haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 29th November 2025 Billee Dee
- Kala Ramesh
- 9 hours ago
- 2 min read
haikaiTALKS: The Spacious Moment: Haiku and the Art of Presence|a saturday gathering under the banyan tree
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Special Guest Poet: Billie Dee
host: Srinivasa Sambangi 29th 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 now wrap up November with two more haikai selected from the anthology Naad Anunaad: an anthology of contemporary world haiku (Kala Ramesh, Sanjuktaa Asopa, Shloka Shankar, eds. Pune, IN: Vishwakarma Publications, 2016, ISBN# 978-93-85665-33-2). Along with the season, take note of the shifting light and the scent of autumn as we conclude our journey here together, for this month.
Part 5: Time Rewoven
Haiku does not measure time in minutes or months—it measures it in frost and crocus, breath
and bell. Memory weaves itself into season, and the future slips in through repetition. In this
final installment, we look at how presence is braided with return.
New Year’s bells
all the way to the horizon
frosted cabbages
— Angelee Deodhar
and after such a year
the first crocus
in its usual place
— Anita Virgil
Deodhar’s haiku rings with both expanse and humility: the horizon-wide tolling, and the simple
groun upheaval, the comfort of one small thing returning exactly where it should. Not a miracle, just continuity. And that is enough.
Here, ma becomes memory held lightly. These haiku do not cling to the past or grasp for the
future. Instead, they meet each return with quiet recognition. The sacred ordinary, again.
PROMPT: What returned to you this season—not in glory, but in steadiness? What came
back quietly and helped you remember who you are? Write haikai about the shifting weather, the small variations at each turn of the cycle, about how these changes color the flow of your own life. Then share.
_()_ Namaste, Billee Dee
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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
"Haiku does not measure time in minutes or months—it measures it in frost and crocus, breath
and bell. Memory weaves itself into season, and the future slips in through repetition. In this
final installment, we look at how presence is braided with return."
Thank you for all your beautiful prompts, Billie. It has been a marvellous month, your invitations to look deeply, and listen keenly. I feel the essence of Buddhism woven in your words, which will stay with me.
The reminder to hold lightly, to not cling to the past or grasp for the future. To meet each return with quiet recognition. The sacred ordinary, again.
I shed tears of gratitude. Thank you for your presence, Billie 🙏