Back to School

Untitled by Nariman Farroki 2018

Since I last had something to show here, an extraordinary event happened, for me at least. I applied and was accepted into the Manchester Metropolitan University Writing School to do an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry). So here I am writing this post from the Library of MMU. It’s both an exciting and daunting project. The excitement has me like a child in a toy shop, new ideas, new writing and a new space to making my writing my main job. I have chosen to turn up here every Tuesday to do a class. (The fizzle factor of an online course would be too great for me) This will go on for the next two years. My brain is already in overload.
We have a writing workshop every week where we present our work and receive feedback from the class (there are eight of us). In the course of writing and finding new ways of doing things, two of us in the class came across a poetry form called The Ghazal. It is to be found in Arab poetry and especially in Persian. The form is quite structured. So as an experiment, I had a go. That’s what you see on this page.  I hope you enjoy and as usual please read, pass it on and give me some feedback.

On the return to study - a Ghazal

I sit at a desk in a quiet large room, in a return to study. 
My pen roams the line of its own volition, in a return to study.

I listen to scraping of metal along wooden floors, squeaking of
chairs, coughing, sneezing, in all positions, as they return to study.

Across all the space, fingers are tapping, keyboards are clicking, 
shaping thoughts and ideas, on a mission, in a return to study,

to finish a work, to start a new train from an unformed haze
haul into words by the decision to return to study

to capture, to shape, form a piece of fine work that will attract 
applause, win a good grade and fruition, because of return to study.

Through quiet and pain excitement will reign inside of the chest,
word follows word, become ammunition in the return to study.

Until finally sorted, reread and reworded, the manuscript done,
Pierre all bound up in completion, to end the return to study.

Peter Clarke
January 2019

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