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haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 22nd November 2025

haikaiTALKS: The Spacious Moment: Haiku and the Art of Presence|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: Billie Dee

host: Srinivasa Sambangi 22nd November 2025


haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

Your Guest Poet for November: Billie Dee


haikaiTALKS 


The Spacious Moment: Haiku and the Art of Presence Billie Dee


We continue this week with two more haikai selected from the anthology Naad Anunaad (Kala Ramesh, Sanjuktaa Asopa, Shloka Shankar, eds. Pune, IN: Vishwakarma Publications, 2016, ISBN# 978-93-85665-33-2). As we near the end of our journey together, pause to look over what you’ve written so far. Those “failed” scraps and ideas that didn’t make it to this blog—see if your practice of presence can bring them now to fruition. Or start fresh. And share.


Part 4: Weightless and Profound

There are moments so delicate they risk passing unnoticed—until haiku catches them in midair.

A single butterfly. A pause near nettles. The weight is almost nothing, and yet everything turns

around it. This is the paradox of presence: the lighter the touch, the deeper the impression.


lavender stalk

the weight of one

white butterfly


— André Surridge


boundary stone

the nettles

pause


— Anatoly Kudryavitsky


Surridge’s haiku balances a blossom stem and a butterfly in one suspended breath—each phrase hinging on the physical tension between fragility and poise. Kudryavitsky gives us an even subtler tension: the idea that even nettles, so often seen as invasive or stinging, might hold still in deference to some invisible boundary. Or is the pause ours?


These poems don’t assert meaning—they gesture toward it. Their restraint gives them staying

power. In haiku, what’s left unsaid often carries the most weight.


PROMPT: What moment today hovered just at the edge of awareness? Did you pause long

enough to feel its depth?

In your writing, try to capture the weightless image of some small creature or item in a state of focused presence. Share it here, and inspire us all to look deeper, to weigh the empty against the full.


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

 

Indian subcontinent SAIJIKI:

 

The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words:

 

The World Kigo Database:

 

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Season Word List:

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Thanks, Billie. Your notes, the examples you have given and your prompt are so breathtakingly stunning. Thank you so much. I hope more poets try to see 'ma' the way you have so superbly expressed.

Dear Members,

Waiting for your responses.

Please provide your feedback on others' commentary and poems as well. _()_

We are continuing haikaiTALKS in a grand manner!

Keep writing and commenting! _kala

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