Hosts: Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh
29th September 2022
Two beautiful quotes from a beautiful person. See if this can help you to write a good sensitive haibun.
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle that we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
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As always, a good haibun will find its way into the next issue of our fabulous journal. Firdaus and I are eagerly looking forward to reading your haibun.
PLEASE NOTE:
1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt.
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We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.
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haikuKATHA - the monthly journal from Triveni Haikai India!
founder/managing editor: Kala Ramesh
associate editors:
Ashish Narain
Firdaus Parvez
Priti Aisola Reid Hepworth Sanjuktaa Asopa
Shalini Pattabiraman
Suraja Menon Roychowdhury Vandana Parashar
................................................................................................................................. Associate Editors, Madhuri Pillai and Akila G. are stepping down for personal reasons. We wish them the very best. Earlier in the year Associate Editors K. Ramesh and Shobhana Kumar also stepped down for personal reasons. A huge thank you to all four beautiful poets. Associate Editors, Reid Hepworth (from Oct 2022), Sanjuktaa Asopa (from 15 October 2022) and Hemapriya Chellappan (from Dec 2022) will be joining us. A huge welcome to all three lovely poets. _()_
haikuKATHA - ISSUE 12
THE LIST IS HERE!!!! Check it out :))
https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/celebration
#1
Pulse of the Ancients
September’s sun dapples through green and ochre leaves as the path meanders past a three-hundred-year-old sycamore, still standing strong. A few dog-less people make a fuss of Misty as she skips past them to the sunny side of the wood. A robin sings his heart out on a garden fence, where the path passes a few houses. We cross a small wooden bridge over the burn, one side of the water green with algae. Once we turn left, we see her.
Birnam Oak
six hundred years old and more
this autumn
One of the last living relics from a medieval forest that once grew here, her girth is around seven metres. The oak’s lower branches…
#1 01/10/22 feedback welcome
(correction of typos made to original, thank you, Reid)
Revision 1 Thank you, Kala.
Silent Retreat
I want to kill it. It's been buzzing around my meditation cell all night. But my guide is visiting today and I don't want her to know my murderous intent. So I catch the fly in my teacup and cover the top with my prayerbook.Slowly I make my way down a long flight of stars to release the fly out a side door.
I return to my cell to find a turkey feather. I missed my guide's visit.
moving clouds
my teacher and I
share a tea
<<<<>>>> original:
Silent Retreat
I want to kill it. It's been buzzing around…
Beautiful prompts from a great teacher, thank you Firdaus and Kala!
To Unravel or Not
When I step out, I hear lies and hypocrisy. But before I hasten to retreat into my inner shell — birdsong, pure and unsullied, not meant for me, but I linger and slow my pace to match the tiny sparrow hopping ahead of me.
a house
locked up —
still, trees bear fruit
Are banyan trees supporting or supported by their pillar roots? I don't even want to make a guess, let it be in the backyard along with the many things that remain mysterious.
For now, I enjoy birdsong and that should suffice.
to receive
the night rain ...
open window
Feedback appreciated