Steffen Horstmann Poetry|Ghazal by Steffen Horstmann| English Ghazal

Akhtari’s voice echoes in wind that blows from the sea
Akhtari’s voice echoes in wind that blows from the sea,
Through the roving darkness of cloud-shadows from the sea.
 
Her voice had become the ghazal's transcendent despair,
So quietly echoed in winds that rose from the sea.
 
I was sketching her name on a canvas of white sand,
As she stood like a ghost in mist that flows from the sea.
 
Clouds of sand rose through gales to migrate across the sky,
Becoming dunes where the turquoise moon glows from the sea.
 
Sunlight haloed her shadow in the iced trees, as wrens
Were singing to the geese flying in rows from the sea.
 
Her eyes held silken waters glazed gold in the twilight,
Mirrored the melting colors of rainbows from the sea.
 
The wisp of air that spun a paper boat on the lake
Had summoned funnel clouds & tornadoes from the sea.
 
Akhtari, I see your silhouette framed in moonlight.
Your voice, like a nightingale's song, echoes from the sea.

Ghazal of the Vanished World   II

Mir saw the phoenix where the forest of Terai existed,
When the holy Asuras that lived in the sky existed.
 
Lucretius wrote of how the pearled beads of buoyant rain
Shimmered, when the floating mirages of Songhai existed.
 
The night sky was a flaming mirror of jeweled light,
Seen when the iridescent fires of Katmai existed.
 
The Adarna glided through clouds shone like sapphire
Crystals, when the azure diamonds of Sarai existed.
 
Kahiko's voice was the mist of waterfalls, naming
The flowers when the secret garden of Kauai existed.
 
Novalis sought the blue poppy of his waking dream,
In the valley where the crystalline butterfly existed.
 
Issa chiseled haiku into rock walls of sea cliffs,
Read by breezes when the coral coves of Sendai existed.
 
Ghosts surround our fire, with the flames reflected
In their eyes, searching where the tombs of Alai existed.