THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 18th December 2025. Lakshmi Iyer - Guest Editor

editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh

Lorraine Haig has stepped down from being a mentor for this forum. Triveni Haikai India and The Haibun Gallery are grateful for her exceptional feedback and responses over the last few years.

Guest Editor: Lakshmi Iyer

Featured Poet: Shobhana Kumar

A Thursday Feature 18th December

Fairy Tales

Appa likes to smoke the house every evening. It is an elaborate ritual he revels in and we can’t decide which is better: watching his eyes light up as he engages in it or the heavenly fragrance that envelops every corner.

bougainvillea

all the secrets between

neighbours

He first takes out a piece of charcoal and hovers it around the lamp. For the next minute or so, he gently blows at it, watching the bright orange slowly embrace layer after layer. ‘How many millennia are tucked into this piece of black.’ His eyes twinkle and sadden almost immediately when he sees our complete apathy to this epiphany.

When he eases the powdered sambrani into the charcoal, he closes his eyes for several moments, inhaling the divinity of it all. ‘And look at us, burning all this to get into heaven.’

turntable night

the record always slips

at my favourite line

‘Why do it at all, Pa,’ we ask, annoyed at his cynicism.

‘Because you need something to remind you of home. And also, how much there is to do before you hang up your boots.’

last sunset

all the memories

now in an urn

Shobhana Kumar, Coimbatore

CHO, April 2016, vol 12, no 1

Week 3 : 

         Shobhana Kumar is a versatile haibuneer. The taste and texture of her haibun are a masterstroke, drawing us back to our roots and connecting within ourselves what we sometimes forget or forego. Kindly read ‘A Sky full of Bucket List’ by Shobhana and indulge in that essence of contentment. Shobhana says, ‘We sometimes abandon real life stories for want of a better ending.'

          Have you?

          If yes, kindly share your story here and leave a note of hope and promise!

*****

Thank you so much, Lakshmi, for accepting to be the Guest Editor of The Haibun Gallery. Waiting for the weeks to unfold. Good choice of haibun this week. I love your prompt too.

You've always had that keen sense of being, and I'm waiting to see how you're going to take this month forward.

_kala

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT NOTICE

              NOTICE

Dear Haibuneers

Starting from March 2025, we at haikuKATHA are moving on to a new submissions format for haibun submissions. (Only for haibun, please note!)

Writers are invited to submit one unpublished haibun per submission window.

Kindly note the submissions calendar.

1-20 March, to be considered for publication in May

1-20 June, to be considered for publication in August

1-20 September, to be considered for publication in November

1-20 December, to be considered for publication in February

All accepted submissions will receive an email to confirm their acceptance by the 5th day of the publication month.

Your unpublished (only one) haibun should be sent to: 

The Google link:

https://forms.gle/WkM9frPjtEzNTrVEA This form will only be available during the submission period. 

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The Haibun Gallery continues as is.

We will be having editors and prompts, and your sharing…