Hi everyone!

Did the title put you off? I hope not. Today’s poetics is much more than the title suggests. Today is the last day of April, last day of NaPoWriMo, last day of A to Z challenge, Val’s Scavenger hunt and many such challenges that take place this month. (I do wonder, why?) Some of you must be sighing with relief, wondering why you put yourself through this frenetic writing spree, while others maybe dreading tomorrow, wondering what would keep their muse busy. I decided this year to save myself from the punishing routine I had been following for almost seven years and did not participate in NaPoWriMo.

Like most of you I do write frequently but before I press the publish button, there is always a niggle – is this worth sharing? Not all that we write everyday is good by our own standards. Sometimes deadlines do not give us enough time to polish what we have written. Sometimes we want to be the first one to respond to a challenge and forego revision and rewriting. There are also times when despite our best efforts we are unable to satisfy the critic in us. We take too much pressure in these times of instant gratification and Melissa (Mom with a blog) recently commenting on one of my posts wrote that we are very good at harsh criticism of ourselves. She is so right! We scrutinize our own words, agonize over the rhythm and rhymes, assailed by self-doubt many a times.

So now that the pressure of a poem/post a day has eased, how about showing a bit of love and gentleness to yourself.

Read these beautiful lines by Derek Walcot from his poem ‘Love after Love‘.

“The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you“

Who does not remember these compelling lines from ‘Invictus‘ by William Ernest Henley!

“Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed“

Or look at these lines by Melody Godfred.

“Of all the

things I own,

my worth is my

favorite possession“

I have saved the best for the last. ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven‘ by W B Yeats.

“Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

For today’s poetics prompt, I have a simple challenge for you, write a poem about self; self-love, self-doubt, self-scrutiny, self-healing…whatever you feel comfortable about sharing. For a whole month you have written for others, today write for yourself. The length and the form are of your choice.

After you have written your poem, post it on your blog. Link it back to this post and don’t forget to leave the link of your post at Mr. Linky. The challenge will be open till 2 pm EST Thursday. Do take out time to read the other poems shared. Hope you enjoy the prompt, hope you will write this one last poem for this month, I eagerly await your poems.

Thank you.