Muskan Kaur is an 18-year-old from Chandigarh who recently completed high school and is currently navigating the beautifully chaotic landscape of her teenage years. She often finds herself lost in films, shedding tears over her favorite characters, or typing dramatic thoughts into her notes app at 2 a.m., because sometimes poetry arrives uninvited.
A national-level basketball player, Muskan brings the same intensity and passion from the court into her writing. Her poems don’t always come easily. Some pour out in a rush, while others take shape after long silences. But they always come from a place of deep emotion. For her, writing is more than just expression. It is connection. It is how she copes, questions, and captures moments too delicate for everyday conversation.
Muskan is still figuring things out — how to write, what to feel, and why it all matters. However, she knows there is quiet magic in observing the world and turning even the smallest moments, such as a glance, a sentence, or a stranger, into something that stays.
Q: What inspires your poetry?
A lot of my poetry comes from feelings, both mine and the ones I sense around me. Sometimes it's something I've been carrying quietly, and other times it's from observing the world, the people I pass, conversations I overhear, or emotions that don't even belong to me but still move me. I think poetry, for me, is a mix of personal release and deep noticing of what hurts, heals, or simply exists beneath the surface. Writing it down feels like a way to hold all of it gently without needing to explain everything.
Q: What are your ambitions for your writing?
I want my writing to feel like a quiet conversation, the kind that lingers long after it's over. I don't want to write just for applause or perfection. I want to create something that feels like a mirror for someone else, even if it's just one person who sess themselves in my words. One day I'd love to publish a collection that captures the chaos, softness, and stillness of everything I've carried - not just the things I've figured out, but the things I'm still trying to understand. I think that's where the real poetry lives.
Q: Have your interests in films influenced your writing in any way?
Absolutely. I've always loved films, not just for the stories but for how they make you feel something without always spelling it out. Watching films has always been my escape, a way to step into someone else's world when mine felt a little too much. Movies like Atonement have stayed with me for how they hold silence, guilt, longing, all the complicated emotions, so beautifully. I think that's what I try to bring into my poetry too. I don't always want to explain everything, I just want the feeling to sit with you, the way a good film does.
THE BOOK
Muskan has been published in the anthology 'Hear Me First'. Curated by Delhi Poetry Slam as part of The Writer's Launchpad, an online workshop series for a select group of contemporary Indian poets. Get your copy!
Buy the book here
Connect with the poet on Instagram: @muska.n102