Bicentenary Poems and Prose

Listening to the Words of the Bab

Listening to the Words of the Bab

I listen to the song
God's word cannot be wrong, His light
Leads us through fear's dark night
To the dawn of a bright new day
When brotherhood holds sway
Free of war's noisy fray, and peace
The chains of fear release,
The bonds of love increase on Earth.

Poet's Note: ▼

This is poem 137 of the 200 I am writing to celebrate the Bicentenary of the Birth of The Bab.
Form: Luc Bat  
The luc bat is a Vietnamese poetic form that means “six-eight.”

Number of Lines: min 8 lines


Rules:
The poem consists of alternating lines of six and eight syllables.
This poem is interesting in its rhyme scheme that renews at the end of every eight-syllable line and rhymes on the sixth syllable of both lines.

The odd lines (1,3,5,etc) are six sound units and the even lines (2,4,6 etc) are eight sound units long, hence the title. The rhyming scheme is simple also. The last word (sixth sound unit) of the odd lines rhymes with the sixth sound unit of the even line and the eighth sound unit rhymes with the sixth unit of the next odd line. The final even line, linking back to the first line.

Meter:
Alternating lines of six and eight syllables

Rhyme Scheme:
Here’s a diagram of how the first few lines of luc bat poems should rhyme:

xxxxxA
xxxxxAxB
xxxxxB
xxxxxBxC
xxxxxC
xxxxxCxD
xxxxxD
xxxxxDxE

Choices for the poets to make this week: Your poem can be about any topic.

Written for "Invalid Item" .
I wrote this poem while listening to https://www.bahaiblog.net/2019/09/30-bahai-blog-studio-sessions-based-on-the-wri..., which are the words of the Bab set to music.