haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 20th September 2025

haikaiTALKS: Five Senses & Tanmatras|a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

A Disclaimer

Responsibility for the originality of the haikai rests solely with the submitting poet. 

If anyone feels that it is similar to another haikai, they are encouraged to contact the relevant poet directly.

Triveni Haikai India will take any action as recommended by the submitting poet.

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Special Guest Poet: Lakshmi Iyer

host: Srinivasa Sambangi 20th September 2025

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

Your Guest Poet for SEPTEMBER for haikaiTALKS: Lakshmi Iyer

haikaiTALKS 

Five Senses & Tanmatras

The Upanishads, along with broader Vedic and Hindu philosophical texts, describe the five Jnanendriyas, or cognitive senses: hearing (ear), touch (skin), sight (eye), taste (tongue), and smell (nose).

These senses are considered the primary means by which an individual perceives the external world and gains knowledge about it. 

These five senses are often linked to the elements and their corresponding tanmatras:

Sound is associated with the ear and the element of space.

Touch is linked to the skin and the element of air.

Form/Sight is attributed to the eye and the element of fire.

Taste is associated with the tongue and the element of water.

Smell is linked to the nose and the element of earth. 

We have come across many poems connected to the five senses. We shall take each one of them and weave our senses! The given poems are my earthly experiences, published and presented here. Thank you so much, Kala Ramesh and the entire editorial board, for giving me this opportunity to present this feature in haikaiTALKS.

I'm looking forward to reading your poems, as I have come to understand how each one of you thinks differently. 

Form/Sight: eye: fire

This is challenging because you see the form through the lens but then why fire? Fire here relates to the energy in you, the passion or transformation.  How can we modulate this? We can have poems on the forms as we say, show, don't tell and then what our eyes perceive and gradually to the energy level of fire/ agni in oneself, what the yogis call as tapas! It is touching the fire element within us!

Tai Chi -

a blue heron takes up

the master's stance

              Angelee Deodhar, Chandigarh, India (1947-2018)

Poetry Pacific, e.zine, 5 November 2015

spring night sky ...

a refugee girl counts

the stars

              Milan Rajkumar, Imphal, India 

              tsiri-doro, Issue 9, May/June 2022

hot flashes

mood swings up and down

reasons why i cry

           Lakshmi Iyer, India 

          The Pan Haiku Review, Issue 2, Dec 2023

The form - the sight as the eyes reach out to the blue heron or look up at the stars or the fire deep inside igniting the mood swings.

“A Dictionary of Haiku Classified by Season Words with Traditional and Modern Methods,” by Jane Reichhold:

https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/7fb6654a1dfd1afef97369da920530f8.pdf

Indian subcontinent SAIJIKI:

https://www.trivenihaikai.in/indian-saijiki

The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words:

http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/500ESWd.html

The World Kigo Database:

https://wkdkigodatabase03.blogspot.com/

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Season Word List:

https://yths.org/season-word-list/

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Thanks, Lakshmi. We are eagerly looking forward to how the next two months unfold. I love your examples.

Dear Members,

Waiting for your responses.

Please give your feedback on others' commentary and poems, too. _()_

We are continuing haikaiTALKS in a grand manner!

Keep writing and commenting! _kala