The Heart and Soul Nebulas | Image Credit & Copyright: Leonardo Orazi

Heart and Soul Aura

Souls in this universe are more abundant than flora
Can a heart and a soul share just one aura?

A nebulous concept, central to life as we know it
The idea that each heart and soul has an aura

The timing, the promise, and the deal came together
Conceiving a plan to join our heart and soul auras

I relinquished my heart and you bequeathed yours
Another step toward heart and soul with one aura

We surrendered our souls and never looked back
Making it harder to distinguish our heart and soul auras

Our shared true love the final binding ingredient
Our hearts and our souls now have but one aura

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The Heart and Soul Nebulas | Image Credit & Copyright: Leonardo Orazi | Explanation: Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula, officially dubbed IC 1805 and visible in the above zoomable view on the right, has a shape reminiscent of a classical heart symbol. Both nebulas shine brightly in the red light of energized hydrogen. Several young open clusters of stars populate the image and are visible above in blue, including the nebula centers. Light takes about 6,000 years to reach us from these nebulas, which together span roughly 300 light years. Studies of stars and clusters like those found in the Heart and Soul Nebulas have focused on how massive stars form and how they affect their environment (from Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2014 February 11).

Note: I rotated the original image 90 degrees to better see the “heart”. The “soul” in this orientation now looks like a baby instead of Mickey Mouse’s head.

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My Valentine themed ghazal in response to Linda Kruschke’s Ghazal and Paint Chip Prompt.

GHAZAL (guz’ -ul; Arabic, “talk about love” or “the cry of a gazelle when it is hunted down and trapped”) A lyric poem of at least five and up to roughly fifteen couplets, originally written in Persian, Arabic, Urdu, and other Middle Eastern languages. The form probably originated in Arabia in the seventh century. The couplets are not connected but stand as independent units within the poem. The poet is free to make associative jumps from one couplet to the next but not to enjamb between them. Only the first couplet (matla) rhymes (aa), but the second line of every succeeding couplet rhymes with it (Xa). In the last couplet, the poet may insert his name, although this is sometimes omitted.

In traditional ghazals, the rhyme word (qifia) is usually followed by a refrain (radif) made up of a single word or phrase. This rhyme-and-refrain combination also occurs at the end of the first line of the opening couplet. — Definition from the poetry dictionary by John Drury.

THE CHALLENGE: Today I am challenging you to write a ghazal of at least five couplets.  For the refrain phrase, I would like you to select one of the paint chip words or phrases below. The paint chip words and phrases you have to work with are sour grapes, arboretum, aura, coral, green light, blizzard, and primrose path. As mentioned above, I’d like you to choose one of these as the refrain for your ghazal. Use as many others as you choose. If you can weave in a Valentine’s Day theme, extra bonus points for you.

See more Paint Chip Poetry.