Ghazal Games. Roger Sedarat

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      GHAZAL GAMES

      GHAZAL

      GAMES

      POEMS

      ROGER SEDARAT

      OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS

      ATHENS, OHIO

      Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

       ohioswallow.com

      © 2011 by Roger Sedarat

      All rights reserved

      To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at [phone] or [phone] (fax).

      Printed in the United States of America

      Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper

      20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Sedarat, Roger, 1971–

      Ghazal games : poems / Roger Sedarat.

      p. cm.

      ISBN 978-0-8214-1950-2 (pb : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4375-0 (electronic)

      1. Iran—Poetry. I. Title.

      PS3619.E33G43 2011

      811′.6—dc22

      2011016090

       Acknowledgments

      “Ghazal Game #1”: Taj Mahal Review

      “Ghazal Game #1” (excerpt with commentary): Pen America: A Journal for Writers and Readers

      “Sonnet Ghazal”: Literature and Gender (New York: Pearson Longman)

      “Sonnet Ghazal” and “Inverted Ghazal”: The Drunken Boat

      “Ghazal Game #2: Pin the Tail on the Middle Eastern Donkey”: Zoland Poetry

      “The Sword”: Green Mountains Review

      “American”: Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Poets Anthology, vol. 2

      “Martyrs of Iran”: Atlanta Review: Iran Issue and Levantine Review

      “Postmodern Ekphrasis Ghazal”: Foreign Policy in Focus (Poems Against the Regime)

      “Protest Ghazal #1” and “Protest Ghazal #3”: IranJustice.com

      “Perfect Translation” and “Farsi”: World Literature Today

      “Cold Feet” and “Stone”: Ghazal Page

      “Gazelle in a Ghazal” and “Ghazal Game #4: Matching (Match the poet to the following couplets)”: The Other Voices International Project

      “Chador Bat, A Qasideh Ballad”: Storyscape

      “Ghazal Game #11: Spin the Bottle” and “The Beard”: New Orleans Review

      “Ghazal Game #12: Know Your Shakespeare,” “Found Ghazal,” and “Trapped in Form”: College English Notes

      . . . you must be ready to break the forms, break the forms . . .

       V. S. Naipaul

       Contents

       Ghazal Game #1

       Sonnet Ghazal

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

       Inverted Ghazal

       The Persian Poet’s Recipe for Qormeh Sabzi

       Ghazal Game #3: True or False

       The Beard

       The Sword

       For My Beloved

       Salads Are for Girls

       Ghazal Game #4: Matching

       American

       Ghazal Game #5: Product Placement

       Martyrs of Iran

       Chemotherapy

       Vertical Ghazal

       My Father’s Face

       Ghazal Game #6: Hangman

       Bashō and Hafez: Japanese-Persian Fusion

       The Goddamn Scale

       The Train

       Texas

       Ghazal Game #7: Tic Tac Toe

       Postmodern Ekphrasis Ghazal

       Protest Ghazal #1

       Protest Ghazal #2

       Protest Ghazal #3

       Ghazal for Neda

       Perfect Translation

       Cold Feet

       Ghazal Game #8: An Exercise in Tone