thinkALONG! 2 July

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, K.Ramesh

guest editor: Anju Kishore

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's monthly journal -- haikuKATHA, each month.

Poets are requested to post poems (haiku/senryu) that adhere to the prompts/exercises given.

Only 1 poem to be posted in 24 hours. Total 2 poems per poet are allowed each week (numbered 1,2). So, revise your poems till 'words obey your call'.

If a poet wants feedback, then the poet must mention 'feedback welcome' below each poem that is being posted.

Responses are usually a mixture of grain and chaff. The poet has to be discerning about what to take for the final version of the poem or the unedited version will be picked up for the journal.

The final version should be on top of the original version for selection.

Poetry is a serious business. Give you best attempt to feature in haikuKATHA !!

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what remains

after the river is gone

this empty bed

--- Kat Lehmann

At first reading, this haiku is a simple statement of an observation from the natural world. For me, it was the word 'gone' in L2 that stopped me from moving on. The choice of this word sets the stage for the Touchstone Award it so deserved in 2020. The metaphor for life's most heartbreaking inevitability unfolds. In just ten words, the poet deals with the flow of thought, energy, dreams, and life itself that is arrested, perhaps abruptly, perhaps gradually...who knows. And the sense of grief and emptiness that it has left behind. Or is the survivor, having accepted the loss, a detached witness?

Tell us what strikes you most about Kat Lehmann's haiku and incorporate the same technique or essence into your own poems.