thinkALONG! 17 December

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, K.Ramesh

guest editor: Keith Evetts

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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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Seek what the ancients sought: Untroubled Ease

"Do not try to imitate the ancients: seek what they sought " — advised Bashō.  The influences on him included Daoist literature, especially the Zhuangzi.  Compiled about 450-220 BCE, the Zhuangzi comprises many Chapters.  Here are some quotations from Untroubled Ease and other chapters, which you may find at https://ctext.org/zhuangzi:  

"The mushroom of a morning does not know what takes place between the beginning and end of a month; the short-lived cicada does not know what takes place between the spring and autumn."

"Where the proper course is, there is freedom from all pre-occupation; such freedom is the fasting of the mind."

"There is nothing so level as the surface of a pool of still water. "

This is also the ancient Chinese concept of wu-- wei.  

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

all day without a word the shadow of a butterfly

—Ozaki Hosai

a hammock day...

little white clouds

almost forever

Use these ideas as a source of inspiration for this week’s verses.  Please avoid the over-worked cliché of “learning to let go” !