Poem: Silicon Valley Ghazal

I'm excited to announce that a recent poem of mine, "Silicon Valley Ghazal," was featured today on Autumn Sky Poetry Daily. Subscribing to Autumn Sky's mailing list is a great way to start each day with compelling writing, so I'd definitely recommend doing so!

The ghazal is a rather ancient poetic form originating in seventh century Arabic poetry, although it is often associated with the great Persian poets, such as Hafez. The form is comprised of couplets, each being a complete statement or idea. The form also includes a complicated rhyme scheme, where a "refrain" word is repeated at the end of each couplet, preceded by the rhyme (in my poem, for example, "old machinery," "cold machinery," "household machinery"). The ghazal began to gain prominence in english poetry in the mid 20th century, beginning with attempts to translate the form that forwent many of of its structural requirements (see "bastard ghazals"). The english language ghazal found more solid footing in 90s, although it apparently remains fairly common to ignore some requirements. With this in mind, I wanted to do my best to stay true to the form, with one exception: the classical ghazal takes up themes of love, eroticism, longing, loss, and the spiritual or mystical dimension these notions encompass, but in my case I utilize the form somewhat ironically to comment on our contemporary reliance and addiction to technology. You can read the full poem here.

Silicon Valley Ghazal

An endoskeleton draped in steak’s outdated, old machinery.

Your flesh will fail—why not live on as sterile, cold machinery?

You think an android maid is just some gimmick that’ll come and go?

You’ll wonder how you went without this key household machinery...