Hi all! Wish you a very happy new year – I hope this year you find new success in your creative journey. I had a difficult time recently, having gone through an accident and the recovery – but things are shaping up slowly, so I look forward with a lot of hope. So wish you the same and on that note, let me open the bar.

I have had this idea for a few months now, but there is an interesting story behind this. Let me share that first. These days I am working from a city, where I have never lived before – Hyderabad. Few days back, I went to see the old fort – which used to be the main city couple of hundred years back (the fort is at least a 500 years old). Apart from usual features like big boundary wall, army barrack, ammunition, courtyard, palace – Golkonda fort has some interesting acoustic engineering built within the structure, for example, if you just enter the gate, stand in a particular spot and clap – the sound will be heard to all guards, but others, standing feet apart won’t know – this was sort of alert mechanism in old days. What caught my interest was the fact that the king’s hall was designed in such a way, so that all secret discussion of the subjects gathered in the hall could be heard and monitored. Though the fort is merely a shadow of its former self among ruins – this alert mechanism still works, you lean against a wall and you can clearly hear what people in the other corner are talking about.

While it is not such a great thing to have someone eavesdrop to our secrets, I thought it must be interesting to handle the subject and started reading through poems on secrecy to see how the subject has been handled so far. I came across this beautiful piece and interestingly the author is not known – so this one truly lives up to its name.

The secret (anonymous)

We have a secret, just we three,
The robin, and I, and the sweet cherry-tree;
The bird told the tree, and the tree told me,
And nobody knows it but just us three.

But of course the robin knows it best,
Because she built the—I shan’t tell the rest;
And laid the four little—something in it—
I’m afraid I shall tell it every minute.

But if the tree and the robin don’t peep,
I’ll try my best the secret to keep;
Though I know when the little birds fly about
Then the whole secret will be out.

So what about poetics tonight? I want you to write about your secrets – well, of course, without actually revealing them. I am sure you will find this fun and creatively challenging.

Now, if you are new to Dversepoets, this is what you got to do.

Write a poem and post it to your site/blog.
Enter a link to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below.
You will find links to other poets. Read and comment on other poet’s work.
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