Tag: poetry

The PoArtMo Anthology (Youth Edition) Series: Celebrating Inspiration with Uma Nambiar & Ananya Bhardwaj

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our PoArtMo Anthology (Youth Edition) Series, which celebrates the talented young creatives featured in The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Youth Edition.

In this mini-series, eight of them will share what inspired them to write the poems and stories that they sent us.

Let’s start with Uma Numbiar and Ananya Bhardwaj.

Uma Nambiar

Uma Nambiar (Los Angeles, U.S.) likes singing, writing and reading, and would love to become a screenwriter / writer. “My role models are my parents because they have taught me everything I know. Both of their personalities are so sweet and funny, and they teach me how to be my best self.” 

Uma sent us the poem titled Aurora’s Awakening:

I have always loved writing poetry, and the day that I wrote this poem, I wanted to write something about a specific scene. I created an image in my head, something that I deemed magical. While writing the poem, I tried my best to capture what was in my head but in words. I have always been inspired by nature, so writing about nature in this specific poem felt like a great idea. 

I was also inspired to write about how beautiful nature was, in a way that depicted it as something glittery and shiny and magical. That is why most of my poem has a lot of analogies to diamonds, pearls, etc. I have also always been intrigued by gems and jewels and stones and whatnot, so I thought it could be cool to write about that. This is what inspired me to write Aurora’s Awakening. Thank you for your consideration!

Uma Nambiar

Ananya Bhardwaj

Ananya Bhardwaj (New Delhi, India) enjoys painting, writing, cartooning, and playing the piano and guitar. She wants to become a software engineer. “My role model is Marie Curie because she was a brilliant scientist.”

Ananya sent us the poem titled Rise Again:

Sometimes, we may feel like giving up and just forget everything and never show our faces again in public. But, if anything I have learned from nature, is that it never gives up. The trees still grow. The flowers still bloom and give us beauty. And that spirit of never giving up should drive all of us.

That is what this entry is about, that even the saddest person can learn from nature. What seems like a faraway spring day, a forgotten memory will come to end the darkness as no winter lasts forever. All we must have is the patience to reach there slowly and try to find hope in the darkness.

Ananya Bhardwaj

Uma and Ananya, thank you for sharing what inspired your poems. We know that people will love your work as much as we do!

Cendrine & David

PoArtMo Collective: Latest News from Our Members

Hello everyone!

Cendrine, David, and Azelle here. We wanted to share some of our latest news with you.

Azelle recently posted some very interesting work!

David keeps mesmerizing us with his Found Poetry.

Cendrine is about to release book number 32!

Songs in Our Paths: Haiku & Photography (Volume 2) continues offering an opportunity to reflect on the world around us and uncover its mundane, but often overlooked beauty.

The book will be released on May 25, 2021, and is available to pre-order until then! Click here to purchase a copy.

See you soon for more news about our PoArtMo Collective! In the meantime:

Inspirational Artist Series: Daniel Lyons

The Inspirational Artist Series spotlights some of the artists featured in our issues and anthologies, and who have moved us in specific ways.

Today’s guest is Poet Daniel Lyons, whose work has been featured in our magazine.

How does a poem begin for you? Does it start with an image, a form or a particular theme?

My poems always begin with an emotion I can’t quite define. The specific nostalgia of autumn air, for example. Each of my poems is an exploration of that emotion, a definition, as it were.

Are there any forms you haven’t tried yet but would like to?

After several creative writing courses at Western Washington University, I think the only poetry form I haven’t tried yet is epic poetry.

What is your relationship with your speaking voice and your written voice?

My written voice is considerably more articulate and less prone to hyperbole than my spoken voice. As a high-functioning autistic, writing is a more accessible way for me to communicate (most of the time) with other human beings compared to the spoken word.

Have you considered getting other people to read your poetry or is it important for you to be the one to perform your poetry to an audience?

I don’t know if this has ever been an issue for me. It would be strange to hear someone else read my poetry, though I have no fundamental objection to it. Given a choice, I suppose I would prefer to perform my poetry myself, simply because I consider rhythm and pacing to be the soul of poetry.

How important is accessibility of the meaning of your poems? Should we have to work hard to “solve” the poems and discover their deeper meanings?

Poetry is like abstract expressionist painting, or at least my poems are. The point is not what it means but what it makes you feel. Whatever that is, is what it means.

Has your own opinion or idea of what poetry is changed since you first started writing poetry?

I started writing poems when I was in elementary school. It used to be very important to me that poetry rhyme, also that it tell a story. Now I regard it more as a way of painting with words, a way of capturing one moment or state in time, whose past and future are entirely open to interpretation.

Anything else we should know?

Since my father and grandmother passed away in 2020, I have embraced painting as a creative outlet, in addition to working full time and attending online school with Washington State University to pursue a second Bachelor’s, this time in Political Science.

While it is one of my dreams to write about politics and history for a living, I try to keep my personal politics out of my creative work — not out of my themes, but out of my creative content. In this, I draw inspiration from my favorite novel, Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess, whose politics were about as different from my own as it is possible to be, were subtly evident in all of his work, and yet which I am always able to forgive because Burgess filled every page he ever wrote with humor, warmth, wit, and compassion. As we gird ourselves for another round of divisiveness, I hope we can all try to imbibe some of that spirit in our creativity, in our personal relations, and in ourselves.

Changing Seasons - Daniel Lyons


gilded autumn lightfall
glows on leaves golden
as the disappearing summer…
what a wonderful time to be…

the summer remnants fall
on fall leaves glowing
with the light of season’s dying…
what a wonderful time to be…

wintry air blast mocks
the warm colors that blanket
so much hibernating life…
what a wonderful time to be.

Changing Seasons is featured in issue 2 of the Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal.

Bio:

Daniel Lyons graduated from Western Washington University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. He is a published poet and the self-published author of All-American Aphrodite.

Daniel lives in SeaTac, Washington.

Links:

Daniel, thank you for answering our questions and supporting Auroras & Blossoms!

Cendrine & David

Announcing the Pareiku

Hello folks!

If you have followed us for a while, you know how much we like inspiring you to write and create. The success of our Kindku prompted us to continue coming up with unique ideas.

This time, we wanted to appeal to a broader audience of artists with a form that mixes the written and visual elements. Cendrine had already started with her Sixku, a tribute to the Haiku and photography. But we wanted to take things up a notch.

The result is the Pareiku! (Cool name, right? 😉 )

The word “pareiku” combines two concepts:

  • ‘pareidolia’ – the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
  • ‘-ku’ – a tribute to Japanese poetry forms like the haiku and tanka.

The rules are quite simple:

  1. Link together two seemingly unrelated images as one via a 19-syllable poem.
  2. The poem must have a title and follow the 7-5-7 syllable pattern. Punctuation is optional.
  3. The two images can feature the same or different types of visual art. But you must own copyrights / have permission from the artist(s) to use those images. And credits are required at the end of your piece.
  4. Pareiku are meant to be positive / inspirational and family-friendly. So no erotica and no swear words allowed.

We have created some examples for you on the official page of the Pareiku. Click here to view them.

We hope that you will enjoy experimenting with this very unique art form. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for reading and as always, happy writing!

Cendrine & David


Need help with your writing and marketing? Check out our series of guides for authors and writers of all levels!

New Marketing Journal For Poets Released!

Hey there, everyone!

We have some exciting news for you.

We have now released a second inspirational workbook specifically crafted for poets.

This particular journal/workbook is titled My Marketing Workbook: Promotional Tips For Poets. It contains many helpful tips on how to professionally market yourself, with a variety of strategies to help you promote your work to gain a much bigger audience.

In this guide, you will be able to follow some easy, yet extremely useful exercises to help establish yourself as a professional author and poet, all the while doing it on a low to no budget!

My Marketing Workbook: Promotional Tips for Poets

The workbook is now available in both print and ebook formats.

You can find out more about all of our journals and workbooks at https://abpositiveart.com/store

We look forward to hearing your feedback regarding this workbook, we have many more planned to help you make the most out of your writing career.

Keep smiling and happy writing!

David & Cendrine

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