laughALONG! 25th July

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, Lakshmi Iyer

guest editor: Marilyn Ashbaugh

Please note:

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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 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 !!

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all the things

that pass me by

. . . dandelions

-- H. Gene Murtha

Haiku poets generally are in agreement with Thoreau when he remarked,"You must live in the present, launch yourself on any wave, find your eternity in each moment."

--- Speculations by Robert Spiess

It is often said that to write good haiku one must read good haiku. Reading good haiku is

essential to my writing practice. The rhythm stimulates my intuition and before I know it I

am ready to write.

Select a poem or two from haikuKATHA or elsewhere that you feel resonates with the above

quote. It may be your haiku or someone else's. Write a word or phrase from the haiku.

Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and let your intuition wander. Write down your

"wanderings" and play until a haiku presents itself.

Please share your haiku with us.

bigwigs

a pair of bumblebees

in the foxglove

--- Marilyn Ashbaugh

It's a beautiful prompt.

But I had a doubt about this idea.

Can we take another poet's best thoughts/line and make it our own? _kala

>>

To which Marilyn replied: No we cannot. It was meant as a starting point, an inspiration, for one's own "wanderings", which create a completely new haiku. I am afraid I did not make this clear and it has been taken literally.

>>>>

Thank you, Marilyn.