haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 27th December 2025 Billee Dee

haikaiTALKS: The Quiet Edges of Presence: a Winter Sabi Series|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 27th December 2025

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

December's Guest Poet: Billie Dee And she's helping us view Winter Sabi!

haikaiTALKS 

The Quiet Edges of Presence: a Winter Sabi Series

Across hemispheres, winter is less a single season than a mood—a thinning of light, a sharpening of textures, a soft deceleration at the edges of our days. Whether cold or warm, wet or dry, winter is when presence becomes more audible in the small, unguarded moments: thresholds of identity, the residue of shared rooms, the grain of familiar tasks, and the slowed breath of living things.

Sabi is not about sorrow.  It is the felt texture of time brushing lightly against us. This new four-week cycle invites you into those subtle thresholds where nothing dramatic happens, yet everything is quietly revealed.

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December 27 — Edges of Breath: Aging, Quiet Tasks, and the Cycle of Presence

Sabi gathers in the slowings—the morning hand warming its pen, the narrowing of memory to what endures, an old dog’s winter pace. These are not scenes of diminishment but of cyclical presence: the body remembering its work, the voice returning to what is known by heart, breath rejoining its own rhythm. Time here moves gently, spiraling rather than falling.

winter morning—

scribbles on a scratch pad

get the ink flowing

— John Stevenson

failing eyesight—

we sing only the carols

we know by heart

— Beverley George

early snow

the old dog

takes his time

— Ferris Gilli

PROMPT: Think of a moment that asked you to slow down—morning stiffness, half-remembered words, an aging animal’s measured pace. Write a haiku from that softened edge.

_()_ Namaste, Billee Dee

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“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, Billie. Your notes, the examples you have given, and your prompt are breathtaking. Thank you so much.

I love your prompt: PROMPT:  Think of a moment that asked you to slow down—morning stiffness, half-remembered words, an aging animal’s measured pace. Write a haiku from that softened edge.

_()_ I hope more poets try to see 'sabi' 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 full swing!

Keep writing and commenting! _kala