This ghazal manifested as I read The Shambhala Guide to Taoism by Eva Wong. There is more discontinuity, or disconnectedness, within this ghazal than is usual for me. At the time, this was also the longest I had written.
The word “way” appears on every line. While this is not a demand of the form, it was an enjoyable exercise, and it made for an interesting poem in the end.
Thoroughfare
Where fragrant lilies beautify the way,
Decaying corpses putrefy the way.
Brilliant sages point the way to heaven,
Yet we in bloodshed rubefy the way.
The way of peace was plain when life began,
Then darkness fell to mystify the way.
When harsh and arid places span the way,
How hard it is to ratify the way!
Rivers flow the way of least resistance—
This fact will ever signify the way.
A vagrant walks the way with dignity,
Yet speaks no words to dignify the way.
Crying skies are not the way of sorrow,
They only serve to pacify the way.
If to the empty center leads the way,
There is no need to simplify the way.
Wind demonstrates the way of roaming wide,
But never tries to justify the way.
Who taught the fowl the way to warmer skies?
How is it that they verify the way?
Compassion is the way within us all,
But we must act to reify the way.
Death cannot endorse the way of living,
Yet also cannot mortify the way.
This dream is but the way of dancing shades;
To trust in this will falsify the way.
Who can hear the way the stars are calling?
They wait for us to stellify the way.
Each time Zahhar collapsed upon the way;
Has been a means to clarify the way.
If you sense a lack of coherency, this is because there is very little of it. A ghazal is not necessarily supposed to be coherent. In fact, most aficionados of the form feel it should be entirely discordant, with qafiya (rhyme) and radif (refrain) serving to stitch the couplets into a sort of collage of verbal thought and imagery. The effect can be powerful, though it doesn’t always settle well with the Western ear.
This is my 74th ghazal.
