thinkALONG 27 January 2026

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Padma Rajeswari, K. Ramesh

guest editor: Andrew Shimield

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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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One of my favourite poems, outside the world of haiku, is this one by Archibald MacLeish:

Ars Poetica

A poem should be palpable and mute  

As a globed fruit,

Dumb

As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone

Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—

A poem should be wordless  

As the flight of birds.

                        *              

A poem should be motionless in time  

As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases

Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,  

Memory by memory the mind—

A poem should be motionless in time  

As the moon climbs.

                        *              

A poem should be equal to:

Not true.

For all the history of grief

An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love

The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean  

But be.

I always feel he’s talking about haiku when I read this and I hope that you can relate to it in this way and write something inspired by the poem. Whether this be from the images presented (globed fruit, empty doorway, leaning grasses etc) or from the lines that tell us what a poem should be. The last 2 lines make me think of this one:

evening breeze

water laps

the heron’s legs              

-  Buson