Back to 2005, Set Three index
Back to 2005 Ghazals
2005, Set Three, Page Two
- Preacher Man, Robert B. Godwin
- Graduation Ball, Robert B. Godwin
- Those Days Are Gone, Robert B. Godwin
- In My Mind, Maya
- Editor's Comments
Preacher Man
by Robert B Godwin
He stepped upon the stage to bless the crowd
Just before he would address the crowd.
As funding was a problem every day,
How much, tonight, could he assess the crowd?
Preparing for his nightly ministry,
He thought how best he might impress the crowd.
Knowing well what they had come to hear,
He was not wont to second-guess the crowd.
Artfully, he let their voices swell,
So skillfully could he caress the crowd.
Swaying to and fro, they sang and moaned;
Slowly would his words finesse the crowd.
His voice would rumble through the ancient tent;
Before the end, he would possess the crowd.
I would stand beyond this ring of faith,
For I could never so B.S. the crowd.
Graduation Ball
by Robert B. Godwin
Seniors know that he will be in tune with her,
For in the orchestra he plays bassoon with her.
Together, they have studied Music, one-on-one;
In college, he will graduate in June with her.
There are those "special" times, when he is most assured
It will, indeed, be easy to commune with her.
"What does she see in him?" so many young men ask,
Recalling how they've acted the buffoon with her.
Weeks of fancy dancing lessons lie ahead
Before he'll dance the night beneath the moon with her.
Knowing that the boathouse doors will be unlocked,
He plans to float down Don't-You-Dare Lagoon with her.
Grandma told me tales of Grandpa's courting days,
When he would call 'most every night to croon with her.
In those ancient days, a couple would hold hands
And talk. The neighbors talked--of how he'd "spoon" with her.
That was then. This is now, a different time.
Yet, there he sits, just listening to the loon with her.
All concerned agree upon a wedding date:
He will be wed on Sunday, at high noon, with her.
As the loser in this contest for her heart,
I'll choose a whore, and close down my saloon--with her.
Those Days Are Gone
by Robert B. Godwin
The past he misses, yet those days are gone
though he has no regret those days are gone.
He looks upon past years in reverie,
but never will forget those days are gone.
He knows this to be true, for he, at last,
in sorrow says: "You bet those days are gone!"
He read her heart, and knew what lay ahead.
Blared The Heart's Gazette: Those Days Are Gone.
It hurt to hear her voice join in with his
in bittersweet duet: Those Days Are Gone.
Time has stopped his plea, for he admits
her heart was firmly set. "Those days are gone."
His mind still wanders to that April day
that Sunday they first met. Those days are gone.
Reality destroyed poor Robin's dream
when she escaped his net. Those days are gone.
In My Mind
by Maya
Snake like, a thought lies coiled in my mind
Is it real, or a fantasy in my mind?
All other desires now lie squeezed out
I live with this phantom ruling in my mind.
My body twitches and jerks, zombie-like,
Wide eyes see only the object in my mind.
I move towards my dream in wish fulfillment
stumbling on the path drawn out in my mind.
In the brief minutes of wakefulness I falter
Will I win or just triumph in my mind?
Editor's Comments
All three of Robert Godwin's ghazals tell a story but do so in disjunct couplets, appropriate for a ghazal. The narratives are told in a series of scenes, like a sequence of film clips with the same underlying narrative arc but enlivened by shifts in place, tone, and so on.