the darkness invades the light tonight
but her mind bears no fright tonightthe gait of captured memories—
she flits away in delight tonightthe embers of a sepulchral flame
her wild heart takes flight tonightoh, how the stars weep for her melody
who is to see such a sight tonightmother earth dances in uproar
her heaven takes flight tonight!NOTE:
What I just wrote, perhaps even failed miserably, is known as a very ancient form of poetry — the ghazal. It has its roots in Arabic but with time and history, it gained popularity among Persian, Urdu and Hindi writers. Ghazals in English are rare indeed. It does require a poet to adhere to structural requirements and what not but what I find very beautiful is that each couplet (composed of 2 lines) is a poem in its own. There's no thematic continuity (I tried my best to achieve that or so I think) and most poets who wrote ghazals discussed themes of love, separation and pain. Initially, it was mostly love but poetry evolves and so did ghazal. Eventually, poets began to pen down ghazals on a number of themes (not necessarily revolving around love). I'd love to hear your opinion on this and if you want me to ramble on, just let me know!