THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 18th September 2025. Anju Kishore - Guest Poet
- Kala Ramesh
- Sep 18
- 2 min read
host: Rupa Anand
mentor: Lorraine Haig editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh
Guest Poet: Anju Kishore
A Thursday Feature
18th September 2025 -
THE HAIBUN GALLERY September 2025 Anju Kishore
Alan Peat
Touchstone Award for Individual Haibun, 2022
Samurai Haibun Contest 2022
Gaudy Spring
The man who keeps each season in a box is spring cleaning. He polishes the
silver box that winter is kept in. It is cold to the touch. Autumn’s box is
fashioned of driftwood. If you shake it you can hear dryness rustle. He gives it a
little dust. You have to be careful with summer; it’s hot to the touch now. Hold it
too long and you’ll burn your fingers. He leaves it alone on the high shelf. Ah,
but Spring is his favourite box. Open its cloisonné lid and the buttercups will
make your chin glow yellow. There are too many shades of green to count. Ask
him politely and he’ll point out Crested Dog’s tail and cowslips and Yorkshire
fog. Look closely: there, inside the box. Can you see the young boy with the
basin cut? The one who is holding his dad’s hand? They are walking through the
wildflower meadow in Muker. Soon they will reach the river with its banks of
celandines and oxeye daisies.
faded as a haircut
in a barbershop window
pressed bluebells
***
Ever dreamt of stepping into candy-land or right into your favourite fairytale?
That is the feeling I get as I read Al Peat’s award-winning haibun. And then as I
look deeper into the Spring box as Al instructs me to…wham! I am that young
boy heading to the river holding dad’s hand. Is that still the dream or a nearly
forgotten memory or …wishful thinking?
This week, lead readers into your haibun that unfolds bit by bit, like a film.
Tingle the senses, open up vistas and maybe finally, throw the poem wide open
to a very personal moment?
Haibun outside the prompt is welcome
<>
Thanks, Anju.
Most beautiful prompt.
Waiting to see what our poets come up with!
_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Writers are invited to submit one unpublished haibun per submission window.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 will be given in this space soon. 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…
Rayleigh, nee RAGHELEIAM
Vertical skeletons baring cables line fields of wild grass as I gaze out from the mount. Below, throngs of people weave their way past hangman’s corner up to where the iron horses once appeared, paused and breathed clouds into clear blue skies before departing for London.
carved bench
a pair of initials
in a pierced heart
it’s in the doomsday book, an appearing stranger mentions to an unseen colleague, as he climbs the last of the thirty nine steps up from the inner Bailey, 11th century, he continues, as if projecting a piece of knowledge already lodged in my mind.
disrupted peace
a clump of cowslip
wilts in the wind Robert Kingston, UK
Edit, thanks to Alfred:
#2
Fractals
I spin the pocket-watch and step through a portal. The skies are like layers of candyfloss, shifting through from purple, lilac and pink. My feet leave no prints, just a dusting of where I’ve been. Sprinkles of candy rise in water spurts, spilling out into the air.
woodpecker tones pulling the daylight back to dawn
The dial re-spins and I’m pulled forward to another space. Emerald moss beneath me and an azure lake to one side. Rainbow fish break the surface, scattering molecules of wishes that pop and fizz all around. An angler tilts his line into the waters.
dusk the sudden migration of starlings
I reach back…
Does someone have the google submission form for haibun please. I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thank you
Harbinger
Awe and joy surge in me, edged with a little fear. Yellow-tail Cockatoos loop from branch to branch, their raucous cries like unoiled hinges. Big black wings flow around me – twenty, thirty, the flock still growing. Just metres away, young birds are fed from the dark beaks of their parents. The track rings with a cacophony of sound as they swoop overhead.
Casuarinas pines
snow clouds drift
over the mountains
Lorraine Haig, Aust.
Revised with thanks to Alfred and Joanna.
Harbinger
Yellow-tail Cockatoos loop from tree to tree, their raucous cries like unoiled hinges. Big black wings flow around me – twenty, thirty, the flock still growing. Just metres away, young birds are fed from the dark beaks…
tanka prose #1---19Sept25
ERROR: POSTED ON WRONG BLOG PLEASE GO TO TANKA TAKE HOME TO READ THIS POEM
with apologies, Billie