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Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals by Agha Shahid Ali, W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, $21.95 cloth, ISBN 0393051951.
Agha Shahid Ali's poetry draws on traditions ancient and contemporary, rooted and restless. Born in New Delhi, raised in Indian Kashmir, he came to the U. S. and taught literature and writing and received both Guggenheim and Ingram-Merrill grants. His books of poetry are in English, in a variety of forms and in free verse, and have dealt most recently with the disintegration of his beloved Kashmir ("The Country Without a Post Office") and the death of his mother ("Rooms Are Never Finished"). he died of brain cancer in December, 2001, and this book, his last, is witness to his allegiance to the poets and poetry of America, the depth of his literary roots, and his impending death.
The book is entirely made up of ghazals in English. A strict poetic form...