triveni spotlight : 1 july
- tejisethi13
- Jul 1, 2022
- 1 min read
triveni spotlight
A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY!
hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh
guest editor: Scott Mason
Theme: hand play
evening news
she files her nails
down to nothing
Megan Arkenberg
The Heron’s Nest
Vol. X, No. 3 (September 2008)
All these poems were originally published in The Heron's Nest. I chose to confine my search there not just for the quality but also for the convenience of its online archive.
Scott Mason
i picture a woman becoming engrossed in the news and becoming anxious about what she sees. She files her nails much further than she wanted to - down to nothing. This act of hers invites a comparison with what she sees on the news. My first thought is Ukraine, where the country is being reduced to almost nothing. This is a painful sight as is the feeling in her nails now
evening news
she files her nails
down to nothing
Megan Arkenberg
I won't repeat what others have said, except to agree that the power of Arkenberg's senryu lies in its dystopian horror-vs.-ennui ambiguity.
I'll add that metaphorically "she" is now defenseless without her nails. And doesn't the daily news often leave us feeling that way, with its emphasis on violence and seemingly senseless tragedy? The irony is that our declawing is self-inflicted.
At a certain point we become numb, mute, addicted to this constant barrage. Shades of Ray Bradbury's / Francois Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451? Maybe the antidote to this distracted, often anomic state is the groomed Haiku Mind.
Strong poem. As Lakshmi said, it "strikes deep." Thanks Scott and…
'Heron's Nest' is one of the best journals that picks up poems that strike deep. What to say about Scott Mason! I'm eagerly waiting to read his selections.
evening news
she files her nails
down to nothing
Megan Arkenberg
Line 1 'evening news' is such a simple image, the usual scene we find in most of the houses where they switch on the TV/radio.
L2 and L3 has lifted up the whole scenario. Here there are two possibilities, either she finds an interesting event or maybe a rather boring one. Both ways, there are chances of zeroing your activity 'to nothing'. The news maybe 'repetitive or not of any of her interest'. She is least concerned about the end result.…
Does no one have anything to comment on this haiku? :)) Waiting to hear from you.
evening news
she files her nails
down to nothing
Megan Arkenberg
Line 1 is so open, so many interpretations. Line 2 struck me as a bored woman and the surprise of line 3 … so captured by the news she doesn’t stop filing and the openness of multiple possibilities for why.