celebrity writers

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

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Apr 13, 1999

Are Song Writers Poets?

I suppose that I am not alone in that most of the exposure I had to poetry during my teens and twenties was through song lyrics. That I spent those years during the '60s and '70s meant, I believe, that some of the song writers of that era are now looked on as poets. Bob Dylan is one that comes readly to mind. Hoyt Axton is another. But there was a Baha'i duo in the '70s I feel truly put poetry to music. They were Seals and Crofts, and the lyric writer of the team was Jim Seals. One of his many songs inspired by the Baha'I Writing is East of Ginger Trees.

Songwriting must run in the Seals family because Jim's brother, Dan Seals, is also a songwriter. He was a member of a duo in the '70s, England Dan and John Ford Coley. One of their songs, The Prisoner, was influenced by the story of the imprisonment of Baha'u'llah. Dan is now a popular country music artist and still writes some of his own material.

And Now For The Not So Famous

In both my last article and the beginning of this one many have heard of some, if not all, of the poets I have mentioned. Well, now, I would like to introduce you to some poets you may not have ever heard of or read. They are all Baha'is and they are all poets, but their styles vary greatly. You may not like all of their work, but I think you will be all the richer for having been introduced.

Please allow me to introduce you to a very dear friend, Jaine Toth. Without her help, I would not have met many of the following poets. She has kindly allowed me to reprint some of her work, and so, without further ado: Jaine Toth:

Speaking in Tongues

Buenos dias, buna ziua, bon jour,
Amore, love, amour,
Shalom, sayonara, goodbye.

So many languages to try.
It can be fun - a delight to the ears,
or can unnerve and fill one with fears

of sounding silly or foolish, or worse,
being misunderstood, or insulting,
or, innocently, curse.

A solution to clear up the babble,
so it doesn't sound simply like gabble,
is to choose a language auxiliary,

to be taught in schools universally -
just one tongue, to be learned in addition
to the one of your country's tradition.

If to choose from existing ones is dreaded,