I’ll be posting about our day yesterday—probably in the mid-afternoon. Meanwhile, another ghazal, this one written yesterday morning.
Ghazal 4/25
a 1940s car chassis planted amongst trilliums & ferns &
jack-in-the-pulpit the deep green & the grape vines gone native
as helixes climbing the maples—a creamy orange light
swathed to the east & the prehistoric hills & mountains
insubstantial & blue gray as storm clouds falling into the horizon
there was a refrigerator without a door a white bulk amongst
underbrush—white & the tiny flowers of rust blossoming
‘round the hinges—a club house with 1 window & 1 bench en-
wrapping another maple & later swept away amidst logs & green
rowboats & brown trout in the flood the sky is white in the
pond right now the water glass the poplars along the creek reflected
vibrantly green the cows lowing & grazing the sparrows
& blackbirds busy in the willow’s supplely
gesticulating branches the fractious swell of the Saxtons River thru
a 1960s Vermont woodland we no longer have access
to—the static pond to the east out of reach & white this white morning
This is a form I could learn to work with. I love the battery of images - overworking my brain with the result being, I am there too.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, these ghazals!
Kat
Thanks Kat-- I'm hoping I'm on a roll with these-- we'll see....
ReplyDeleteHey John,I've never heard of a Ghazal before and I still don't know what they are but that doesn't matter so much because what i do know is that I like what you have written.There are some lovely images and phrases.I particularly liked the first 2 lines of the latest Ghazal and also the last two lines of the previous one, though 'like' is a hopelessly inappropriate word for the latter, I found it a bit frightening but in a good way-hard to describe.
ReplyDeleteHey TFE:
ReplyDeleteWell, my use of the form is a bit impressionistic anyway. It was originally an Arabic form & the main elements I've kept are the two line stanza (& really trying to think in "2 lines," so they're real "stanzas, if that makes any sense) & the theme of loss/separattion, which was central to the original. As I mentioned, Adrienne Rich's two sets of ghazals are very worth reading.