Smitha Vishwanath's Blog, page 5

Published : ‘Luck for the old man, the hibiscus and the lion’ in The Wise Owl

I’m thrilled to share my poem, ‘Luck for the old man, the hibiscus and the lion’ has been published in The Wise Owl. I’d like to thank the editors and the whole team for giving this poem a place. Here’s a verse from the poem To be lucky,said the old man,is when you can sail […]

Malaysia Diaries 1 : Dine and Shop in Kuala Lumpur

We travelled to Malaysia on the 18th April 2025. It was a short 6-day trip – 3 days in KL (the capital of Malaysia) and 3 days in Penang. Although, we would have loved to explore more of this beautiful country, it just wasn’t feasible with my younger daughter having to return to university. I […]

Art : Room with a view

This is my first painting after moving to Kenya. The thing with watercolours is that it’s easy to carry it around and it’s not messy. I kept a 12-pan watercolour set, burshes and sketchpad with me, so I could carry on painting irrespective of the time the container took to come. It’s going to be […]

Published : My Pistachio Green Comb by Silverbirch Press

Wishing everyone a happy and blessed June. I want to thank Melanie and Silverbirch Press for publishing my poem , ‘My Pistachio Green Comb’ in the series on ‘My Favourite Things’. My green-toothed comb was my lucky charm when I was 14. I somehow believed that if I didn’t brush my hair with it, I […]

Nairobi Diaries : Thursday Doors 290525, Tanka Tuesday 270525, Jo’s Monday Walk

Tall trees reach the skies, valleys covered in green make up the landscape, a sheet of soft white clouds dons the sky letting only the warmth of the sun to touch us without the blazing heat. Butterflies and dragonflies flit over flowers growing everywhere, bouquets of flowers deck street corners waiting to be bought and […]

Nairobi Diaries : Thankful Thursday 290525: Finding the house

It’s 15 days since we landed in Nairobi and the hunt for a house to stay in began the day after we got here. With hubby working and the agents not working on Sundays, we’ve had to squeeze in time on weekdays to view houses. Prior to coming here, I thought I’d stay in an […]

Nominated as Author of the Month by Spillwords Press

I’ve been nominated as ‘Author of the Month’ for my poem, ‘An Epiphany’ which is written in the vilanelle form. I was nominated thanks to all of you who liked the poem. Here’s the poem for those who haven’t read it or don’t remember it I had a feeling about the blockin my mind dissolving-the […]

Book Review 2025 12/50 : Gypsy Wanderings and Random Reflections by Dr. Sunil Kaushal

I had been meaning to read Dr Sunil Kaushal’s memoir since a long, long time as I had read the author’s poetry on Facebook and  knew the author was a doctor. The synergy of science and literature intrigued me and I wanted to know how it all began. The book was published in 2019. Set […]

Tanka Tuesday 200525, Thursday Doors, Art : A bottle of wine, Kenya: a morning walk

The Tanka Tuesday challenge this week is being hosted by Selma. Selma says, ‘I invite you to choose one of the Poetry Forms for your syllabic poem this week and to use aKigo word from the 500 Kigo Words List that Colleen encouragedus to use last year.’ I’ve written an imayo for the challenge. ‘The imayo comprises four 12-syllable lines. Each line is divided […]

Art : Ordinary things

I’ve been trying to fill up my sketch pad. And as part of the effort, I painted two garlics (some would call them onions). Call it what you may. After all, art is subjective and that is such a relief for artists like me. Without further a-do, I present to you, ‘Ordinary things’, my latest […]