Bicentenary Poems and Prose

Letters of the Living

Letters of the Living

“O thou who art the first to believe in Me! Verily I say, I am the Bab, the Gate of God, and thou art the Babu’l-Bab, the gate of that Gate. Eighteen souls must, in the beginning, spontaneously and of their own accord, accept Me and recognise the truth of My Revelation.”

The Bab1

Each
of the eighteen,
freed themselves
of preconceived ideas
and dogma.

The left their homes,
and searched until
they found
their hearts' desire,
the Bab--
the Gate of God.

Seventeen men
and one woman
became the first
eighteen ddisciples2--
the Living Letters--
of the Bab.

Poet's Note: ▼

This is poem 17 in the 200 I'm writing for the Bicentenary of the Bab.

Footnotes
1  The Bab's words to Mulla Husayn, the first of the Letters of the Living.
2  https://www.bahaiblog.net/2019/04/who-were-the-letters-of-the-living/#more-41650...