triveni spotlight: 9th May 2025

Anju Kishore
May 9
1 min read

triveni spotlight A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY hosts: Anju Kishore and Mohua Maulik GUEST EDITOR: Shloka Shankar

9th May 2025

triveni spotlight May 2025

when yellow is round I miss your apostrophe

— Alan Summers

weird laburnum, May 2019

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Theme: Metapoems & Language

I have always been fascinated by the creative process—the sacred act of writing itself, the repealing of the blank page. To celebrate the ars poetica and the building blocks of language, my curation for the month of May centres around metapoems. What happens when whole lexicons, adjectives, verbs, apostrophes, and schwas lace haiku with nuance and layers? How can grammatical terms form the backbone of a poem? I hope you enjoy unfolding these questions—and more—as you ponder these sixteen poems.

Shloka Shankar

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Many thanks to our guest editor Shloka Shankar for this month’s selection and theme. Poets, we look forward to your company on this fascinating tour of what language can do to the poetry of haiku.

_()_ triveni spotlight team

8 Comments

Alan Summers

May 12

May I recommend this book just out by Judy Kendall, whom many will know as Presence journal's book review editor.

A writers' group could jointly purchase a copy.

Inarticulacy in Creative Writing Practice and Translation

Where Language Thickens

Judy Kendall (Author)

PREVIEW OF TEXT and BACKGROUND

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Inarticulacy_in_Creative_Writing_Practic/PAY5EQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover

and

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/inarticulacy-in-creative-writing-practice-and-translation-9781350502369/

Alan Summers

May 10

Thanks for the selection!

First of all I'd highly recommend a close read of what Shloka has said:

Theme: Metapoems & Language

I have always been fascinated by the creative process
the sacred act of writing itself
the repealing of the blank page
my curation centres around metapoems.

Terrific use of a verb:

What happens when whole lexicons, adjectives, verbs, apostrophes, lace haiku

with nuance and layers?

How can grammatical terms form the backbone of a poem?
enjoy unfolding these questions—and more—as you ponder

when yellow is round I miss your apostrophe

Alan Summers

It's also part of a series of haikai verses, almost a sequence though not in the conventional sense: https://weirdlaburnum.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/229/

At Weird Laburnum, in the comments I respond by…

Kavita Ratna

May 10

I could not understand this at all. Would be grateful to have some pointers...

Alan Summers

May 10

Replying to

First of all I'd highly recommend a close read of what Shloka has said:

Theme: Metapoems & Language

I have always been fascinated by the creative process
the sacred act of writing itself
the repealing of the blank page
my curation centres around metapoems.

Terrific use of a verb:

What happens when whole lexicons, adjectives, verbs, apostrophes, lace haiku

with nuance and layers?

How can grammatical terms form the backbone of a poem?
enjoy unfolding these questions—and more—as you ponder

when yellow is round I miss your apostrophe

Alan Summers

It's also part of a series of haikai verses, almost a sequence though not in the conventional sense: https://weirdlaburnum.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/229/

At Weird Laburnum, in the comments I respond by breaking each haiku down.