A Ghazal for September

Happy September Poets!

Here's to calmer seas and fairer winds this month. It's been a bit rocky around our world as of late.

Thanks to Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe for hosting our roundup today. 

This month's Inkling challenge comes from Margaret who asked us to write a ghazal. Ooooph. This was tough for me. I wrote a poem and then another, got feedback from the other inklings and still wasn't happy with my work. Finally, thinking backward from my usual approach freed me up to write a ghazal that I'm pleased to share.

Here's my third attempt...that works as a ghazal.

Photo: "A Moon in a Galaxy" by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

Mares
 …dark areas of considerable extent on the surface of the moon
                                                                                          Merriam Webster

Fear and worry run wild at night
disturbing what's reviled at night

The man in the moon lost his shine

Now, he roams hither and yon, exiled at night

No hay diddle diddle or cat with a fiddle
could unjangle nerves riled at night

Down through the leaves of an old oak tree

searching for a lost flower child at night

Where am I going and what do I wish?

uninterrupted sleep, sweet and mild at night

© Linda Mitchell

Here's how I figured out that backward was the way to think. Decide on the internal rhyme word...and make a list of word that rhyme with it. That became my word bank as I wrote each additional couplet. For this poem, I kept each couplet related to the moon from old English nursery rhymes, nightmares, and sleep. Once I caught on to the HOW...writing a ghazal was fun.

Hamish is growing stronger as a poet these days. He wrote a sevenling for his padlet. Sevenling is a new form to both of us. We learned about it from the August writing challenge at Ethical ELA. 

See more ghazals at

Reflections on the Teche
Reading to the Core
my juicy little universe
Nix the Comfort Zone 
A Year of Reading