triveni spotlight : 9 october
- tejisethi13
- Oct 9, 2022
- 1 min read
triveni spotlight
A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY!
hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh
host editor: Teji Sethi
Theme: Raga in Nature
Journal: haikuKATHA
on repeat
the blackbird's song ...
recalling the days
when dad whistled the tune
i whistle today
— Robert Kingston
There is no end to seeing and hearing. The structure of the universe is infinite. Endless vibrating expansion.
~ Nanak
There are myriad sounds which pre-exist in nature and can be perceived by human ear. It is completely natural, both animals and humans to have profound reactions to certain sounds. Some songbirds sing from repertoires which use the same rhythms and note combinations as modern composers. For example, the canyon wren uses a 12-tone scale. The hermit thrush, on the other hand, sings in a five tone penta-scale which is common in Asian music. The tanka I have chosen to showcase, exquisitely capture the ‘music in nature’ be it the sound of ripples, a bird song, a cicada’s mating call, the rustle of leaves or the lament of paddy fields!
Teji Sethi
A sublime and poignant tanka! I could sense the poet's nostalgic memories with his father ( while still a kid) as I myself grew up without a father or a mother from a young age. Thanks Robert Kingston for sharing this tanka.
Beautiful tanka
l love this one Robert Congratulations
What a wonderful tanka! Perfect bridge - "recalling the days". I like "on repeat" too. It sounds as though the blackbird is repeatedly singing. It is is trying its best to rejuvenate the past, helping the poet undertake a time travel into the past. And then the poet recalls his father whistling a tune that he is whistling today. It's a wonderfully smooth travel down memory lane. I see a little more in fact. The poet is whistling a tune and is probably wondering where he had picked it up. The blackbird sings too. Its song helps him recall his father's whistle. A truly good tanka.
Nicely captured, Robert.