Don't Muzzle the Ghazal

Poets Online — Ghazal Archive

Among other topics related to ghazals and to poetry more generally, I will comment on relevant Web sites. The first of these is the ghazal archive of Poetry Online.

The first thing you'll notice about the Poets Online Ghazal Archive is the brown text on a white background. On my Macbook, at least, this color combination makes reading a little difficult. But only a little.

The archive begins with a paragraph defining/describing ghazals. Essentially, this paragraph defines the Persian ghazal and repeats the usual misinformation that the ghazal began in Persian, when it began in Arabic, as David Jalajel shows.The author couldn't have known about the Arabic ghazal, however, since it has been difficult for us monoglot English speakers to get detailed information about the ghazal. The opening paragraph also provides some brief information on Adrienne Rich and ghazals. A second, brief paragraph provides links to some other sources — actually, books for sale on Amazon.

The ghazals that follow use various forms: some radif, some qafiya and radif, one rhyming couplets, and a couple no rhyme (what can be called "free ghazals"). I'm going to quote a few shers here, but you really should visit the archive and read all the ghazals in their entirety. It will be worth your while.

from "Ghazal"
by Laura Shovan

Late summer an unexpected crop:  beans veiled by hand-shaped leaves.
I lift one veil: green leaves, green vine, the bean a hidden lover.

The imagery in the sher above is especially rich. Read the whole ghazal and see how she carries it through.

from "Parent Versus Child Ghazal"
by Catherine M. LeGault

We drink and smoke away our leisure-time as couch-
potatoes; and we wonder why our children slouch.

The enjambment between lines works very well and recalls what David Jalajel says about enjambment in the Arabic ghazal; this would be enjambment between the first and second hemistiches.

from "Ghazal at the Equinox"
by Lianna Wright

At the waterline, the taste of salt, sound of water,
feel of cold autumn, the sight of my daughter.

The shortening daylight makes me think
that the plant's turning sunward is even sadder.

The rhymes — qafiya — work nicely here. Perhaps it is "microrhyme" on "-er."

I hope posts like this one will extend the conversation on the ghazal in English and its possible forms.

Aha! Poetry . . .

Here's a brief pointer to a large site with many rewarding items. It is AHA! Poetry, home to many varied types of poetry, most of them of Japanese origin but also including sijo (Korean) and ghazals. I owe my first acquaintance with ghazals to the journal Lynx, in its earlier print incarnation. Now, Lynx is online, published three times a year, and hospitable to a variety of poetic forms, comments, and discussion.

I'm certain if you visit the AHA! site, you will be challenged, provoked, and enriched. Jane and Werner Reichhold have labored on it for a number of years.

Another labor that the Reichhold's have taken up is the AHApoetry Forums. Like their other site, the forums focus on Asian forms but explore others, including the ghazal and the cinquain. You must be registered to participate in the forums. I moderate the ghazal forum, although I've been more absent than not for several months.

Click and say "AHA!"

Contemporary Ghazals

I know of only one hard copy journal in English devoted to the ghazal. It is Contemporary Ghazals , edited and published by R. W. Watkins. As of this post Watkins has published two issues, No. 1, Spring 2003. and No. 2, Winter Spring 2004. He is preparing issues 3 and 4, however, for publication in the near future. Little magazines have very unstable and unpredictable lives, dependent as they are on the resources, — financial and other — of their editors.

Contemporary Ghazals has an ISSN: 1703 082X. You may contact Watkins at 

    Box 111
    Moreton's Harbour, NL
    A0G 3H0
    Canada

You may also email Rob, or visit his MySpace profile.

The masthead lists the subscription price as $15 for 3 issues. Canadian or US dollars  that's a good deal.

This entry is not a full review of the issues I have, but I do want to give an idea of the content and feel of the mag. Contemporary Ghazals is 8.5 x 11 in  in black and white  with the cover of issue 2 being black and silver. It has what I fondly think of as the funky feel of little poetry magazines. Visually  it is very accessible: the page size is excellent for displaying the ghazals.

The prose contained expresses Watkins very strong support of the "Persian ghazal"  as advocated by Agha Shahid Ali. Issue 2 has an essay by Dr. Iftikhar Husain Rizvi  of India, a widely published poet and author of Urdu ghazals. (I hope to pursue the various types of ghazal soon in another post.) Dr. Rizvi's article will be part of what I discuss.

The ghazals in these first two issues all have the qafiyah (monorhyme) and some have radif (refrain) as well. "Daybreak " by Bill West, issue 2  p. 3, uses the radif "day" and rhymes the first line of each couplet with it. Watkins' "Ghazal for Shahid " in the same issue, p. 6, uses only a qafiyah, a monorhyme on -ition. In issue 1, p. 12,  Bill West's "In a Turkish Garden" uses only qafiyah.

So as to make at least some comment on content, I will point out that  Denver Butson's "Four Drowning Ghazals,"  issue 1, pp. 16 - 17, makes effective use of "deep image" poetics. Here's the makhta from the fourth ghazal:

she said, Denver let's suck wine from these stones
let's fashion wings and fly on their coffins

Other poets in these issues include Marcyn Del Clements, Daniel Hales, Barbara Little, James W. McMillan, and Teresa M. Pfeifer.

I recommend that you have a look at what R. W. Watkins is doing with  Contemporary Ghazals.