THE HAIBUN GALLERY: January 29, 2026. Shloka Shankar - Guest Editor
- Kala Ramesh
- Jan 29
- 2 min read
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: Shloka Shanker
Featured Poet: Norma Bradley
A Thursday Feature January 29, 2026
taking flight
Norma Bradley
a quiet day / the breeze gentle / raising wave upon wave / crashing like a cracked tune // she stood with the heron on top / of the sand dune / gazing at the waves / the riptide sweeping her out // without another thought / she turns toward him and announces / I am leaving / we each need to live /our truth // his dark eyes froze / what are you talking about? / of course he didn’t understand / he never did // never understood her joy / and wonder of being captivated / by a Picasso / or a word in a poem / that even she / did not fully understand // I can paint better than that, he said / or laughingly asked / what is that poem about? // he wanted to know / how many grains of sand / were under their feet / or how high the sand dunes were / she wanted to feel / the wind in her hair // her spirit drowning / struggling in the dark / sinking into the sand // she turned and walked / down the sand dune / the tension in her body / slipping away / sliding off her skin / free / as the heron / spreading its wings
old voices left behind stars glimmering
— The Pan Haiku Review, Issue 5
Commentary:
This haibun has a staccato feel we notice immediately. The images, contained within forward slashes, pulse with raw emotion, longing, and intense vulnerability. Each phrase draws us into the fractured relationship portrayed in the prose poem. We descend along with the protagonist, sharing her sense of freedom symbolized in both the title and the final image.
Prompt:
Write a haibun that uses line breaks in unexpected ways to create tension within the prose poem.
***
A challenge that is both interesting and intriguing.
I'm feeling sad this month has come to an end!
_kala
The Haibun Gallery continues as is.
We will be having editors and prompts, and your sharing …
Thank you Jacek for your valuable points and welcome to Triveni Haikai India!!
Thank you Shloka for all the prompts!!
#2
Softness
A quote on the wall
outside a spiritual communion:
"Even thousand suns won't remove
our ignorance."
Mostly it is the seed which
it germinates from.
There are two popular proverbs
about it in my homeland:
"Even God fears with them." And
"Everything has cure except it."
Echoing it,
Russel's 'Triumph of It' too sums it up:
"The trouble with the world is
that they are cocksure
and the intelligent are full of doubt."
Lion's share of the blame goes to them
for causing the chaos in our world.
Significantly to understand the evil
that has been plaguing our humanity,
Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' deciphers
its relationship of the power.
The never-resolved wars going on
all…
#1
Dooming of Marriage
failing to dispel the myths/of happy marriage//the hiking rate of divorces/ongoing battles between us//often her threatening/to separate or leave me//but somehow the stars work/to bring us back to our bed//and then distance us again/reverting us to unsolved wars//the cycles go on and on
Stelliferous Era's end
after the last star burns out
obliteration of marriage
Tejendra Sherchan, Nepal
Feedback(s) welcome.
#2
Fading in and out of oblivion
dreams the sly abandoned footsteps mossy green & fluorescent
how the deliciously sly
abandon of a sleeping pill lingers
eyes heavy, the steamroller has stopped
compressing my spine, unrequited rest
remains lit with painkillers on center stage
while love swirls in gales with pounding rain
and offers no comfort to my heaving heart
that wanders thoughout the sensuality zone
fortune teller the tales of constellations paint splattered
when at twilight I finally slump into sleep
imagination lingers from daylight
staining my mind with flowers
I have followed all the proper conversations
through the labyrinths of custom-built routine
more to convince myself of love's
lingering potential than nurture
a blue bruised lament of unhappiness
-- certainly the shadowed cause
of yet another night away from Morpheus' lure
when other turbulence surrounds my heart
and sways it from its course of alertness
a single moment of perfect now-ness
shackled between these pasts and futures
ever lifelike the fleeting kaleidoscope of every photo
Alfred Booth
Lyon, France
(feedback welcome)