Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise—the happy world of fools! |
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 |