The seed of a poem can germinate from almost anything, anywhere, at any time….it can well be something that I saw or heard; it could be a memory from the past, a stray thought, an incident- old or recent…. a person, a bond, a twinge in the heart, a lingering longing, an unfulfilled dream; a news item that troubles the heart and demands a response … the reason for a poem is mostly sudden but compelling. Creative tension takes over and I ‘feel’ pregnant with the poem that is waiting to be born.  Sometimes I go on for days with the undefined embryo of the poem in my being until I can carry it no more; I then, have to sit at my desk to write.

Giving life and expression to the hazy embryo that is waiting for definitive light through verse becomes the most natural and spontaneous thing to do! Thoughts and feelings, all bundled together, transform into a cascading verse that falls in a steady downpour!  There is no blueprint; the flow is quite unplanned and I do not know how the verse would flow or how the poem would end.  Will it follow in rhyme scheme or free verse, little do I know any of this when I put my pen to paper or my fingers to the keyboard.  It’s only while the feeling is being expressed and the poem is being ‘born’ that even I can even see what is being created.  The poem finds its form and complexion, most naturally. When all creative energy is expended, the poem is delivered.  It ends when it ends.   I do read it after it is written and do tinker with a word here or there, and move a line up or down to embellish it; may alter an image or a comparison, but its original form, largely remains. I can either like what has spilt forth or not, but that’s about it.  I can’t change it fundamentally, as is true of all-natural creations, and the poem is born, as it is.