Arc of Ghazal

On Saturday afternoon there was a summer Arc reading at the Manx Pub to launch the ghazal mania issue. There were bits of essay on the debate on the form, how it is said to be done as well as how it is said.
Samples came forth from 14th century Persia along with Amanda‘s bit of a bastard ghazal, Barbara Meyers bringing forward some Margot Button, and Craig Poile reading Thomas Hardy. There were bits of poems from the issue (such as Stuart Ross, Alan Cooper and Tadeusz DÄ…browski) read in the open mic and by the editors. I believe, if memory serves, what is being read above is a bit of John Hollander’s humourous Ghazal on Ghazals which reads in part,

All our writing is silent, the dance of the hand,
So that what it comes down to’s all mime, at the end.
Dust and ashes? How dainty and dry! We decay
To our messy primordial slime at the end.

The closing was with some John Thompson‘s ghazals IX from Stilt Jack which ends,

Likely there’s an answer: I’m waiting,
watching the stones.