The poetry volume I read today was On the Wire, assembled by friends of Adelaide poet John Pfitzner (& one of my two fellow poets along with Rachael Mead in New Poets’ 17) after his death.  In that collection there’s a poem called “Sacred Place”. I combined this theme/idea with a NaPoWriMo prompt from a few days ago which I’ve been keen to try. It’s a form poem & I always like to do at least a couple of them during this month especially if I’ve never written one before. The form & idea seem to blend very well.

The ghazal originates in Arabic poetry, and is often used for love poems (especially spiritual/divine love). Ghazals commonly consist of five to fifteen couplets that are independent from each other but are nonetheless linked abstractly in their theme; and more concretely by their form. In English ghazals, the usual constraints are that:

the lines all have to be of around the same length (formal meter/syllable-counts are not employed);

and both lines of the first couplet end on the same word or words, which then form a refrain that is echoed at the end of each succeeding couplet.

Another aspect of the traditional ghazal form that has become popular in English is having the poet’s own name (or a reference to the poet – like a nickname) appear in the final couplet.

The Poetic Factoid came out of a google concerning THE Most Sacred/Holiest Books, of which oddly, there was little consensus. 

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sacred spaces: a ghazal

my 4 poster bed was chosen cos it also holds books
softest safest sublimest place i know to read books

air chairs under ancient elms float light as words
drift in & out of wispy worlds as i read books

Dorothea’s wingtip chair by the window more
a chairshelf ATM but where i’ve often read books

outdoor setting made from an old oak barrel 
there beneath the silver birch i read books

north-facing scorched wide-armed wooden bench 
in autumn setting sunshine i love to read books

beautiful bench of ceramic fish in the shade
an elegant corner to stay cool & read books

— the truth is every space becomes sacred
every time gareth takes out one of his books

settles in & experiences the miracle of reading

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Day 11 Factoid – Holy Books

most holey

google ain’t too definitive
regarding the holiest book
there are a few frequently 
mentioned contenders

Christianity’sBible(Old&NewTestaments)Islam’sQuranJudaism’sTanakh&TalmudHinduism’sBhagavadGita
VedasUpanishadsPuranasBuddhism’sTripitaka(PaliCanon)Sikhism’sGuruGranthSahibTaoism’sTaoTeChing
Jainism’sAagamConfucianism’sAnalectsShintoism’sKojikiNihonShokiZoroastrianism’sAvestaBaha’iFaithth
eKitábiAqdasKitábiÍqánScientology’sDianetics&TheLatterDaySaints’BookofMormonAnotherTestamentofJ
esusChristakaAnAccountWrittenbytheHandofMormonuponPlatesTakenfromthePlatesofNephi
among others

a lot of work working out the best one

my suggestion for a smaller list
Cosmos. Carl Sagan. The. End.