thinkALONG! 30 December 2025

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Padma Rajeswari, K. Ramesh

guest editor: Joanna Ashwell  

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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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Within these weeks I hope you will enjoy sharing what draws many haiku poets to write, our love for nature.  The prompts to follow have all been inspired from ‘Where The River Goes’  Edited by Allan Burns,  published by Snapshot Press in 2013.

The quote below is from the book’s introduction: Nature Haiku

‘Haiku link human nature in a variety of ways, some explicit and some implicit.  In 1992 George Swede suggested a useful division of haiku into ‘three content categories’: nature-orientated haiku with no reference to humans or human artifacts, haiku that explicitly reference both humans or human artifacts and the natural world, and human-orientated haiku with no reference to the natural world.’

The book goes on to give three examples from poets that are featured in this anthology:

Type One

a mayfly

struggles down the stream

one wing flapping dry

- John Wills

Type Two

still no word

a kingfisher flies up

from dark water

-  Ferris Gilli

Type Three

after the bell,

within the silence:

within myself

- Nick Virgilio

The book then goes on to further explore how complex categorising haiku like this is.  As we go through the month, consider this.  There are types of haiku that cross-over into one or more categories.  I’m not going to delve any deeper into this, but it is interesting to be aware of the many influences and threads of haiku. Note this example below showing the broadness of category two, the example from the book:

shimmering pines

a taste of the mountain

from your cupped hands

- Peggy Willis Lyles

Pulling together all that we have looked at during this month, write a haiku from one of these categories.  Which do you feel most drawn to?  It may give you an insight into your own style and preferences.

Here are some more examples from the book ‘Where The River Goes’ to get your creative juices flowing:

prairie dusk –

the rustle of field mice

wintering in

- Billie Wilson

looking up the name

of the wildflower

I just trampled

- Jack Barry

harrowed soil . . .

sunlight silvers

the rooks’ wings

- John Barlow

felled sequoia –

      starlight

                into every ring

- Christopher Herold

Keep on writing and enjoy.