thinkALONG! 18th July

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, Lakshmi Iyer

guest editor: Marilyn Ashbaugh

Please note:

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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 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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"Haiku reanimate our diminishing power of intuition."

-- Speculations by Robert Spiess

Issa proclaimed he lived as an arabonpu, a wild ordinary human. Most haiku poets today

cannot physically wonder as Issa did, so Kaneko Tohta developed and advanced the

philosophy of "settled wandering." In the realm of spirit, we do wander. Where do we go?

Haiku via intuition invites us to eavesdrop on our own lives, "overheard on the bus", or, in my case as a rural dweller, overheard in the garden. Small birds known as wrens sing

beautiful songs all day long, but what are they telling one another? What are they telling

me? A complete mystery only steps from my door.

ume bloom

blue sharks show up

everywhere in the garden

--- Kaneko Tohta

Please share your wanderings with us!