I Blog Poetry and Prose

Midweek Reflections on Writing Spiritual Poetry

ʻIdál (Justice), 7 Núr (Light) 177 B.E. Wednesday, June 10, 2020

"...The Great Being saith: The Tongue of Wisdom proclaimeth: He that hath Me not is bereft of all things. Turn ye away from all that is on earth and seek none else but Me. I am the Sun of Wisdom and the Ocean of Knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding Light that illumineth the way. I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight."

Baha'u'llah12

A Facebook Memory:
I wrote this poem about Baha'u'llah in 2019

He is the Royal Falcon
My soul is a broken winged bird
The Glory of God heals my drooping wings

I forgot about this poem until today. I logged onto Facebook and there is was as one of my Facebook memories. This poem looks and feels finished, so I probably didn't intend to write more lines or stanzas. Sometimes I get an idea for a poem, write two or three lines, and get stuck. At other times the poem is complete in three lines.

For me,
writing spiritual poetry
requires prayer and meditation.

I read a prayer or scripture verse,
meditate on it
and write whatever words come
into my mind.

In order to edit a poem,
I have to let it lay
for a couple of days
before rereading it
and attempting
to edit
or rewrite.

Day 10 entry for "The Bard's Hall Contest" .

Footnotes
1  Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, 11. Lawḥ-i-Maqṣúd (Tablet of Maqṣúd)
2  https://www.bahai.org/r/374550898