January 19, 2001

Rumi at the Top

America's best-selling poet is a 13th-century Persian mystic, who often danced while reciting to his disciples. Now he is whirling circles around Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Walt Whitman. Jalal al-Din Rumi composed more than 70,000 lines of verse about love and desire and the human condition before his death in 1273. More than 700 years later, readers can experience Rumi's unique blend of spirituality and humor in numerous translations, in concert, and on CD's. We asked a panel of