hosts: Shalini Pattabiraman & G. Akila
21st April
Jenny Ward Angyal lives with her husband and one Abyssinian cat on a small organic farm in Gibsonville, North Carolina, USA. Her tanka, haiku, and related prose forms have appeared widely in journals, and she is the author of two tanka collections, Moonlight on Water and Only the Dance. She currently serves as Global Moderator of Inkstone Poetry Forum and Tanka Editor of Under the Basho.
Sketches from Life
Masaoka Shiki, often credited with reforming and reviving haiku and tanka in the late nineteenth century, sometimes referred to himself as Dassai Sho-oku Shujin (“Otter Bookstore Owner”). He wrote his Dassai Sho-oku Haiwa or Talks on Haiku from the Otter’s Den in a room as littered with books and papers as an otter’s den with fish. The Japanese river otter is still the official animal symbol of Ehime Prefecture, where Shiki was born. Tradition has it that when otters were abundant in the region’s rivers, they used to line up the the fish they caught on the riverbanks—celebrating an ‘otter festival,’ perhaps, or making an offering to the sky.
shadows
in a sunlit eddy
the river's endless song
Confined to his “six-foot sickbed” by tuberculosis and morphine, with his materials spread about his pillow like an otter’s horde of fish, Shiki continued to write prolifically until the day he died in 1902. That day, September 19, is still observed as Dassai-ki or “Otter’s Ceremony Anniversary.” He was not quite 35.
ink blots
on a blank page
this dewdrop world
Once touted as medicine—a supposed treatment for TB—Japanese river otters were also heavily hunted for their dense, velvety fur. And, bit by bit, development and pollution destroyed their habitat and food sources, until, by the end of the century, the otters were extinct.
a streak of bubbles
on the water's surface
the moment vanishes
Jenny Ward Angyal
Although in urban space our lives no longer know how to co-exist with an animal, animals were very much a part of the ancient space we inhabited. Create a haibun that brings an extraordinary animal (not domestic) into the urban landscape and build an imaginative piece that experiments with the speculative.
We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in haikuKATHA monthly journal.
I wrote this a week ago for this prompt, but I was contemplating whether to post here or not. This is my second haibun and I am not sure whether it works. Feedback required.
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Belonging
Every night, I invent a new story about Johny Bear to narrate to my daughter. Though she thinks that it is an imaginary bear, I know for sure that a big brown bear is on the prowl in the nearby forest. A few days later, we go on a safari through the forest to spot Johny Bear. Morning bleeds into the afternoon, afternoon bleeds into the evening, but there's no sign of the bear. Dismayed, we return home. To our shock, we find that…
Friendship day The pond we made last year in our backyard is now full of lotuses. It also has frogs.A cool rain is falling today and the toads have came out to enjoy jumping in the puddles.I jump with them. cloud animals I spot one from my childhood
Feedback please:)
Revised: thanks much Shalini, Akila, Diana
**
Story Telling
'Prannee?? 'Where is it maaji? I just can't see.'
The eighty-five year old Maami stares at the maid. She counters that she had heard the soft steps in the middle of the night and points out at the marks. She nods her head and knocks it with her hand. 'Now, there's no medicine for these weird imaginations. Oh! Maaji, they are mine. I tiptoed now.' Both of them laugh.
Maami had just moved in a year back. She was not fully satisfied with the security. The owner of the house had committed suicide. She would close the outlets of all the wash basins and wash rooms fearing that the spirits could…
Artists in Residence
They took up the post straight away after terms of employment were agreed. Willingness to allow whatever they'd transmitted to be shared .Willingness to collaborate with other forms.
extremities outstretched
in a shower of spray
blackthorn petals
So many came to to the park by the river. Would be painters , would be composers, would be poets, would be models...
curve of the back
to balance a droplet
the head held high
The residency lasted all through summer until the participants could only look through their windows and send out a message in gratitude.
vocals
in harmony with wing beats
two geese grace the moon
Revised version:
(Thank you all for your inputs)
Beingness
On one of my early morning walks in the Chinese and Japanese Garden, just behind our apartment in the heart of the bustling Jurong East, I take the route to the lake. It is punctuated by wild foliage, manicured pathways, little themed gardens...and occasionally, water monitors! The sight of the mighty lizards ambling across the path or along the bushes always gives me the heebie-jeebies.
But today, I stop dead in my tracks. I forget to breathe. Even the breeze seems to stand still. A few feet away from me, near the edge of the water, are two huge water monitors on their hind legs, locked in a gentle embrace.…