Special: Autumn Writing Contest Winner Announced

Thanks to all who participated in the Autumn Writing Challenge. I am pleased to announce the winner, Uma Gowrishankar, along with her beautiful poem, Autumn Love.

Autumn Love

is there love across a burnt field, browned earth,
in bones warmed by evening fire
in the clouds at sunset that stretch an aching ochre
to embrace the amber arms of horizon
in the trailing blackness my hair leaves as welts
of pain in the purple bruises of the dusk

in the supplication of a lone leaf as it wheels down
weighed by rusty joints and serrated edges ?

**

Congratulations, Uma. Tell us a little about yourself.

I live in Chennai, South India . I work as an education consultant for a cluster of schools that offer a meaningful learning program for children from rural and small urban communities. I write, paint, practice yoga, maintain a terrace garden, run a beautiful home – all on a daily basis! Oh really, I am blessed to have the time necessary for these…

My poems have been published in Qarrtsiluni, Carcinogenic Poetry, Whale Sound, Buddhist Poetry Review, Pure Slush, Curio Poetry, Words Dance, and Catapult Magazine.

I was the 2010 Poetic Asides Chapbook Challenge finalist. I wrote those poems in a very difficult time. During November 2010, every day I stole time away from my very ill and dying father-in-law whom I was tending, to write poems. Writing poetry was a very therapeutic experience.

How did you use the video prompt to inspire you?

I am basically a very visual person, that might be because I am an artist; images suffuse my poems. The video that was offered as a prompt and inspiration was a visual poetry of images. That set me off!

In Chennai we do not get to experience autumn. Chennai is a burst of colours, people and noise, so my palette can never tone down to sombre shades of autumn. And for me personally, autumn is not a season but a stage in life.

I love autumn as a stage of life! Where can we find you?

I blog here:

http://umagowrishankar.wordpress.com/

http://mauvesea.wordpress.com/

http://umags.wordpress.com/

Our next contest will be in January. See you then!

This entry was posted on December 14, 2012 at 12:04 am and is filed under 2, poetry, special, winter, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.