top of page

triveni spotlight : 23 august

triveni spotlight A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY! hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh guest editor: Billie Dee

Theme: Close Observation



the scar slowly healing wildflowers

Bruce H. Feingold Berkeley, California, USA The Heron's Nest, XIX.4, 2017.


I am pleased to submit the following selected poems from my personal "favorite haiku" list, one I've developed over the last 30 years or so. All have been approved by the authors; all include publication credits (except one from Patricia Machmiller which is unpublished); all are from the U.S. Pacific coastal rim (my region). I have chosen "close observation" as my theme, a guiding principle in my own writing, and a core element IMO for developing a Haiku Mind.

Peace,

Billie Dee


p.s. Under-lined book titles have embedded links where a reader can go to purchase the book.


273 views36 comments

36 Comments


Bruce Feingold
Bruce Feingold
Aug 29, 2022

Thanks everyone for their comments which have been illustrative and on point.


Thanks, Sanjuktaa, for your comment and totally understand pointing out the similarities -- I like your poem very much.). I am also a hundred percent I didn't see your poem (I'm a psychologist so nothing is100%!) and was not a follower of Daily Haiku so agree with the comment, "It's very unlikely Feingold ever saw your poem. But we all share this same world of recurring images----both human and natural---and there is bound to be overlap" This poem was written spontaneously in the spring based on a life-death experience in winter, 2016 so I think it is the overlapping of human experience which generates the similarities.


I am…


Like
sanjuktaa
Sep 01, 2022
Replying to

Thank you, Bruce Feingold!

Like

lakshmi iyer
lakshmi iyer
Aug 28, 2022

Reading through all the articles and somewhere deep down a persistent fear that I shouldn't or my thoughts shouldn't at some stage be close to the poems posted.

Basically, our intentions are pure and sacred as far as poets world tend to be. Once in a blue moon it happens and only when it's revealed that one realises. So lets all take pride and move ahead that we all have a similar platform of this beautiful Japanese form and that our world is so small, so close with these journals. In fact, I'm honoured to have known you all. Few years back I hadn't at all known haiku and now with such a wonderful platform I take up the pride…

Like

Billie Dee
Billie Dee
Aug 27, 2022

What a lively conversation we are having. Thanks to everyone for your generous sharing of community. Haiku mind.


Like

Kala Ramesh
Kala Ramesh
Aug 27, 2022

When I was an editor at World Haiku Review - from 2008 to 2019, I received this mail from Michael Dylan Welch: (I hope he doesn't mind my sharing it here with you):


On Thu, 1 Sept 2011 at 04:39, <WelchM@aol.com> wrote: Dear Susumu and Kala, Congratulations on the new issue of World Haiku Review, which I've just been perusing. I particularly noticed the following poem by Alan S. Bridges (2nd place on the Vangaurd page) at http://sites.google.com/site/worldhaikureview2/whr-august-2011/haiku-3-vangaurd-august-2011: aftershock the empty swing swinging Now look at this poem of mine: aftershock empty swings swaying My poem was published in Frogpond 13:1, February 1990. It also appeared in the Haiku Poets of Northern California anthology After Shock (San Francisco: Two Autumns Press, 1990), and also appeared in…


Like
Kala Ramesh
Kala Ramesh
Aug 28, 2022
Replying to

That is the point Michael also wanted and he insisted that World Haiku Review add those lines below to say that Michael Welsh's poem was written way back.

I understand your take, Sanjuktaa and respect it. We brush off a similar haiku when it belongs to two other poets but our stand is different when someone else's poem is similar to ours.


That is the point I was trying to establish.

Like

Billie Dee
Billie Dee
Aug 26, 2022

REPLY TO SANJUKTAA


". . . I happened to write almost the same poem long back in 2013. You could check the link here: Daily Haiku "


__________


This is common in the haikai world, Sanjuktaa. How many thousands (millions?) of "moon-caught-in-branches" poems have been written over the centuries? Yet each once was experienced as an original, authentic epiphany by the poet, written in a unique moment of inspiration.

It's very unlikely Feingold ever saw your poem. But we all share this same world of recurring images----both human and natural---and there is bound to be overlap.

In fact, I've written a haiku similar to another one of yours on the very page you linked! Mine was written a decad…


Like
sanjuktaa
Aug 28, 2022
Replying to

@Sankara Jayanth, many thanks for sharing your thoughts! I have been in haiku for almost 12 years (or maybe more) now and I understand the limitations of haiku and also that it could happen to any of us.I agree mostly with all you say, but despite the universality of our experiences, I feel one knows instinctively and immediately where that line has been crossed and where we have stepped into a personal territory of another poet, whether unwittingly or otherwise.(Let me make it clear that what am saying here doesn't concern Feingold's poem at all.) I could show you quite a few examples, but not here as that wouldn't be the right thing to do.This concept of oneness and universality,…

Like
bottom of page