Poetry and Self-Transformation
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Roger White, Poetry and Self-Transformation, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1989, bahai-library.com.
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Poetry and Self-Transformation*

by Roger White

Y NON-BAHA'i FRIENDS who are poets frequently
complain that among friends and members of their
fa milies to whom they show their work they encounter in-
difference, contempt, embarassment, or sometimes hostility,
which heightens their sense of alienation and uselessness.
They are made to feel frivolous and somewhat less than
respectable. They have no experience of audience and feel
that they are writing in a void , speaking to themselves in a
vacuum , presenting their private view of the world with no
confidence that anyone else might see the world as they do .
Poetry is no longer very accessible to the average reader;
it is rare to find families and groups of friends gathering
together to read poetry; it is increasingly seen as a special-
ized and elitist interest divorced from real life, and few con-
sider it a source of pleasure and insight. Poetry is still written
and read, of course, but it has taken refuge in universities,
creative writing workshops, and obscure coffeehouses. Sel-
dom is it recogoized as a vital means of communicating in-
formation of a kind that is found only in poems-bulletins

" Reprinled from The ]o"mal 0/ BaM '( Stlldies, vol. I. no. 2 (1988) pp.
6 1- 69. Copyright © 1988 Associalion for Bahli'; Studies.

2     Roger While

from the unconscious, " those sly reports on private ex-
perience, voices of the inner self . . . .. as Louise Bernikow
has remarked .'
Poets are in part to blame for the diminished regard in
which poetry is held that results in society's impoverishment
and deprives the poet of an audience. Without a common
world perspective, poets are forced to delve in to their own
psyches with the result that much modern poetry is des-
pairing or seemingly deliberately difficult-one might say           II
written in a private code. Many modern poets who write con-
fessional verse invite us channlessly to follow them not only
into the bedroom but also the bathroom, and might dismiss
our reluctance to do so as squeamishness, not noticing our
yawns. Poetry that celebrates natural speech and activity can
make unnatural demands on our sympathy and psychic
fastid iousness. In an age of instant gratification a consumer
society seeks consumer-oriented entertainments; we have
perhaps deserved the disposable poems and novels we are
given in such abundance, thirst as we might for literature that
affirms life and identity, and reinforces our human ity in its
struggle to resist the assault of all that is mechanistic and ro-
botic. It remains the task of poetry to translate into words,
with intensity and economy, the inexpressible with an im-
mediacy that is not achieved in other art fo rms. T he poet
must not just describe the loaf but provide readers with the
experience of eating it; the poet places the bread on the
tongue. When the poet fails in this duty, readers will turn to
films and novels for the kind of information about life that it
is the poet's responsibility and privilege to provide.
Poets learn to live with the disquieting knowledge that
more people aspire to write poetry than read it, and that more
read it than buy it. This situation, it might be supposed , will
gradually change in a Baha'i society whose members are
trained not to confuse who they are with what they do; who
accept the necessity of inhabiting a social persona without
Poetry and Self- Trans/ormation       3
having it overshadow the soul within that stands naked be-
fore its Creator; and whose interior lives are privately called
into account each day, not morbidly, but in a spirit of crea-
tive self-interest that fosters growth towards fuller human de-
velopment _If the best poets are indeed, as has been said of
them, the antennae of civilization, we might do well to con-
sult them_ Their wisdom, Inder Nath Kher insists, "cannot
be translated into discursive prose_ "2 One of the highest
services they perform is to reacquaint us with our true feel-
ings which we put away in our need to manipulate our work-
aday world_ But if we are correct in respecting poets as
servants, we err in demanding that they be slaves to or
propagandists of our view of reality_ Very fine poetry has
been created by poets writing both within and without a re-
ligious framework_ It is chastening for the Baha'i poet rising
rapturously from devotions, and bent on "committing liter-
ature" (I accept blame for the phrase) by enshrining pious
thoughts in poems, to recall T.S. Eliot's admonition that peo-
ple who write devotional verse are usually writing as they
want to feel, rather than as they do feel.
Many serious poets and other artists fee l that they are at
war ,vith the age_ Through this estrangement, both the poet
and potential readers are the losers. Most of us have forgot-
ten our discovery of poetry as children through nursery
rhymes when we were fascinated to learn that words dance
and resonate and have the capacity to provide the epiphanic
moment, to transport, to express something we didn't know
how to say, to reveal something we didn't know we knew. If
the writer has done a valid job, the act of writing a poem has
changed the writer, and we in reading it are put in touch with
a power that transforms us- if only by reminding us that
transfor mation is possible. T his is what we look for in art.
Cyril Connolly would have it that, "The true function of a
writer is to produce a masterpiece ... no other task is of any
consequence . . . writers engaged in any literary task which
4     Roger While

is not an assault on perfection . . . might as well be peeling
potatoes. "3
Carol Stemhell, writing in the New York Times, relates how
her fri end , Michael, aged two, tried to climb inside a book.
"Unwilling to believe that so wonderful a world [as described
in the story he had heard read to him) was unreachable, he
simply opened the tale to his favorite page, carefully ar ranged
his choice on the floor and stepped in . He tried again and
again, certain he would soon get it right , and each time he
was left standing out in the cold he cried in bewilderment ."
Few of us are as innocent as Michael: we take revenge on the
authors by refusing to read them , stud y them with calcula·
tion in order to expose their tricks, or withdraw from mag ic
trnasport to take refuge in reading what we fondly believe
are facts, revered because so manipulable. Most newspapers,
how-to manuals, and interoffice memos have the virtue of be·
ing written in mind-numbing, heavisome pro e . They have
designs on our opinions and attitudes, and sometimes on our
purses and our votes, but they are not usually concerned with
our interior selves on any profound level. ewspa pers and
pe riodicals are adored by politicians. Emily Dickinson's
father, who was a politician, displayed a misplaced kindness
in indulgently allowing her to read the local newspaper, while
urging her not to read books-especially the poetry she
loved-lest they "jostle" her mind. Dickinson herself wa ,of
course, a great poet although her father appears to have suc·
cessfull y avoided recognizing this . " Everybody must have
wished at some time that poetry were written by nice ordi·
nary people instead of poets-and, in a better world, it may
be," as Randall Jarrell ruefully observes.
But the cockroaches of poetry lurk beneath the floorboard
of even the loftiest mansions of the rational mind. It fell to
my lot, as Associate Editor of Hansard, the record of the de·
bates of the Canadian Parliament, to ed it the following sen-
tences, given here in the pristine form in which they fell from
the honora ble orators' lips:
Poetry and Self- Transfonnation        5

Hon. Member for Grey North: Yes, Mr. Speaker, pessi-
mism is the scarecrow that fear erects in the watermelon
patch of the future to frighten away the timid souls so the
feast may be richer for the few who are not afraid.
Hon. Member for Niagara Falls: I have thrown the Min-
ister an orchid, and if you think I am throwing him a bean-
ball at any time, merely point it out to me, and J will try
to get the engine back on the track.
HOll. Member for Halifax: [In Divorce Bill Committee] It
is extremely difficult to track down adultery and you seize
upon it if you are lucky enough to find it.
Hon. Member for Timiskaming: Gossip sometimes cre-
ates a condition, a condition that would mean a man's rein-
carnation [sic] in prison. Parolees are not supposed to drink,
go into public houses or associate with women of easy
virtues-there are a number of conditions they are asked
to observe that are not necessarily conducive to rehabili-
tation.
HOll. Member for Cartier: It is possible by law to say that
only those who are born are qualified to serve in Her
Majesty's Forces.
An Hon. Member for a Maritime Constituency: It is my
privilege to represent fi shermen, those brave men who go
down to the sea in ships and do their business in great
waters.

If a capacity to jostle the mind were a characteristic exclu-
sive to poetry, these utterances might be considered poetry
of the highest order.
Baha'IS who write poetry- indeed any Baha'I artists-are
able to look forward to a different reception from that which
my friends describe , and this will be increasingly true as the
Baha'I community expands and matures . Not only do Baha',
6     Roger While

poets have a common world view shared with a community
towards whose members they have a family feeling, but they
are also aware of the high regard in which their craft has been
held since the beginning of the Revelation . Without in any
way confusing the Creative Word with poetry-one does not
pun in say ing they are a "kingdom" apart- Baha'i poets
might rejoice to remember that Nabil records the Bab as say-
ing that exalted or inspired poetry is the result of "the im-
mediate influence of the Holy Spirit," and the Bab was heard
to quote the tradition " Treasures lie hidden beneath the
throne of God; the key to those treasures is the tongue of
poets ... • Writers of verse also know that many of the early
Babis were poets, including Jahirih -at least a stanza from
one of whose odes we have in the Guardian's own transla-
tionS They also know that Baha'u'thih Himself wrote poetry;
that, indeed, ten years before revealing his station to his fol-
lowers, He alluded to it in Odes·
'Abdu'l-Baha, too, wrote poetry of a most exalted and devo-
tional nature which, admire it though we may, we should
resist imitating, just as we should resist writing poems in the
style of the Revealed Word, which does not need our at-
tempted compliment.
I am convinced there exists in the Sacred Writings and in
the recorded talks of 'Abdu 'l-Baha a fou ndation upon which
will be built a greater system of aesthetics for all the arts than
the world has yet known, and that time and the patient
researches of scholars and the creative efforts of artists will
bring it to light. At this early stage in the development of the
Baha'i world community, one can only speculate that before
Baha'i artists can contribute significant advances they must
dedicate themselves to the restoration and preservation of the
ideals of beauty and perfection and order . In describing the
high calling of the artist, David Bosworth hin ts at the inten-
sity of the creative engagement: " T o bear witness, to be an
author, to make art, is a profound act; there is no work more
serious or demanding or fina lly audacious. " 7 Baha'is who
Poetry and Self- Trans/ormation        7

write should not be surprised to discover that in addition to
audacity the task confronting them may require heroism-
Baha'is in almost everything they do are pioneering in
one form or another. Kathleen Raine, the British poet and
critic, laments:

I have found myself wondering why the present age
seems positively to shrink from beauty, to prefer the ugly,
to feel safer, more at home with it; and I have come to real-
ize that there is a reproach in the beautiful and the perfect;
it passes its continual silent judgement and it requires
perhaps a kind of courage to love what is perfect, since to
do so is an implicit confession of our own imperfection. Can
it be that the prevalence of the low and the sordid in con-
temporary writing is a kind of easy way, a form of sloth ,
an avoidance of that reproach which would call us, silently,
to [aspire to] a self-perfection it would cost us too much to
undertake? And yet it is in order to work upon us that
transformation ... that works which embody the beauti-
ful alone exist. That is their function . .. 8

The situation obtaining in t he arts is too well known to re-
quire comm ent. The Universal House of Justice on 10 Febru-
ary 1980, in a general letter to Iranian Baha'is "resident in
other countries throughout the world," did not labor the
point. After drawing attention to 'Abdu'I-Baha's reference to
deepening chaos and confusion, the House of Justice stated:
"Even music, art and literature, which are to represent and
inspire the noblest sentiments and highest aspirations and
should be a source of comfort and tranquillity for troubled
souls . . . are now the mirrors of the soiled hearts of this con-
fused, unprincipled, and disordered age."
Unquestionably, Baha'i writers have their work cut out for
them. Alex Aronson, a respected Shakespearian scholar, ob-
serving from outside the Baha'i community, has been quick
to discern that Baha'i authors may playa role in addressing
8     Roger While

themselves to "dimensions of living reality . . . long ago con-
signed to oblivion" under the weight of "the triviality of our
everyday experience" and in restoring the "grammar of
belief. ".
Language is the meduim of the poet. One has only to turn
to the words of 'Abdu'I-Baha to discover its purpose:
" ... the function of language is to portray the mysteries and
secrets of human hearts. The heart is like a box, and lan-
guage is the key.'" And since, in The Hiddell Words, Ba-
ha'u'llah tells us, "Thy heart is My home" (No. 59, Arabic),
and that "A ll that is in heaven and earth I have ordained for
thee, except the human heart, which I have made the iUlbitation
of My beauly and glory . . . " (No. 27, Persian), Baha 'i poets
will not lack for subject matter and will be challenged to ex-
cellence of diction. or are they restricted to the solemn and
devotational, for the heart is the seat also of joy and laugh-
ter and passion. Baha'i poets might well write of "the inti-
mate presence of the divine in the lives of men"l. but will not
confine their appreciation to poetry of that stamp, for they
will probably recognize with Louis Mac eice, who felt " the
drunkenness of things being various," that the world is "in-
corrigibly plural" and "suddener than we fancy it."" Humil-
ity will inform Baha'f artists that they do not possess truth,
though they may feel they have glimpsed its wellspring and
will remain receptive to the poetry of quest. An emergent
Baha'i community, grown secure, will not, dare I guess, con-
tent itseU with didactic and exhortative verse but will espouse
poetry that celebrates an improved quality of life and will
explore its ceremonial and recreational uses, its capacity to
delight, inform, and inspire. Yeats pleaded for "the old pas-
sion felt as new" and declared heroic and religious themes,
passed down from age to age, modified by individual talent,
to be the unchanging substance of sublime poetry. Louise
Bogan noted sadly that the generation of rising young poets
in America whose work she reviewed wrote unambitious
poems and were " positively terrified" of the sublime.
Poetry and Self- Transformation         9

"It is certain that with the spread of the spirit of Baha'u'llah
a new era will dawn in art and literature," Shoghi Effendi's
secretary wrote on his behalf to a Baha'i who had sent him
a poem. "Whereas before the foml was perfect but the spirit
was lacking, now there will be a glorious spirit embodied in
a form immeasurably improved by the quickened genius of
the world . "12
It remains for the poets and other artists of today and
tomorrow to give expression to that spirit. The distinguished
black poet, Robert Hayden, who was a Baha'i, writing in
World Order a publication he served as poetry editor, said of
this process: " The making of a poem, like all other creative
endeavors, is in the Baha'i view a spiritual act, a form of wor-
ship," and reminded us of 'Abdu'l-Bah<i's words that, "If a
man engages with all his power in the acquisition of a science
or in the perfection of an art, it is as if he has been worship-
ping God .... What bounty greater than this that science
should be considered as an act of worship and art as service
to the Kingdom of God?" 13 Would that not be, human society
so ordered as to reflect divine ideals and virtues?
Hayden continued:

It seems especially significant that 'Abdu'l-Baha makes no
distinction between "secular" and "religious" art. And we
may infer from this that poetry, for example, need not be
limited to religious themes (in the usual sense of the term)
in order to serve "the Kingdom of God." 'Abdu'l-Baha sees
the creative act as essentially a religious act. The serious
artist is involved in a spiritual enterprise. The poet's efforts
to master form and technique are in themselves a kind of
prayer.... If there exists a "poetry of despair" and rejec-
tion, there is also a poetry that affirms the humane and
spiritual. 14

It could also be pointed out that ' Abdu'l-Baha makes no dis-
tinction between women and men writers and artists, nor
ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980)
a distinguished Baha'i poet.
Poetry alld &1/- Trans/onltation       11

does he make any other invidious distinctions. Baha'f writers
should have no need to write out of anger and frustration oc-
casioned by discrimination against them on the grounds of
race or sex; they should have no need to engage in special
pleading. The Baha'f woman poet will not find it necessary
to adopt the humiliating and dissembling device of append-
ing to her work a self-deprecating note like that which ap-
peared in the first volume of poetry published by an
Englishwoman, Katherine Philips (1631-1664), a tactic em-
ployed in various guises by women writers well into the
nineteenth century because of their vulnerability in a literary
world dominated by men:

I am so far from expecting applause for any thi ng I scrib-
ble that I can hardly expect pardon; and sometimes I think
that employment so far above my reach and unfit for my
sex that I am going to resolve against itfor ever. .. . The
truth is I have an incorrigible inclination to that folly of
rhyming and intending the effects of that humour only for
my own amusement in a retired life, I did not so much
resist it as a wiser woman would have done. IS

The male writer will not be disconcerted or threatened by
the news that the earliest poet whose work survives is the
Sumerian moon priestess, Enheduanna, born circa 2300 BC,
of whom a detailed likeness has come down to us on a stone
disc. T o mention that she was the daughter of a king would
merely serve to underline the pernicious tradition of defin-
ing women and their achievements as minor subordinate stars
in relation to the galaxy of great male planets. And the male
writer might respectfully regard, as an early ancestor-in-craft,
Anne Brad treet (1612?-1672), the first published poet of the
New World.
We should not doubt that the world needs and will accept
what we fashion with our best effort. Kathleen Raine states
it well:
12        Roger White

... people CI ave for the heroic and the beautiful; and when
they cease to do so ... can our civilization long survive?
The ugly and the vulgar enable us not to feel, not to think,
not to live; they save us from the anguish of living. Let us
admit that our society as a whole has chosen death- death
in small, painless doses. Fortunes are made by selling it. 16

She points to the almost universally forgotten use of poetry
and the other arts to hold up to us a mirror of our own spiri-
tual and human potential , to strengthen our will to aspire and
to transform our vision of ourselves. The true work of art,
Rilke said, addresses humanity saying: You must change
your life.
But note that he says you must change it. That is a great
truth which many of us spend our lives evading. Transfonna-
tion, we vainly hope, will come from an outside agent- the
princess will kiss the frog- and it will be painless. But Rilke
has the support of Baha'u'llah in saying that we must trans-
form ourselves. He makes it clear that growth and change,
res~ ue from stasis, are achieved at a cost. In one of his odes
written in Sulaym<iniyyih, Baha'u'll<ih declares:

If thine aim be to cherish thy life,
approach not our court;
but if sacrifice be thy hearl's desire,
come and let others come with thee.
For such is the way of Faith,
if in thy hearl thou seekest reunion with BaM;
shouldst tlwu refuse to tread this path,
why trouble us? Begone!17

And again, in the afterword to the Hidden Words:

I bear witness, 0 friends! that the favor is complete. the
argument fulfilled. the proof manifest and the evidence estab·
Poetry and Self-Trans/omzation          13

Ii Iwd_1.21 il now b~ s~n what your endeavors ill the path oj
detachment will reveal.

Because I believe in the truth of the statement that change
must be self-initiated, I have made it the theme of a poem in
which I hope I have made a legitimate use of irony in depict-
ing rescue as I think many of us would have it be: effortless,
dramatic, and imposed by a congenially romantic agent who
yet tells us, had we ears to hear, that transfOl mation and tran-
scendence must passionately engage our volition:

RESCUE
It cannot continue like this.
Surely the stranger will come at midnight
burst into the room on quick light feet
shake spring rain spangles from his ripe-wheat hair
the eyes blue opals iridescent with decision
to draw you from your reading chair
to say-the words hard-edged, distinct as
gems on velvet, his voice ascending in excitement-
You musl change all 0/ this!
Or next Thursday come
pensively at twilight
to sit coiled in silence on the low divan
then rise with lithe grace
dark locks luxuriant above the flawless brow
grave eyes mushy with thought
to say in slurred excruciating tenderness-
the tone a dreamer 's-
Come away, this will not do!
Or come the Morn of Popinjay
stride through the sunlit garden
•

14       Roger White

appear suddenly, filling the doorway,
a lean column , urgent and ebony-
his strong white teeth a keyboard of annunciation-
to clasp your wrist, to say-the voice
a snapping twig-Look, Y0lt must escape!
his grasp resolute, compelling,
the bronzy knuckles deceptively shell-delicate
come to say-the voice precise,
huskily constricted- This is the time for risks!
to say, Listen, there is 110 jonlluia!
to say, There is a belter way!
to say, It cannot continue like this!
~
~
~
'-
l!
,ll

ROGER WHITE (center)
Canadian-born author and poet, with Anne Gordon Atkinson (left) and Deborah
Chicurel Conow (right) who frequently give dramatic readings of his poetry,
-- Poetry and Self-Transformation (Used by permission of the curator)