Ghazal Poetry: Sing the Old Songs

Ghazal poetry was traditionally a sung form, invoking other traditional symbols like the gazelle (an image often used to suggest the graceful, beautiful Beloved).

Poetry Prompt

Invoke the central image from an old love song. Feel free to use not only the image but also a few lines from the song. Put these in your ghazal poem, to either celebrate or mourn a lover, a place, or a friend (Need a reminder for how to write a ghazal? Go here.)

Thanks to our participants in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s a ghazal we enjoyed from Monica Sharman. Says Monica, “One morning I woke up with ‘Celebrate Me Home’ (1977) playing in my head, and it did me in for several days. The one I heard in the store last week was ‘What a Fool Believes’ (1979). It has the words ‘He came from somewhere back in her long ago, ‘ which fascinated me, and which I used in my ghazal for this prompt.”

From her unbroken days the music, a song,
played in Motown sound—a bruising song.

In the rhythm and blues of blue-eyed soul
she mishears the words, confuses the song.

The catch of a phrase progressing the chord,
repeating to find the clues in the song.

Loose syncopations tighten the driving
beat, a nostalgic noose of a song.

From somewhere back in her long-ago
she finds the lyric. She won’t lose the song.

—Monica Sharman

Photo by Julius Reuchel, Creative Commons, via Flickr.

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