha'i Faith. In a previous article, I wrote of Tahirih. Although that article dealt with her fight for Woman's Rights in Persia, she was also a renowned poetess, as this link will show:

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