HAIKUsutradhar : 20th 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 Only post unpublished verses --- nothing that has appeared in peer-reviewed or edited journals, anthologies, your webpage, social media, etc.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:

20th February

Patricia J. Machmiller

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Week 3

The quote for this prompt is by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a revered American thinker and writer of the nineteenth century. He was also an activist writing and speaking against slavery. He read theBhagavad Gita and Henry Thomas Colebrooke’s Essays on the Vedas. The Indian philosophy of nondualism showed up in his journal writing. He was an avid journal writer; his journal has been published in 16 volumes. In his book-length essay, Nature,he explores the relationship between man and the natural world expressing the belief that the divine suffuses all of nature. This work is the foundation of the Transcendental movement which he founded. From all of his writing I chose this simple quote:

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.”     

This quote is almost the direct opposite of Faulkner’s quote from the first week. Emerson is urging you to get up in the morning and, if not erase the past, ignore it. No matter what has gone before, promise yourself that you will make this day the best ever. And even if this is an impossible ask, it is a great aspiration, full of hope, and leading to gratitude for the world as it is.

Here are some haiku that embrace this feeling:

    run at full speed

    summer school grounds

    smell of the earth

             Katsuhiko Momoi

             Nowhere Else, 2025 HNA Conference Anthology, 2025

    full buck moon

   the cantata’s high note

  clears the treetop

           Dyana Basist                              

           hedgerow 150

    bright spring morning

    at the bus stop a tone deaf man 

    belts out Verdi

           Linda Papanicolaou

           Geppo 2023/2

    Thinking this snow

is mine it’s light 

    on my hat

           Kikaku (translated by Keith Ekiss)

           Nowhere Else, 2025 HNA Conference Anthology, 2025

Thank you, for giving me this opportunity to engage with all of you during these three weeks. It has been an enormous pleasure.

Patricia

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

Write on! Gauri