In 2009 I posted some poems on the Poetica Magazine website and received a personal email from a reader in India. In response I emailed a poem to him that I had written about India. He suggested I post it on an Indian Literary journal site. Shernaz was a regular contributor there and I immediately felt that we were of kindred spirits. We met in Mumbai in Febrary 2010 during a visit I made to India. During our meeting, I described a form of joint poetry writing to her that I had learned from Sarah Wurtzel in Jerusalem in which each poet writes a nine-line poem on a chosen subject. The originator of the title then interweaves the two poems line by line with minimal editing.

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We decided to try this via email. The results were not inspiring so we remodeled the idea giving ourselves greater editing flexibility and making it into a more collaborative effort with far-reaching possibilities. Our challenging and exciting adventure had begun and the Tapestry Poetic form was born. We call it “Tapestry” since it’s a word that beautifully captures the sentiment and essence of the form and the intertwining of two different thought processes into a rich tapestry of words.

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The rules we formulated are that one of us gives a title and then we each compose a nine-line poem. We only open the other’s poem after both have been exchanged. Next comes the ‘weaving’ to interlace them into one seamless, flowing piece. The editing remains a to and fro process till we are both satisfied with the result. Bold italics are used for one of the poems to allow readers a picture of the weaving process. Additionally, the nine lines of each individual poem and the majority of the words must be kept; changes are allowed for singular and plural but only minimal changes for verbs, adverbs and adjectives; and only the giver of the title has the option of using it in the poem.

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When the variegated threads of our distinctly individual poems are woven together the result is an aesthetic word-scape as seen in these two Tapestries:

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RAPTURE - by Shernaz

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The Word was uttered

And Life sprang up

In beauteous splendor

To pay obeisance

To His Eternal Will

Ever since it has been

An ongoing love affair…

This rapturous desire of Life

To procreate itself.

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RAPTURE- by Avril

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The music began

Slowly, almost imperceptibly,

instrument after instrument added its voice.

Conductor, musicians, audience.

All held in rapture

by the ascending melody.

It was as if Heaven had opened

and drenched us all

in its celestial symphony.

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RAPTURE --Tapestry

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The Word was uttered

The music began

and Life sprang up

Slowly, almost imperceptibly…

In beauteous splendor

instrument after instrument added its voice,

to pay obeisance

to His Eternal Will.

Conductor, musicians, audience,

all held in rapture

by the ascending melody.

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Ever since it has been

an ongoing love affair…

It was as if Heaven had opened

this rapturous desire of Life

and drenched us all,

to procreate itself,

in it’s celestial symphony

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The Wind of Change by Shernaz

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let it be the force that flows

under feathers of peace

the bond that secures

the brotherhood of man

the salve that heals

the carrier of compassion

the ambassador of love

the redeemer of mankind

Hail! the wind of change

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The Wind of Change by Avril

It’s there,

whispering in the trees

A new beginning

A desire within our souls

to seek the truth

An awakening awareness

of the earth’s cry to be healed.

A deep inner yearning

that knows no borders

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The Wind of Change---TAPESTRY

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Hail! the wind of change!

A new beginning

whispering in the trees;

the force that flows

under feathers of peace

in an awakening awareness

of the earth’s cry to be saved

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It's here!

the redeemer

carrier of compassion

seeker of truth

ambassador of love

the salve that heals

an inner yearning

sown deep within our souls

that knows no borders

a bond that secures

the brotherhood of man

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To date we have worked on twenty-seven titles and only two turned out impossible to weave, the differences between our individual poems being too great.

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Tapestry Poetics has allowed us to intertwine our two hearts and minds around a central unifying topic, allowing us to bring our histories, our cultures and even our religions - I am Jewish and Shernaz is Zoroastrian - with us, essentially making peace on the page and proving that Poetry has no borders.

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Thanks for reading JWorld Café, the Poetica Magazine Blog

Avril Meallam and Shernaz Wadia, Guest Bloggers

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Avril Meallem was born in London and attended St. Mary’s Hospital where she studied physiotherapy. She immigrated to Israel in 1998 with her husband and now lives in Jerusalem. She began writing poetry in 1997, with work published in journals in Israel and abroad including Voices, H2E, the Yated newspaper, The Doronda Review, Leaves in India and on the Poetica forum. She is a regular contributor in the “Your Space” section of Muse India literary e-journal and together with Shernaz has won two first prizes and two honorable mentions for their Tapestry poems in the monthly competitions. She is the author of a book of poetry, Dancing With The Wind and is presently working on a second collection. You may reach her at aemeallem@gmail.com.  

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Shernaz Wadia is a retired teacher and homemaker living in Pune, India. Her poems have been published in e-journals such as boloji.com, Poets International (electronic and print), Pondering Moments, Poets India, Enchanting Verses International, kritya.in, MuseIndia, Autumn Leaves, Ribbons (a journal of Tanka), and anthologized in the book, Posy of Poesy. Her poem on Alzheimer’s has been selected for an anthology, Caring Moments, brought out by the website Life’s Inspirational Moments, Australia. She also writes on the blog writespace4iw.wordpress.com. - Linda Pressman, Blog Editor