Poetry
Ghazal
JAMES GOLDBERG
The ghazal (Punjabi: ਗ਼ਜ਼ਲ, et al) is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love inspite of that pain. [Wikipedia] The following is an English-language ghazal:
The sky fades to black from blue tonight
after bleeding a reddish hue tonight
God spoke the light but he whispered the dark
where I lie still and think of you tonight
The lane where we met has been bathed in the moon
and no tyrant can rule us by curfew tonight
The Guru has felt God’s own hand on his lips
so there’s no sikh no muslim no hindu tonight
One drop joins the river, one rises to rain
and one will distill as the dew tonight
Ek onkar, sat naam, kartaa purakh
drink a prayer like ambrosial brew tonight
[James Goldberg’s family is Jewish on one side, Sikh on the other,
and Mormon in the middle. His plays, essays, and short stories have appeared in
numerous publications, including Prick of the Spindle,
Drash, The Best of Mormonism: 2009, and Jattan Da Pracheen Ithas.]
August 8, 2012
Conversation about this article
1: Kirpal Singh (Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S.A.), August 24, 2012, 11:36 AM.
Marvellous indeed.