Melissa Zeligman has been writing poetry all her life, but seriously since 2007, prompted by a love affair that unleashed a torrent of creative energy. “I met a muse,” she says. “I had always been a creative person in general, but after that, I started writing poetry, painting and photography.”

After a bout of writer’s block a few years ago, she was inspired by a friend to start publishing three lines of poetry a day for extended periods, which she did on her Facebook page Girl&Muse. The above poem is her “fantasy that Rumi and Mirabai should have gotten together”.

She will be reading on Saturday at the Joma Cafe.