Smitha Vishwanath's Blog, page 22

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 8 – The Braveheart’s dance

Our featured resource today is this animated video of a talk given by the poet Jane Hirshfield on the art of the metaphor. Finally, our (optional) prompt for the day takes its inspiration from Laura Foley’s poem “Year End.” Today, we challenge you to write a poem that centers around an encounter or relationship between two people […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 7- Wish you were here

And last but not least, we’re taking it easy with today’s (optional) prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem titled “Wish You Were Here” that takes its inspiration from the idea of a postcard. Consistent with the abbreviated format of a postcard, your poem should be short, and should play with […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 6- Will it kill you?

Our featured resource for the day is “A Poetry Channel” on YouTube, where you’ll find an eclectic array of poems being read with accompanying images and video. And now for our (optional) prompt. Today’s we’d like to challenge you to write a poem rooted in “weird wisdom,” by which we mean something objectively odd that […]

NaPoWriMo 2024, Day 5- Take 2 : Joy of the leaf, the little duckling and the child.

I did a second take on today's prompt which was to write a poem from three different things/beings point of view. Joy, said the leafIs water washing down my face and backallowing me to breathe in peace andmaking me look all glossy and newJoy, said the little ducklingIs following my mother and my siblings in […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 5 – Luck for the old man, the Hibiscus and the Lion

Our resource for the day is not a social media account, but a podcast that we’ve featured in past years (and is good enough to bear repeating): The Slowdown. You’ll find a poem here every day — you can listen online and read the transcript with the daily poem as well. Now, let’s get to our […]

Published: Poem ‘Order of the Day’

I’m delighted to share my poem, ‘Order of the Day’ has been published in the magazine, MasticadoresUSA. Thank you, Barbara, for giving this poem a home, and for providing writers a space to share their work. Here’s a verse from the poem: How do I talk about what is ‘out of order’?When I no longer […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 4- Cave-Dwelling Birds

Today’s resource is the Instagram account Read a Little Poetry, where you will in fact find a lot of poetry. Our (optional) prompt for the day challenges you to write a poem in which you take your title or some language/ideas from The Strangest Things in the World. First published in 1958, the book gives shortish descriptions of odd […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 3- The Clothline

P.C. https://www.etsy.com/listing/54419688... Our resource for the day is the twitter account Peege, where you’ll find lots of poetry, but also cool art and photos. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a surreal prose poem. For inspiration, check out Franz Kafka’s collection of short parables (my favorite is “The Green Dragon”). I’m not sure if this is […]

NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 2 – Paruppu Payasam- If only Shakespeare knew you

Today’s poetry resource is Secret Chords, an Instagram account where you will find a new poem every day. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a platonic love poem. In other words, a poem not about a romantic partner, but some other kind of love – your love for your sister, or a friend, or […]

NaPoWriMo 2024 : Day 1 : Christmas Day

Today’s resource is the twitter account of the poet Tom Snarsky, where you will find a plethora of poems to peruse!‘Today, we’d like to challenge you to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that […]