haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 25th October 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.

***

Special Guest Poet: Lakshmi Iyer

host: Srinivasa Sambangi 25th October 2025

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

Your Guest Poet for SEPTEMBER: 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. 

25th October 2025

October 25, 2025

Well, for a change, can we have ourselves produced before the court of Haiku… just the application of the ‘I’. This isn't ego, it's a mindset to deliver what the self thinks of the soul as a taker of me and mine!

Let's have poems involving;

Me, Mine and I !!

black orchid

I enter a darkness 

that is not mine

            Ravi Kiran, Hyderabad, India 

tsuri-doro, Issue #7, Jan/Feb 2022

lunar orbit 

the years I spent

to know you

           Srinivas Sambangi, Hyderabad, India 

LEAF, Issue 2, December 2023

bitter melon juice

I gulp my grief

ounce by ounce

           Lakshmi Iyer, India 

           Failed Haiku, Vol 8, Issue 96, Nov 2023

         We are the spectators of our own being, the readers of our own poems and the mentors of our own learning. 

         Haiku is a wordless poem; let us all thrive to keep the world a beautiful place to live with thoughtful quotes and actions.

*********

“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/

**

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