The Orchards Poetry Journal has recently published my poem “Night Sky Ghazal:”
As the poem’s title clarifies, “Night Sky Ghazal” is a ghazal. I recently wrote a blog at The Center for Spirituality in Nature on why I love this poetic form. Here is an excerpt:
The ghazal (pronounced “guzzle”) is an ancient Arabic and Persian form of poetry. One of the ghazal’s many superpowers is its ability to carry chaos, without trying to resolve anything into a shoehorned narrative. Given all of the conflict our world is experiencing with intersecting social, political, and ecological crises, the ghazal is thankfully expansive enough to resist platitude and cheap answers. With loose but cohesive beauty, through subtle rhyming and repetition, the ghazal can hold all of our messy emotions, fears, confusions, and dreams. This poetic form can somehow surprise, and build larger meaning, without depending on a linear storyline.
Click here to read the entire blog, called “The Toads of Poetry.” 🙂
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