Smitha Vishwanath's Blog, page 19

Book Review 10/50 : ‘Telling Sonny’ by Elizabeth Gauffreau

I have completed my tenth book for the year. Forty more to go as per the goal I set at the beginning of the year. It’s seeming harder and harder by each passing day to achieve that goal. But, I’m not going to fret. I’m going to take my time and enjoy the books I […]

Dhaka Diaries: Thankful Thursday, Tanka Tuesday, Art- ‘Take me Home’, FOTD

I’m participating in Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Challenge, which requires us to write syllabic poetry using a kigo (season) word. I’ve decided to try out an Abhanga for this week’s challenge. ‘Abhanga is the original name given to a saint’s devotional poetry in the state of Maharashtra in India. The poet was Sant Tukaram. Abhanga are […]

Published : ‘Winter’s Gone, Spring is here’ by SpillWords Press

Hi everyone, I’m delighted to share my poem, ‘Winter’s Gone, Spring’s here’ has been published by SpillWords Press. I had written the poem sometime in February when it was Spring in Dhaka. The beauty of Spring had been replaced by excruciatingly hot Summer days where we saw temperatures of around 40 degree centigrade. Thankfully, that […]

Friday Fictioneers 100524: Change

I’m back again participating in the Friday Fictioneers Challenge, hosted by Rochelle , after a month of poetry. The rule for this challenge is that we need to write a 100-word story based on the photo provided below. For the rest of the rules, you can click the link above. ‘What’s that?’ Lisa pointed to […]

Art : Summer blues, Tanka Tuesday poetry-challenge-no-33-5-7-24, FOTD

After a month of NaPoWriMo, it was lovely picking up the brush again. With temperatures averaging around 40 degrees C, and the country declaring a week’s holiday for schools and colleges due to the impending dangers of a heat wave, I painted this picture to cool me down. I call this ‘Summer blues’. It’s wonderful […]

Book Review 09/50: Redemption by Gwen Plano

This has to be my fastest read in years. I completed the book in 5 days, which is a record, considering I’m a slow reader and there are a whole lot of things that happen during my day that I pay attention to ( note: I did not say ‘need my attention’). I wouldn’t count […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 30- This is my prayer

Our final daily resource is this repository of podcasts hosted by the Scottish Poetry Library. And now for our last prompt of the year – optional, as always! Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend, as […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 29- Albatross

Today’s daily resource is Poems for These Hours, an Instagram account that shares new poems regularly. And now for our optional prompt. If you’ve been paying attention to pop-music news over the past couple of weeks, you may know that Taylor Swift has released a new double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department.” In recognition of […]

Book Review 08/50 : Grow Damn it! by Cheryl Oreglia

Warning: Lengthy Review It’s the name of the book that caught my attention, a year ago, when I read it on Sally Cronin’s blog. But that was not when I bought the book. It slipped out of my mind and I bought it a year later when I saw the author’s post promoting the book […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 28- The dragon we created/ Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge, No. 31, 4/23/24,

Our featured resource for the day is Harriet Books, the Poetry Foundation’s online website devoted to poetry book reviews, poetry news, and poetry-themed blog poets. Finally, our optional prompt for the day asks you to try your hand at writing a sijo. This is a traditional Korean verse form. A sijo has three lines of 14-16 syllables. […]