Poetry challenge #44: Ghazal

This was one of the first poetry forms I attempted and when I started this poetry challenge it was one of the forms I decided wasn’t suitable. Because it’s difficult to get right. Not impossible, but you need to work at it. However, since this challenge began, I know I have become much more at ease with different forms of poetry and not so easily daunted. The forms I’ve been using in the challenges are far more difficult now than they were in the beginning, so I’m supposing that you have gained in confidence as much as I have.

To cut the blather short, this week’s challenge is to write a ghazal. Shadow poetry explains it better than I can, though I should point out that another version of ‘the rules’ explains that there is no fixed syllable count per line, but each line must be the same length. Also, the first and second lines end on a rhyme, not necessarily the same word. Oh, and although rhythm isn’t obligatory, it’s so much nicer (and more complicated 🙂 ) to get a flow going. And one last apology—I don’t like the last rule about the final stanza referring to the poet’s name. I keep well out of my poems and I won’t mind if you do the same.

A ghazal is a love poem, so it has to be about…love. I’ve added a theme if you want one:

Dawn

and the image is an enigmatic one—an androgynous Dawn who doesn’t look too happy about the new day beginning.

As usual, you almost a week to write your poem. Just post it in the comments before next Tuesday.

Scattered like ashes at break of the day,

The cracks at dawn reveal love blown away.

 

Our fumbling hands try to stem the dark flow

From our hearts’ broken seal, love blown away.

 

Back to back, bitterness gnaws on grief’s bones,

As if tears could repeal love blown away.

 

I look in your eyes, the light has not died,

In a nightmare unreal, love blown away.

 

Soft light of morning may show where love fled,

And we find, once wounds heal, love blown away.