thinkALONG! 24 October

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, Lakshmi Iyer

guest editor: Daipayan Nair

Please note:

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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 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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"Heaven is a house with porch lights"

– Ray Bradbury

Some of the most interesting images in our everyday life form in front of our eyes while we sip our morning tea shooing away the butterflies, or read the newspaper keeping an eye on the squirrel, or watch the murmuration while chatting with our beloved. We live these experiences sitting on our porch.

While writing observational haiku, it's essential to separate the self from the image. Observe the image in its utmost simplicity and therein lies your haiku. Try describing the image in the exact way it appears to be and you will continue to attain humility in understanding nature. The moment you start enforcing yourself on the image, you tend to complicate the words. Your perception of the image unnecessarily increases the syllables.

Today, I invite you all to write an observational haiku, something you witness from your porch every morning, every evening. I leave you all with this beautiful haiku to further enhance your senses:

pumpkin seeds

drying on the porch

old newspaper news

--- Zoran Doderović