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Love for poetry

For those of you who may be interested, Rumi, the 15th century Persian Poet, is the most popular and most read poet today in the United States.  Of course the statistic that was given by BBC took me by surprise at first. But after some thought I could understand why Rumi’s poetry is recited and studied after hundreds of years.  There is no question that Rumi’s poetry is timeless and carries profound messages about spirituality and personal growth. But just from a perspective of a poet– the reader gets lost in the lush imagery and deep symbolism.
So, for the past month I have been taking an on-line poetry class with two noted scholar.  Every morning, a message pops on my computer that I have my poem for the day.  Every morning I looked forward to reading the stanza and also learning about the mystical or more spiritual translation of the poetry.  I soon found out that the best part of this on-line course was the insightful shares that the other participants posted on the website.
This inspired me to start up a poetry dialogue on my facebook page where for one month we would read and analyze the selected poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke–another talented and extraordinary poet.  Each morning, I post a quote and I look forward to reading all the comments during the day.  What makes this exercise especially fun for me is that I am constantly reading what I enjoy the most–poetry.
Speaking of the arts–I want to include a link to an article a friend of mine has written about the honoring of the celebrated Iranian journalist, artist, and producer, Parviz Nazerian.  His career has spanned three decades and what I admire most about him is his open and expanded view about women’s role in society and world religions.