I’ve had a go at writing a ghazal. I’ve never encountered a more humbling poetic form. Done well, a ghazal is beautiful, poignant and evocative. See the poems of Rumi for some fantastic examples.
Done by me, it’s slightly awkward doggerel. I now know how my main source of poetic inspiration, Dorothy Parker, felt when she said her verses were “no damn good” and refused to call them poetry.
Ms Parker, can it be you didn’t know it?
How you’d be loved as ranconteuse and poet?
Each pithy little line you penned will show it,
And yet you said you never were a poet.
Some writers, with their egos puffed, will crow it!
Erroneously sure that they’re a poet
But you called your lines “no damn good” and oh! It
Stings: you did not count yourself a poet!
For if the standard’s set so high, I’ll blow it
And this word geek can never be a poet.
Tom Juniper Poetry 