Why I Write Poems

Happy World Poetry Day!

I can’t remember when I fell in love with poetry. Maybe it was as a baby, when Mummy read to me out of that fascinating book with all those animals and fairies in it and I would listen to her voice lilting as she read, “Here comes the pony, his work is all done, down through the meadow he takes a good run, up goes his heels and down goes his head; it’s time little people were going to bed”

Through the poems I heard from her, I learnt of fairies and witches and magic and naughty kids and good kids. Stories came alive and created a wonderful world of rhyme and rhythm.

As I grew older, I read and fell in love with the brave Lochinvar, and cried over Bess and her Highway man. I realized how one mistake in a war can cause so many to lose their lives in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. And I guess it was inevitable that this passion would make me want to write my own poems.

It wasn’t just poems in English that I loved. Even as a first grader, I remember the awe I felt as I visualized the world as depicted in the Marathi poem  देवा तुझें किती सुंदर आकाश. Or  mulling over the reality of life as I listened to “या झोपडीत माझ्या”

And later the poems by Harivanshrai Bacchan,  Maithilisharan Gupta, Gulzar, Amrita Pritam and Sahir Ludhianvi. Or Javed Akhtar.

Lyrics of songs always fascinated me. I can’t sing very well, but the stories they told along with the rhythm and the rhyme fascinated me. Though I can never remember the tunes of the songs, I inevitably remember the lyrics. I rarely forget the words of poems I have read.

So it seemed natural for me to begin writing poems. Of course at that time parents did not promote their kids work so aggressively. At the most it was looked on fondly as something to be spoken of with quiet pride, but publishing anything at that age was unheard of, even if I was good.

I felt great when my poems were chosen for the school magazine and the church monthly bulletin. In school I used to be asked to create jingles for the notice boards and cards for teacher’s day and Principal’s day. In college I started sending a few poems to magazines and was thrilled that they were published for a mere ₹50/- which to me was a fortune. 

Fast forward to today where I write a poem almost everyday, thanks to the prompts on my poetry group “You, Me and Poetry”, started by my friend and fellow poet, Kameshwari Kulkarni. I have two books of poems published and enough poems written for at least a couple more.

You can get your copy of “A Mother’s Heart here https://amzn.to/3qjxDzT   (amazon.com) or https://amzn.to/3LexJkv (Amazon.in)

My other book, Who Shall I Be Today is available here https://amzn.to/3iZZyk7 (Amazon.in ) and here https://amzn.to/3iZDZ3h

Happy World Poetry Day!