Read the "What is a ghazal?" column for information about the poems found here.
- This is a pretty complete explanation of what an English written ghazal is.
- Some thoughts and observations about my ghazal experience and education. This essay was included in a chapbook I published in 2002.
- For those of you who are curious about where I got "Zahhar" from as my ghazal penname.
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imagination paves her path of promise
where patience lightly walks with brownstone eyes -
let's make a bed beneath our outstretched limbs
shaded by the dreams we weave together -
the heart sends many questions to the stars on sullen wings
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In all the airy lands abroad, I never once have found, my love,
A peace that permeates my soul, as when we rest entwined, my love.36 lines, 13 comments, on Jul 23 5:59 AM 2004. In Love -
Cast upon a spanning haze, rainbow halos ring the sun;
Grasses ripple in the breeze; shifting winds resolve in mist. -
Our eyes are shocked by sparks that fabricate a tyrant;
Plantations build machines that specialize the fighting. -
Misguided angels struck them on their beauteous heights,
Then rotting frames collapsed in flames from carious heights. -
Her midnight jasmine fragrance dances playful on the wind,
And drifts across the rooftops on to stimulate my heart. -
Sprawled across a dusty couch, a fiend shoots dope in silence;
Lone amidst a warring world—one way to cope in silence. -
A rolling ocean of flourishing pines
Rose from earth to sustain understanding. -
In the desert sways a lone rose on the wind;
Each day it asks the sky, “why did you seed me?” -
Do you wonder where the falling stars land?
They go the way of their last known calling. -
I am that visitor in your faded memory;
We’re threaded as ancient friends in braided memory. -
If to the empty center leads the way,
There is no need to simplify the way. -
A single cloud floats through the night in silence,
Shining in the full moon’s light in silence. -
From this mountaintop I prayed for you to heal,
In tandem fell two bold stars through the night. -
A seed has all its hope contained within,
And all its future so ordained within. -
I seek rubies in the cave of loss,
Yet I’m glad to spend the time for you. -
Near sighted donkeys bold bray, “Sacrilege!”;
And yet, is not their own way sacrilege?30 lines, 5 comments, on Sep 16 9:37 AM 2004. In Society -
The silent moon grows strong, my friend,
And yet I hear her song, my friend. -
Strong men make their living mid plunging boughs,
But their souls are, as they break bread, fallen. -
Who can remember their race between dreams?
Nothing ever holds its pace between dreams. -
The supple wonder of her grace is art,
And how the heart responds in pace is art. -
I may not know the gentle breath of Spring;
In Winter’s dismal chill I wry alone... -
Adrift on a river swelled by the melted snow,
Swift I float where the waters lightly flow. -
The voice of nature sings on crashing waves,
Full might of her heart expressed in dashing waves.25 lines, 10 comments, on Jul 21 2:03 AM 2004. In Nature -
Leafless boughs cast long entrancing shadows;
Shapes of rigid form throw glancing shadows. -
Soundless on horizon, a cloud-like dragon flies,
Final hues reflecting from far prospective moon. -
I live between two realms oppressively trapped,
By force unseen long held repressively trapped. -
There spanned before me a long wending road,
Stretching aloft a life-mending road. -
When his loving way is shunned we dimly walk alone
And stumbling comfortless in pain impede God’s guidance.
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