Nux Poemica (#WIA2021)

Preface

April 2021 has been the most creative month of my life since I began taking poetry seriously. Just when I thought that April 2020 had me spewing poems after poems, April 2021 breezed in like a sudden cyclone and proved me wrong. NaPoWriMo 2020 had me reworking years-old poems and posting them on my Instagram account (I am @kavyajananipoetry on Instagram), just so I could respond to a particular prompt.

But it all changed within a year. Before this NaPoWriMo, I decided I'd follow a theme for the challenge. After much thinking, I decided that I'd write after poems, list poems, and experiment with some forms. Also, I concluded that I'd write only 30 fresh poems and I will not rework or repost my old poems.

And that's what I did! I wrote so many after poems and even tried my hand at writing a couple of tankas, a rondelet, an abecedarian poem, a pantoum, and a villanelle. I have compiled all the poems in this chapbook. I will also be providing a short note before each poem explaining the form and mentioning the prompts used.

Writing these 30 poems was fulfilling by all means and it put me in good mental health. I felt released, almost uncaged from all that's been imprisoning me. I hope you enjoy reading these poems as much as I enjoyed writing them. The title Nux Poemica is a parody of the homeopathic medicine Nux Vomica.