I am a poet working mostly with fixed forms, especially ghazals.
Read a more complete bio (just click on my name in the Author's section) at the following link: click here
First practiced in seventh century Arabia, the form has often been described as the sonnet's eastern counterpart. Each couplet in a ghazal has to end with the same word or phrase (known as the radif), and the syllable before the repeated pattern has to rhyme (known as the qafiya). Also, both lines in the opening couplet must end with this rhyming combination. Some of the greatest practitioners of the form include Ghalib, Rumi, and Hafiz.
My poems have recently appeared in The Aurorean, Baltimore Review, Banyan Review, Blue Unicorn, Common Ground Review, Freshwater, The Lyric, Oyez Review, Pebble Lake Review, Raintown Review, Texas Poetry Journal, and Tiferet.
***UPDATE (2008): ***New work has recently been published or is forthcoming soon in Blue Fifth Review, Candelabrum, Contemporary Rhyme, The Ghazal Page, HazMat Review, Hurricane Review, Louisiana Literature, LYNX, Pegasus, and Up the Staircase.***
IN THE PIPELINE (ESSAYS & REVIEWS) on:
Les Barricades Mysterieuses, by Jared Carter
Tiepolo's Hound, by Derek Walcott
The Collected Later Poems of Anthony Hecht
Ravishing DisUnities (edited by Agha Shahid Ali)
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