Collected Ghazals

Jim Harrison

As a young poet, Jim Harrison became enamored with ghazals—a poetic form rooted in seventh-century Arabia which became popular in the United States through the translations of Rumi, Hafiz, and Ghalib. While he ignored most of the formal rules, within the energized couplets he discovered a welcome vehicle for his driving passions, muscular genius, and wrecking-ball rages. The year Harrison’s Outlyer & Ghazals appeared, The New York Times honored the book with inclusion on their coveted “Noteworthy Titles” list, provocatively noting that these poems were “worth loving, hating, and fighting over.” Collected Ghazals gathers all of Harrisons’s published ghazals into a single volume, accompanied by an afterword by poet and noted ghazal writer Denver Butson, who writes that with this collection, Harrison’s ghazals “are ours to witness again in all their messy, brave, honest, grieving, lustful, longing humanity.”

ISBN: 9781556595929

Format: Paperback

Listen to Denver Butson read Jim Harrison’s poem “Drinking Song” from Collected Ghazals:

XXVI

What will I do with seven billion cubic feet of clouds
in my head? I want to be wise and dispense it for quarters.

All these push-ups are making me a muscular fatman. Love would
make me lean and burning. Love. Sorry the elevator’s full.

She was zeroed in on by creeps and forgot my meaningful glances
from the door. But then I’m walleyed and wear used capes.

She was built entirely of makeup, greasepaint all the way through
like a billiard ball is a billiard ball beneath its hard skin.

We’ll have to leave this place in favor of where the sun
is cold when seen at all, bones rust, it rains all day.

The cat is mine and so is the dog. You take the orchard,
house and car and parents. I’m going to Greenland at dawn.

About the Author

Jim Harrison (1937–2016) was the author of over three dozen books, including Legends of the Fall and Dalva, and served as the food columnist for the magazines Brick and Esquire. He published fourteen volumes of poetry, the final being Dead Man’s Float (2016). His work has been translated into two dozen languages and produced as four feature-length films. As a young poet he co-edited Sumac magazine with fellow poet Dan Gerber, and earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the …

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Reviews

“Jim Harrison is a modern master of the form.“—Book Riot

“As in The Essential Poems (2019), editor Bednarik has again performed stellar work… Closing with an illuminating afterword by poet Denver Butson, this collection arrives from the spirit world buoyant, its rowdy soul intact.”—Booklist

“The ghazal (pronounced like guzzle) is a fun form, originating as an Arabic form focused on romantic love and loss, that has managed to stick around. It has a specific scheme that includes a call-and-response with the audience regarding repeated final words. Jim Harrison is a modern master of the form, and this book collects his ghazals.” —Book Riot