The defining characteristics of a traditional ghazal are its rhyme and refrain. The refrain can be a word or phrase. … Every couplet ends with the rhyme and refrain. In the first couplet only, both lines end in the rhyme and refrain. Every line of the poem shares the same meter or syllable count..

My life without you lives, but is tarnished

like that gold in my cupboard, stale and tarnished

that room on the third floor sparsely furnished

where we sat and held court is now tarnished

everything’s in place, just a bit famished

food fills not the belly of the tarnished

no one asks after you, where you have vanished

the days that pass quietly are tarnished

the demons I thought I’d tamed now languish

in the nightmares that remain quite tarnished

silent grief fills the bowl, it’s my garnish

threatening to spill tears, old and tarnished

‘Dearest Ipsy’ failed, broken and vanquished

The brave smile on her face oddly tarnished.