What Can Ancient Spiritual Poetry Teach Us about Living? | Harvard Divinity Bulletin
A working definition of sacred poetry rises directly out of this poet’s experience as a child praying in Arabic: earnest, musical language meant to thin the partition between a person and a divine. By Kaveh Akbar
Featured What Can Ancient Spiritual Poetry Teach Us about Living? Shutterstock Autumn/Winter 2022 Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Email By Kaveh Akbar In 1989 I was born in the middle of a snowstorm in Tehran; my first two languages were Farsi and English, in that order. My first full sentence was “Gimmee ob,” ob being the Farsi word for water. I have always been a bit thirsty. I have always been a bit enamored of the materiality of language, trying to snap together parts that don’t exactly click but might, if coaxed just right, like sticking a Mega Blok onto a Lego. My third lang
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