Love and Sorrow

A poem about the emotional landscape that unfolds when a loved one is no longer present.

This poem is part of the NaPoWriMo 2025 challenge to write a poem a day in April. This is the prompt for April 8.

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.

Your laughter lingers, quiet moments of grief,
as the echoes of our days fade into my grief.  

Each smile, a sunbeam, illuminating our world; 
dream’s canvas, now painted in shadows, grief.  

The moon holds vigil, as stars shed their tears;  
in night’s stillness, your absence—acute grief.  

Time drifts like petals on a soft, silent breeze,  
each period a memory, ever cherished, grief.  

And when stars gather, I search for your light
in studded sky and bow to overwhelming grief.

Each sigh, a dirge, a slow rhythm pulling forth
a melody of yearning, a silent scream of grief.   

So, Caro, as dawn breaks, we mourn together,  
in morning’s quiet, I can only give into my grief.

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