The Ghazal Challenges
The results of the Arabic ghazal challenge are nearaly ready to publish. You will find some excellent ghazals, and excellent poems, in this issue.
Beginning in 2008, The Ghazal Page has issued a series of challenges. The challenges have mostly focused on use of a common radif, although not all of them have been. The current challenge is here. The results of earlier challenges may be accessed through the special issues index.
The idea that started the challenges is described briefly below.
Background of the Challenge
In an article in Reorientations/Arabic and Persian Poetry (edited by Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych and published by Indiana University Press in 1994), Franklin D. Lewis describes how poets used the same radif in a number of poems, showing their skill and wit.
Lewis's article suggested the radif challenges for The Ghazal Page; the challenge is to write a ghazal using a set radif. The results of the previous challenges show how adept ghazal poets can be at using common imagery.
