Poem

Dear Shahid

Many thanks for your lively note concerning ghazals
Just what I need to write: heart-rending ghazals

Meant to call you but have been busy this fall at school
New assignments every week, none for mapping ghazals

Enrolled in Prosody with Alfred Corn; Poetics with Lucie
Madness with Howard; precious time for encoding ghazals

Grace Shulman read at the Prosody class last week
First poem in her new book is a life-affirming ghazal

Let’s try meet soon. You cook Kashmiri Rogan Josh
I’ll do the dishes while Begum Akhtar sings ghazals

Shahid, it’s finally happening! Rafiq is falling in love:
She’s Sephardic, raised in Paris, likes kibitzing ghazals

Rafiq Kathwari, September 1999.

Rafiq Kathwari is the first non-Irish poet to win the Patrick Kavanagh Award. His debut collection is available here.