I Blog Poetry and Prose

On June 18, 1983, 36 years ago today, ten women were hanged in Shiraz, Iran, because they were Baha'is. Ranging in age from 17 to 57, they were each ask to recant their faith before the executioner put the noose around their necks. Each one refused to deny their faith, and each was hanged--one at a time while the others watched. With radiant acquiesce, they accepted their fate knowing that their souls would ascend into the Abha Paradise to be with Baha'u'llah, the Glory of God.

This morning started off good. I read the second article in Steve McLean's series The Dawn of a New Faith  . The title of the second installment is The Dawn of a New Faith—and the Persecution that Followed  . I discovered the theme for poem 22 of the 200 I'm writing to celebrate the Bicentenary of the Birth of the Bab in quote from Selections from the Writings of the Bab.

It's Saturday morning, the temperature is 93 degrees and sunny. I turned on the air conditioner, so that I could get a little bit of cool air. Fortunately, the air conditioner doesn't run all the time. It has a thermostat, so it reaches a specific temperature and shuts off until the thermostat activates it again. I'm attempting to get assistance with the power bill, but I won't know about that until after June 24. I need to call both the power company and my internet provider Monday or Tuesday to see if I can make arrangement to pay the bills that are due.

It's Friday, June 14, I think I've made the ten required blog entries for the "The Bard's Hall Contest"  blog contest. However, just to make sure I'll do another entry. About the only thing I want to do right now is finish my cheese and biscuit from my breakfast, drink a little more coffee, and just relax without worrying about anything. Therefore, I'm going to read the two articles by David Langness in in the series The Existence of the Human Soul  , complete this entry, and move on from there.

It's Thursday afternoon, I accomplished a great deal this morning. None of what I accomplished had anything to do with writing or reviewing. I did surveys on Survey Junkie, converted ove 1,100 points to cash, and transferred that to my checking account. According to the message, it will take about five days to hit my checking account. Which may or may not be too late to prevent an overdraft; however at this point I'm not sure whether I care or not. At this point I'm not sure if I care or not. I will have $10.00 hitting my checking account on Friday (I hope), and I have some in savings I might be able to transfer. I've placed the situation in God's hands, so now all I have to do is set back and accept the inevitable, whatever that is.

It's Wednesday, the writing.com weekly newsletters have arrived in our e-mail inboxes. So far, I have managed to read one of the newsletters. I read Kit 's newsletter "Spiritual Newsletter (June 12, 2019)"  about Spiritual Struggles, and submitted a comment. The theme of this week's newsletter is questions, which is one of my favorite subjects. I've always had a lot of questions about everything.

It's Motivational Monday and I'm not motivated to writing this afternoon. I was motivated this morning, unfortunately morning was filled with stuff that absolutely had to be accomplished today. Anymore, I prefer to write of a morning, but it wasn't always this way. At one time I wrote best at night, and at another in the afternoon. Now I prefer morning, although sometimes I write at night. At night, I make notes in my smartphone's note pad about poems I'm working on or planning to write.

It's Sunday, and I've discovered another series of article on BahaiTeaching.org   to add to my article reading list. This series is The Dawn of a New Faith  , and the first article is The Bab: The Dawn and Herald of the Baha’i Era   by Steve McLean. This first article, discusses Siyyid Ali-Muhammad, The Bab, a descendant of Muhammad through His grandson Husayn Ali. The death of both Husayn Ali and The Bab are described. Mr. McLean also discusses the relationship between Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i Faith, and The Bab, the forerunner of Baha'u'llah.

In "Writing in Snow"  " Poem, Gratitude List, Aricle Series to Read" , I listed four article series, on BahaiTeachings.crg  , that I started and want to finish. Last night, before going to sleep, I went to the beginning of the series Indigenous Messengers of God  , and read the first two articles. I read Native American Messengers of God   and Quetzalcoatl, the “Plumed Serpent”   both by Christopher Buck. Today I read article 41 Why Baha’is Respect Indigenous Sacred Traditions   by Christopher Buck and Kevin Locke. It's possible that I should have begun with the first article and read them in the order they were written. However, that isn't the way I beg reading them, so I will continue reading them in this way.

It's Friday. It's a beautiful day in Las Vegas. It's my day off from doing surveys, so I decided to attempt to respond to the blog prompts for "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  and "Blogging Circle of Friends " . I begin composing these responses last night before going to sleep. I was able to stay awake long enough to start one poem, and read the Long Healing Prayer. I put my eye drops in my eyes, turned out the light, and attempted to fall asleep. After I turned out the light, my mind decided that I didn't need any sleep. Eventually, when my mind figured out I wasn't going to play that game, it let me go to sleep.

Today I am thankful for the article Walking a Spiritual Path on Social Media   by Moneshia zu Eltz, because it caused me to consider why I use social media. The only social media platforms I'm on are Facebook and YouTube. I'm on Facebook because most of my family and numerous Baha'is across the world use that platform. I attempt not to rant or share personal issues, unfortunately, sometime my depression overshadows my good sense. I will attempt to do better the rest of the year.

This is the first of, at least, ten entries for "The Bard's Hall Contest" . There's a good chance that I could make more then ten entries for this contest. I enjoy blogging (most of the time). Unfortunately, in May I did two or three rants, which is over my rant limit for a month. I like to hold my monthly rants to one. If I do more then one rant you know I'm under a lot of stress. Fortunately, I think the stress has passed, at least I hope so.

It's Monday, June 3, six months into 2019. When the year started out I set myself one main writing goal, which was to write 200 poems dedicated to The Bab before October 29. That is the Bicentenary Celebration of His birth. So far, I have finished 16 poems, and begun number 17. There are 148 days until we--the Baha'is across the world--celebrate His birth. I have 184 poems to finish, which means I have to finish number 17 and get going on the rest.

In December 2018, we (my roommate and I) moved into a one-bedroom apartment. I sleep in the living room in a recliner, because I'm no longer able to sleep in a bed (it doesn't matter how firm or soft the mattress), while she sleeps in the bedroom. Anyway, ever since moving into this apartment we've been confronted with one problem after another. It's gotten to the point where I'm falling or have fallen and tend to rant about my problems, which doesn't solve them.

On the first day of June,
I contemplate the fog
that conceals the next twenty-nine days
from my view.

On the last day of May
I'm tired of ranting and raving
my depression feels like caving
without companions or light:
it's like wandering in the midnight
darkness of caverns,
and I can't find an exit.