ghazals 2
2 more! Still no tricks or bullshit deviations from &/or variations on the ghazal proper. In fact, there are even fewer tricks than last time. In fact, let me just say poets who skip out on the qafiya &/or the maqta do NOT have my respect.
All that being said, one of the best things about a regular rhyme-scheme is (half-)breaking it again and again and again with all manor of slants, halfs, & NOS not-quite & not-quite-not “rhymes.” Don’t think I did that this much this time, though.
9 verses ending “also”
When it comes to creation (art, also), there is wit—& heart, also; then too there’s the bereft, who stumble so hapless (note the stray arfs also); then, plaguing us animals since we disembarked the ark, also has been the bare force of terse sung & stark alsos, nothing but the crude insistence of numbers: dumb—hard, also. The all-too-human ledger hungers voracious for the sun & stars also. Even the poets’ & lovers’ souls are un- safe (see: Warhol, & Sartre also). Victims of every domain will be cut —& victors—upon these shards—also… But when love comes up to me it laughs, that real operator, “Run the cash, the cards also.”
10 verses ending “off”
—Who knows you, who stays off on your lonesome all your days off? —Just some loved ones come around. You know, the gnawing, stave it off. —Of course… that gnawed at-- naggi-- little gnat-- the vibe you gave off-- —I did? Or, I do? Do I seem sad to you? Or mopey? Or would you say ‘off'? —I mean, would it be news, really, if- —I try hard to- see: I’m way off in the mirror, even I can see it. Thought I had a secret, but… A way off this ride would be nice, this auto-carwash and I’m a convertible, get this wax spray off my leather interior, please. Please. Please. —From hunger, they replied, so: away, off, of: endedness and echoes. Not a word more eking out. They were (and would stay) off. The 2nd speaker too was done speaking, i.e. back in oblivion, turned: ashen grey, off.