Today’s is an oldie-but-a-goody: the ghazal. The form was originally developed in Arabic and Persian poetry, but has become increasingly used in English, after being popularized by poets including Agha Shahid Ali. A ghazal is formed of couplets, each of which is its own complete statement. Both lines of the first couplet end with the same phrase or end-word, and that end-word is also repeated at the end of each couplet.
21 November 1974
Growing up they never
told us, warned us of the white hate,
left us to our own devices, living life despite hate.
left us to our own devices, living life despite hate.
Listening to glam rock we never would have noticed
how our parents and teachers accommodated bright hate.
We were kids, then, loving all the disco, the new wave,
American soul and Mancunian Ska. No need to fight hate
we loved it all, a melting pot of acceptance and fusion
never noticing the world turn, the miner's plight. Hate
hit the country like a blizzard, locking us in terror
Brixton riots, the IRA.
Politicians cite hate
Soldiers in Belfast, Squaddies on the Falklands. Xenophobic
Tories stirring up
dissension. We grew up with spite, hate.
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