Agha Shahid Ali (the Kashmiri-American poet credited with bringing the ghazal to America) compared the relationship between the ghazal and the poet to that of a slave and master switching roles. Once the poet establishes the form with the first line, the roles switch. The poet is now attempting to "master the master". This contentious metaphor of master/slave and notions of power are prevelant in other modern American ghazals such as Tracy K. Smith's Ghazal and Patricia Smith's Speak Now, Or Forever. Hold Your Peace.
Following in these traditions, I reflect on the notions of power that emerge in personal and general conceptions of the grid: the grid as arbiter of eurocentric design practices, the Grindr grid, and the urban grid, to name a few. Where does the power lie in the ghazal? Where does the power emerge in the grid?