"This collection arrives from the spirit world buoyant, its rowdy soul
intact."-- Raúl Niño, Booklist
The ghazal, a poetic form rooted in seventh century Arabia, became
popular in the United States through the translations of Rumi, Hafiz,
and Ghalib. As a young poet, Jim Harrison became enamored with ghazals,
and 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 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."
"These are raucous, boozy, at times sexually explicit journeys beyond
standard forms, often expressing a young poet's exuberance. Harrison
wills us to follow him: 'When I slept in the woods I awoke before dawn /
and drank brandy and listened to the birds until the moon /
disappeared.' Closing with an illuminating afterword by poet Denver
Butson, this collection arrives from the spirit world buoyant, its rowdy
soul intact."--Booklist
