Hi there! I am Shreeja, an off the block teenage writer and I want to talk to you about my poetry and paintings as straight as I can; there is a possibility that some of what I say to you might come off as abrupt or extra emotive. It is so because my writings and paintings reflect my emotions during my journey of growing up and experimenting with expression. The poems I wrote initially may sound naïve now but at the time, I thought they were pretty good. More to the point, at the time they were also the best I could do. Being a young poetess is good for many things, like being flexible, staying up for days with no ill effects, writing original prose with absolute lack of experiential vocabulary and grammar and of course with limited perspective and wisdom, which one gains as life goes along. But the good part is that there are no fake pretenses. Some poems I have written are compelling, emotional stories, which required some control and equanimity but then that is where being a teenager comes in handy. While I may simply not have had the wherewithal to express deep and myriad emotions, I have tried to be true to myself and the thoughts churning in my mind then. I have my influences, but only some, who you love and to whom you look up to as role models and teachers. When you’re older, it’s easier to be clever than to be good too, and you’ll see a lot of writers doing just that, even the good ones. This is because “clever” gets laughs and attention. There’s nothing wrong with being clever, and it’s possible to be clever and good at the same time. It’s always difficult to be objective about your own writing, because of the personal associations. Despite this, poems are personal, but do they rise above the purely individual and become more widely relevant? It’s easy to forget that poetry is art, and not a diary entry or reportage. It obviously does not have to reflect the truth exactly as it happened but how I perceived it.