[Maryann Corbett]

I've run a search at The Internet Archive (the Wayback Machine) on the URL. I'm going to try to link to the results; let's see if this works.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ghazalpage.net

It's not everything, but it's something.

[Esther Murer]

It works! Thanks! I'll tell Gene.

The Ghazal Page certainly expanded my horizons with its explorations of varieties of the classical ghazal, and the way Gene challenged us to push the boundaries of the form and explore what else could be done with it in English. The ghazal became one of my fallback forms for, say, when I get stuck during NaPo.

I don't know where "guzzle" comes from - I suppose Urdu, via Agha Shalid Ali. My son, who knows Farsi and Arabic, says that in Farsi its sort of RrraZAHL (he hears the initial consonant as a velar French "r"; my guess is that it's more the voiced equivalent of German "ch" (Dutch "gh"). Anyway, he says Arabic is the same but with the stress on the first syllable. So (except for one I wrote called "Chocolate guzzle") I'm going with Gha-ZAL.

Esther

[Mary Cresswell]

This is to let you know the sad news that Gene Doty has passed on. I had an email from one of his children. He had been ill for a year or so, I know.

[Martin Rocek]

Actually, I talked to an Egyptian friend of mine, and what he told me about the pronunciation fits exactly what Esther wrote.

[Siham Karami]

So sad to hear of Gene Doty's passing. I always loved reading The Ghazal Page and didn't realize he was that ill. Definitely we'd like to do something to keep the archive. I imagine his family would like that.

On a side note in reference to pronunciation issues, I can't speak for the Farsi, but in Arabic, ghaZAL (where zal rhymes with pal) means gazelle or deer, and GHAzzle or GHUZzle means "flirtation." I was told by Ghazal Expert Mary Meriam that the proper meaning is the latter. Also, although the form popularized now is considered Persian in origin, the terminology sounds very Arabic to me: "sher" (pronounced more gutturally in Arabic) means "poem" for example. So I guess it relates to both traditions which in turn are related.

And finally, congrats, Jean, on your excellent ghazals which I enjoyed! And to all the fine contributors. May they enter perpetuity one way or another.

Siham

[Esther Murer]

So sorry to hear about Gene. When it's time to lay it down.... Oh, my.

[Janice D. Soderling]

I am sad to read the news about Gene Doty. I followed his page for a long time, though I never got up the nerve to send anything.

Thanks Mary for posting here.

[Terese Coe]

Charming, Jean! Kudos!

[Mary Cresswell]

Quote from the website, which is now open with Ghazal Page #58

www.ghazalpage.com

Enjoy poems lush with romance, sex, loss and longing, faith, and politics (bankers, veterans, refugees, exiles, and drones all make appearances)... Issue 58 also revels in the beauty of art. Yousuf bin Mohammad evokes Agha Shahid Ali, Jean L. Kreiling talks Steinbeck, and Esther Greenleaf Murer takes John Ashbery's lead-- meanwhile, Anne Pitkin celebrates song and dance, and Beatriz F. Fernandez and William Dennis muse on paintings, both classical and contemporary.
Alongside exceptional, original Persian ghazals, you'll also find qasida, tercets, free verse ghazals from Ann Howells, Sunil Uniyal's translation of Mir Taqi Mir, and delightful experimental approaches from Jan Zlotnik Schmidt, Karla Linn Merrifield, Huma Azeem, and Alexander Tokarev.
Holly Jensen, Editor