"A Writer's Prayer" is an award winning poem by the Indian English poet Tarun Cherian. The poem won Second Prize in the Fifth All India Poetry Competition conducted by The Poetry Society (India) in 1993. The poem was the first major award winning work of Cherian, who went on to make a mark in mysticism, spirituality and visual art.
Contents
Structure of the poem
The poem has a unique and original structure, which marks a departure from contemporary Indian poetry. Its five lines can be regarded as five stanzas or five paragraphs. The diction is that of prose, but the strong evocative imagery belongs to poetry of the highest quality. The five stanzas evoke images pertaining to five different sense organs - sight, smell, touch, hearing and smell. The poem can be thought of a bouquet of meditations on different paths to Truth.
Comments and criticism
The poem has received rave reviews since its first publication in 1994 in the book Voices of the Future. The poem has been frequently quoted in scholarly analysis of contemporary Indian English Poetry.