I started this year with a poem about my accomplishments and aspirations at work. Writing a poem on a formal topic and publishing it on a medium like LinkedIn had never been a part of my wish list.
It was writing, nevertheless. A creative outburst! Poetry has always been my favorite and comfortable form of writing, since childhood. I started penning poetry at about the age of 10. Seated under the shade of the coconut tree branches that enveloped the terrace of the rented house we stayed in, I poured my heart out on paper, while my parents were lost in their afternoon siesta. Poems were an extension of me. I wrote when I felt happy, sad, disturbed, excited or dejected. All my fights at school and reprimands at home reincarnated as poems on paper. They soothed me, and gave me the much needed healing, that was visibly absent otherwise.
As life progressed into adolescence and adulthood, the complexities and intricacies of existence grew multifold, and so did my writing. It was liberating to express myself through strings of vowels and consonants, but I never thought highly of this ability to write poetry. It felt normal, like brushing my teeth or combing my hair. This, probably, was the reason I never made an attempt to preserve what I wrote. Volumes of beautiful poetry vanished into thin air, over the course of my life, except a few that got published or saved by kith and kin and some good-willed teachers.
As years passed by, my indulgence in poetry diminished, as I channelized my energy into an alternate source of outlet - crying. I felt the only way to live through the miseries of life was to wash them away with tears. This new found negative influence snapped away my ability to write forever, well almost.
In the year 2008, when I was employed with Cognizant Technology Solutions, I was introduced to the world of blogging. Here, encouraged by fellow bloggers, I felt the urge to re-attempt poetry, much against the advice of my sober brain. I wrote a melancholy piece, it being my preferred genre, and published it in the internal blogging site of the corporate entity. To my surprise, the poem garnered praise and love, like I received never before. And to think that, I spent almost a decade away from this form of expression, was baffling! I promised myself that, I would write more often and not let this creative rivulet dry up. But, gradually inertia set in and I gave in to the tides of routine life, without any attempt to break free from the mundane. I did write a piece or two after this herculean attempt, but other than that, poetry became a long forgotten childhood memory.
When I hit 40 and the feeling of missing out on dear life (a different flavor of FOMO, if I may call it so) set in, I travelled down the memory lane and picked up long lost interests and inspirations. Thus was rekindled my desire to pen poetry, again. I opened the doors of my heart wide and unearthed some gems which lay buried since ages. I wrote poems in different genres and moods. It felt like rebirth! Starting this year with a poem marks a renaissance in my life, a change that I would strive to not let go off, at any cost. Though I have been exploring several forms of writing, poetry remains my first and eternal love. Just like how this 100 day writing prompt helped me come out of my shell and express myself without a tint of fear or hesitation, I look forward to creating a series of prompts for poetry and let the creative juices flow on immortal sheets of digital media.
This story is inspired by the 100 day storytelling initiative by Your Story Bag. This is my story for day 1/100 of #2023TheStoriedWay. Thank you Rituparna Ghosh for helping me overcome writer’s block and go all out sharing my stories.
Here is the link to my first poem of the year — https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2022-year-sowmini-s-k-she-her-%3FtrackingId=05fCzL8aTyytqKhUNTqRiw%253D%253D/?trackingId=05fCzL8aTyytqKhUNTqRiw%3D%3D
