Ghazal Games: Poems

By Roger Sedarat

As an Iranian American poet, Roger Sedarat fuses Western and Eastern traditions to reinvent the classicalPersian form of the ghazal. For its humor as well as its spirituality, the poems in this collection can perhapsbest be described as “Wallace Stevens meets Rumi.” Perhaps most striking is the poet’s use of the ancient ghazal form in the tradition of the classical masters like Hafez and Rumi to politically challenge the Islamic Republic of Iran’s continual crackdown on protesters. Not since the late Agha Shahid Ali has a poet translated the letter as well as the spirit of this form into English, using musicality and inventive rhyme to extend the reach of the ghazal in a new language and tradition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Release date: Jun 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9780821443750

Roger Sedarat

Roger Sedarat is an assistant professor in the MFA program at Queens College. He is the recipient of scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference as well as a St. Botolph Society poetry grant. His verse has appeared in such journals as New England Review, Atlanta Review, and Poet Lore.

Book preview

Ghazal Game #1

Think of the greatest love you’ve ever had (                         ).

Write his/her name in the space provided _____________.

As long as you reiterate this name,

The semblance of this ghazal is complete: _____________!

Don’t doubt, no matter what terror may come,

That God will fill your emptiness with Dear _____________.

For me, Janette. For Dante, Beatrice.

For Rumi, Sham-y-Tabriz. And for you? _____________.

Space makes the greatest rhyme. Sufis know this,

In spite of their lust for someone just like _____________.

Now burn your useless books! You’ll learn much more

Inside schoolhouses of desire taught by _____________.

Is it so silly, making readers work?

Doesn’t most poetry ask you to find _____________?

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here

To join (state your full name) and (state his/hers) __________ . . ."

Computer code, universal language,

Breaks down when translating the essence of _____________.

Would you obsess over your petty shame?

Instead, substitute it with a kiss from _____________.

All maps lead you to bliss. Your GPS

Just estimates the time and distance to _____________.

Before the loggers come for the last tree,

Write this last line with a sharp knife: I _____________.

At this point, do you think you really chose _____________?

Before you were born, you were chosen by _____________!

Sonnet Ghazal

for Janette

Hafez, the baker, could see what I mean;

If she were a spice, she’d be cinnamon.

It’s both terrifying and exciting,

The idea that she’d see other men.

Oh, God, I’d sell my soul to watch her walk;

Hear my prayer, and grant me this sin. Amen.

I heard the great poets of Shiraz sing

Through olive vein-lines of her Persian skin.

I know; this ghazal objectifies her,

Ignoring feminist criticism.

Reversing the Cinderella story,

She turns all princes into cindermen.

Your next patient, Doctor. It’s Roger S.

The one lovesick for his wife? Send him in.

Ghazal Game #2: Pin the Tail on the Middle Eastern Donkey

By spinning yourself you’ll spin the donkey.

Sufis teach us how to pin the donkey.

At school in Cairo, we watched where we stepped.

(The groundskeeper didn’t pen the donkey.)

"Yalla, y’hmar!" yelled at a slow driver

In an attempt to quicken the donkey.

It’s all connected. One wrestles within

To change the real world and pin the donkey.

The butterflies have all been cataloged.

Hapless scientists just pin the donkey.

Can’t understand this game? Stop thinking. Close

Your sense of self and open the donkey.

"Hey, poet, we’re literal! We came here

With blindfolds and tacks to pin the donkey."

Let’s say you hit the target. What’s the