Don't Muzzle the Ghazal

Follow Up to Format for Submitting Ghazals

When I wrote the post below about the format for submitting ghazals, I was in a cranky mood. (I'm sure you noticed that!) It is frustrating sometimes to have to clean up a file that has been formatted, to reformat so that it will display well in HTML. However, if I insisted on strict plain text for submissions, I would have fewer.

Here's a non-cranky qualification: I much prefer true plain text submissions; I will probably return submissions already marked up for HTML and submissions that are heavily formatted and ask that they be resubmitted without the formatting if I'm interested in publishing them.

Please do not be discouraged from submitting ghazals. Do so in plain text if at all possible; if it isn't, use a minimum of formatting and tell me separately how you'd like it to appear.

The Ghazal Page has grown over the last nine years; I hope to see it continue to grow and to publish good ghazals and encourage the adaptation of the ghazal as a form for poems in English.

And the Clouds & Rain Just Kept Comin' . . .

In the course of the clouds and rain radif challenge, several poets sent ghazals that got lost somehow. They were good ghazals, too. When I announced that the issue was up, I got several emails: What happened to my ghazal?

Fortunately, the poets sent the ghazals again, and they are now in the Clouds and Rain Special Issue: Ahmed Masud, Tree Riesener, R. W. Watkins, Bill Batcher, and Margaret Bell.

Another brief note: You may find The Ghazal Page not working right for awhile this evening. I'm changing it to a different host. That change should've been seamless, but I'm not familiar with the procedure. It should return to normal in a few hours. (It's 7:30 PM CDT, USA, March 14, 2008 as I write this post.)

The clouds and rain issue really is wonderful, with a wide variety of themes and styles. I'm really tickled with it and am looking forward to the results of the "moon radif challenge." There are 18 poems by 16 poets in the clouds and rain issue. Give me a real challenge and double that for the moon challenge.

Format for Submitting Ghazals

Here're a few comments on submitting poems to The Ghazal Page. If you follow these points carefully, there will be fewer problems.

• Submit ghazals in the body of a plain text email. Why? Plain text isn't formatted; if you send poems that are formatted, I have to remove all the formatting marks and add the ones I need to use.
• If you must send an attachment, save it in text-only format. Why? Same reason as first point.
• Please do not try to help by tagging your ghazal for HTML. I'm moving toward complete compliance with XHTML standards, including CSS. Inevitably, I would need to make changes. Using HTML editors will not help.
• Indicate what special formatting you want. You may enclose text that /you want to appear in italics/ in front slashes and text that *you want in bold* in asterisks. (These are ancient conventions in email.)
• I always post proof copies of an issue before publishing it. You can see what your ghazal looks like formatted. I'm willing to work with you to get it as close to the way you want it as XHTML will allow.

Please know that, if I open a submission and find it is heavily formatted (script font, colored text, and less noticeable things), I will return it.

Having said that, I look forward to an increasing flow of increasingly good ghazals.

"Clouds & Rain" Online

The clouds and rain radif challenge has reached its goal: a special issue of The Ghazal Page, presenting 13 excellent ghazals using the phrase "clouds and rain" as the radif. I'm very pleased with the results. Please have a look: I hope you'll be pleased as well.

The second radif challenge will be to use the radif "moon"; poets may add an adjective — full moon, autumn moon, hunter's moon, and so on, but the same adjective should be used consistently throughout.

The deadline is 2008 June 30. Please use "moon" in the subject line of an email submitting your ghazal(s) (up to three). Also, please send entries in the body of a plain text email, not as attachments or in formatted email.

Meanwhile, I plan to publish monthly issues; the next one will be about April 1.

Clouds & Rain in March

Two exciting items are coming up on The Ghazal Page.

The March issue should go online next weekend, perhaps Friday evening. The issue has six ghazals by three quite different poets. C W Hawes and Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal have appeared before; Bernard Gieske is new to The Ghazal Page, with a couple of very strong ghazals.

The other exciting item is the special Clouds and Rain issue. I've begun compiling it and hope to publish it within two weeks. Some of the poets are new to The Ghazal Page, and others have appeared here before.

The results of the radif challenge were very satisfying. I plan to announce another soon. Different poets using the same radif leads to some exciting contrasts. When the special issue is online, I will post a notice here.

December Update

Even though it's still November — Thanksgiving in the Ozarks, good smells from the kitchen, the grandkids' puppy playing with frozen leaves in the backyard — even though it's November for eight more days, I am thinking about, planning for, December.

In the last post, I announced the poets that will be in the December issue. Add to their number, Conrad Geller. Four poets — Bill Batcher, Conrad Geller, Steffen Horstmann, Cathryn Shea — and seven ghazals.

An while you're reading, let me remind you of the "clouds and rain" radif challenge. I do have some entries, with more promised, but suprise me, okay?

Thanksgiving morning, the household awakens to wind and snow;
My grandchildren's puppy dances with leaves in wind and snow.

An isolated ghazal couplet ("sher") is called a fard, at least regarding Ghalib's poetry. The link goes to my 2004 Ghazal Blog, where "fard" is briefly defined. (I wouldn't stand by the main proposal in that post, by the way.)

December Descending

I almost wrote "December rising," to play on a familiar phrase, but then, December doesn't rise, at least until the solstice, when Light begins to press Dark's hand back to the tabletop in their eternal arm-wrestling bout, never a conclusion until the sun goes out or the planet stops spinning.

Now that I spit that, I want to tell you that the December issue of The Ghazal Page is shaping up. It will have silk wraps, dust, bread, and teeth, all in ghazals by Bill Batcher, Steffen Horstmann, and Cathryn Shea. Bill and Steffen have appeared in TGP before; Cathy is a welcome newcomer.

My postings here have become irregular. I hope to remedy that without falling (any further!) into banality. I will put up a note about each issue as I am preparing it; perhaps even more than one note.

There's another topic on the way, as well, by the end of the week, I hope. December is imminent, but we denizens of the USA have a holiday to deal with first. Family drama at its finest, its worst, most boring, most delightful. I'm looking forward to some snow. A big woop! woop! for December and the solstice to come.