within our somehows by Shloka Shankar

“Shloka Shankar’s new collection of micropoetry offers a kind of hope—not the pompommed optimism of a cheerleader, but the quiet gleam of small epiphanies. What might conventionally be seen as an ending or demise becomes, in Shankar’s hands, momentous: falling light turns into ‘chloral dark white lilies’ or ‘goldfinch brightness.’ She sees a sunset as a ‘volta,’ and death as ‘anaphora.’ However dark the brooding horizon may loom, she assures us that ‘this storm petrel too shall pass.’ This comes from a poet who has discovered that any transformation worth its salt happens only by weathering the squall.”

— Joseph Salvatore Aversano, Editor of Half Day Moon Journal

“In this collection, Shloka Shankar does something that is increasingly hard to do: say more with less. Some of these short poems may exist in the same world. Most of them are worlds unto themselves or glimpses. These are fragments shored against the ruins of the future; somehow, the future still looks good.”

— Seth Copeland, Editor of petrichor – an archive of text image

About the Author:

Shloka Shankar is a poet, editor, and visual artist from Bangalore, India. A Best of the Net nominee and widely published haiku poet, Shloka is the Founding Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. She is the author of the microchap Points of Arrival (Origami Poems, 2021), the haiku collection The Field of Why (Yavanika Press, 2022), and co-author of the haiga anthology, living in the pause (Yavanika Press, 2024).

Website: www.shlokashankar.com | Instagram: @shloks23