| |
The true Persian Ghazal is quite formal and follows an explicit set of rules. However, it does not seem to have the same effect when written in English (as in Hindi) and is awkward to use. The Western impression of the Ghazal, dating back to the last century and earlier, is that Ghazals celebrate love and wine. The transplanted Englishman John Thompson adopted a version of the form that I like, while he was writing in the Tantramar Marshes near Fundy Bay in Canada. Thompson wrote that Ghazals proceed by couplets and the couplets have "no necessary, logical, progressive, narrative, thematic (or whatever) connection."
"In other words," wrote Eric Folsom, “a strong underground, so to speak, connection does and must exist, but the association is beyond words, beyond our ability to articulate insofar as the poem itself articulates.”
John Thompson wrote, “The poem has no palpable intention upon us. It breaks, has to be listened to as a song: its order is clandestine.”
Folsom says, "The trick, in my estimation, is to let each couplet stand as an object, perfected and twisted to its own individual end...and then see what calls to it. What voice in the lonely night would answer each image? What can you make from a piece of driftwood found on a deserted lake?"
Below are four "Western" Ghazals of my own composition. They follow the precendents established by Thompson, with no particular "rules" other than those loosely described above.
Ghazal #1
Tapestry of Her Love
Fabric quite unlike any other substance I have experienced
with textures to it that arouse emotional dichotomy
I’ve sensed her wariness and the unease that lurks there
Bygone pains are not, nor are anticipatory reflexes
Colors are chaotic with no harmony, but cry out for it
Odors faintly of dusky frankincense and myrrh
She loves the music and is drawn to the composer
but can she know him from his endeavors?
Slippery silkiness pervades his thoughts and libido
arousal always to the topical explorations
Pictographs and petroglyphs interject midst professions
of unrequitable though ravenously thirsted-for desires
Ghazal # 2
Dead Eye
Lusterless now and flat it twinkles no more at funny stories,
nor winks at risqué skirts, nor flows rivers of brine
Recalling moments in the limestone caverns when stallactites
dripped ominously and he wondered how would he be buried
Perched on gauntlet, talons flexing, razor beak for
pheasant under glass at Raffles with pate de fois grois
Sun dogs in the mist her breasts revealed beneath
the damp sleeping bag while mosquitoes interfered
Smell of toast burning in the oven while fish roe fried
in egg batter and sly cats begged to lick the cream
High in the treetop he swayed with the wind and believed
in pirate ships and sunken treasures and puppy love
Fetid gasps in incoherent nonsense synergistic with stark
hospice décor – what a shit box to die in!
Ghazal #3
Absolution by a Filly
Coltish legs awry on the rock with enigmatic grin
halo’d by sweet mane wrenching my insides
Desert sky beckoning to me with granite talons
scribing my destiny into the high cliffs
Our heartbeats fill my ears, my eyes invade our souls
tears rain while racked by the enormity of this bond
Totem bear for me with turquoise tummy and amulets
suspended connecting with our internalness
Overwhelming these waves of bliss knowing she exists
imagining all the excruciatingly delightful possibilities
Prom queen dress, smile to die for, beers to drown
needs repressed - living for the moment
Shower imagery, soapy hugs, sponges on glistening skin
shampooing tresses, steamed, teary kisses, absolution
Ghazal #4
Irrevocable
I lay and listened to her whistling breath
remembering why my father’d died.
Nothing ever changes; kids still chant dirges
as they throw their hopscotch chains
The grasshoppers spit chewing tobacco
when you caught them and pulled their legs off.
Dad put mud on the bee sting while dead carp
stared and stank on the Missouri’s banks.
I start violently awake with nightmares of losing
control of the car and careening off into some black maw.
Copyright 3/2001
Lyle R. Berry
All Rights Reserved
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Work
from Poetry
|
|
Welcome !
