thinkALONG! 29 April

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Padma Rajeswari, K. Ramesh

guest editor: dipankar (দীপংকর)

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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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Here is a poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923).

When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

The great love of Yeats' life was the Irish actress and revolutionary Maud Gonne, who was equally famous for her intense nationalist politics and her beauty. Many believe the poem was addressed to Maud. We need not assume, however, that the poem is addressed by a man to a woman. Could be the other way round.

“… as we grow older - lines and wrinkles develop. In later life muscles and skin might sag and eyes become sunken. All of these things can make someone less attractive to those people drawn to superficial beauty. What Yeats is saying in When You Are Old is that the love of the voice in the poem for the person to whom he speaks is at a deeper level. He loves the changing face because he loves the character and personality that lie beneath it.”

Let’s write haiku inspired by this poem.