writeALONG! 8 October

A TUESDAY FEATURE

hosts: Muskaan Ahuja, K.Ramesh

guest editor: Alan S. Bridges

Only the unpublished poems (that are never published on any social media platform/journals/anthologies) posted here for each prompt will be considered for Triveni Haikai India's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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this desire to just be

alone

with all these poems

swept away again and again

by the bigger poem of my life

         ---- Tom Clausen

This tanka can be read in so many ways and interestingly on line two, ‘alone’ is left by itself. The structure is meticulously crafted and builds upon itself to a crescendo, weaving a story beginning with ‘this desire to just be,’ to then be swept tidally away with a multitude of poetic experiences. He concludes with the realization that his own existence is itself a poem, existential in the way that as a free and responsible agent he has determined his own development through acts of will within the natural world that surrounds us all.

I particularly like the way this tanka uses both singularity as well as repetition to express the writer’s individuality while belonging to a larger play, when he might take a step back to observe and appreciate his world.

I am not good a writing tanka, maybe because I am more narrowly focused, but it does expand the poetic possibilities for those of you who are more able. Perhaps you can write a 3-line haiku that builds to a surprise conclusion and can be read in multi-dimensional ways.

Given that this is October and my favorite season is autumn, I am often inspired to visit fall festivals and to write haiku based upon them. I appreciate experimenting with new forms, for example:

harvest festival (l)eavesdropping

Possibly your favorite season is autumn as well and you may be inspired to write a haiku about the full hunter’s moon, fall colors or other natural phenomenon. One of my most valuable tools in writing my own haiku is simple observation, clearing my mind of clutter the way the two poets cited previously have expressed. Most of my haiku are self-experiences, including the one above. Every year there is a word that Merriam-Webster announces as ‘the word of the year.’ In 2023 it was ‘Authenticity.’ My best advice to haiku writers is to take that word to heart.