Pop princess Sirusho - Armenian Reporter

poetry matters by
Poetry as prayer and
prayer as poetry
Lory Bedikian
Over a month ago I was searching
for poems that had to do with
thankfulness or gratitude. After
not finding many written by Armenian
poets, I did find one by
Lola Koundakjian. Another poem
did come my way but, like all good
things, just a bit late for the theme
of “Thanksgiving.”
The poet Jacques Hagopian
– born in Jerusalem, 1917, and now
residing in Pasadena, California
– has written a poem of “Thankfulness.”
While Koundakjian’s poem
delved more into a list of pleasures
of this earth and thankfulness to
those she loves (not forgetting the
“spirits”), Hagopian’s poem focuses
on “Thankfulness” to God.
Hagopian’s poem reminded me
of a particular situation while
receiving a Master of Fine Arts
in Poetry, where I was “encouraged”
to take a reference to God
out of one of my poems. Strange,
I thought. Poems insulting to
other religions or cultures were
not acceptable and rare to come
by at that level of education.
And this was nothing of the sort,
so I could not understand why I
was being told to do this. But investigating
that professor’s mo­
Lory Bedikian received her MFA in Poetry
from the University of Oregon. Her col-
lection of poetry has been selected as a
finalist in both the Crab Orchard Series
in Poetry Open Competition and the
Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book
Award Competition.
tives or the current “trends” in
the poetry world would require
writing a book on the topic. All I
knew was as long as a poem does
not purposely insult another religion
or culture, etc., but takes
joy in its own spiritual quest, I
couldn’t see what the problem
could be.
Most Armenian poets and writers
over the centuries have written
of God, religious themes and spirituality
in their works. Being the
first nation to accept Christianity,
it would almost be impossible not
to find praises and prayers within
the writings of many Armenians
everywhere. From early Christian
poetry or the poem/prayers of
Krikor Naregatzi to contemporary
times (the poets too numerous to
name) praises to God or prayers of
desperation have been recurring
themes of Armenian bards.
Of course, this is not unique to
Armenians alone. An unending
list exists of poets throughout
time and throughout the world
who have written of their respective
faiths. In my own schooling,
two poets come to mind as having
been entirely devoted to religion
in their verse: George Herbert
and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Herbert, the Anglican priest and
poet, wrote of “The Holy Communion”
or “The Twenty­third
Psalm” as well as other biblical,
spiritual themes in his short life.
Hopkins, with his riveting textures
of sound, wrote of “God’s
Grandeur” or “The Windover: To
Christ our Lord” during his life
as a Jesuit priest. What most of
Jacques Hagopian.
these poets also have in common,
alongside these themes of faith,
is their gravitation toward nature
as a place of inspiration or meditation.
Hagopian – the author of fifteen
books of poetry – writes mainly
of religion and faith with poems
such as “Let the Bible Stay Open,”
or “Your Blood, Jesus.” And like
many other poets of this spiritual
realm, he too turns to nature for
its symbols and metaphors. And
within his career he has also produced
nationalistic verse such as
“In Praise of the Braves of Vartan”
or “We Exist and Are Here
to Stay.”
A student of Daniel Varoujan,
Missak Medzarentz and Vahan
Tekeyan, Hagopian received the
C22 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture 12/29/2007