Ghazal · Love

Ghazal of the Open Door

by The QuillOak Editors

Reading room

1All winter I have left a lamp beside the door.

2The cold comes in, but so might you, beside the door.

3They say to want this little is a kind of wealth —

4then call me rich, who keeps a chair beside the door.

5The road forgets the travelers it carried off;

6the house remembers, and waits there beside the door.

7Some pray to heaven, some to luck, and some to time.

8I say your name once, like a prayer, beside the door.

9Call the poet foolish, then — she will not move.

10Quill keeps her watch, her one repair, beside the door.

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“Ghazal of the Open Door” by The QuillOak Editors — quilloak.com/poems/ghazal-of-the-open-door

Quick facts

Poem: Ghazal of the Open Door
Poet: The QuillOak Editors
Length: 10 lines
Form: Ghazal
Themes: Love, Missing You, Hope

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 10 lines · 5 couplets
Line length: Mostly 12-syllable lines (hexameter length).

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a ghazal, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Original QuillOak text. Personal sharing is permitted; other reuse requires permission.

Author record: The QuillOak Editorstoday
Source record: QuillOak originalGhazal of the Open Door, authored for QuillOak by The Quillery
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 ab0e642239469fe7…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Ghazal Love Missing You Hope

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