I thought of writing a blackout poem using an archival newspaper from another January(close to this date, like this one), and then gave a thought to using headlines, the good old headlines from many January dates close to this as well, but finally took a trip down memory lane and back again today.

What about you? Did your household subscribe to the daily newspaper and await its arrival each morning? Do you still get a print edition today? Or do you scan the headlines online across news and social media?

Rustle, Read, Repeat
First there was The Hindu,
The Deccan Herald, for a years few.
Next, for reasons unknown,
making its way to our home
was The Times of India. You see –
compared to the others- it was a bit flashy!

Regardless of the paper that made its way
to inform us of the news each day
I invariably turned to where the comics were,
for Sad Sack and that Horrible Hagar
who despite their names, always cheered me
along with the “industrious” Beetle Bailey!

From there, I moved on to all those things,
for the kind of challenge only a puzzle brings –
the crossword, the jumble, the spot-the-6 too,
And the number puzzles, the ones pre-sudoku!
It was always a fight for the quickest claim,
To solve them first and win that silent game!

Of course, I read the news each day,
For I never knew when I’d be called to say—
The headlines aloud in the school assembly,
Or chalk them on the board so very neatly

All this seems like eons ago, the ones you talk about
In black-and-white, or maybe in colors, not glossy but matte
And before you ask, I’m not that old,
Though these memories feel like stories retold

Today, I check the headlines online,
The NY Times and LinkedIn keep my mind in line.
No scramble now for the comics page,
No sly debates on who’s the puzzle sage!

Now the world’s within my grasp, a click away,
Yet I miss the rustle of newsprint each day.
The ink-stained fingers, the paper’s scent,
And wrestling with folds without a rent.
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

For this week’s Poetics over at dVerse, where Punam invites us to write about or with newspapers. “You can write a newspaper blackout poem. You can use the headline from your local newspaper as a springboard and write a poem on it, or you can simply write why you love or hate reading the newspaper. Your poem should have some link with the newspaper.”