HAIKUsutradhar: 15th March 2024 Patricia McGuire

A FRIDAY FEATURE

Host: Gauri Dixit Prompter for March: Patricia McGuire

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 3rd of the previous month to the 2nd of the current month.

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 Only post unpublished verses --- nothing that has appeared in peer-reviewed or edited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.

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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PROMPT:

15th March.

Prompt : Walking in the shoes of the masters: Issa.

I wonder if I were to poll western haiku poets and ask which of the Japanese masters they enjoyed reading, would Issa come out on top? Let’s try it, email me and let me know Bashō, Buson, Issa or Shiki, which do you enjoy reading the most?

That was your first job, your second is to take another walk, this time in the company of Issa. In the silence of your walk take note of the ordinary everyday things going on around you and write about them with lightness or humour, perhaps both.

Inspiration before you exit into the everyday world outside your front door:

an autumn evening;

the only sharer of my complaints

the wall

​Issa

Trs: RH Blythe

he glares back at me

with an ugly, surly face,

this old pond frog

Issa from The Spring of my Life Trs: Sam Hamill

Patricia McGuire (writing name Bisshie), host of The Poetry Pea Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube. Managing Editor of The Poetry Pea Journal. Please check out our website, poetrypea.com, and join us for Japanese-inspired short-form poetry, maybe even write some for us.

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Nothing inspires poetry as much as being one with your environment. Walk in silence, taking note of everyday things , and you will find many haiku. Perhaps as many as the master himself!

Write on! Gauri