Back to 2008 Ghazals
The Ghazal Page
March Issue
- The Heart, Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal
- Has Begun, C W Hawes
- In the Woods, Bernard Gieske
- Charm, Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal
- You Sit, C W Hawes
- Kake-Jiku Ghazal, Bernard Gieske
- Editor's Comments
The Heart
Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal
In the depth of true love, lies the divinity of the heart
And its charming beauty brings tranquility of the heart
The pearls of joy, the flowers of bliss and the rapture
They all are hidden within the spirituality of the heart
The sadness of your life is spilling out of your eyes
Even the silent lips are holding the reality of the heart
Every colour of the rainbow will emerge from your soul
Just die within the depth of your morality of the heart
Let the divine beauty of love set the course of your life
And let it spread its wings in the sublimity of the heart
Fly with your soul wings to look for an ancient sky
You may find the keys to unlock the infinity of the heart
'Darshan' capture the lively magic of the night heavens
Within its divine charm, resides the serenity of the heart
Has Begun
C W Hawes
The flowers of my heart have begun to bloom
and the apple tree of my soul has begun to look like snow.
This cow, mad and drunk and with frenzied bellowing,
has begun to tear apart the chains holding together my reason.
A gulp and then another of that inky red wine
and my thoughts have begun a Tilt-A-Whirl ride.
Bleating like a lamb, there is a lion on the prowl seeking to devour
and in the cave of understanding he's begun to lick my blood.
I woke from a dream confused, baffled by the empty room;
but a friend came and colors have begun replacing grey.
Blues and greens swirling through a midnight expanse;
a fragrant world has begun to blossom in this house of mine.
The seeker sought until his beard turned white;
in old age the kaleidoscope of spring has begun.
In the Woods
Bernard Gieske
Each morning I take a lonely stroll in the woods.
Enter the romantic reverence of the woods.
An avian symphony grace my company.
En plein air I sense warming comfort in the woods.
Phasing colors of a youthful sun shadow me.
What deep memories are held captive in the woods.
Pictorial web of endless variety.
Shuffling, wading through the wilderness of the woods.
Liquid mosaic in the marshes dazzles me.
Wearing through the deep mysteria of the woods.
The breezes whisper their secrets eternally.
A final wish mine/ashes dreaming in the woods.
Charm
Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal
As the golden rays of your love bring ecstatic charm
I render my ghazals within its sweet magnetic charm
Every time you gaze into my eyes and hold my hand
My heart stops and I die within your romantic charm
Embrace my soul to set me free with your deep love
That shines within your grace and the majestic charm
It is not the rhythm of life that's confined to the matter
It is the fragrance of love that brings aromatic charm
As our romantic emotions ignite passion in our hearts
The flames of our ecstasy arise from its erotic charm
You are the ocean of my rapture and I am your shore
As you kiss me I lose myself within its mystic charm
From the depths of his yearning as 'Darshan' calls you
He drifts into the memories of your romantic charm
You Sit
C W Hawes
You sit there on my chest, your brown eyes slowly blinking,
and I wonder how long you will sit there as a bird on her nest?
In a dream I saw Bodhidharma face that Chinese wall
and then sit. After nine years did he finally learn Chinese?
There on the horizon misty mountains evoking primal memories;
trolls, at the touch of the sun, sit forever still, turned to stone.
For five hundred years I've been climbing Mount Qaf;
oh, to be Sinbad and swiftly carried to where the Roc sits!
The door opens and the walk down the long hall infuses knees with jelly;
face to face with the great and powerful and there's nowhere to sit.
At the end of the millenium, the phoenix, glowing red-gold,
builds the nest and sits amidst the flames — rising to heaven to live again.
And so the seeker stares into the Brown-Eyed One and is absorbed;
after a set time of sitting, eggs hatch and fledglings come forth.
Kake-Jiku Ghazal
Bernard Gieske
Nature’s seams of seasons en plein air sur terre
orbit of harmony en plain air sur terre
Primavera, our eyes rise for your coming
long distance traveler en plein air sur terre
dallying with each stroll through the country side
genesis/life’s rebirth en plein air sur terre
Summer you burn away our sins of passion
fire dances hovering en plein air sur terre
vaporizing our dreaming/hazy vision
twisting, rising prayers en plein air sur terre
Autumn shedding all our leaves multicolored
final ashen harvest en plein air sur terre
Mother Earth’s savoring charms ceasing to flow
all the seasons sucked dry en plein air sur terre
sun laying its head on a cold snow pillow
hiding all the seasons en plein air sur terre
Winter/what better time/tell us your secrets
in white we will be clothed en plein air sur terre
petal offerings/revolving festivals
kaki-jiku hangings en plein sur terre
that we be cleansed in your blanket of meanings
purifying rituals en plein air sur terre
Editor's Comments
Sukhdarshan Dhalwal
It's a pleasure to publish two more ghazals by Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal. His ghazals are solidly in the tradition of the Persian ghazal, both in form and in theme. These two poems, "The Heart" and "Charm," need to be read aloud to really appreciate their music. Notice, for instance, the play of "k" and "g" sounds in the fifth sher of "Charm."C W Hawes
"Has Begun": how startling to use a present perfect verb has the title. That title itself suggests the inception of spring that runs throughout the poem. My own chain of associations connects the apple orchard and blossoms with the Shekinah in Kabbalah. The whole ghazal is suffused with a divine madness, most appropriate to the genre and to the season.
"You Sit": this ghazal's radif occurs differently in each sher, "sit" in several forms. Hawes' use of an word/concept/image as a radif occuring in different positions offers another solution to the problem of the radif at line-ends becoming awkward in English. It also asks more attention of the reader. The variety of sitting in this poem is wonderful.
Bernard Gieske
Romanticism, nature, mystery — "In the Woods" articulates these themes found in the other poems in this issue.
"Kake-Jiku Ghazal" has strong links to "In the Woods." For example, the second sher begins, "Primavera," the title of a famous painting by Renaissance artist, Sandro Botticelli. Have a look: it expands this poem or comments on the poem or is commented on by the poem. The Japanese wall-hangings — Kake-Jiku — bring the natural into the constructed, the carefully nurtured natural scene into the human habitation. Botticelli's "Primavera," and Gieske's "In the Woods," take the ritual, the human, outside, into nature, into the woods.
I wonder how primeval the woods in this poem are; here in the Ozarks, there are still some old-growth pine forests, but most of our trees are second-growth, and most of what most of us see are tended places, like the Missouri Botanical Garden's Shaw Nature Reserve. Visit it if you can!