The mind is full of qualms, disdains and darkness, But the moonlight glints bright and my mind is clear at night. The ugly veneers and masquerades fall instantly And my eyes oversee them and ink smears at night. The benign zephyr chases the problems away After I weep until my cheeks are washed with tears at night. I try to keep my fears and anxieties intact in my heart, But my mind seems to develop ears at night. My soul inquires, why are you crying endlessly, Zumi? And I admit bitterly, I'm missing someone not so dear at night. Here's a serene night prompt. A #nightghazal. First invented by Amir Khusrao, a Persian poet in the 1300s, and first adopted in English by the Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali in the 1980-90s, a ghazal has two elements: radeef and kafia. Radeef is what repeats in every line — "at night" in the above ghazal. Kafia is the rhyming words that precede the radeef. In the above, the words that end with the sound -ear basically. #earatnight In a ghazal, the first couplet—also known as matla, has kafia and radeef in both the lines, but in the subsequent couplets, only the second line of the couplet has the kafia and radeef. The first line could be anything leading up to the second one. In the last couplet, poets include a maqta where they take their own name or pseudonym by mostly addressing themselves or making someone address them. For instance, if I were to write the maqta for the above ghazal, it'd be like this: If you ask, why do you stay up so late, Baba? I'll shyly admit I miss someone dear at night. #YourQuoteAndMine #ghazals_by_zumi
