Poetry

Sustainable Love- A Concrete (Visual) Poetry

Image of a person adding compost to their rose plant.
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Hey there, poetry lovers! In my last post, we dove into the world of concrete poetry—a fascinating form of visual poetry where the words on the page shape themselves into a picture that embodies the poem’s theme. Today, I’m excited to share an example of this with you: my poem titled “Sustainable Love.” This piece is about comparing love’s nurturing process to composting, and I’ve shaped it like a garden tool—a shovel! Let’s dig into the thought process behind this creative choice.

Sustainable Love

Love, like 
composting,

by nature
takes time
to nurture
& g r o w
in rhythm
& rhyme.
It starts in
small bits,
like scraps
of h e a r t
then layers
of c a r e
slooowly
built up.
The scraps
seemingly useless
too broken to mend
blend and transcend
with patience and warmth
into something new, rich and full of life,
a foundation for growth, amidst toil & strife.
Like compost needing air , water , & sun,
love needs care , communication , & fun.
Love's to be tended , to prevent it from rot,
to keep it dynamic and full of thought.
Dear, take time, with your love, as you do,
with composting , daily , a little more anew.
create something , that's long-lasting & true,
a love that's sustainable & always anew.


Why a Shovel? The Thought Process Behind the Shape

When I first penned “Sustainable Love,” it followed a standard stanza format. But as I played around with the structure, I found myself inspired to mould it into a shovel—a tool that perfectly symbolizes the nurturing process I wanted to convey. Now, let’s break down the themes and how the visual structure of this poem brings them to life.

Thematic Analysis: How Composting and Love Are Alike

Love Takes Time, Just Like Composting

At the heart of this poem is a comparison between love and composting. Both require patience and care to truly flourish. Just as composting starts with small scraps—tiny bits that might seem insignificant—love often begins with small acts or gestures. These “scraps of the heart” may appear useless at first, but with the right care, they become the building blocks of something much more substantial.

Growth and Renewal

In the same way that composting transforms scraps into rich, fertile soil, love grows and renews through patience and warmth. The repeated emphasis on time—phrases like “takes time,” “slooowly,” and “daily, a little more anew”—highlights the ongoing effort needed to maintain a healthy, sustainable love. Even the most broken parts of ourselves can be mended and turned into something beautiful when nurtured with care.

Care and Communication Are Essential

Just as compost needs air, water, and sunlight to break down and enrich the soil, love requires care, communication, and a bit of fun to stay vibrant. Without these key elements, love can, like neglected compost, become stagnant. It’s all about tending to love regularly, keeping it dynamic and full of thought.

Visual Structure: Why the Shovel Shape Matters

Shovel Shape: A Symbol of Effort and Transformation

The shovel shape is a conscious design choice as I believe it’s a powerful symbol of the effort and transformation that love requires. In composting, the shovel is essential for turning, mixing, and aerating the compost pile, helping it decompose into something rich and life-giving. Similarly, love requires us to dig deep, turn over our emotions, and work through challenges to create something sustaining.

Handle and Blade: The Foundation and Work of Love

The handle of the shovel, formed by the narrow, tightly aligned first few lines, represents the grip or foundation of the poem’s message. As the poem broadens into the blade of the shovel, it symbolizes where the real work of love (and composting) happens—transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary.

Wrapping It All Up: The Power of Visual Poetry

In “Sustainable Love,” the shovel shape isn’t just for show—it’s an integral part of the poem’s meaning. This shape reinforces the central metaphor of love as a process that requires the right tools, patience, and effort to grow into something truly sustainable and renewing. Just like composting, love is a journey of transformation, and this poem visually embodies that journey.

I hope this exploration of “Sustainable Love” gives you a fresh perspective on both love and the art of concrete poetry. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts—drop a comment below and let’s chat!

Suggested Read:

Write From Different Perspectives To Add Depth and Complexity

Welcome! I’m participating in the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge where I’ll share 26 posts on the theme “The Poet’s Alphabet: 26 Secrets for Crafting Beautiful Poetry”. In each post, I’ll offer bite-sized tips and tricks for crafting and perfectly editing poetry. Today’s tip is:

Write From Different Perspectives To Add Depth and Complexity

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Have you ever considered exploring different perspectives in your writing? It can be a great way to create work that feels rich and complex. By writing from a different gender, race, or time period, you can gain new insights and challenge your own assumptions and biases. This can help you create work that is more universal and relatable, speaking to a broader audience.

For example, if you’re used to writing from a male perspective, try writing from a female perspective or vice versa. If you always write about contemporary issues, try writing from the perspective of a historical figure or a character in a different time period. This can open up new avenues for your creativity and help you craft more diverse and engaging work.

A good example of this is my poem, “Swatantra – A Poem on Independence,” where I wrote from the perspective of the land to convey the idea of freedom and independence in a more profound way. Writing from a different perspective allowed me to use personification and repetition to create a powerful and memorable piece that challenges the reader’s assumptions and biases about what it means to be independent.

An excerpt from the poem, Swatantra

I can be the barren land-isolated
or a fertile field-decorated
deep inside lies my untouched soul
the essence of being immortal

From dust I become-to end
into the dust, a cycle of pretend
in ‘tween, a soul-free, identity independent
singing the song of freedom, eternally coherent

The shackles of your conditioning
never do they define my being
I stretch, I flow, I change yet forever glow
in the gentle breeze, even in a stormy blow

Read the full poem here:

Hope you found this tip useful.

See you with another tip, tomorrow.

This post is a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2023 challenge.

Visualize Your Poems

Welcome! I’m participating in the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge where I’ll share 26 posts on the theme “The Poet’s Alphabet: 26 Secrets for Crafting Beautiful Poetry”. In each post, I’ll offer bite-sized tips and tricks for crafting and perfectly editing poetry. Today’s tip is:

Visualize Your Poems

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Visualize your poems as you write to create powerful imagery. Visualizing your poems can help create strong imagery and bring your work to life. By imagining the scenes, characters, and emotions of your poem, you can create a rich, immersive experience for your readers.

When you visualize your poems, you allow yourself to be more creative and spontaneous in your writing. By freeing yourself from the constraints of logic and reason, you can explore the depths of your imagination and bring forth unexpected and compelling images that will captivate your readers’ attention.

Hope you found this tip useful.

See you with another tip, tomorrow.

This post is a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2023 challenge.

Suggested Read:

Use Repetition for Emphasis


Welcome! I’m participating in the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge where I’ll share 26 posts on the theme “The Poet’s Alphabet: 26 Secrets for Crafting Beautiful Poetry”. In each post, I’ll offer bite-sized tips and tricks for crafting and perfectly editing poetry. Today’s tip is:

Use Repetition for Emphasis

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Repetition can be a powerful tool in poetry, allowing you to emphasize key ideas or themes. Experiment with repeating words, phrases, or even entire lines to create a sense of rhythm and resonance in your work.

Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” is a great example of how repetition can be used to emphasize key ideas and themes. Throughout the poem, Angelou repeats the phrase “I rise” as a way of asserting her strength and resilience in the face of adversity. By repeating this phrase, Angelou creates a sense of rhythm and momentum that builds throughout the poem.

For example, in the second stanza of the poem, Angelou writes:

"Just like moons and like suns, 
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high, 
Still I'll rise."

The repetition of “Just like” in this stanza emphasizes the idea that Angelou’s strength is as natural and inevitable as the movements of the moon and sun. The repetition of “Still I’ll rise” at the end of the stanza reinforces the idea that no matter what challenges she faces, she will always persevere.

Angelou also uses repetition to emphasize the importance of identity and self-worth. In the fourth stanza, she writes:

"Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise 
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear 
I rise"

The repetition of “I rise” in these lines serves as a reminder that Angelou’s identity and sense of self-worth cannot be taken away by external circumstances. The repetition also creates a sense of uplift and hope, as if each repetition is a step upward toward a brighter future.

So now you know how repetition can be used as a powerful technique to emphasize key ideas and themes, creating a sense of rhythm and momentum that propels the poem forward.

Suggested Read: Thou Art Love- A poem where I have used repetition to emphasise the core idea of the poem.

Hope you found this tip useful.

See you with another tip, tomorrow.

This post is a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2023 challenge.

Master the Art of Enjambment To Create Rhythm and Flow

Welcome! I’m participating in the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge where I’ll share 26 posts on the theme “The Poet’s Alphabet: 26 Secrets for Crafting Beautiful Poetry”. In each post, I’ll offer bite-sized tips and tricks for crafting and perfectly editing poetry. Today’s tip is:

Master the Art of Enjambment To Create Rhythm and Flow

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Enjambment is a technique used in poetry where a sentence or phrase runs over to the next line without any pause or punctuation at the end of the line. This means that the thought or meaning of the sentence continues onto the next line, rather than being contained within a single line. Enjambment is often used to create a sense of flow and momentum in a poem, allowing the lines to run together and giving the poem a more natural, conversational feel.

Mastering enjambment can help you create a sense of fluidity and movement in your poetry, and is a powerful tool for shaping the pace and rhythm of your work. For example, the poem “Between Walls” by William Carlos Williams consists of a single sentence divided into ten lines using enjambment.

Between Walls

       the back wings
       of the

       hospital where
       nothing

       will grow lie
       cinders

       in which shine
       the broken

       pieces of a green
       bottle

If you notice, the use of enjambment in the poem above by William Carlos Williams is actually effective in creating a sense of fragmentation and disjointedness that reflects the bleak and desolate mood of the poem. It also helps to create a visual and sonic impact.

Thus, by breaking the lines at unexpected moments, enjambment can create tension, surprise, and movement in your poetry, allowing you to guide your reader through your work in a powerful and engaging way.

Hope you found this tip useful.

See you with another tip, tomorrow.

This post is a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2023 challenge.

Thou Art Love- A Poem

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I sought love, I believed
& you happened to me
I brimmed with love, I believed
& you happened to me
I was deserted by love, I believed
& you happened to me
I was out of love, I believed,
& you happened to me
I was in & out of love, I believed
& you happened to me
I believed in the transient tales of love
that tricked me to believe love 
to be a guest at my door
welcomed and discarded at will
That love can happen
& unhappen
That love can be felt
& unfelt
That love can be confined
& unconfined
I believed in the transient tales of love
& you happened to me
only to realize the promise
of an eternal embrace by Thou-
love that’s transcendent...
Thou art love!

எங்கு எழுகிறது காதல்- ஓர் கவிதை

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எங்கு எழுகிறது காதல்?

புல்  நுனி பனித்துளிகள் படும் 
பட்டு பாதங்களிலா ?

தொட்டும் தொடாமலும் 
பட்டும் படாமலும் 
தென்றல் முத்தமிட்டுச்செல்லும் 
மலர் மேனியிலா ?

கார்மேகமும் கதிரவனும் ஆடும் 
கண்ணாம்பூச்சி  ஆட்டத்தை 
காணும் கண்களிலா ?

ருதுவான அன்பின் மொழி 
அமைதியின்  அரவணைப்பில் 
ரீங்காரமாய் ஒலிக்கும் செவிகளிலா ?

முத்தமிட்டு ஒப்பந்தம் செய்த 
விண்ணுக்கும் -மண்ணுக்குமான 
காதலை மண்வாசனையில் 
நுகரும் நாசிகளிலா ?

உன்னோடு உறவாடும் வேளையில் 
நேசக்கடல் நீர்வீழ்ச்சியாய் எழும் 
நெஞ்ச குழியிலா? 

தென்றலிலா?
தொடுதலிலா ?

காற்றிலா?
காரணத்திலா ?

உறவிலா?
ஊடலிலா ?

மயக்கத்திலா ?
மதியிலா ?

மௌனத்திலா?
மரணத்திலா ?

உன்னிலா?
 என்னிலா?

எங்கு எழுகிறது காதல்?
தெரிந்தால் எனக்குச் சொல் 

எங்கிருந்து எழுகிறதோ 
கட்டுக்கடங்காத காதல் 
அங்கேயே  நான் 
உடன் கட்டை ஏறிவிடுவேன் 

எங்கு எழுகிறது காதல்?
தெரிந்தால் எனக்குச் சொல்!

Goodbyes Can Be Hellos Too- A Poem

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In the hidden depths of the womb's cocoon,
A soft bundle of pink begins to bloom,
Nurtured in darkness, yet longing for light,
Crying for that first breath, held close to mother's sight.

An uninvited intruder, a pearl in a shell,
Nourished in confinement, in solitude to dwell,
Emerging polished, shining with glee,
A treasure for all, in a jeweller's gallery to be.

A wanderer caterpillar, seeking to transform,
Digesting self, in a cocoon it will conform,
Hanging upside down, a colourful shroud,
Emerging winged, a bewitching butterfly, proud.

Uncertain of a start anew,
Journey of transformation, through and through
A fresh avenue, sought out by few,
For goodbyes can be hellos too.