FOLLY—a ghazal--award winner

FOLLY—a ghazal


Why only April folly?
Why limit and kill folly?

Why intelligence prevail?
In every head drill folly!

Knowledge may keep on changing;
Permanent is still folly.

I cannot suffer the nerds;
Always does me thrill folly.

One may cut a wisdom tooth,
But end never will folly.

Let the fool, the meek prevail;
We must always spill folly.

Let us wipe out brainy ones.
Let’s in this world swill folly.

What a foolish ghazal this!
Khalish this is shrill folly!



* Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
- Elbert Hubbard


• The silliest woman can manage a clever man, but it needs a very clever
woman to manage a fool. - Rudyard Kipling


• Written as a ghazal consisting of a series of potentially independent couplets [each being potentially regarded as an independent poem in itself] which must have a monorhyme and refrain in the opening line and all even lines. Refrain refers to a recurring word or phrase. Monorhyme refers to a single rhyming word immediately preceding the refrain. Line length in syllables depends upon the poet’s choice but must be constant throughout. The present ghazal has been written in 7-7-7-7 format. For a detailed note on ghazal, please see "WHAT IS A GHAZAL AND HOW TO WRITE IT?" .


* The word Khalish included in the last couplet is the pen name of the poet. Such inclusion is a common practice in classical ghazal writing. Khalish is an Urdu word meaning ache or pain.


* Awarded prize in "April Folly SLAM" 


M C Gupta ‘Khalish’
Created: 2 April 2005