Poetry, for Author Megha Mittal, is not a performance—it is a survival instinct. Writing since her teenage years, Mittal’s work emerges from solitude, grief, and an unflinching engagement with inner life. Her debut poetry collection, How to Wake Up in the Morning, blends illustrated verse with raw emotional honesty, exploring death, desire, identity, and the absurdity of being alive. In this candid conversation, she speaks about poetry as self-expression, the discipline behind musical language, and how personal loss and disillusionment have shaped her voice.
1. What draws you to the medium of poetry, and how do you believe it offers a distinctive way to communicate emotions and ideas?
I have been writing poems ever since I was a teen. I don’t remember how or why exactly I started doing it—it just came out as a natural form of self-expression. I was always very introverted, and scribbling my true feelings in the backs of notebooks felt so freeing, yet so corrupt at the same time. I kept up that habit even as I grew older, reading more and honing my craft so that I could express myself better.
I feel that poetry is like infusing life into language that is otherwise rendered dead by everyday usefulness. Poetry is a way of saying things in a way that hasn’t been said before, so that we can again start to feel things we have attempted to keep locked inside ourselves.
2. Can you share the inspiration behind the themes of your poems, and how it influenced their tone and structure?
As with all art, most of my inspiration comes from my own felt experiences. I have had a difficult and depressing couple of years, and poetry has been a companion that has helped me express the feelings of dread and depression that have haunted me.
3. Poetry often invites readers to interpret and connect on a personal level. How do you navigate the balance between conveying your intended meaning and leaving room for individual interpretation?
I never intentionally hold back meaning to make it more mysterious or “open to interpretation.” I believe that even if something is written extremely specifically, each person who reads it will interpret and imagine it only in terms of their own lived experience.
4. Can you describe your approach to crafting the musicality of your language, and how it contributes to the overall experience for readers?
In the past couple of years, I have worked on studying different forms of poetry, where metre and rhyme contribute to the beauty of the poem, among other things. I think that even though it isn’t absolutely necessary to pay attention to technicalities, it is extremely useful if you want to truly create and invoke intended feelings in your readers.
I generally write a first draft purely as a free-flowing self-expression. Then, in revisions and subsequent drafts, I pay closer attention to specific words, sound patterns, and rhymes in order to fine-tune and refine the tone and feel of the poem.
5. Many poets draw inspiration from their own experiences. How does your personal journey and background influence the themes and imagery in your poetry?
Poetry is definitely one of the most private and personal art forms. It is something you write secretly to express the deepest and darkest of your feelings. My years of working in the corporate world—tasting success and power and then growing jaded and depressed—have definitely contributed to the content of my poems.
I was also very close to my father, and his death shook me to the core. It led my thoughts and feelings into many spirals, some of which I attempted to untangle through poetry.
6. In your work, how do you use poetry as a means of commentary or reflection on the world around you?
I use poetry mostly as a form of self-expression. Reflection and commentary on the world are continuous internal processes that we all engage in almost all the time. If there is a particular idea or thought that keeps returning to me—such as the plight of trees or the silent, war-like nature of today’s world—I often end up writing a piece about it.
7. Readers may be curious about your writing rituals. Can you share any specific routines or practices that help you cultivate creativity and hone your craft?
I generally keep a notebook and pen with me at all times and write down snippets of strong feelings or thoughts as they cross my mind. Later, I type them out and put them into a folder titled “poetry new.” I then set aside a week or so to revise these pieces, working on about three to four poems a day.
This kind of intense period helps me get into the zone and think about the pieces from multiple angles, sometimes even in relation to one another.
I also read a lot of poetry craft books, but I never try to immediately implement what I learn from them. I let the knowledge sit with me. Later, when I am writing, if a technique has truly been absorbed, it comes to me naturally.
This is not a guide—it is an invitation to feel deeply.
Buy How to Wake Up in the Morning on Amazon today.
