Day 8 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was rather long, so I added it below the poem. But the short take: Write a love song in the form of a ghazal (defined below).

Love Song for One Not in Love

Write a love song, you tell me. It’s easy.  That true?
When madly in love, it might – just might – be true.

Love is a slippery eel, you can’t pin it down, even with
arrows, dear Cupid, with your aim straight and true.

Love sunshine and bunnies and chocolate and unicorns.
“In love” takes more than rose glasses. Now that’s true! 

A duet, a round, utter cacophony. Oooh, that last one!
That’s what love sounds like, were I ruthlessly true.

Enough, though, Maggie. Sing your shanties or anthems
or hymns or blues. Whatever. Just to your own self be true.

The prompt:

The ghazal (pronounced kind of like “huzzle,” with a particularly husky “h” at the beginning) is a form that originates in Arabic poetry, and is often used for love poems. Ghazals commonly consist of five to fifteen couplets that are independent from each other but are nonetheless linked abstractly in their theme; and more concretely by their form. And what is that form? In English ghazals, the usual constraints are that:

• the lines all have to be of around the same length (though formal meter/syllable-counts are not employed); and
• both lines of the first couplet end on the same word or words, which then form a refrain that is echoed at the end of each succeeding couplet.

Another aspect of the traditional ghazal form that has become popular in English is having the poet’s own name (or a reference to the poet – like a nickname) appear in the final couplet.

Want an example? Try Patricia Smith’s “Hip-Hop Ghazal.”

Now try writing your own ghazal that takes the form of a love song – however you want to define that. Observe the conventions of the repeated word, including your own name (or a reference to yourself) and having the stanzas present independent thoughts along a single theme – a meditation, not a story.