Today’s resource is Where to Submit, a feature of Heavy Feather Review. Updated every few months, this is a good resource for open calls for submission for journals, anthologies, chapbooks, presses, fellowships, and other poetry-related opportunities.

Finally, here’s our (optional) prompt for the day. Begin by reading June Jordan’s “Notes on the Peanut.” Now, think of a person – real or imagined – who has been held out to you as an example of how to be of life, but who you have always had doubts about. Write a poem that exaggerates the supposedly admirable qualities of the person in a way that exposes your doubts.

My poem for the day-

Be honest like Yudhishthira

'Be honest like Yudhishthira,' everyone said
and repeated
when we were children,
and listening to any fable was fun.
The story of Mahabharath - the Kurukshetra war
By Yudhishthira's honesty, Grandma swore

as she narrated the epic tale of  the Pandavs 
and their cousins, the Kauravs
how in an unfair game of dice,
Yudhishthira, the eldest, lost everything. I thought it, cowardice
that he didn't stop at his palace, kingdom, or brothers
He even gambled his wife! The others

were not his right to bet upon.
I said simply, 'He should have got up and gone.
What a shame
to lose it all for a game.
No one put a gun to his head
How dare he put a woman on the table. Better to be dead."

"Sounds more like arrogance than honesty," I added
To my surprise, grandma, in agreement, nodded.
And yet she said, "Yudhishthira is known for his honesty.
I replied, 'Sounds more like stupidity to me.'
"It was not his fault if dishonesty was the order of the day,"
grandma responded. I didn't agree with her then, nor do I do, today.

'Be honest like Yudhishthira,' everyone says to
the children and repeats
"Like Yudhishthira, the son of Dharma*,
the Emperor of Indraprastha."

*Dharma - (in Indian religion) the eternal and inherent nature of reality, regarded in Hinduism as a cosmic law underlying right behavior and social order. 

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My debut novel, ‘Coming Home’ was released on 24th March 2023.

For the Kindle edition of the book, please click here. The book is available in most countries.

The paperback edition is currently available only in India. You can get your copy by clicking here. I am working on getting the paperback version in other countries as well.