hosts: Firdaus Parvez, Kala Ramesh, Priti Aisola & Suraja Menon Roychowdhury
Introducing a new perspective to our Wednesday Feature! artist of the month: Prakash Thombre
11th December 2024
Prakash Thombre's ink sketch and the short note: A conversation with a close friend over coffee is like a quiet symphony of souls. In the warmth of a shared cup, the world slows down, and the essence of human connection reveals itself. Words flow effortlessly, like steam rising from the coffee, carrying with them the weight of unspoken emotions, dreams, and fears. It’s not just about what is said but about the silence that speaks between the sips, the knowing glances, the shared history. In these moments, time ceases to be linear, and the conversation becomes a reflection of the deeper rhythms of life—an exchange that transcends mere words, leaving both hearts a little lighter, a little more attuned to the quiet beauty of friendship.
The challenge for this week:
Take your readers on the journey of discovery. Talk about companionship, a friendship that has deepened over the years—tell us all about this and more!
Give this idea some thought and share your tanka and tanka-prose here. Keep your senses open, observe things that happen around you and write.
You can post tanka and tanka-prose outside this theme too.
An essay on how to write tanka: Tanka Flights
PLEASE NOTE: 1. Post only one poem at a time. 2. Only two tanka and two tanka-prose per poet per prompt. Tanka art of course if you want to.
3. Share your best-polished pieces.
4. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written.
Let it simmer for a while.
5. Post your final edited version on top of your original verse.
6. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.
We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished tanka and tanka-prose (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly magazine.
#2
colorful skirts
swaying to the beat of dandiya
but it takes two
of us to tango — the thrust
and parry of words
Mohua Maulik, India
Feedback appreciated.
Dandiya is a celebratory group dance performed with sticks which represent the sword of Goddess Durga. The sound of the sticks is believed to ward off evil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjmRQr3T-TQ
phone call
your smile sweetens
my ears
all the seasons
we have tasted
Florence Heyhoe Northern Ireland
Open to critique please
Post 1
only a few weeks
do I know her
yet, she is my friend
over coffee or drinks
we forge a bond
Adelaide B. Shaw
USA
comments welcomed
whistling
on asthmatic breath
I tune in to the autumn dust ...
its golden sunset
Kala Ramesh #2
Feedback most welcome. It's outside of the prompt.
in the shade
of the old platanus
his family
telling stories from the days
before I knew them
Linda Papanicolaou, US