HAIKUsutradhar : 13th February 2026

A FRIDAY FEATURE

Host: Gauri Dixit Mentor: Kanjini Devi

Prompter for February : Patricia J. Machmiller

OUR MISSION

1. To provide a new poetry workshop each Friday, along with a prompt.

2. To select haiku, senryu, and haiga each month for the journal, haikuKATHA. Each issue will select poems that were posted in this forum from the 1st of the previous month to the 30th or 31st of the previous month.

FEEDBACK GUIDELINES ( Included as a guideline, please do not be constrained by these while proving feedback )

Let the feedback be specific and constructive. Don’t be vague. Here are some helpful lines you could use to give feedback.

What is working for me :

1. The seasonal reference is good.

2. The image is very clear.

3. I love the internal rhythm.

4. When read aloud, the poem flows well.

5. The 'cut' which is so important in haiku is effectively done here.

6. I like the format ...it's short,long, short. Nice

7. I love the indent you have given

Points that aren't working for me:

1. The image is abstract

2. The lines are long.

3. Some words are redundant and can be safely removed.

4. The lightness of haiku isn't here.

5. Abstract words take away the haiku's charm

6. There is no 'cut' (kire) in this haiku.

7. There are two kigo (seasonal words) in this ku.

8. This is reading more like free verse.

9. This ku is reading as three separate lines. There is no connect.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. Post a maximum of two verses per week, from Friday to Friday, numbered 1 & 2. Post only one haiku in a day, in 24 hours.

2. Only post unpublished verses --- nothing that has appeared in peer-reviewed or edited journals, anthologies, your webpage, social media, etc.

3. Only post original verses.

4. For each poem you post, comment on one other person’s poem.

5. Give feedback only to those poets who have requested it.

6. Do not post a variety of drafts, along with a request for readers to choose which they like most. Only one poem is to appear in each original post.

7. Post each revision, if you have any, above the original. The top version will be your submission to haikuKATHA. Do not delete the original post.

8. Do not submit found poetry or split sequences.

9. Do not post photos, except for haiga.

10. haikuKATHA will only consider haiga that showcase original artwork or photos. Post details re: the source of the visual image. If you team up with an artist or photographer, make sure that it’s their original work and that they are not restricted by other publications to share it. We won't be responsible for any copyright issues.

11. Put your name, followed by your country, below each poem, even after revisions.

12. Notification about all selected poems for each issue will be posted on CELEBRATION -on 10th of each month.

Poems that do not follow the guidelines may be deleted.

Founder/Managing Editor of haikuKATHA Monthly Journal: Kala Ramesh

Associate Editors: Ashish Narain Firdaus Parvez Priti Aisola Sanjuktaa Asopa Shalini Pattabiraman Suraja Menon Roychowdhury Vandana Parashar Vidya Shankar

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT                                                                  

6th February 2026:

The majority of poets at Triveni Haikai India do want feedback. Instead of making them all write "Feedback welcome," why not ask the minority to write "No feedback, thank you"?

That way, the minority's wish would be much more noticeable, and the majority would be saved the slight inconvenience of having to write "Feedback welcome" on every single post.  

Please follow this suggestion.

This excellent suggestion came from Lev Hart, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart.

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PROMPT:

13th February

Patricia J. Machmiller

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Week 2

This week I bring you aquote by anotherAmericanwinner of theNobel Prizefor Literature(1993),Toni Morrison,a black woman, who wrote about the black experience inAmerca, excavatingand illustrating the lifeofbeing a slave—not only its moments of terror, but also thedailygrindthatoppressionhason the soul.

Here is Morrison’s advice to all of us dealing with oppression:

“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We

     speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

As writers, she says we are called upon to give witness to our experience and to resist despair no matter how difficult. Writing haiku that addresses political issues is very difficult; it often comes across as heavy-handed and coarse. But it is some of the most important writing that you will do and you will not learn how to do it effectively without practice. Keep in mind the goal is to help our nation and the world heal.

Here are some haiku that have successfully expressed outrage without being bombastic or crude: 

    body bag

    not asking

    not telling                

           Jerry Kilbride

           Modern Haiku 34.2 (2003)

(Note: The above haiku comes out of the experience of gay andlesbian people in the U.S. miliary. From 1994 to 2011 they were told to keep quiet about their homosexuality. If they did, they could keep their job; if they didn’t they would be drummed out. In 2011 the courts ruled aginst the policy, and LGBTQ+ people were allowed to be open about their sexual orientation.Recently, however, this policy is again under attack by the Trump administration. An Executive Order has edicted the removal of transgender people from the military. The legality of this Order is now in the courts illustrating that the struggle for social justice is never ending.)

    bag in a tree

   we have all come

   from somewhere else

             Frank Hooven

             The Heron’s Nest, Vol. XXI No. 2

   slit of sky

   frozen trenches

   full of sons

          Patricia J. Machmiller

          Mariposa, #46, Spring-Summer, 2022

   Nagasaki Anniversary

   I push

   the mute button

          Fay Aoyagi

          Chrysanthemum Love, Blue Willow  Press, 2003

For more inspiration on this topic, I highly recommend the book, Haiku as Life: A Kaneko Tohta Omnibus, Richard Gilbert, ItôYûki, David Osman, Masahiro Hori, Koun Franz, Tracy Franz, and KanamitsuTakeyoshi (Red Moon Press, Winchester, VA), 2019. Kaneko was a young Japanese man during WWII and as such, experienced the war as a soldier, as a POW, and in its aftermath, as a civilian in war-torn Japan. He writes fiercely and unflinchingly about all these experiences

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Looking forward to reading your haiku. Poems outside the prompt can also be posted.

Write on! Gauri