Dear Caitlin, Jacob and the amazing bunch of spirited writers at the table,

I am deleting all my poetry posts from the poetry full marathon 2020. i hovered over the trash button indecisively for three days, till i had the confidence of letting my poems go beyond the secured sanctuary of this blog. While Caitlin and Jacob birthed another poetry marathon, Annie and Amanda nurtured it for half of the time and now Shloka is here to immortalize it in an anthology. fellow travellers in this journey always gave a shoulder to rest tired thoughts. more fellow travellers of poetry shared their ubiquitous experiences of reading others’ poems. i have been enriched in more ways than one. but now i must walk alone, with a dream of publishing this set of poems, written in remembrance of my maternal grandmother who died of self-immolation and whom i knew so little; this set of poems celebrating three generations of women, my grandmother, my mother and me, who stand tall together, irrespective of their personal her-stories.

i take each one of you together in this journey, for the poems were born in your company, under one grand chandelier of purpose- to create poetry.

with warm regards and hope that you all continue to thrive in poetry

greetings from Austria

Susmita

p.s. there could have been a “CONCLUSION” in the Categories section. Just thinking out loud, you see.