PARABOLA: WORDS OF POWER v8:3 Walt Whitman, Quran, Poetry, Prayer, Literature

Parabola's Fall 1983 issue: Words of Power How can we approach what is meant by the Word? How is it related to the nature of our being? And what is its link to human speech, to the language in which we think and which surrounds us throughout our lives? "Our only word to a thing, when we desire it, is to say to it Be! and it is," we are told in the Koran. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light," we read in Genesis. And in the Vedas we find, "by that word of his, by that self, he created all this, whatever there is." Again and again the traditions speak of the Word as the primordial principle of creation. These statements are pointing the way to ultimate reality, to the source and ground of all being. They are affirmations beyond argument, beyond opinion or belief, with the character of revelation, or something given. --from the editorial Focus Cover: Ifshan, Iran Photograph by Simon Goldschmidt In this issue:"An American Primer" by Walt Whitman- In praise of the English tongue"Tongues of Fire" by L. Charbonneau-Lassay- Mortal speech and the eternal Word"What Aileth Thee?" by P. L. Travers- Heeding the call"The Words of the All-Merciful" by William Chittick- Images of the Koranic revelation"Prayers at the Broken Gate" by Lawrence Russ- A poem"Recovering a Common Language: An interview with Kathleen Raine"by Ken Krushel and Alice van Buren"The Wind of the Marigold" by Richard Lewis- The child's discovery of language"Voice Above, Voice Below" by Anne Twitty- The power of incantation"Glory" by Thomas Dooling- Consequences of the Humpty Dumpty heresyArcs: "In the Beginning...""Regression Toward the Real" by Harvey Alper- The roots of mantric efficacyTangents - Reviews"The Whole and the Flowing" by Lawrence Russ- The rebirth of modern poetry"Seeing Stories" by Paul Jordan-Smith- Report on Second Story TelevisionEpicycles - Traditional stories from around the world"A Tongue for Obatalv°" / African"Generation" / Jewish"The Protection of Dolma" / Tibetan"Simeli Mountain" / European"The Legend of Ra and Isis" / EgyptianFormat: 6.75 x 10" softcover, 128pp, illustrated.