Gino's Ghazal Blog

Last Post Here Revisisted!

Hi, everyone! (Both of ya'!) I'm relocating both Gino's Ghazal Blog and Old Man Blues; Gino's Blog now uses WordPress and is hosted on The Ghazal Page. I've imported the posts and (I think) comments from here. The posts from Old Man Blues are included. The tags and keywords got scrambled in the transition, so if you're looking for a specific name or phrase, please use the search function on the new blog.

I've also added a subdomain to The Ghazal Page,with information and attitude about Gene Doty. To begin with, it has some material from my university page, but I'll add new stuff as it goes along.

Comments, suggestions, ideas, etc are always welcome.

Correction

In yesterday's post, on The Oxford India Ghalib, I recommended South Asia Books. I still recommend them, but I forgot to qualify the recommendation. I meant to recommend them to people in the US; folks elsewhere in the world surely have other sources better fit to their location and needs.

It's very easy to fall into assuming that one's own context is the context. Not true, obviously not true. I know that I have readers from around the world, whom I appreciate very much. Thank you for reading this!

Welcome to Gino's Ghazal Blog!

Browse this blog for reflections about ghazals, poetry, music, fiction, nonfiction, ideas . . . . also announcements and information about The Ghazal Page: please visit it. Your suggestions, comments, and observations are welcome.

Sometimes, other times, then & now . . .

Stuff keeps changing. I've been retired for two weeks now; it's an eerie feeling. The old habits of planning classes and other things haven't gone away, nor have the habits of going to the office or contacting co-workers. Not that I'm planning classes or going to the office, but the impulses are still there.

My being retired is a main reason that the June and July issues of The Ghazal Page haven't appeared yet. I was exhausted when I retired and haven't recovered yet. The pattern of my days in retirement is beginning to take some shape now.

The June and July issues are not the only late items; the issue presenting ghazals from the tercet challenge is also overdue. June and July, together with the August issue, will make up a three-part summer issue, each part about the same size as the usual monthly issues. The tercet challenge attracted some excellent ghazals; that issue should appear in early August at the latest.

As my retirement progesses, I will either make more use of this blog or cancel it. By "more use" I have in mind more frequent posts on a wider range of topics. A new name for the blog seems appropriate, but I haven't thought of one yet. With a wider range, I may post more somewhat personal entries, without being autobiographical. Especially, I want to comment on some of the reading I expect to be doing. Perhaps we can discuss some poems, books, even music and movies.

Another Way to Contribute to The Ghazal Page

I've finally done something I've been thinking about for awhile — set up a PayPal "Donate" button on the main page of The Ghazal Page. For ten years, I have happily paid the expenses associated with publishing The Ghazal Page myself. The specific expenses are for hosting online, registering the domain name, and hosting the blog. Other expenses are for our ISP and our computer equipment, which we obviously use for other things beside The Ghazal Page. Since I use Linux only for work on The Ghazal Page, the only software-related expenses are donations I make to the providers of the open source software I use.

One reason that I'm taking this step now is my upcoming retirement with its reduction in income. We expect to do fine when I've retired, but there will not be as much money coming in as there has been.

Should you decide to donate to The Ghazal Page, you have my heartfelt thanks.

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.)

Welcome to "Don't Muzzle the Ghazal"

Some of you may be familiar with Gino's Ghazal Blog on The Ghazal Page. I'm experimenting with housing that blog here on TypePad, where it will be more accessible and more interactive. Later today, I'll put links to this blog on The Ghazal Page.

Having just typed a paragraph, I want to say that Type Pad's interface looks pretty good—clean and usable.

As the name suggests, this blog will focus on the ghazal form of poetry. You can find examples and definitions on The Ghazal Page; there will be some examples and definitions here as well. The Ghazal Blog is not limited to the ghazal, however, and will include discussions of other forms of poetry, of poets, of poetic theories, of issues related to poetry and to publishing. Other topics not so poetic may show up once in awhile.

I plan to post at least once a week, probably on the weekend. Thank yo for reading this post. Comments etc are welcome so long as they're civil.