My Poetry and Fiction class is taking up different poetic forms.
This morning, we discussed the Ghazal, a poetic form that is makes use of the couplet. It is independent of any language. It talks about love, loss and sepatation; much like the themes talked about in the Blues, which is an African-American form of poety.
Our teacher presented this following ghazal to us. I think that is very sweet with some sexual innuendos that are very tastefully done. It speaks of a strong love for someone but ends with a hint longing, an acknowledgment that nothing is always sure and definite.
So, without further ado, here it is….
~*~
Ghazal
If I am the grass and you the breeze, blow through me.
If I am the rose and you the bird, then woo me.
If you are the rhyme and I the refrain, don’t hang
on my lips, come and I’ll come too when you cue me.
If yours is the iron fist in the velvet glove
when the arrow flies, the heart is pierced, tattoo me.
If mine is the venomous tongue, the serpent’s tail,
charmer, use your charm, weave a spell and subdue me.
If I am the laurel leaf in your crown, you are
the arms around my bark, arms that never knew me.
Oh would that I were bark! So old and still in leaf
And you, dropping in my shade, dew to bedew me!
What shape should I take to marry your own, have you
– hawk to my shadow, moth to my flame – pursue me?
If I rise in the east as you die in the west,
die for my sake, my love, every night renew me.
If, when it ends. we are just good friends, be my Friend,
muse, lover and guide, Shamsuddin to my Rumi.
Be heaven and earth to me and I’ll be twice the me
I am, if only half the world you are to me.
Mimi Khalvati
~*~
Credits:
(my training in Linguistics and Literature has made putting credits or sources second nature to me)
poem taken from http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=5140
photo taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/millzero/2408535634/
Just YOU and ME. 