hosts: Reid Hepworth & Shalini Pattabiraman
poet of the month: Lorraine A Padden
17th August 2023
A Thursday Feature
Welcome to week 3 with Lorraine A Padden.
master-mistress*
I comb through the dress racks at the Goodwill on Van Ness and Mission, hoping for something for a job interview next week. A man hands me a vintage Armani skirt he found in the opposite aisle. “You can get away with this,” he says. “But I’m having a hell of a time finding size 12 heels.”
il fashionista
the noun is always
male
*The title is taken from Shakespeare sonnet XX
Source:
MacQueen’s Quinterly Issue #18 May 2023
THG:
There is so much I love about this piece. The quiet humour, the sweet interaction, the openness. How do you decide what to write about and is anything off-limits or does anything make you pause/hesitate to write?
Lorraine:
Thanks for picking this one - it’s also one of my favorites! I lived in San Francisco many years ago and I would attend drag performances because the singers and dancers were terrific and I was (and still am) utterly captivated by how ideas of femininity are adopted, adapted, and projected. The documentary film Paris is Burning had just come out too, so that fed what felt like a cultural moment of unfolding acceptance for what had been present but perhaps hidden.
I find myself drawn to both/and approach to haiku and its related short forms. I relish those transcendent moments in nature where we pause seasonal motion so we might capture a sense of the poignantly shifting beauty around us as well as our own fleeting selves in relation to it. And, I wonder about choice-making in haiku practice specifically around those themes I might lean into and those I tend to shy away from. In my own writing, I eventually came to realize that by not turning toward suffering in our natural and human-made worlds as a possible focus for my work, I was leaving too much out of the haiku story. I like to think that haiku can be a form of bearing witness – for the sake of revelation, healing, compassionate action, and solidarity. It’s certainly not a thematic direction for everyone, but to me, contemporary haiku is a big tent – it can hold both traditional kigo and the ever-evolving and devolving states of reality we are immersed in across our worlds.
Prompt: Often we see haibun that is hard hitting and raw, for this week, we welcome you to try your hand at writing humour. Think about an interaction you have had recently, or in the past that made you chuckle or scratch your head and bring it to life for us. Throw in some dialogue for good measure.
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PLEASE NOTE:
1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt, and only one haibun in 24 hours. Please put your name and country of residence under your poem, it makes the editors' work easier. Thanks.
2. Share your best-polished pieces.
3. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written.
Let it simmer for a while.
4. When poets give suggestions and if you agree to them - post your final edited version on top of your original version.
5. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.
We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.
#1 23rd August
An Experiment
When I squeeze my glabella and sense the petrichor I can also see phosphenes akin to the color of the aglet and my stomach wambles in weird confusion ala vagitus of a justborn. That's when the doorbell rings and there stands a pizza man with his box and box tent; knives and forks with silver tines. Hurting my minimus on the way to the door, I look at him giving an interrobang as to how on earth did he know the party planned for overmorrow with the best champagne and agraffe had been advanced! HIs strange note of griffonage sans tittles on alphabets i and j adding to the confusion, I sense profuse perspiration …
Thank you Reid and Shalini for an exciting humour prompt which is rarely attempted. Although I am reading the posts here a little late, I would still like to attempt the haibun. Enjoyed reading Lorraine’s thoughts on the broader themes for haiku.
@Vidya Shankar - This is an edited version of "Overexposed" submitted on my behalf last week by @Kala Ramesh : - Thank you, Kala for posting the original of this poem, I'm submitting an edit as it's gone through some significant changes. And thank you everyone for your positive feedback on Kala's original post.
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Overexposed
flashbacks—
stuck in a groove
that old song
You occupy half the space; your smile dominates the composition. I look happy—must have been—I was holding hands with you. Here we are in posterity between my finger and thumb. How have I become so numb to file you in the circular file, to banish you from this time and space, to leave behind what could…
concrete gembun
Children with wings cooped up within four walls.
n bi on t e n
u r s h f c
s d e e
play musical chairs
#1
Feedback most welcome.
_()_ This has to be viewed on a large screen and not from your cell phone.
Edited, thanks to @Kala, @Shalini, @Richard, and discussions with @Reid
Flight from Mike’s Poultry Farm
From the back seat my daughter bellows out names of her favorite dishes in the upcoming Thanksgiving feast. “Apple pie…pumpkin pie…,” and then as we come round a bend, “Turkey!”
I slam on the brakes.
The family of turkeys scuttled across the road to the wide meadow beyond.
harvest gales
acorns leap off
the oak branches
Original:
Aug21
Flight to Freedom
My daughter sits in the back seat listing out names of the dishes she likes for the upcoming Thanksgiving feast. “Apple pie…pumpkin pie…green beans…roasted corn…” and then as we come round a bend she bellows, “Turkey!”
I slam the brakes.
We wait for the…