Lost in Their Love – Ghazal – December 26, 2016

By Carlo Carrà 1911

You’ll never get to meet them as friends, they’re lost in their love
War has hidden them behind burnt windows, now lost in their love

Mismatched, brown and white, they stood together
Hidden, alone she birthed in a pantry a son, lost in their love

They stood painted as crimson sinners by howling butchers,
Palmless mobs stoned them, they were, lost in their love

Unmarked grave (no vowels nor consonants) was their fate
Because they were different, they were lost in their love

This poet’s tears still fall now as I think of their end
The fanatic’s hand felled them – they were lost in their love.

 

Sunday’s Whirligig – Whirligig 38

THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from “Ghazal for White Hen Pantry” by Jamila Woods: brown, friends, white, palm, born, burnt, consonants, windows, unmarked, sins, paint, pantry

Autumn Lullaby – Ghazal – September 24, 2015

Write for me an autumn lullaby
Sing for me your autumn lullaby

These autumn winds sigh each night –  a lullaby
And days grow languid – light as a lullaby

Rich has been the harvest – bring your lullaby
Let the earth fall asleep –  sing a lullaby

Little children will shout your lullaby
And men will speak about your lullaby

And then Georgia will hum your winsome lullaby
Your song for the autumn your crimson lullaby

© G.s.k. ‘15

Here is how you write a ghazal:

1. Every verse is a 2-line couplet, (unless your Robert Bly) with around 4 to 10 couplets in total.
2. Each line must contain the same number of syllables.
3. Every verse ends in the same word(s) preceded by a rhyme.
The same repeating word(s) is/are called a radif, and the rhyme is called a qaafiya.
4. In the first couplet, both lines end with a qaafiya (rhyme) and radif (repeating word(s)).
5. Each verse is considered a separate mini-poem, so there is no need for any connection between couplets.
6. The last verse is traditionally a signature couplet in which you include your first or last name (or nickname).

In a wind storm – Ghazal – April 9, 2015

Photo Credits: Kimerajam

She seeks butterflies in a wind storm
Lost in her own world in a wind storm.

In books and dreams she walks ever alone
Stumbling past obstacles in a wind storm.

Fragile and lonely unaware of what’s real
She walks blindly and sadly in a wind storm.

Birds cannot fly in this stormy blow
How can she walk on in a wind storm?

The world is crashing around her ears and yet
She seems not to notice she’s in a wind storm.

Sekhmet looks on this weary scene aghast
Wondering when she’ll see she’s in a wind storm.

© G.s.k. ‘15

MLMM – Photo Challenge – and – B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond

How does one write a Ghazal:

1. Every verse is a 2-line couplet, (unless you’re Robert Bly) with around 4 to 15 couplets in total.
2. Each line must contain the same number of syllables (in Arabic, they must be the same length we use syllables).
3. Every couplet ends in the same word(s) preceded by a rhyme.
The same repeating word(s) is/are called a radif, and the rhyme is called a qaafiya.
4. In the first couplet, both lines end with a qaafiya (rhyme) and radif (repeating word(s)).
5. Each verse is considered a separate mini-poem, so there is no need for any connection between couplets.
6. The last verse is traditionally a signature couplet in which you include your first or last name (or pen name).

Traditionally the preferred subject of a Ghazal is love …. though in our modern age it’s used for just about any subject.

Mind of a Mage… – Ghazal – October 15, 2014

Photo Credits

Mind of a Mage … (Ghazal)

In the off-wings behind her veiled blind of a mage –
She’s not young, her gray hairs remind me of a mage …

Languid eyes, rosy cheeks and a solemn stare –
She hides behind the twisted mind of a mage …

More like a wizard than a witch … devious is she
Weaving words complacently – with her mind of a mage …

Always right, or so she thinks, she drives me mad!
Proud and austere – devious mind of a mage …

Ah women – bedeviled creatures one and all,
Beware friend, of their serpent mind of a mage …

 

I her man, am trapped in her spider’s web …
She’s bewitching – with her mind of a mage.

(c) G.s.k. ’14

 

This was inspired by Ye Olde Foole … he’s been better known for his haiku and tanka, but is an all around great poet … and writes in many forms including sonnets and ghazal … I read a couple of his ghazal yesterday and he sent me one written by Robert Bly.  Then this morning I saw a new ghazal on Fool’s Blog and decided to write Mindlovesmisery’s Self Portrait prompt (whereby you look at yourself through the eyes of another)  using a ghazal … hope you’ll drop by and  enjoy both of them!

Here is how you write a ghazal:

1. Every verse is a 2-line couplet, (unless your Robert Bly) with around 4 to 10 couplets in total.
2. Each line must contain the same number of syllables.
3. Every verse ends in the same word(s) preceded by a rhyme.
The same repeating word(s) is/are called a radif, and the rhyme is called a qaafiya.
4. In the first couplet, both lines end with a qaafiya (rhyme) and radif (repeating word(s)).
5. Each verse is considered a separate mini-poem, so there is no need for any connection between couplets.
6. The last verse is traditionally a signature couplet in which you include your first or last name (or nickname).

 

Linear Time – Ghazal for dVerse – June 20, 2014

History’s seeming mutating change in linear time …
Keeps me wondering about the meaning of linear time.

When wayward drones warn me of terrible change in war…
I reflect on the fickleness of linear time.

I feel that the renewal of life is an endless changeless cycle …
As I see the stagnant historical repetition, what of linear time?

Wondering if perhaps disastrous change is again upon us …
Is new dark age to be inserted in the annals of “linear time”?

Bastet ponders upon the strange fate of our changing planet …
And mankind’s grasping unshaken belief, in linear time.

N.B.  We think that time goes ever forward, some believe that history is a document that demonstrates that humanity, if not in its particular civilizations but as a whole is forever moving forward in a linear evolutionary pattern becoming always more and more “civilized” … I wonder.

---

This ghazal was written for the dVerse Poetry prompt Repetition because I’d just been speaking about the ghazal with a friend and she brought the prompt to my attention.

By the way, this is a particularly interesting prompt as it presents many forms which use either repetitions of lines or phrases … which I love to write, so even if I don’t submit a few future poems to the dVerse Mr. Linky I do intend to write using some of these forms presented in the post over the next few days!

Your Kiss (Ghazal)

(Ghazal)

Your Kiss

Dreamt I of your honey lips, about your kiss.
Caresses, fondling my hips without your kiss.

Love making is nothing without your lips.
Just a movement, a drought, devoid of your kiss.

No ecstasy, no lovemaking shout dear,
Just form, so I’d pout missing your kiss.

Foreplay is dry if it’s just about sex,
Wherefore my dream, do not doubt, it’s your kiss!

Bastet reminds you of your devout flame.
Sweet insistent lips willing out through your kiss.

 

 

Ghazal: Ubuntu

Ghazal

Ubuntu

Whatever could I have been thinking about that day
When I dual-booted Ubuntu anyway?

My system is still going strong and I love it
So why change now and use Ubuntu anyway?

One day, I know XP will die out and what then?
At that moment, I’ll have Ubuntu anyway!

Not easy to learn a new system at may age
I’m trying to make it with Ubuntu anyway!

If Bastet should fail in this endeavor
At least she tried Ubuntu anyway.

@)—>—>—

This is also for: NaBloPoMo and PoBlaNo Day 26!

1. http://rarasaur.wordpress.com
2. http://howanxious.wordpress.com
3. http://phrogmom.wordpress.com
4. http://girldanslacite.com
5. http://teepee12.com
6. http://eccentriclady.com
7. http://fishofgold.net
8. http://trueecho22.wordpress.com
9. http://littlegrowingpains.com
10. http://likeitiz.wordpress.com
11. http://heartsongsblog.wordpress.com
12. http://rosiesmrtiepants.wordpress.com
13. http://asignoflife.wordpress.com
14. http://notapunkrocker.wordpress.com
15. http://thirtystartgo.wordpress.com
16. http://whoatethedaisies.wordpress.com
17. http://sipsofjenandtonic.com
18. http://speaker7.wordpress.com
19. http://ashortaday.wordpress.com
20. http://aheartonthematter.wordpress.com
21. http://cherispeak.wordpress.com
22. http://bachiles.wordpress.com
23. http://combatbabe.wordpress.com
24. http://veronicaroth.com
25. http://mommyverbs.wordpress.com
26. http://misifusa.wordpress.com
27. http://thelifeofkylie.com
28. http://darkcirclesetc.wordpress.com
29. http://stuphblog.wordpress.com
30. http://fracturedfamilytales.blogspot.com
31. http://architar.wordpress.com/

C.C.
Mary-Ann

Shailaja
Trina

Ghazal: My World

Ghazal:  My World

Walk with me in this wee sweet world one day
But remember that my world is sacred

This little land of poems and stories
Though fragile is a shy world of pleasure.

If these visions do not please, so be it
Walk your path but please thy world is not mine.

Lovely  to share a fine story and song
Each in its own way a fine world in rhyme.

But, Bastet isn’t a colony for you to conquer!
Carefully with respect visit my bonsai world freely..

N.B. this poem’s first line was: Walk with me in my sweet blue world one day…the Ghazal was actually inspired by Morpethroad Prompt 30: Color (1).  I changed the first line as the new line seemed more suitable after I’d written the rest.

Ghazal: For Rumi’s 806th Birthday!

“Happy birthday to Rumi. He was born 806 years ago today. Like all philosophers of that time, his fame only came to him posthumously.”  So I read this morning at “A Mixed Bag”.  For Pablo Picasso, I created a false cubism Haiga…so for Rumi the least I can do is try to write a Ghazal!

@)—>—>—-

Ghazal

For Rumi

Verses of beauty wrote the great Rumi
Metaphors of love’s plea wrote the great Rumi

Embracing lovers in cunning Farsi,
Sensual bounty wrote the great Rumi

Persian born, of Islam in sweet loving terms,
Sufi philosophy wrote the great Rumi

Beyond right or wrong, seeking inside,
Without sophistry wrote the great Rumi

Can Bastet not sing his lauds on his birthday,
In Ghazal, for you see, wrote the great Rumi.

Ghazal: Love

Here are the great instructions furnished by Cubby on how to make a great Ghazal!

1. Every verse is a 2-line couplet, with around 4 to 10 couplets in total.
2. Each line must contain the same number of syllables.
3. Every verse ends in the same word(s) preceded by a rhyme.
  The same repeating word(s) is/are called a radif, and the rhyme is called a qaafiya.
4. In the first couplet, both lines end with a qaafiya (rhyme) and radif (repeating word(s)).
5. Each verse is considered a separate mini-poem, so there is no need for any connection between couplets.
6. The last verse is traditionally a signature couplet in which you include your first or last name (or nickname). Although I have chosen not to do this in mine, you can see how it is done in the ghazals by Bastet and T.J. Theiren.

@)–>–>—

Ghazal

Love

Look at those people over there, youth in love,
They coo and cuddle showing the world they’re in love.

Walking along the street, in early dusk, truth be told,
There’s nothing so nice as to see people in love.

In the spring the bird’s warble at dawn, soothes the soul,
All because they are courting and falling in love.

The Planets attracted make a smooth creation,
A poet once said because the world’s are in love.

What of you, oh faithless tooth, Bastet wonders,
When did you forget that we were once in love?