Song Service

We love to sing, while visiting a song service
clothed in our best, we got shopping at strong service

The singing, the treats of crackers, tea, and candy
didn't matter if it was fighting wrong service

Marching Christian soldiers, came from so many
walking down the street singing it's gone service

Our feeling of being together made it
so happy for all, even a long service

Where the clothing came from no one knew who gave it
or donated. No matter for belong service

We would all go to the song service weekly
We loved our gatherings, loving our throng service

The ghazal form has many rules. In order for a poem to be called a ghazal, it must adhere to the following: The poem is typically about love. Traditionally, ghazal poems are about love of another person, love of the Divine, or both.

The poem must be written in couplets, or stanzas of 2 lines each. The poem has no less than 5, and no more than 15, couplets. These couplets must be end-stopped. Each couplet typically ends in a period. Each couplet should be able to stand on its own, while also being interlinked with the other couplets.

Often, these couplets are described as being “pearls, strung together.” Some ghazal poets argue that each couplet is its own poem; the ghazal is just what happens when the couplets sit side-by-side.

Each line must have the same number of syllables. You can challenge yourself by writing in meter, but contemporary ghazals don’t require this—only the same syllable count in each line.

Every ghazal has a radeef. A radeef is a refrain repeated at the end of certain lines. This refrain often titles the poem as well. The refrain appears at the end of lines 1 and 2, and then at the end of lines 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc. In other words, every even-numbered line, plus the first line.

Every ghazal has a kafiya. The kafiya is a rhyming phrase that precedes every radeef. The poem cannot repeat any kafiyas, so every radeef has its own unique kafiya.

The final couplet can have a self-reference. In other words, the poet can (and usually does) refer to themselves in the final couplet. Some contemporary ghazal examples eschew this rule, but most poems have the self-reference.

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Author's Note: Not an easy format, as you can tell, but I keep trying!

As a young person in a small American Indian village, the weekly gathering place was what the people called song service.