Thursday, November 21, 2013

Disqualified! Clarification and an apology

Folks,

This is to say that I have been disqualified from the aforementioned RLP India awards longlist. This is because it appears that quite absent-mindedly and inadvertently, I did not follow all the rules of the contest. So it appears that all the five poems were supposed to be unpublished, but I made a mistake. I had also sent one or two of those poems to some magazine at some point and then forgotten about it or become confused regarding the rules or whatever. I will not go into the details. I will merely say that my name is no longer there on the list. My apologies for my carelessness.

and here's to poetry... more and more poetry, as long as I can write, and write more, and write better, and read more,and... and live and relive, the kingdom has not been lost. :-)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Longlisted for the RLP India Poetry Award :D and a publication

Dear folks,


So here's some good news. :-)


Read Leaf Poetry had opened its India Office only this year, and Linda L. Ashok has been pretty much the main person co-ordinating it. This was a national all-India poetry competition where one had to submit five poems each. The award ceremony was recently held in Hyderabad. So, there are 2 winners, some 6-7 people in the shortlist including biggies such as Sumana Roy and Sudeep Sen, and some 17-18 people in the longlist including the likes of Abha Iyengar, Sivakami Velliangiri, even my peer and room-mate, Anjumon Sahin, and well yes, yours truly. :-)
So, happy to be longlisted! I still get to be somewhere in the top 27, so perhaps my poems aren't bullshit after all! :D


errrrm, and there was another publication in eFiction India last month. I am putting up the poem 'Pain' here.


Pain


It is wrenched out of one, moment
by slow torturous moment, hanging
heavy as dread, as one day
becomes the next and flows into the stream
of months and years. Tear by tear, drop
of blood by drop of sweat, it oozes out
Pain makes you yearn. Pain
Then proceeds to teach you the supreme arts
of patience and control. This suffering
is extraordinary. It is the lowest and
it is the highest too. This exquisite hurt
that howls, shrieks, torments and ravages
and ultimately becomes the two syllables
of your name. But it never goes away.
It never quite lets you forget.
It makes you learn to submit. There is no other way.