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triveni spotlight: 1st March 2023

Writer's picture: tejisethi13tejisethi13

triveni spotlight A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY! hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh GUEST EDITOR: John Stevenson



open scissors beside a vase of water


Eve Luckring Frogpond 29.2


John Stevenson (born October 9, 1948, Ithaca, New York), professional actor, especially in playback theater, and haiku poet and editor. He began college as a visual art major and finished with a degree in theater. Before retiring in 2015, he worked as a human resources administrator for the New York State Office of Mental Health. His first poetry publication occurred at age 8, and his interest in haiku dates from 1992. He is a founding member of the Route 9 Haiku Group and its journal Upstate Dim Sum, and has served as regional coordinator, president, second vice president, treasurer, associate editor, and editor of Frogpond for the Haiku Society of America. In 2013 he received the HSA Sora Award for service to haiku, and from 2018 to 2019 he was the honorary curator for the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library. Since 2008 he has served as managing editor of The Heron’s Nest. His haiku collections include: Something Unerasable (1996), Some of the Silence (1999, 2008), Quiet Enough (2004, 2008, 2016, 2018), Live Again (2009), d(ark) (2014), and emoji moon (2018). He has received over 200 awards for haiku and haiku-related poetry. Since 1985 he has resided in the Village of Nassau, New York.

_()_ Thank you so much, John.

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7 Comments


Richa Sharma
Richa Sharma
Mar 01, 2023

Lovely!

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lakshmi iyer
lakshmi iyer
Mar 01, 2023

Beautiful!!

Wanting to do something and the job left undone, maybe. Thinking deep about the image. Or an urgency to keep everything before hand to ease out the daily chores. A behavioral pattern in most of the so called systematic people who want everything in perfect order and symmetry and want to finish out the task quickly. Just my thoughts.

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Florence Heyhoe
Mar 01, 2023

Completely new to monoku . Is this not a sentence ?

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Alan Summers
Alan Summers
Mar 03, 2023
Replying to

It could be read as a clause, but I'd say not as a sentence.


open scissors beside a vase of water

or

open scissors // beside a vase of water

or

open scissors // beside a vase // of water

or


open scissors

beside a vase

of water


I often look to see whether a 1-line haikai verse has the opening or closing tension of a novel or short story. This one line haiku neatly fits as a first or last line to me.


There is tension and anticipation, perhaps someone is waiting for flowers to be delivered or brought home by a loved one, or the person has a garden, and has already prepared their scissors and vase and…


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Lorraine Haig
Mar 01, 2023

Thank you, John for such an interesting monoku.


This is fascinating. At first it seems simple enough, a vase of water and a pair of scissors. What I find most intriguing is what might be happening outside the words, as I am seeing this as a part of something else. Perhaps a bunch of flowers are waiting to be trimmed and put into the vase. The scissors are open as if someone has just left for a moment. The words have transformed into an image in my mind. A still life or a snapshot of an unfolding event.

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Florence Heyhoe
Mar 01, 2023
Replying to

I find your comments insightful. Thank you.

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