Portrait of a Happenstance

Poem by Sreekanth Kopuri

You can purchase Written Tales Magazine in print or digital format or become a paid subscriber and download your favorite editions. To view our upcoming stories & poems, please visit our publishing schedule calendar.

---

After an unexpected acquaintance with a far-away writer from our common teacher’s introduction to the virtuous profile.

You never know
what draws out,
 
line-in, to a likeness,
surreal stroke. This
 
sudden, strange acquaintance
to the virtuous shades of
 
your image from a teacher,
that often flickered in the eye
 
colours you up now, on   
my canvass within. A segue  
 
paces, brushes across
roads not taken, wonders
 
what more contours of this intuition
to fill your image with, till I recall
 
how our teacher rain-bowed
those soft-hued adjectives, and
 
verbs, ad-verbing her love
for you, mothering meaning
 
full life, portrait to wall -
clock of a memory today.

---

Sreekanth Kopuri is an Indian poet, Current poetry editor for The AutoEthnographer Journal Florida, Alumni Writer in Residence, Athens, and a Professor of English from Machilipatnam, India. He recited his poetry at Oxford, John Hopkins, Heinrich Heine, and many universities. His book Poems of the Void won the Golden Book of the Year Award for 2022.