Hosts: Akila G. and Shalini Pattabiraman
30th June, 2022
This month we'll be showcasing haibun written by Sonam Chhoki.
Sonam Chhoki was interviewed by Vidya Venkataramani. It is a three part series and you can read all about her haikai journey, inspirations, thoughts and favourites. The link to the interview is given below:
https://cafehaiku.wordpress.com/2021/07/18/ch-interview-lighting-butter-lamps/
For this week's writing prompt, we bring Sonam Chhoki's haibun titled 'Looking for Words'
Looking for Words
The old oracle, whose healing songs soothed my childhood fevers, is ill. It is a humid July evening as I make my way to her hut. I have found an old photo of her talking to the King. I feel she might like the memento.
She runs a finger over the pale images and smiles. She opens, closes her palms.
Mosquitoes whine in her dark room.
She straightens the folds of her yak wool blanket and says, ‘There’s nothing.’
I make her some tea. She dips the photo into the steaming wooden bowl and stirs.
cave temple – eyes of Meditating Buddha in lightning flashes
Healing.
In childhood, we all have a magic portion that dispels all our illness. But as we grow up, we need to find this magic portion within ourselves. We need to heal within before we lend a hand to someone else - Heal, forgive and forget.
This week we would like to read your stories of healing.
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We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.
Poems selected for haikuKATHA - Issue 9, July 2022 is up on CELEBRATION! Check it out! https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/celebration
A Part of Me
When I first started writing, it was to provide my emotions with a vent. My first journal was a small notebook with a lock. When I filled that one, I bought another handmade cute little journal. I’m those teen years, all my anxieties were related to daily incidents and frivolous romances. Now on the other side of 50, the feelings have changed. These overwhelming emotions have found a home in my poetry. a new day … even more beautiful with passing years Feedback appreciated:)
Wetwipes at her Fingertips
'Kiss it better' they used to say. Strange that the mark for a loving greeting is both the sign that something's wrong which needs a correction and also the one for times.
multiple faults
Sleeping Beauty wakes yet again
in her tapestry stitches
or
multiple faults
in her tapestry stitches
Aurora wakes again
or
multiple faults
in her tapestry ditches
Sleeping Beauty wakes again
Friction
The dream starts with a boy stood upon a wave break in crane pose.
Whilst balanced he kicks out in mae geri style whilst changing his support leg.
Moments later I find that it is not a dream after all and that it is I now laid flat out on the dojo floor holding a swept leg
sensei’s clap
followed by the sound
of rubbed hands
how the warmth within works
wonders on a bruised bone
Final Edit: Gathering Moss
I try to walk every morning in the park, clocking kilometres and time on the iPhone.
High up, a flying flash of deep blue catches my eye. The koel sings incessantly.
I notice a newcomer, an elderly gentleman, sitting alone on a bench.
run-away train
a bell tolls
in the distance
I call out to my friends. Cat kibble rolled in neat newspaper packets rest inside my pockets. They emerge from various bushes. I bend and place the food down. We have a brief head-butting, purring, and petting session.
Later Kiran, informs me that at ninety-one, the old man is in better health than most of us.
chemo fog...
my mind
in overdrive
with…