Wednesday, November 02, 2005

"incorrigibly" [ghazal]

Awake all night   with poetry   incorrigibly
with the morning light   more poetry   incorrigibly

My other efforts in life   go well   or poorly
today   I fight with poetry   incorrigibly

Everyone saw my flaws!   they were all correct
I was wound up tight   with poetry   incorrigibly

In childhood   when I dreamed of pursuing poetry
in mere black & white   I glimpsed poetry   incorrigibly

With the contrast of the mountain   & the cloudy sky
with the bird in flight   there is poetry   incorrigibly

At the edge of every tapestry   rests a border
at the margin of nighttime   poetry lies incorrigibly

"Come be our friend!" they said   "you can marry our daughter!"
she was cute alright   so was poetry   incorrigibly

Whenever I tried   to hold down a steady job
the boss's fright   restrained poetry   incorrigibly

A balanced life!   sounds lovely   as an ideal
but obscures the site   of poetry   incorrigibly

For decades   I blandly dabbled   harvesting sensibly
then came the blight   of poetry   incorrigibly

Why play the old game   of geopolitical judo?
go & fly the kite   of poetry   incorrigibly

Any poison   if it's used carefully   can be medicine
lack of excess   might   kill poetry   incorrigibly

All my friends were kind   all my loves were sweet   all despaired
when I kissed   good-night   to poetry   incorrigibly

O the cheek of you   is a cheek   that cheats   & wins
what a limpid light   bleeds poetry   incorrigibly

Do not slash your wrists!   that's the coward's way   there are others
slip beneath their sight   sipping poetry   incorrigibly

I can mimic prose   I can even write   cogent letters!
day persuades the night   into poetry   incorrigibly

In her fertile brain   dark fecundity   bares its bosom
in her pause   I might   sire poetry   incorrigibly

On the lake of mind   what a wondrous swan   was gliding
milky appetite   drinking poetry   incorrigibly

Where the lotus blooms   where the mud is thick   what a mirror!
rather recondite   blossoms poetry   incorrigibly

A faqir am I!   my beloved is   rich as rain
her monsoon is quite   fond of poetry   incorrigibly

Though I strove to live   half-way sensibly   & responsibly
I could sense the bite   of poetry   incorrigibly

Love is infinite?   but so limited!   life is pitiful!
silence veils the sight   of your poetry   incorrigibly

Every game is based   on the likelihood   of losing
when the score is tight   I seek poetry   incorrigibly

What's the use of things?   everything becomes less than zero
falling Fahrenheit   killing poetry   incorrigibly

Why so negative?   life is generous! time is boundless!
darling malachite!   jaded poetry   gleams incorrigibly

In the ocean's depth   with the pearl-maids' dangerous frolic
dragons may recite   lethal poetry   incorrigibly

I don't share your views   Ardeo!   they're so misanthropic
why should pain spring right   out of poetry   incorrigibly?

5 Comments:

Blogger ~Nitoo Das~ said...

David,
This is good.
"geopolitical judo"?!
And why "malachite"? Is it for the play on "jaded" as jade/green?

Thu Nov 03, 11:15:00 AM PST  
Blogger ~Nitoo Das~ said...

Oh! Just saw the internal rhyme--"light/fight/tight/white/fligt" etc.

Thu Nov 03, 11:17:00 AM PST  
Blogger ~Nitoo Das~ said...

er...flight

Thu Nov 03, 11:18:00 AM PST  
Blogger david raphael israel said...

right!

yes, malachite was partly for the 2 reasons you note; but also, more generally, some of the verses there are delving into imagery (sensibility) (found for instance in certain Tang dynasty poetry, among many places) that seems to require certain color / jewel qualities. Can be thought of musically; for some musical piece, one needs to have a cello; for some poetry, one needs rubies, pearls, or (as case may be) malachite.

longwinded lack-of-an-answer posing as answer. ;-)

I just wish some of our contemps. would indulge in more geopol. judo, not less, though; the current approcha in some quarters is just geopolitical machinegun. Still, with the kite image, this seemed the right balance I guess.

cheers,
d.i.

Thu Nov 03, 12:17:00 PM PST  
Blogger david raphael israel said...

ps:

"go fly the kite of poetry" might have some range of poss. senses & applications; but in this couplet (what w/ geopolitical topic-drop), I a little bit had in mind Tagore (who -- though I don't know his politics as intimately as some readers of this blog are apt to -- had a keener regard for poetry as (perhaps) globally-relevant, than have had many a world thinker). [But here no doubt I'm approaching the *he-overexplains-like-all-get-out* fallacy.]

Thu Nov 03, 12:43:00 PM PST  

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