I finally wrote my ghazal!
But first I had to really study this oldest form of poetry. I’m just fascinated by the Ghazal and I have to admit, it has left me
awestruck, just totally dazzled -- incensed! What made me really understand the Ghazal was this website by
Andy Weaver, titled “The Bastard Ghazal.”
http://www.poetics.ca/poetics01/01weaver.html. Please visit this site! This man is amazing in describing ghazals! He created my breakthough in learning!
I will quote Weaver, (in just the parts of site that inspired me):
“The ghazal is an ancient Arabic style of poetry that dates from at least the 7th Century. It is written in couplet stanzas, each of which is self-contained.
No linear logic, can’t make sense of it!
People often compare the ghazal to the sonnet formally, since they’re both brief “takes” on a situation, usually love. However, the comparison is a pretty poor one, because of that fundamental aspect of the ghazal: the lack of unity. In other words, each couplet is not only self-contained grammatically; they are also self-contained in terms of ideas, imagery, allusions, etc. There can be no linear narrative or logic, no temporal progression, no contemplation of an incident in order to make sense of it. Instead, the first stanza exists on its own, perfect, complete, self-efficient, and is followed by a group of other perfect, complete, self-efficient stanzas….
Oranges and antelopes
“It is this lack of logical that usually draws readers and poets to the ghazal — there’s nothing else really like it in English language poetry. A sonnet is like a crown filled with precious jewels all set into an ornate, well wrought crown of beautiful gold. By comparison, a ghazal would be those same jewels held together by an invisible string. There’s really no comparison at all. Apples and oranges, the sonnets agree. Oranges and antelopes, the ghazals assent.”
My Ghazal -- Inspired by Bill Clinton’s Speech
After reading this, and thinking about it for a long time, I still did not have a subject for my Ghazal, especially for the perfect repetitive refrain. Then I watched the Democratic National Convention to Bill Clinton’s speech. And there, right on national television, Clinton said a ghazal! He was talking about John Kerry, and had the repetitive line… “And Kerry said, send me.” Shazam! There is my ghazal! It’s not about Kerry though. I just used those words and, as usual, went off into my own direction, not knowing what the ghazal was about until I finished, which is the way Weaver describes you should write a ghazal. So here it is!
Ghazal Roulette
by LC Jeffery
Who will we send to war? (Send me.)
The kids never thought of coffins when they cheered, “Send me.”
A young girl writes a letter after discovering lies.
Sealed, gleaming like an insect, the letter sighs, “Don’t send me.”
An old man, with nothing but old clothes and glorious past
sings a cappella for coins on the street, Sam Cooke, “Darling, you send me.”
Exasperated from the heat, the next barrel of oil awaits its fate.
Who cares now, it thinks. Save me. Steal me. Waste me. Send me.
Meteorites in training line up and take a number in space.
They study their targets. Like terrorists they chant, “Send me! Send me!”
Who will tell the mother her child is doomed with an incurable disease?
The stem cell screams, rattles the bars of its jail, and wails, “Send Me!”
I honestly don’t know the difference between deception, war and disease.
They’re all shiny roulette balls, ready. Any destination will do. Hurry. Send me!
