prartho  sereno

journeys to the interior 

poetry * illustration * creative guidance

Prartho's Story

The nurturance of creativity is my life-work.

For over 30 years I have offered poetry and creativity workshops in a variety of venues, currently including the College of Marin and as a Marin County Poet in the Schools, for which I was awarded a 2005 Radio Disney Super Teacher Award.

I was Poet Laureate of Marin 2015-17 & received an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University in 2013.

My teaching and writing are infused with the meditation and arts I practiced over 4 years in India, though I also credit excursions into other art forms: counseling psychologist, vegetarian cook, mother of 2, meditation instructor at Cornell University, book and cover illustrator, and amateur singer-songwriter.  Let's play!

My life has been a quest for the lost continent of awe. With pen and brush as my oars, writing and painting take me there…

I hope my poems and illustrations might take you there too.

                   ~ Prartho

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Feel of the Cloth

The emperor wanted to believe
the itinerant tailors—that the robe they’d
made for him had been woven of light. 

Which, of course, it was.
Of sunlight and air.
His heartbeat quickened as they
pointed out the iridescent beads of dew
and delicate taffeta of fog.
The pale blue moonglow trim.

The emperor wanted to hear
the whisper of wingbeats as he
fingered the cloth, to smell
the sweet decay of the forest floor. 

And so he did. As he dove head-first
into that glorious garment he heard
and smelled uncountable things.
It was like nothing, he said
when he regained his wits, like nothing 

he’d ever put on. Like wearing a cloud.
Or a breeze. It’s not of this world,
he said to the tailors, who nodded
and smiled… Which, come to think of it,
was their only lie. For this world 

was precisely what they used for their warp,
our commonest threads their woof.  

     ~ Prartho Sereno, from Indian Rope Trick

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prartho's award-winning poetry books

(click on info button to purchase) 

Call from Paris

2007 Word Works Washington Prize

Elephant Raga

2015 Blue Lynx Prize

Causing a Stir:

The Secret Lives & Loves of Kitchen Utensils

2008 IPPY 

Indian Rope Trick

2018 Blue Light Book Award

Praise for Indian Rope Trick 

Upcoming Festivities

Poetic Pilgrimage: Poem-Making as Spiritual Practice 

On-going 7-week course at the College of Marin

Tuesday afternoons, 2:10 to 4:30 

Fall 1 starts on August 26!