triveni spotlight A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY! hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh GUEST EDITOR: John Stevenson
pig and i spring rain
Marlene Mountain The Haiku Anthology
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. ........
This month is going to be a treat for our members. _()_ Thank you so much, John.
Marlene is a great poet and this one liner is more striking and dignified. The way she has used minimal words to uplift the haiku to a different level. And moreso, she has included the not so beautiful (by looks) animal alongside her 'i' to bring more weight to the line. Pigs in India are seen loitering around the garbage, not that they survive with that....somehow a picture amidst the locals have been painted so. Pigs are connected to the Varaha Avatar in Hinduism. Sometimes wonder happens with such animals when there is an interdependence. Pig, i, and rain all are independent yet dependent. Spring itself is a blessing of abundance and rain nourishes each one of them. It summarizes…
pig tucked in the half moon shadow
Love reading Marlene’s poems. Really should look into buying her collection/s.