laughALONG! 15 October

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, K.Ramesh

guest editor: Alan S. Bridges

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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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Some consider senryu to be a subset of haiku while others consider it a separate entity. The distinction doesn’t matter to me, but there are poems that could be classified as either senryu or haiku, or in fact a blend of both. I tend to think of senryu as primarily non-nature poems, which can run the gamut of emotions, from despair to ecstasy. Following is a poem I wrote recently :

last rites

closing the lid 

on a shoebox

The twist here is that you are led down a path that abruptly veers off in line 3. It was specifically written about the death of my friend Jacquie’s cat, Curious. Next is a senryu that she wrote, exploring the other end of the spectrum: 

first blossoms

all the colours

of sidewalk chalk

         ---- Jacquie Pearce

Again I have chosen a poem that uses euphony to help deliver its message. Here Jacquie ends the first and second lines with soft ‘z’ sounds and finishes line three with a pair of rhyming words. One can clearly envisage the pastels and perhaps ‘first blossoms’ can be interpreted as young children in this happy scene, with multiple levels of potential interpretation!

Wishing good writing to everyone!