Jim Harrison: Collected Ghazals

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 "e;Noteworthy Titles"e; list, provocatively noting that these poems were "e;worth loving, hating, and fighting over."e; Collected Ghazals gathers all of Harrisons's published ghazals into a single volume, accompanied by an "e;Afterword"e; by poet and noted ghazal writer Denver Butson, who writes that with this collection, Harrison's ghazals "e;are ours to witness again in all their messy, brave, honest, grieving, lustful, longing humanity."e;