laughALONG! 15 April

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Padma Rajeswari, K. Ramesh

guest editor: dipankar (দীপংকর)

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's monthly journal -- haikuKATHA, each month.

Poets are requested to post poems (haiku/senryu) that adhere to the prompts/exercises given.

Only 1 poem to be posted in 24 hours. Total 2 poems per poet are allowed each week (numbered 1,2). So, revise your poems till 'words obey your call'.

If a poet wants feedback, then the poet must mention 'feedback welcome' below each poem that is being posted.

Responses are usually a mixture of grain and chaff. The poet has to be discerning about what to take for the final version of the poem or the unedited version will be picked up for the journal.

The final version should be on top of the original version for selection.

Poetry is a serious business. Give you best attempt to feature in haikuKATHA !!

.....................................................................................................................................

Haiku humour, as opposed to senryū, is special. Here are some examples.

new millennium

the snail on the walk

does not pause

-Paul O. William

fireflies

my neighbour

has more

-Carl Patrick

evening séance ---

the medium’s parlor

smells of cabbage

        -Patricia Neubauer

Haiku humour is characterised by Bashō’s aesthetic principle of karumi or “lightness".

Karumi admits what is important or difficult without moroseness or anticlimax. The humour of haiku is not biting parody or satire. The latter are more suited to senryū. Blyth had found haiku humour to be “much fainter, yet deeper, older, born before our day, discovered rather than created, most there when least noticed (Senryu, 32).”

Let us try this week to smile naturally instead of conducting an IQ-test. I look forward to smiling with you.