The Radif Challenge: Sugar
The "clouds and rain" and "moon" radif challenges were so successful that I've decided to make the radif challenge a standing feature of The Ghazal Page.
The "moon challenge" has ended. The results are 20 poems by 15 poets, expressing a wide range of perspectives on the moon.
Here is another radif challenge to whet your imagination and ghazal skills. The radif for this challenge is "sugar." Write Persian-style ghazals of five to twelve shers using "sugar" as the radif. Then I will draw on the ghazals submitted to publish another special issue of the 2008 Ghazal Page.
- Deadline: October 01, 2008
- Radif: sugar
- Format: a Persian ghazal with five to twelve shers
- Limit: no more than three ghazals per poet
- Prize: publication in a special issue of The Ghazal Page
- Submission: Use the link below to submit a ghazal:
You have until October 1, 2008 to answer the "sugar" challenge. I hope to see so many good "sugar" ghazals that I can use them in a large issue like the "clouds and rain" or "moon issue."
Background of the Challenge
In an article in Reorientations/Arabic and Persian Poetry (edited by Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych and published by Indiana University Press in 1994), Franklin D. Lewis describes how poets used the same radif in a number of poems, showing their skill and wit.
Lewis's article suggested the radif challenges for The Ghazal Page; the challenge is to write a ghazal using a set radif. The results of the first two challenges show how adept ghazal poets can be at using familiar, universal imagery.
