I'm an amateur poet, because poetry comes more natural to me than prose. And I do waffle about my poetry process. I waffle like nobody's business. The gist of it is, though: there's a keyboard, there's a Word document, there's a functioning brain and set of hands, and (usually), there's a deadline. I'm easily inspired, (but also easily frustrated), usually by visual art or real life - I love writing about normal things that I love, because the challenge is to tell why they aren't mundane to me - but the downside of that is that they usually come across as exotic, because I've had a strange life.

I'm not really in a position to say anything definite about the Lit Community, because it's the only community I've known on dA since I got on here (which hasn't been that long). I haven't found a single thing to complain about, or anything that seriously needs changing, but I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, so don't quote me on that. I'm continually amazed by the Lit Community and the things they do. I also dig being able to go into 'chat' and talk in full sentences and all. No one I know in real life my age or thereabouts does that - it's all "lol" starting and ending every sentence. (I don't get that. I don't get why people do that. Are you using "lol" as your security blanket? Are you using it in the "lots of love" sense as a not-so-subtle hint? What are you trying to tell me?)

Free verse is harder to 'explain' because everyone does it, and there're so many ways to it. I don't plan ahead much, or tell a story, and suchlike, as much in free verse as in fixed verse. There are some similarities, such as when I play around with rhyme, or alliteration, but free verse is usually more spontaneous and more obviously personal. It’s harder in a way, because you don’t have the ‘crutches’ of fixed verse, but it’s wonderful to experiment with.

I think that apart from one or two poems, the most important literary accomplishment of mine is being part of the #theWrittenRevolution team and the #Expose-Lit team. (I pimp those two every chance I can get, don't look so surprised.) tWR is great for learning how to interact - we're a pretty social group, and to someone who's spent half of her life in various ships (I kid you not), social awkwardness is something I've faced. Even more so as an Indian poet who writes in English, studies in an international school, and lives in China. And I think it's pretty neat. #Expose-Lit is a lot the same, we're looking to help out new writers to deviantART, to help out with common frustrations and things like that - especially that 'elitist' idea floating around lately, we're trying to dig into that and figure out what's what. So, yes, I'm pretty proud of those.

There’ve been other poets, and some of them are here on dA, but I’d take up pages and pages if I mentioned all of them. But notable ones include Billy Collins, Ogden Nash, F. G. Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Rumi, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, T. S. Eliot, W. C. Williams, Li Po (or Li Bai) - I don't know what I've got against most female poets, I really don't, and it's definitely not intentional, I swear. Sappho is one of my favourite female poets, and the only one I can think of who has 'influenced' me - I know I enjoy some poems by Plath, Dickinson, etc, but I don't consider them to be an influence on my work.