Self-Ashtualisation

   You and one of your best friends have been through so much together – at least she says so. The ride hasn’t always been easy – there have been so many ups and downs – but you have emerged from those experiences with a deeper understanding of each other, or so you have thought, for all too long. She’s said she’ll be there for you – not once – and she has even gone so far as sending you an image-based text that reads, ‘I don’t want to lose you.’ But lose your trust she does by semi-ghosting you – and yes, that is still ongoing… Because of the absurdly intricate subtlety of that act and because of your former closeness, you have been in denial about the semi-ghosting for, hmm let’s see, about three years now. It has only been two weeks since you’ve started grieving for the particular loss, after a close friend has shared her experiences of what your light-bulbed brain has, without skipping a beat, termed ‘semi-ghosting’. Initially, you haven’t a clue where that term comes from – you

   Hello! Owing to my owing poetry so much, I’ll start with a confession. I did not start out liking poetry, let alone loving it. Prior to studying creative writing at university, I had always assumed that poems were dull, cryptic and absolutely depressing.   It did not help that as a teenager who did not read poetry – except for those assigned in my English classes – I used to write them, poorly of course, when life was hard. When I was a bit older, I thought that was just a phase, that I had outgrown it all. Fast-forward a few years, convinced by my university’s guidance counsellor that writing poems would help me express myself beautifully and that I had it in me to write great poetry, I signed up for a poetry writing elective. This probably sounds dramatic but my life was changed for the better. I fell in love with poetry and with writing them since, though the road was still rocky at times. Initially there were all those insecurities. It didn’t matter that my creative writing in

   Hello everyone! How are you? Thank God it doesn’t rhyme this time around. Phew. My sentences have become too rhyming nowadays, so imagine my relief my friends, imagine my relief indeed! Gosh! All those daft rhythmic rubbish again! What to do? Well, I think writing this listicle’s what to do. As the self-explanatory title suggests, in this post I share eleven things you’d relate to if you’re both a prose and poetry writer like me, or to put it more simply, a confused writer. Nah just kidding. Anyway, let’s dive into that list!   1)     Most of the time, your poetry doesn’t rhyme and your prose does – especially when you don’t want it to. 2)     Your text messages read like song lyrics and although you’re not a songwriter – at least not formally – your song lyrics read like text messages. 3)     Procrastination will often try to charm you into writing a novel when you’re working on your poem and vice versa. 4)     Your poetry has too many plots and your prose none at all.