Today, we present to you the young and dynamic team behind a rising Poetry Community page (instagram.com/silverleafpoetry) that promises good writing talents finding a platform to connect with people who value the Written Word. They put their hearts and souls into discovering what makes for good reading and are creating a poetry page worthy of admiration. Untwine Me is happy to share the SilverLeaf story and the fantastic people behind it.
“A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightenings five or six times; a dozen or two dozen times and he is great.”
– Randall Jerrall
SilverLeaf wasn’t born as SilverLeaf; it was a seed of appreciation among four amateur Instagrammers for unexplored writers with a flair for poetry. It was sown for the very purpose of having it grow into a beautiful dais which works on the idea of having your, and your, and your back, one poem, one verse at a time.
With SilverLeaf, we aim to expand the reach of words to every individual out there, whether they’re in love or in pain, whether they’re happy, or hurt, because there are things coffee and band aids can’t fix, and that’s why poetry.
Albeit young, fresh and naive we have a vision and a plan, we’re working hard and fast. And through kindness and generosity, we try to bring about change, we strive towards showcasing the outrageous power words possess.
Also, Sundays at SilverLeaf are FunDays. Every Sunday, we bring our followers a contest, for them to push their boundaries, to interact with fellow writers, and to come across works so incredible they give us gooseprickles. We decide a winner, or have a Guest Judge decide it for us, to keep writers motivated and inspired. So far, we’ve had some amazing talents like Dr. Priya Dolma Tamang (@poetryandprosebyk), Pratishtha Khattar (@_paradoxandmetaphors_), Caroline White (@cwpoet) and Tuheena Raj (@wordsofworth) as our Guest Judges and their support amd faith in us have had is truly humbled.
And not only that, it is the tremendous support and love and participation from the entire writing community on Instagram that has helped us grow in such a small span of time, and for that we are immensely grateful.
At SilverLeaf, we don’t have a hierarchy. We’re all founders, we’re all curators.
Starting with Soniya Hinduja *@soniya_hinduja* from, Gujarat, India.
Shikhar Mahalwala *@soul_at_work* from Ghaziabad, India.
Sakshi Sahil Chavan *@the_meraki_space* from Kolkata, India.
(In a different great news, Sakshi’s debut novel “Mogra Blossoms” will be released soon, and we’re so excited about it!)
We, at Silverleaf believe that good poetry should always be given a chance, regardless of the popularity of the poet. Along with that we always try to interact with our followers in the most humble and cheerful way possible, for they are our real wealth.
At the end of the day, when a guy needs to apologize to a girl, instead of buying bouquets or calling her over and over again, it’s a pen he picks and it’s the time he puts into paper, and whether it’s some cheesy scratch or scribble that looks like a doctor’s note, there’s something incredibly beautiful and intensely romantic about that.
The SilverLeaf Team
Soniya Hinduja
Soniya Hinduja (@soniya_hinduja)
First a reader, then a writer.
I like who I’m becoming a lot.
I’ve always been a ponderer. Seeing too much, hearing to much, thinking too much. And it took me wanting to be a doctor to getting a degree in commerce and trade to realize neither of them was what I really wanted to do.
Writing came to me as gentle rain over barren land. (Okay, maybe it wasn’t that extreme. But I love monsoons and I wanted to use that simile.) Seriously though, that’s what it felt like when I first started writing and it’s been four years and I still think it was yesterday that I scribbled some real lame teenage emotions into my journal.
I joined the writing community on Instagram over a year ago, and I would be lying if I said it’s not the best thing that has happened to me so far. Instagram got me into writing poetry. Literally. I’ve always been big on prose, and not having to limit myself when all I want to be is outrageous with words, but the phenomenal writers on Instagram showed me how audacious poetry can be.
On other days, I read. Absolutely everything from Classics to Sci-fi, but YA Fantasy has got to be my favorite genre.
Shikhar Mahalwala
Shikhar Mahalwala (@soul_at_work)
A computer science engineer & marketing professional, I happen to be an observer of love. I surrendered to my craving for expressing myself when I started my Instagram page @soul_at_work while still doing my post graduation. A man of few words, I have a passion for sports and wish to meet Mahendra Singh Dhoni once in my life.
Sakshi Sahil Chavan
Sakshi Salil Chavan (@the_meraki_space)
I’m 18, a student living in the city of joy: Kolkata, India. Poetry came to me, as naturally as the snow touched the land. Not forced, not called out for, but all by itself.
I have always been a firm believer that we were meant to be wherever we are in the walks of our lives. And I think I always knew, even though I have varied interests like music, sketching and cooking, writing was the
most effortless. I felt as if writing on a piece of paper, or even laptop itself gave my words a physical form, a shape, and hence they felt as if they mattered.
I first started sharing my poems and long caption pieces on my page and I was not really acquainted with how Instagram works and I lost confidence in the first five posts itself when I wasn’t getting much attention and
deleted my account. A little while later, it hit me that it doesn’t matter if the audience likes my work, I should fall in love with it first. And that’s when I made that account again and gave it the best I had.
A little over 350 posts, I don’t think I would have come this far without the support of the writing community on Instagram.
I interacted with so many talented writers, poets and authors along with the urge to post consistently every day as my audience grew. I received tremendous support all along and I look back at the day I decided to start this account again.
I gained so much confidence in myself that I decided to write my debut book, It’s called “Mogra Blossoms”
It’ll be released very soon this month and you can follow me further for the details.
I’m absolutely not giving up and will continue to surprise me and you with my messed up thoughts as long as my hands can type, and my lips can rhyme.
For all I wish, let’s make writing poetry a norm. Let everyone experience what a joy it is.
