(Today’s prompt is to choose an abstract noun from a given list and then use that as the title for a poem that contains very short lines, and at least one invented word.) How calm  you were the day you died, watching me running  pillar to post getting untied getting  things done,  things that were…

Today’s prompt: Have you ever heard someone wonder what future archaeologists, whether human or from alien civilization, will make of us? Today’s challenge is to answer that question in poetic form, exploring a particular object or place from the point of view of some far-off, future scientist? “This was a beautiful planet, see how it…

For this challenge cast your mind back to your own childhood and write a poem about something that scared you – or used to scare you – and which still haunts you (if only a little bit) today. Bolero does something to me when it plays I am un-Ravelled resting my head upon upon my father’s…

Today’s challenge asks you to write a poem that contains the name of a specific variety of edible plant….  “This karela* is the sweetest,” you used to say Plunging your knife and fork and cutting into the flesh I never could figure how you enjoyed the bitterness  That made us all gag and make funny faces. That…

you had the softest hands, your palms smoothed by years, the lines erased by time. How I held how I held those hands in mine, whispered in your ear that it was okay to let go. Not the suffering, not the pain, nor the hurt we caused each other, none of it matters anymore. I…

Today’s prompt: Think of a person, real or imagined, who has been held out as an example of how to live, But…. As you lie drawing your last breathsThis is not easy to say.Yet it’s better I expressWhat I need to say some day. Mothers are to be looked up toIn Hindi movies, paragons of…

So today is a prompt to parody a famous poem. Of course, I chose the one by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How do I love thee, let me count the ways?” So here goes: How do I hate you, let me count the ways, Actually hate comes with a breadth and height You cannot. So I…

I love that story Baba used to say A long winded  One  About the cruel mahout  And  His elephant on the run. He chased  The pachyderm Over hills and vales Cities and by-lanes In sun and rain And caught up Finally When  The tusker  tried to escape  down the drain.   Wide-eyed   I’d listen  As…

The poem I was writing died a nasty death it got sucked into listening to what the judge said . The Courtroom was packed, the crowd surged and in the stampede the poem was murdered. It reached out bloodied hands and in it I found A scribbled note telling me I had to go on….

The Hugli today is not the same as yesterday and the water snaking will change soon. The Hugli today water changes by the second yet remains the same, much like a woman. The Hugli today wears a robe of consistency yet her very soul is one of change. The Hugli today is a toddler and…