The virtual reading continues here on The Spring Ghazals with two more poems from the “ghazals” section of the book. Both of these poems found their titles in the works of others—“don’t think twice” obviously coming from the old Bob Dylan tune & “what can we talk about that will take all night?” coming from a powerful Kenneth Patchen poem titled “Do the Dead Know What Time It Is?” Patchen is a personal favorite. The poem “don’t think twice” falls in the middle third of the ghazal sequence, while “what can we talk about that will take all night” falls in the final third.
Speaking of the latter poem, you can read what I have to say about it, & much more over on poet Jessica Fox-Wilson’s wonderful blog everything feeds process. As a follow-up to her excellent review of The Spring Ghazals, Jessica asked me for an interview, & I was only too happy to oblige—you can read the interview here. She came up with some good questions—challenging too! I really appreciate her efforts in helping to promote the book.
Remember: if you use coupon code LEAF305 at checkout, you can purchase The Spring Ghazals on Lulu for 15% any time thru November 15th!
Hope you enjoy the poems & the interview.
Pic shows roses on the pergola at Swannanoa, Virginia-detail from a larger photo
Happy Sunday, all! Now that the music performing season is winding down (I think), I’ll be putting more time into the poetry side of life, & that will include the rather unfamiliar territory of marketing The Spring Ghazals. Sales continue to be slow, but on the advice of the good folks here, I’m starting to explore some options for public readings.
As I’ve mentioned here before, I have a lot of experience as a reader, both in Charlottesville, VA & also San Francisco. Given my current location in the rural Idaho rangeland, reading venues are few & far between, but I’m looking to get creative. There are probably options in Boise, & I’m also hoping to use connections in Portland & San Francisco to set some things up in those cities. Obviously, one doesn’t turn a profit driving from Idaho to California to sell poetry books, but since I’m due for a visit to friends in the Bay Area anyway, I’m hoping to combine “poe-business” & pleasure.
Closer to home, there’s the resort town of McCall, & I’d like to set something up there in the near future. Long term, Eberle & I, in concert with a new artist friend, have concocted a rather elaborate (&, Eberle believes, grant-worthy) concept of poetry reading as multimedia event—including both live music & live art creation. That’s a ways down the road, but it is an exciting idea.
In the meantime, I offer you, dear readers, another virtual reading—two more poems from The Spring Ghazals, both from the “The Spring Ghazals” section of the book, & both much concerned with musical imagery. The title of the first poem comes, of course, from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, while the title of the second is taken from Anne Waldman’s fine poem, Holy City. Both poems fall within the first third of the sequence. In fact, you can listen to all four poems posted so far if you’d like.
Thanks for stopping by, & hope you enjoy the poems.
Back in the spring of 2009 when I was actually writing the ghazals section of the book, The Spring Ghazals, I made recordings of a handful of the poems—this was requested by readers on Robert Frost’s Banjo, where the poems were being posted. I thought it would be a good thing to re-post these recordings on this site. At some point, I’ll take Jacqueline T Lynch’s suggestion & post a short “video reading.”
The poem “Ghazal 4/24” is the first poem in the sequence, & was also the first poem I composed in the “Spring Ghazals” section of the book—the poems in “Kitchen Poems” section & some of the poems in the “Cloudland” section were composed in 2008. The April 24th ghazal was in fact inspired by a vivid & somewhat disturbing dream the night before: the dreams that arise from grief are probably always unsettling. The title of the second poem, “it is night & it is serious,” comes from Kenneth Fearing’s poem, “Green.” “it is night & it is serious” is positioned in the last third of the 19 poem ghazal sequence. I should point out that the ghazals only make up one section of a four section book.
In other ghazal news, I’d recommend checking out Jessica Fox-Wilson’s ghazal, “Ghazal on Falling and Flight,” on her excellent everything feeds process blog. Ms Fox-Wilson handles the ghazal in a more traditional way with consistently rhymed refrains, & has crafted a fine poem within the form. I also very much appreciate her shout-out to The Spring Ghazals in her post!
Hope you enjoy the poems.
Pic shows the statue of Christ at Swannanoa. It was taken in the spring of ’87, on a day that recurs in the Ghazals.
