Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Last night SB and I heard at Zankel Hall at Carnegie the Ghazal Ensemble comprising Shujaat Husain Khan (sitar and vocals), Kayhan Kalhor (kamancheh) and Samir Chatterjee (tabla). From the classical synthesis of Indo-Persian music, they played three improvisations. Unfortunately I was so tired that I was only fully awake for the first. Variation succeeded variation like a very rich weaving, in this music. The sitar produced tonal modulations very like that of a human voice when its strings were pulled sideways. The kamancheh, a spike fiddle that is ancestor to most bowed instruments throughout Asia and Europe, sounded like strings at one moment, and like woodwind at another, as SB remarked. The tabla is a pair of single-headed drums. The left-hand drum is called banya , the right-hand drum is called tabla . According to the program note, each drum stroke has its own name: Na, Ta, Dha, Dhin, Trik, and so on, and "the rhythmic patterns are transmitted orally through these onomatop...

My divan of 49 ghazals "A Lover's Recourse" appears in At Length . Edited by Jonathan Farmer, the online magazine specializes in publishing long poems. "A Lover's Recourse" is long enough to swim in. And, I hope, deep enough to sink into. * Yesterday TB and I heard Brahm's Ein deutsches Requiem (1865-68) performed by the Dresden Staatskapelle, conducted by Daniel Harding, and sung by Christiane Karg (soprano), Matthias Goerne (baritone) and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. Instead of using the Requiem Mass of Catholic liturgy, Brahms set to music text from Scripture: "Blessed are they that mourn," "Thus all flesh is like grass," "Lord, make me to know," "How lovely are Thy tabernacles," "Ye now therefore have sorrow,' "For here have we no continuing city," and "Blessed are the dead." Movement Two, originally conceived as part of his early Piano Concerto, and then rescored as an e...

Two ghazals published in issue no. 7 of  Mixed Nerve , a seasonal journal from Hawaii. Tia Ballantine, the issue editor, reviewed my Payday Loans favorably back in 2007, and we've kept in touch since. Alison Brackenbury, also a contributor, is a familiar name. She has a new book out from Carcanet, Singing in the Dark .

Qarrtsiluni publishes the second of the two ghazals they accepted from me. That brings the number of ghazals published to 22, out of a total of 49. Not bad. 22 includes the five due to appear in Common Knowledge this month. I have revised and rearranged the entire sequence, and submitted it to At Length , a magazine that specializes in long poems. They just reprinted extracts from Elizabeth Alexander's "Amistad."

Cimarron Review Issue 171 arrived yesterday. I have a ghazal in it, accepted by Alfred Corn, one of the three poetry editors.  "Take heart and sing of love's recourse: the river" opens my ghazal sequence. Poets in the issue I recognize are Dorianne Laux, Edward Byrne, David Shapiro, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Billy Collins, Christopher Phelps, Michael Montlack, and Brent Goodman. Good company. Seeing my name in print, I feel like a poet again.

Another ghazal published, this one in Raintown Review . Anna Evans chief-edits this formalist print journal, and Quincy Lehr associately edits. Quincy asked me to submit, and he (and Anna?) selected "I pluck my theory of winter from the violin."

Two more ghazals published, this time in Glass . The editors asked for the deletion of a weak couplet from "In the cloister, in the Temple of the Sacred Fountain," and I obliged. It's a ghazal, isn't it, and so the couplets are more or less autonomous. I am not sure if I agree with their judgement but I have time to think and reinstate or revise the couplet for the book. Happy New Year!

Saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular yesterday afternoon with my sister, brother-in-law and two nieces, H who is five, and L who is one. The show was not as enjoyable as I hoped. The Scenes, as they were called, were lavish, but not very imaginative. That left the dancing, by the Rockettes. I thought the choreography was so-so, the range of emotions limited, and when the famous precision was less than precise, what was left? This sounds more disappointing than I actually felt, sitting in that grand theater, with its scalloped proscenium stage. Both H and L were captivated throughout. I thought H showed some taste when she said her favorite scene was the first, the one with the Rockettes dancing as reindeer, and pulling Santa's sleigh. It was fresh and fun then, before it felt like more of the same. Precision and innovation. Watchwords for my ghazal sequence too. Sometimes surface precision can overshadow deep innovation. I think the full sequence of my ghazals will garner ext...

An informative and immensely readable history of the ghazal , from its beginning in Arabic poetry to its spread to Spain, Africa, Persia and the Indian sub-continent, written by David Jalajel. Niranjan Sarker follows it up by examining the "Ghazal as a Form of Urdu Poetry in the Asian Subcontinent."   The essay concludes with a short clip of Waseem Barelvi reciting a ghazal in a 'mushaira' (poetry meet).