all despots create an unfounded rage,
the public eats from this free-handed rage.
blood flows through my land of undoubted hate,
all crops deluged by this unbounded rage.
the veiled villain is but a hounded lie,
we are revealed by our well-sounded rage.
these faultlines bring forth the confounded truth,
we all run on a radar-clouded rage.
who do we blame for these crowdfunded wrongs?
what ‘worth‘ do you know of (dis)counted rage?
.
© Anmol Arora
A short ghazal written with a heavy heart, encapsulating certain components like matlaa, radif, qaafiyaa, and maqtaa. Linking it up with dVerse Poetry Form challenge, hosted by Gay Reiser Cannon.
More ghazals: your love took all with it but this sweet pain and i wait at a lost November’s altar
HA's Place 
Good one, Anmol. One of the few to have stuck to the classical form.
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This is heart-breakingly true. It feels like the world is in the grip of anger and hatred at the moment. We are feeling it here, you are feeling it there, and yet here we are, talking about poetry, about communication, about understanding.
Great use of the form, as well, obviously. Goes without saying.
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You had me at /we all run on radar-clouded rage. In America I find rage in my yogurt in the morning, within my noon nap on our deck, and it adds bitterness to the evening’s sup.
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The subject in this is scary… the way we rage can be used to divide, with democracy consuming itself.
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Hello. I haven’t read your work in a long time and times have changed. I am running away from this time, hiding back in figure skating and yet you are charging forward as only the young and brilliant can. This is a side note but one I wanted to write before addressing your poem. I read your bio, you asked for suggestions regarding poetry – I had already clicked some links on protest poetry. If you haven’t read Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes (which you probably have), their works are worthwhile and will inform you of the U.S.’s long and aching dark history.
Here’s an article you may find interesting:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/poetry-in-a-time-of-protest
Now as to your Ghazal. I note that the first comment lists it as classical, and as to form it might be considered such, but I take it as a modern poem..to be included in what it means to write “modern poetry”. This is an area I know very well indeed; and rather than write a book here, I would ask you to start with Yeats and Eliot as I did and move forward through the poets of the civil rights movement. Their work consciously or unconsciously has informed this poem.
Rage indeed can sometimes overtake our emotions, leave us as though drunk – with fury, with exasperation, with a feeling of loss and despondency. I believe it could be considered akin to losing a love, a respect, a connection not with a single person but with an ideal. Your poem perfectly captures this. The sense of loss that comes to citizens when they feel cheated, betrayed, denied, rejected. That loss here is palpable. So the form is not so much melodic as chanting, marching, a steady drum beat of poetry that seeks to refute, and rectify.
Noble work! March on!!
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I can feel that rage growing and compounding at each couplet, until ending when the question is asked who do we blame for? I guess all of us,and that we have allowed these despots to thrive and prosper.
Good work on the form HA.
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Love “radar-clouded rage”, and the use of “crowdfunded”.
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Poignant content and a prifound subject. A well crafted Ghazal of significant meaning Anmol. Your proficiency with the form is most obvious.
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You capture the rage well. The first stanza is so true. The world seems so full of hate and rage right now, and the despots are stoking it. I think Gay is right about this being a march rather than a chant.
I like the Woody Guthrie. I think of his “This machine kills fascists.”
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Too much rage in our world…some of it justified, most of it overwrought. You make us think about it, Anmol!
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well crafted and articulate as always, Anmol, Rage on!
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Fascism comes in many forms, doesn’t it? Rage too comes in many colors and you captured them well. Nice work.
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Nice to read a political ghazal! (And thanks for Woody.)
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Woody knew. That so little has changed…it’s discouraging. Your words are a reflection of our hearts and minds. We truly have only ourselves to blame. Action speaks louder than words…(K)
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This world is experiencing far too much hatred and fear mongering. Governments who promote this deserve to have our rage turned against them. Powerful words!
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The form lends itself to the iterations and acceleration of protest. You use it to pressurize the sentiment, exploding in the final couplet. Excellent.
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I read, I agree. The theme fit the form well in spite of its original intent.
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