A ghazal invites each couplet to stand on its own while a recurring phrase brings the reader back. In many traditional ghazals, a rhyme comes just before that refrain. The form has rich histories in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu poetry, and poets writing in English have adapted it in different ways.
Listen for return
Choose a short phrase you can bear to hear several times. Write one couplet that ends with it, then another that approaches the phrase from a different direction. Let the images echo without forcing them into a single story.
The older Arabian Nights piece and Treasure Island piece are prose reflections in the archive, rather than examples of ghazals.
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