Greetings fellow poets!

This week’s poem spark is dedicated to Esther. Without her help, the Poem Spark section on Poets.org’s discussion forum would not have such a fabulous index, Poem Spark List, nor would it still be going strong, twice a month. She is also responsible for a plethora of new poem spark ideas in the thread, Poem Spark Ideas take two! Thank you Esther!

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The ghazal is a lovely poetic form that focuses on love, longing, melancholy, spirituality, philosophical questions, and other similar topics. The use of repetition and rhyme make it suitable for song, both traditionally and today. To learn a bit more of the history of this type of poem, Poets.org’s page Poetic Form: Ghazal has an excellent essay about the form. Here’s an excerpt that explains how ghazals are written:

Upon further research, I discovered an interview of Robert Bly in which he talks about the ghazal: An Interview with Robert Bly

He has some interesting things to say about the syllabic structure of the form and how it translates from Persian and Arabic to English. Bly’s ghazal, embedded in the transcript of the interview is worth reading. His discussion about the ghazal, beyond structure and into the meaning of this type of poem, is illuminating.

In the interview, Bly says: I’ve mentioned that the ghazal often makes a leap to a new subject matter with each new stanza; that is itself a form of wildness. This intrigues me: the idea that the constraints of this form allow a poet to explore topics that may be too difficult, too wild to grapple with in another way. The ghazal seems to provide the ability to leap from one idea to another, from stanza to stanza.

Here are some examples of ghazals, beginning with an essay that contains several in the text:

from Triplopia: The Ghazal: An Inevitable Unity by Jenny Burdge — look for John Hollander‘s “Ghazal on Ghazals” and Denise Duhamel‘s “Bra Ghazal.”

Agha Shahid Ali Even the Rain

Heather McHugh Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun

This week’s spark: write a ghazal. Be creative. Have fun!

Salutations!

I encountered my first Sonnenizio accidentally (reading a submission from a contributor), and fell in love with the idea of this form. It was only after I did some investigation did I learn that the form was invented by Kim Addonizio. A Sonnenizio appears in her book, What Is This Thing Called Love. I sent her an email about her poem, asking if she invented the form and she replied: “yes, it’s true I invented it.” In the email, she included a footnote on the poem:

Upon further investigation on the internet, some sources claim she was inspired to invent the form because Billy Collins invented the Paradelle, a parody of the Villanelle. Apparently, as did Billy Collins for his Paradelle, Addonizio also invented the history for the Sonnenizio form (although she made no mention of this in her email).

Here is a lovely essay by Theresa Edwards about Addonizio’s poem, “Sonnenizio on a Line From Drayton”: Kim Addonizio’s Playful Repetition to Michael Drayton’s Sonnet. Here is a link to Drayton’s Sonnet: LXI of his sonnet series Idea.

By now, I’m sure you know what this week’s spark is: write a Sonnenizio! Every Sonnenizio opens with a line from someone else’s sonnet. A word from this first line is repeated in each succeeding line, then the poem closes with a rhymed couplet.

Here are some examples of other Sonnenizios:

Anna Evans Sonnenizio On A Line from Millay

Arlene Ang Sonnenizio on a Line from Wendy Cope

Here are some sonnets to use as a starting point:

Robert Lowell History

Rainer Maria Rilke Sonnet 6

E.E. Cummings Sonnets/Unrealities III.

Have fun! Be creative.