thinkALONG 2 June 2026

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Padma Rajeswari, K. Ramesh

guest editor: Sathya Venkatesh

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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

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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The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu

When I read this poem, I feel as though it is quietly pointing toward haiku. It does not argue or explain; instead, it turns to image — the wood drake resting on the water, the heron feeding, the presence of still water, the day-blind stars waiting with their light.

These are not metaphors to decode, but moments to enter. The poem moves from anxiety into attention. That shift — from thought to presence — feels deeply aligned with the spirit of haiku.

Write a haiku that begins in restlessness or worry and finds its quiet through a single image in nature. Allow the image to carry the shift — no explanation needed.