THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 4th June 2026 Lakshmi Iyer - Guest Editor
- Srinivas Sambangi
- Jun 4
- 1 min read
Editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh
Guest Editor: Lakshmi Iyer
Host: Srinivas Sambangi
Featured Poet: R. Suresh Babu
A Thursday Feature
4th June 2026
Orchestration
R. Suresh Babu
The symphony begins with a sonata of one cicada, followed by a second, and joined by many others until it reaches a climax. Then, a cut—the whooping cough of my old neighbor.
Shortly afterwards, it starts up again with one cicada, two, and more, singing until their wings are drenched in the lilting night rain.
the circadian rhythm of a pacemaker
(drifting ~sands~haibun, Issue 23, September 2023)
Suresh babu says:
“The cicada’s cry is the musical score of my present life, the highest decibel too. But, it disturbs in the middle of my sleep and hardly moves. However I try to shoo them away..they still stay” This inspired me to write ‘Orchestration’.
Prompt for Writers
Notice how Suresh takes us through the varied sounds. He has beautifully layered his story with an excellent haiku that keeps us wondering, what next? It takes us across so many levels of time. Can you craft a haibun with only the sounds across the river of time?
Thank you The Haibun Gallery Team!
***
Thank you, Lakshmi Iyer, for agreeing to be the guest editor for this month. The very first prompt for the month sounds sweet.
_Srinivas
#1
Good Side of Not Being Rich
I jokingly say, "I own all the houses of our city." when people ask me if I own one. It has been over fifteen months that I've rented this apartment. On the steps of stairs, the landlady has placed vases of various kinds of plants and flowers. They have a long rectangular courtyard paved with stone slabs, on the border, both flowering and non-flowering plants. My landlady and her family are descent people who know their boundary line.
It has been months or even a year that bathroom faucets are in disorder.
water drips
onto the bucket
its rhythmic sounds
Tejendra Sherchan, Nepal
The LIST IS UP!
Congratulations to all our poets in the June issue of haikuKATHA!
https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/celebration
#1, 9/6
her words pinprick day in and day out . . .
i remove
my anklets once
for all
Lakshmi Iyer, India
Thank you poets for filling the page with lovely sounds and sights!!
#2
Sky-Bells
Before you enter a room your jewellery jingles. There is the charm bracelet, the hooped earrings, the over-sized pendant hanging in row after row of bling. Even the rings chime on each finger. You are a walking gem-fire of echoes. Nobody can recall where you’re from or when you came. Just the sound of alchemy striking your progression street by street. Where do you live? No visitor has ever found out. Sometimes a child points a finger to a cloud, chuckling to themselves. So many rumours unsolved surround the suite of songs in a rainstorm.
picture window
from dusk till dawn
a charm of melodies
Joanna Ashwell
UK