Still not much to report on the computer front… I’m borrowing a friend’s for the time being, but I still won’t be terribly active until I get a new one of my own, I think. In the meantime, this is for Poetic Asides’ prompt of a “sound poem”. Sea-sound poems have done before countless times, and I know I’ve done at least a couple myself, but it’s a ghazal too, at least. Make of it what you will!
Running Water Ghazal
This was a symphony to touch and smell and see:
we couldn’t, even if we tried, undo the sea.
The island shivered underneath our naked feet
while we walked on: so old, and yet so new, the sea.
It boiled its tides away. Its breakers hissed with glee.
We heard the currents sing of journeys through the sea.
They made a thousand-mile song for you, for me,
whose ignorant hand threw scallop shells into the sea.
We listened with our bodies, cut our spirits free.
You asked who first made music. I told you, the sea.
Our voices disappeared, drowned in the jubilee.
What use was there in fighting once we knew the sea?
Since then we’ve quarreled, but on this we can agree:
what happened when our tears made streams? They grew the sea.
this is beautiful. I have a few, freewrites on my blog if you would like to check them out. No where near as advanced as you though! Great work!
I do love a good ghazal, and this one is absolutely beautiful. Stunning. Elegant. The question and answer at the end are so right.
(btw, your comment on my site got me researching and I looked into the IAU’s naming conventions and it turns out that all craters on Mercury are named for deceased artists, musicians and writers. How cool is that?)
This is a gorgeous ghazal! This is a form I’ve avoided because I haven’t felt that I understood it, but your poem is accessible and alluring.
Bex: thank you for stopping by! I will try to return the favor… it’s not about advancement, I think. Different strokes for different folks is all.
James: they’re so tough to get right, I do them but rarely. But I do enjoy a good ghazal. And that’s so cool about Mercury! I would love to see the Chopin crater and the da Vinci crater and the Shakespeare crater…
Karen: as long as it’s about lost love and has a refrain, I think you’re good. You should give it a whirl. ;)
[...] good poems lately. Some have really stuck with me. Check out “Wake” by Angie Werren, “Running Water Ghazal” by Joseph Harker, and “Doors” by Dick [...]