My tagline on social media usually goes like this:
poet. thinker.
designer. developer.
citizen of the world.
Of these, “poet” is probably the most neglected of all. While I have written some good poetry, not all of it is great. I think the reason for that is lack of education and practice. Whatever poetry I’ve been exposed to is largely because of my father, Dr Rajiv Trivedi, who has been a linguist, a dramatist, a writer, a Professor of English Literature, a documentarian, and much more: I’ve never had formal education in poetry. I write very sporadically, sometimes going years between poems.
This is in sharp contrast to my job as a developer, a field in which I both have formal education and ample time to practice. It is quite incredible what nothing but practice allows you to do. Because I write so much code, any mistakes I make are taken in the stride. Because I write so little poetry, even the smallest mistake is agonized over and obsessed about.
This is an experiment to see if my poetry improves with practice. I aim to write one small poem every day, without caring how good or bad it is, with the expectation that passively, automatically, my writing will improve over time. And since I don’t expect to write masterpieces, I have the freedom to fall flat on my face every day, thus taking the pressure of writing away.
I will still write long-form poetry whenever inspiration strikes. Those will be collected on my blog: http://blog.tuhinanshu.com/category/poetry. I may feature some of the better ones from this experiment there. Or I may expand on something that started here.
In summary, this is a project that is solely intended for me. If you have somehow stumbled here and would like to share your thoughts, find me on Twitter: @rajadain