hosts: Kala Ramesh & Firdaus Parvez
mentor: Lorraine Haig
A Thursday Feature 28th November
Prakash Thombre
Ink sketch and write-up by Prakash Thombre, Pune.
Prakash Thombre says:
A wonderful poem I like of Mary Oliver from her book ‘A Thousand Mornings’.
I Have Decided
I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence. It’s said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt, if not exactly understood. Slowly, no doubt. I’m not talking about a vacation.
Of course, at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am.
Are you following me?
- Mary Oliver
Challenge:
Enjoy the ink sketch by artist Prakash Thombre and then read what inspired him to draw this figure.
We would love to read your haibun inspired by this post.
Haibun outside this theme is also accepted :))
Have a whale of a time, while you are at it!
PLEASE NOTE:
1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt.
2. Share your best-polished pieces.
3. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written.
Let it simmer for a while.
4. Post your final edited version on top of your original verse.
5. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.
We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300/250 words) to be considered for inclusion in haikuKATHA monthly journal.
Important: Since we're swamped with submissions, and our editors are only human, mistakes can happen. Please, please, remember to put your name, followed by your country, below each poem, even after revisions. It helps our editors; they won't have to type it in, saving them from potential typos. Thanks a ton!
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PLEASE NOTE:
1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt. Please put your name and country of residence under your poem, it makes the editors' work easier. Thanks.
2. Share your best-polished pieces.
3. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written.
Let it simmer for a while.
4. When poets give suggestions and if you agree to them - post your final edited version on top of your original version.
5. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.
We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.
#1
Off-prompt(written on last week's prompt:)
Revised thanks to Vidya:)
A question with no answer
I stare intently at my silhouette in the still pond, searching for a clue. I have, since birth, known this brown skin, these small hands, those thoughts that swirl. Yet, the reflection is murky. The shadow looking back at me has no defined borders— a gully with no ends, innumerable forks and potholed with fall-through questions. Undefined, with destination unknown. Where do we go from here?
cannot be cupped
into my palms
rippled moon
Namratha Varadharajan, India
Feedback welcome
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Enigma
I stare intently at my silhouette in the still pond, searching for a clue. I have known this brown skin, these small hands, those…
#1. The revelation
It wasn’t hard. The climb I mean. As a nature enthusiast, I have walked through dense forests, swum through meandering rivers, climbed mountains, bathed under gushing waterfalls to name a few activities I indulge in. So to come to this hermitage high up in the mountains wasn’t difficult at all. What was difficult was the thundering silence here. For that’s when I started hearing myself. I had no idea my mind was so voluble.City life made me heed everything and everyone but me. I never knew I needed to hear myself till I did. What a revelation that was!
in deafening silence
I hear myself
‘aham brahmasmi’
*Aham Brahmasmi is a term that is used in Hindu…
Is anyone else only available to like at the moment and not offer any comments?
#2 11/30/24
The Thing I Carry
There’s no doubt that I have something beyond this world inside me. It’s an emptiness in me, a lonely part of me, that haunts me when no one is around. I don’t even know how to describe the yawning canyon, but I know it’s there, that it’s become a part of me, stretching even as I fight it, even as I love with all my heart.
at first
it was delicious
black hole
susan burch, USA
Comments welcome
30/11/24 #2
Precipice
autumn wind—
a hawk’s shadow slips
between crags
Hooves press into loose gravel; the edge crumbles beneath me. Below, rivers braid through valleys, glinting like silk. The air tightens in my chest, metallic and cold. A wisp of cloud grazes my back, lighter than the ache in my legs. I pause, trembling—not from the climb, but the stillness.
mountain rain—
lichen’s slow bloom
on fractured stone
C.X. Turner, UK
(feedback welcome)