Joining International Ridvan Celebrations

It was so delightful to be part of the You Tube Ridvan is Everywhere Celebrations online.  And a great honour to be the epigrammatic beginning to day 7 with a brand new never before shared poem.  This poem is now being included in the next issue of Tokens.

“The “Is Everywhere” Collective, which brought us this wonderful online Naw-Ruz celebration, is celebrating the Festival of Ridvan! They are excited to provide family-friendly programming for all 12 days of Ridvan and this video features their program celebrating the 7th day of Ridvan.

The Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Los Angeles (USA) is sponsoring special program for the 1st, 9th and 12th days of Ridvan but every day in between features videos sharing poetry, storytelling, music, art, dancing, cooking, and crafting—all by friends from across the world! 

You’ll find the playlist for Ridvan Is Everywhere here on YouTube. You can also subscribe to their YouTube channel for updates.”

(Cited from Baha’i Blog)

Coil of Light

June Perkins ©

A coil of light/ patterns broken and remade/in the path to certitude
-Poem by June  

“None have I sought nor any will I seek save Thee; no path have I trodden nor any will I tread but the path of Thy love. In the darksome night of despair, my eye turneth expectant and full of hope to the morn of Thy boundless favor…”
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Baha’i Prayers

 

For More Nineteen Months Inspirations  NINETEEN MONTHS

 

Special Days

“Riḍván is a twelve-day festival in the Bahá’í Faith, commemorating Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration that he was a Manifestation of God.

In the Bahá’í Calendar, it begins at sunset on the 13th of Jalál, which translates to the 20th or 21st of April, depending on the date of the March equinox.”

Must be time to work on some Ridvan poems.

 

Dust

Creative Commons Flickr – Anna From Dresden

“We cherish the hope that through the loving-kindness of the All-Wise, the All-Knowing, obscuring dust may be dispelled and the power of perception enhanced, that the people may discover the purpose for which they have been called into being.” Tablets of Baha’u’llah, Ṭarázát (Ornaments)

Dust
obscuring
covering
settling
coating the everyday of the soul in
a thickening mantle of swirling
loss, regret, anxiety, confusion

Questions

Surround
impound
confound
and then

Astound

Divine breeze
released by spiritual words
chanted, sung or said into
Air
becoming light through melody
and memory
beyond dust

Peeling away veils

Visible for a moment
the sense of the soul’s shape
free falling
into
faith, connected, certitude
unfurling
feathered tips of wings

Then air filter light warning
the arrival of
more dust . . .

(c) June Perkins

Point by Point

Flight hands – by June Perkins

If I met you face to face, I
would retrace—erase!—my heartbreak,
pain by pain,
ache by ache,
word by word,
point by point.

In search of you—just your face!—I
roam through the streets lost in disgrace,
house to house,
lane to lane,
place to place,
door to door.

My heart hopeless—broken,crushed!—I
heard it pound, till blood gushed from me,
fountain by fountain,
stream by stream,
river by river,
sea by sea.

Golden Water – June Perkins

The garden of your lips—your cheeks!—
your perfumed hair, I wonder there,
bloom to bloom,
rose to rose,
petal to petal,
scent to scent.

Tropical Rose – June Perkins

Your eyebrow—your eye!—and the mole
on your face, somehow they tie me,
trait to trait,
kindness to kindness,
passion to passion,
love to love.

While I grieve, with love—your love!—I
will reweave the fabric of my soul,
stitch by stitch,
thread by thread,
warp by warp,
woof by woof.

Frangipani Girl – June Perkins

Last, I—Tahirih—searched my heart, I
looked line by line. What did I find?

You and you,
you and you,
you and you.

By Tahirih

To find more of the beautiful poetry of Tahirih and read about her life, CLICK HERE.

There are many readings  at the above site which has been put together by Hussein Ahdieh & Hillary Chapman who are writing a book about her.  Tahirih a 19th Century woman still inspires many today with her life, faith, story and poetry.

Images above, (c) June Perkins