Tercet Ghazal Challenge
The deadline for the stone radif challenge has passed; I plan to have the issue compiled and published about the middle of March. Meanwhile, here is a new challenge, involving the stanza form rather than the radif.
The "tercet ghazal" is a form that was developed by the poet Robert Bly for his anthology The Night Abraham Called to the Stars (HarperCollins, 2001) which I have reviewed here.
Bly replaces the two-hemistich shers of the Persian/Urdu ghazal with a tercet stanza. Each stanza is autonomous and in many of the poems, ends with the same word, the radif. Though this departs from the formal structure of the Persian ghazal, it is faithful to the idea that each sher is a poem in its own right strung together and unified with the others through a common rhyme and radif
Robert Bly's ghazal "Dawn" is an illustrative example of this form. Bly uses the word "dawn" as the radif, which he also introduces at the end of the first line of the first stanza, in the tradition of the matla.
Raindust gives us a ghazal in this form on page 2 of the "Clouds and Rain Special Issue 2008". Also, in the Summer 2008 issue of The Ghazal Page (page 2), there are two examples ("The Ice" and "Acquiescence") written in this form by David Jalajel.
Here is the challenge:
Write a tercet ghazal of four to eight tercet stanzas using the formal guidelines outlined below:
- Each stanza should end with the same word — a radif. If you wish, you may choose to use this word at the end of the first line of the first stanza in the matla tradition.
- Each stanza should be autonomous. In other words, it should end upon a full stop.
- By contrast, the lines within each stanza should usually flow into one other. In other words, they should generally be enjambed.
Please note that these formal guidelines are only for the purpose of this challenge. I am not suggesting that they are necessary for all tercet ghazals. In fact, Robert Bly varies his observance of the radif and other formal elements in his own tercet ghazals.
- Deadline: June 15, 2009
- Radif: any
- Format: a tercet ghazal with four to eight 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:
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.
