Arts & Leisure Ghazal
March 16th, 2006Save as PDF
Arts & Leisure Ghazal
I launched my fragile paper boat on the stream,
And, for a while, I watched it float on the stream.
Fashioned from the "Arts & Leisure" section of the Times
Its show and movie ads were one big quote on the stream.
Flood-flourishing, the turgid flow besieged my craft:
Dead dogs, fallen trees, a Volvo and even a goat on the stream.
The temperature dropped as my little skiff slipped from my sight.
I shivered and started to wish for a coat on the stream.
But my boat would soon sink — newsprint’s ephemeral –
Dooming my dreams of what boats might denote on the stream.
Art’s long, life is short? Paper wraps glass? Water sinks paper?
I felt flummoxed, as if I’d ingested peyote on the stream.
Water rose up to my neck and I knew then the answer was poetry.
Drowning, I quickly created this ghazal I wrote on the stream.
March 16th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
J:
What the #*#*#*?. I first looked up ghazal in the Oxford American College dictionary (sadly, not the SOED, or the OED)….
NOTHING! I then googled ghazal (nice consonance here), found a number of links that were inactive, and then came across a definition that informed me that a ghazal was a form of verse, frequently celebrating love and wine.
If your ghazal is celebratory of love and wine, I need to return to Cleanth Brooks’ poetry class for a brush-up.
Any way….I really enjoy your blog…how is the packing coming along?
Love to all the Schencks.
Han
March 17th, 2006 at 6:47 am
I also googled ghazal (google should gift you a gaggle of goodies for all these go to’s…) and found a great description at http://www.cs.memphis.edu/~ramamurt/ghazal.html
So, it all started here in Arabia! What an increasingly small world it is! But such strict rules– very out of character for the mideast…, or maybe not.
I like the imagery of the Times Arts and Leisure as a child’s creation, struggling to stay afloat…
Keep ‘em coming!
A-
March 17th, 2006 at 11:30 am
I think you need an antidote for your peyote on the stream …
You might be interested to know that Snoop calls it a ghazizzle not a ghazal.
Best