• Home
  • Poetry Prompts
  • For Writers
  • Daily Poem-Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Free Stuff + BOOKS
  • Patron Love

Video Poem: Mortal Ghazal

By T.S. Poetry 4 Comments

Ghazal Poetry Poems

Mortal Ghazal: a video poem by Luisa A. Igloria and Swoon.

Mortal Ghazal

My friend sent me a lei of strawflowers from the city of our childhood:
brittle corollas of yellow undercut by orange that we called Everlasting.

I remember the slides in the park, and the kiddy train one summer: it looped around its
periphery, a blur of red and orange. Just a few minutes, but the ride seemed everlasting.

And women from the hills, their baskets filled with dried snipe, amulets, herbs;
their woven skirts striped vivid orange (the sound of their voices everlasting)—

In that world, everything seemed possible; in that world, time seemed almost too slow.
Now I’m brought up short in the shoals as the sun reddens in the sky, unrelenting—

At sunrise, two birds call—heraldic, but fleeting. Such tender things in the world;
smudged with blue, capped with little streaks of rust. Glyphs from the everlasting.

Tell me I haven’t done too little, that I’ve made some difference to you;
even if in the end I might be judged wanting, unhinged: mortal, not everlasting.

—Luisa A. Igloria

Photo by Nandadevieast, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Check out more on Mortal Ghazal, by Luisa A. Igloria, here.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
T.S. Poetry
T.S. Poetry
Helping you get inspired. With poetry & poetic things.
T.S. Poetry
Latest posts by T.S. Poetry (see all)
  • The Poetry Club Tea Date ✨ First Fall - December 10, 2020
  • The Poetry Club Tea Date ✨ Braiding His Hair - October 22, 2020
  • 5-Minute Refresh: Proof of Thought - October 15, 2020

Related

❤️✨ Sharing is caring

Filed Under: Blog, Childhood Poems, Courage Poems, Friendship Poems, Ghazal Poems, Poems, poetry, Video Poems, Videos, visual poetry

Comments

  1. Donna says

    October 4, 2013 at 10:08 am

    Amazing. I have watched, listend, and read this several times… in so many ways this is so rich.

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      October 4, 2013 at 10:18 am

      Agreed, Donna 🙂

      Part of it is the language. So crisp, even as it makes us drift back in time.

      I love how this ghazal deals with issues of time and existence—kind of like the traditional ghazal form that can sometimes deal with metaphysical questions.

      Reply
      • Donna says

        October 4, 2013 at 10:53 am

        Even the colors she uses, in the order she uses them, seem to bring on the sunsset. And, in parallel to that, I was thinking about the yellow to orange to red… and then the glyphs… how it seems to move with spirit…

        Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Ghazal Poetry: How to Write a Ghazal & Playlist! | says:
    November 19, 2013 at 3:12 pm

    […] questions. But, today, the ghazal has broadened to touch many types of longing and loss, as in the friendship poem “Mortal Ghazal,” by Luisa A. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our January Menu.

Keep the World Poetic

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world thoughtful and poetic.

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Join the Poetry Club

Join the poetry club, when you become a subscriber to Every Day Poems ✨

The classic—Now a Graphic Novel!

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

Recent Comments

  • Megan Willome on The Generativity of Wild Things: On Rethinking Our Relationship With Money
  • Rick Maxson on The Generativity of Wild Things: On Rethinking Our Relationship With Money
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Troy Cady and “Featherdusting the Moon”
  • Megan Willome on Children’s Book Club: ‘Katy and the Big Snow’

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Join Tweetspeak Poetry

Categories

Explore Work From Black Poets

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Free Printable Poet Bios

Browse all poet bios now

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

About Us

  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • How to Write Form Poems-Infographics
  • • Poetry Club Tea Date
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • A Ritual to Read to Each Other
  • • Best Love Poetry
  • • Book Club
  • • Children’s Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Literary Analysis
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • VerseWrights Journal
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2021 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure