THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 25th December 2025. Lakshmi Iyer - Guest Editor
- Kala Ramesh
- Dec 25, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 25, 2025
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: Akila G
A Thursday Feature 25th December
Naming Ceremony
The path to the volcano at Bandung, Indonesia, winds up and down through dense vegetation. Shrubs, moss-laden, uneven stepping-stones, interspersed with rustling leaves.
Dad recalls his father’s childhood story. Grandpa used to walk miles through a dense forest to his school in the next town. In those days, forests were infested with robbers. The village buzzed with stories of victims, especially Brahmin pundits who would be robbed of rice grains, lentils, vegetables, and sometimes, the few annas received by them for performing religious ceremonies and holy chanting.
Karuthuvaavan, Cheengannan, Veeru – Grandpa never encountered these rogues in the forest but their description from villagers was vivid enough for his memory to nickname his three sons.
night duty –
the watchman has a name
for every star
Akila G, Hyderabad
CHO, October 2018, vol 14, no 3
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Week 4 :
Another excellent haibun from Akila, who has the ability to weave intricate real life episodes with a balanced, dignified and transparent array of words that forms the essence of haibun writing. ‘Naming Ceremony’ is a nostalgic drift from the present to past and present. The title is a celebration of Akila’s inner voice with a beautiful blend of humour; often cathartic.
Can you capture such moments in your life that have brought a smile to your loved ones? Your prompt this week : Refine and Define Humour! Storytelling time!
Merry Christmas to One and All!
*****
Thank you so much, Lakshmi, for accepting to be the Guest Editor of The Haibun Gallery. This week is your concluding one, and what a befitting haibun you've chosen to showcase on this platform on Christmas Day!
Thank you for being with us, Lakshmi.
_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.
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The Haibun Gallery continues as is.
We will be having editors and prompts, and your sharing…
#2
Power of Silence
I had put food for the stray queen in her pan earlier as I regularly do. It seems she already ate in the neighbor's house before coming here. She climbs up in the attic and starts napping. after some time, her kitten arrives in and walks straight to the food bowl I keep for her mother. She starts eating it. Shortly after, she comes to me, probably to thank me for the food in her own terms. Now stray queen climbs down from the attic. They greet each other. It’s likely that kitten saved bits of meat for her mother. I thought she ate it all. But no! What a love and understanding between them! The mother seems to be satisfied…
#1 Edited
(Thankfully with Joanna Ashwell's kind feedback.)
The Iron-Deep Pan
It's a traditionally fried-donut shop. I keep visiting it for her tea and donuts. Or I guess it's more just to feel her warmth and sweetness. Her husband does mostly kneading, frying and delivery too. His working table is big, occupying a large space of the crammed quall. Sacks of wheat flour stack up against the wall. A giant iron-deep pan stays over the stove. It is blackened and permanently greased with oil. It is old and worn out, with its continuous usage. I wonder about its immortality, that it doesn't get consumed or burnt with the heat.
In the beginning, she had only a son. Later she…
Post #1
26.13.25
What’s cooking!
“Girls should know how to cook” Dadi’s* shrill voice pierces the afternoon calm. Mother and I look at each other and smirk. Since I announced
that I am going to become a doctor, my grandma has been angry. She believes only boys can do that. Girls should look after the husband and his family!
So one fine day it’s up to me to make chapatis. I agree on the condition that everyone should have them for lunch.
An hour later, seven chapatis rest on the plate,
uneven, imperfect, each one shaped like a country
I have not yet travelled to.
jukebox—
I play another
memory
*paternal grandmother
Mona Bedi
India
Feedback appreciated:)
#2
Field Stars
What is the difference between locations? Each one still shines within it’s own sphere of beauty. There are river stars meandering within the tide. The ocean tide pushes and pulls these stars in a glimmer of threads through each wave or ripple. Then there are the stars simply fixed above us. No sway like a lantern or flicker of a candle.
some certainties…
spun in a dream
of luminescence
Joanna Ashwell
UK
Feedback welcome
Lovely haibun from Akila… put a smile on my face!