"Ghazal IV" by Bojan Louis

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend Support Poem-a-Day November 7, 2019   Ghazal IV   Bojan Louis

Haven't taken it to the head for a minute on another three day bender. Slept past sunrise. And then another.  The bed has softened over the years, the stoop steps chipped. Shanties clog memory: was it your most recent love, or another?  Bangladesh is continually interrogated by floods, you tell me.  Your reflection a mist; the mist a shadow; the shadow some other.  Cracked clay riverbeds sound like a cross between square and sawtooth waves. Always, we want the frequency to be another. Late last night the house made a drawing of itself: bones, skin,  and a hat. It preferred famine over feast. Liar. It consumed another.  Dear Sound Wave, while sobriety arpeggiates, is reshaped by blurring filters don't think too much of any of us. This dissonance        becomes another.             Copyright © 2019 by Bojan Louis. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 7, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About this Poem   "Cantankerous from not writing during a heavy teaching load in the fall of 2018, my wife assigned me homework to research and write ghazals. I was drawn to the form's history of religious, metaphysical, philosophical, political, and realist verse, which has sparked a longer project and apprenticeship. I also delved back into playing music, learning to use and experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines, and other electronics alongside my background with guitar and piano. It's inevitable that the process of music composition and sound manipulation will blend, blur, and bleed with the crafting of a poetics, and vice versa." —Bojan Louis   Bojan Louis is the author of Currents (BkMk Press, 2017). He teaches in the MFA program at the University of Arizona and lives in Tucson. Poetry by Louis   Currents  (BkMk Press, 2017) "Dear Maker," by Susannah Nevison and Molly McCully Brown "Ghazal" by Tracy K. Smith "Ghazal" by Larry Levis November Guest Editor: Sherwin Bitsui   Thanks to Sherwin Bitsui, author of Dissolve (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Bitsui about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year.  A culture break, a source of daily renewal...   If reading Poem-a-Day has become a meaningful part of your day, please consider supporting this free series with a donation. Your gift makes publishing Poem-a-Day possible. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit poets.org   Unsubscribe here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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