writeALONG 17 June

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Padma Rajeswari, K. Ramesh

guest editor: Rupa Anand

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's monthly journal -- haikuKATHA, each month.

Poets are requested to post poems (haiku/senryu) that adhere to the prompts/exercises given.

Only 1 poem to be posted in 24 hours. Total 2 poems per poet are allowed each week (numbered 1,2). So, revise your poems till 'words obey your call'.

If a poet wants feedback, then the poet must mention 'feedback welcome' below each poem that is being posted.

Responses are usually a mixture of grain and chaff. The poet has to be discerning about what to take for the final version of the poem or the unedited version will be picked up for the journal.

The final version should be on top of the original version for selection.

Poetry is a serious business. Give you best attempt to feature in haikuKATHA !!

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a monk on board

how quietly

the black battleship leaves

-Saito Sanki (1900-1962)

He was one of those heroic minority of haiku poets who spoke out against Japanese imperial aggression. The police considered such avant-garde poets a threat to national security and locked him up, only releasing him on condition that he didn’t write any more haiku (!)

A classic haiku inspired by a “haiku moment” of possibly direct and authentic experience. It has simplicity, brevity, understatement and concrete imagery, with no simile, metaphor, symbolism, explanation, or abstraction. I see irony, ambiguity and paradox and an imagery that states it “as it is”. 

Can we writeALONG an "as it is" poem too?