writeALONG!10 October

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, Lakshmi Iyer

guest editor: Daipayan Nair

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Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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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"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest"

– Elie Wiesel

Voicing one's stand on socially relevant issues is something I have always advocated in Haikai, especially in Senryu writing. Free verse poets have been doing so for centuries, be it a protest against the current regime, against a grave injustice or an atrocity done in any form, against domestic violence etc. I have always believed the three lines, if crafted and polished well enough, can become sharper than a knife.

The role of a strong pivot becomes the fulcrum of such a senryu. In other words, let the pain and emotion inside you become the pivot. The shock should be great enough to dismantle the conscience of the reader.

Today, I invite you all to revisit your conscience and raise your important voice on any issue you think is relevant in today's society and which needs to be addressed.

I am leaving you all with such a powerful senryu recently published in haikuNetra Journal edited and co-edited by me and Lev Hart respectively:

fingers scraping

the inside of a cantaloupe

gang rape

--- Muskaan Ahuja