and with armaments and missiles it was a war
you sought to justify through rules of combat,
rules of engagement, rules of this war, every war
before or since, till after your bombardments,
the dust of destruction, the so-called fog of war
obscured the truth of death in gritty basements,
where all the innocents your thundercloud of war
sent fleeing, hid fearing for their lives, cowering
like the military objectives they were. And your war
is any thing but righteous; you aim to kill, to eradicate:
extermination of a people is the purpose of your war.
© BH, 2025
Having embarked on exploring the ghazal as a poetic form [see ‘Ghazal for the road’], I thought I might put it to use on a more universal theme. In this case, war but linked to another contrasting poem, ‘Ghazal of peace’.
It felt particularly appropriate in these times when we deviate more and more from our essential humanity. Yet the old poets of the East (like Rumi, that old Sufi mystic!) and the new (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) celebrated it…
Brought into English by US poets in the 1990s, I first encountered the form in Rattle magazine. Here are my modest contributions. I don’t conform to the strictest model by any means, but put that down to my intrinsic voice. It’s the only one I have!
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