Friday, June 29, 2012

Doodle ku 11 -Things with Wings



March 11

back home--
in the doorway
the big black
umbrella
of my Dad


I loved the doodle again and though these are mushrooms, that was enough to get me started on "umbrellas", one of my all-time favourite prompts!

There are five other lovely poems on this doodle in the collection Things with Wings...but I enjoyed writing this one!



Doodle ku 8 - Things with Wings

Of all the doodles by Aubrie, this has been among my top 3 or 4 favourites. This image has also been used by her on the cover of Things with Wings.






March 8
spring break--
till the water's edge
and back for dinner

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Doodle ku 7- Things with Wings


March 7

crackling candlelight-
through the window
a murmur of rain


For many other beautiful poems on this doodle, read Things with Wings.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Doodle ku 3 & 4 - Things with Wings




March 3


my poetry
so much better
as paper cranes












March 4

shangri-la...
carried
by the dragonfly's wings







All doodles by Aubrie Cox.
Ku by me.

To read many other poems on these doodles, download the PDF copy of Things with Wings! Believe me, it's worth that small trouble!


Things with Wings...Doodle ku 2

"Things with Wings and other poems", Aubrie Cox's compilation of selected poems along with her doodles,(remember"I doodle, you ku", the fun project we had participated in on her blog Yay Words back in March? I had blogged about it here) is finally online!And what a fantastic collection it has turned out to be!I am so happy to have 15 of my poems featured there alongside the work of many other poet friends of mine! Download the pdf copy here if you want to feast your eyes on Aubrie's awesome doodles and some amazingly brilliant poems from first to last.

Over the next few days, I plan to feature in this space, all my poems that have been included in the collection (and also a few that have not been included) paired with Aubrie's original doodles.

I begin at the beginning, on March 2nd, where my poem first makes an appearance.


sun down the wake of a red-tailed hawk

Monday, June 25, 2012

Haiga in collaboration - Krishnachura




Haiga done in collaboration.
Sumi-e painting by Linda L Ashok and the words by me.
You can see this and many other beautiful images and poems by Linda on her blog here.

Thank you, Linda, for the inspiration.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

the haiku that didn't happen

I could not participate in NaHaiWriMo this month, being tied up in too many other things.But I've been closely following the very challenging prompts given by Alison Williams, the prompter for this month and one of the prompts a few days ago that aroused my interest was the creative random word generator at creativitygames.net where you only had to click a button to get a set of words. I thought that would be fun and I could make up for my past few days' of inactivity.

So I press the button and get my first word: "microbes".
I had no intention of writing about microbes and couldn't, even if i wanted to. So I took a second chance.

The word i got this time was:"jass".
I had no idea what that meant, so went and looked it up in the dictionary. A card game played with a 36 card pack, it said , with some other complex rules. I didn't think i could write a haiku on that either.

Again i refresh the button and get "metal detector"!
Things are not really going my way, i thought... how could one get poetic about a metal detector? Well, i know some of you very talented poets out there could do even that, but not me!

So off again i go and click the button with hope in my heart and a prayer on my lips. Perhaps I'm going to be fourth-time lucky?

The word that leaps out at me is:"CHIMPANZEE"!
( Though not in caps, but it looked like that to me.)

At this point, I gave up and went to bed.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

The XIV Calico Cat haiku contest


Well, friends...I'm delighted to tell you that I've won this XIV Calico Cat haiku contest held by Origa!

As if you didn't know already! As if i hadn't shouted loudly enough from my Facebook page!

But this was such an unexpected honor, as there were many many beautiful entries and for me it was totally a spur-of-the-moment decision to enter this contest...being drawn in by the image and the fact that it was dedicated to the memory of Hortensia Anderson who passed away recently and whose work I had always admired immensely... that i cannot help feeling thrilled with the outcome!

In the contest we were asked to write haiku on the theme "Moment of eternity" based on this sumi-e painting above, done by Origa herself. Origa doesn't need any introduction in the haiku circle, but for others she is a Russian poet as well as an artist. She conducted the contest single-handedly, even translated all the poems (the Japanese translations by Isao Yasuda) and brought out the results within a week.

You can read the results and the winning poems by clicking on this link:
http://origa.livejournal.com/186861.html

And here is her commentary on my poem:


Dear friends, I am happy to announce the RESULTS of the contest. As always, I was looking for faithfulness to the theme of the painting, employment of its images, evidence of “haiku spirit” corresponding to this memorial edition. Thank you all for your love for haiku which spans continents!

Our First Prize winner is



*********SANJUKTAA, India -- САНДЖЮКТАА, Индиия -- CONGRATULATIONS !!!********

the last poem
signed with a flourish --
falling star

This is a classic example of the embodiment of a HAIKU as a unique poetic genre establishing connection between the creativity of Nature and human art. Two concrete images are juxtaposed: a signature on a finished poem, and a falling star. A poet finished his creation with a flourish (great wording here!) – and next moment, a star has fallen. Or, the flourish and the fall could have occurred simultaneously, as a synchronous act. The main point is that the poet participates in the nature’s creativity, follows it -- zōka zuijun (where zōka means the working of the universe, the activity of the universe, the Creative -- a relatively new term coined by scholars Hori Nobuo, Horikiri Minoru, and David L. Barnhill) by merging his art with it, adding to its beauty, celebrating it. Remember, how Bashō valued an artist’s ability to recognize and follow the natural mode of creativity? To him, all great art was based on this creativity. As Barnhill pointed out (“The Creative in Bashō’s View of Nature and Art”), for Bashō, “Humans are incomplete unless they achieve a unity with the moon and flowers and become a companion to the four seasons.” In this haiku, the poet seems to have achieved it – and so does the author of the haiku. The creative work is brought to culmination – tsukusu as Bashō called it (another “new” term used in haiku theory). In the context of our contest’s special edition, we also think of Hortensia’s last poem and the “flourish” as a hidden metaphor for a “falling star”. Apart of the theoretical approach, this is simply a beautiful, intense, instant “ah!” moment stunner haiku -- BRAVA, Sanjuktaa! Sumi-e 'Moment of Eternity' goes to India.


Now you tell me, don't I have a good reason to feel pleased as punch?

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Plum blossoms


image:Michael Carr




after all the things
that have gone wrong-
plum blossoms


Published in The Heron's Nest, June 2012. Vol 14.2

Sunday, June 3, 2012

May NaHaiWriMo - Part 8

After we've been through the chakra prompts, there were still 3 more days left in the month and for this we were asked to write on the following prompts.

29 - touch
30 - borrowed/found haiku
31 - smell/taste

And I wrote,

May 29 (touch)


his hands
on my fevered brow-
summer rain


May 30 (borrowed/found haiku) - the instructions were:
Please go to any text of your choice: Shakespeare/Lady Gaga/a letter from your mother/the gas bill/a billboard... any text... find a haiku in there and bring it here. You are looking for a phrase that embodies the spirit of haiku. It might need some revision to make it a haiku: tweak away.

I wrote this:
not knowing
the meaning of life--
lilacs in bloom

Based on this:

Now that lilacs are in bloom
She has a bowl of lilacs in her room
And twists one in her finger while she talks
"Ah my friend, you do not know,you do not know
What life is, you hold it in your hands

Portrait of a lady
T.S.Eliot


And another excerpt from the same poet, T.S.Eliot,

If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing...
...........
drip drop drip drop drop drop drop"



And this is what i eked out of the above,


dreaming rain
cicada song
in dry grass



May 31 (smell/taste)
We were asked to write about either sense, but preferably incorporate the two.



biting
into the wild berries-
scent of a waterfall


roadside teashop-
the sharp scent of ginger
in my tea


All the prompts this month were challenging, but I struggled most with "power" and 'fear". Thankfully though, was able to finish with a cup of ginger tea!

Friday, June 1, 2012

May NaHaiWriMo - Part 7



The seventh center - Sahasrara or the crown chakra is the last milestone of the evolution of human consciousness.
The crown chakra is, as its name says, located on the top of the head. It is represented by a lotus with 1000 petals, which is a symbol for eternity. When Kundalini rises until the seventh chakra, the person is said to have reached enlightenment which means being one with God, in a total union and in full awareness. You are conscious of the truth and are detached from the illusion of the material world.


The prompts were as follows:

25 - letting go
26 - rainbow
27 - dragonfly
28 - circle/spiral


May 25 (letting go)

I was too lazy with this prompt and used only an old one.



falling stars
letting go of memories...
almost






May 26 (rainbow)

Came up with two for this one to make up for the previous day's sluggishness.



Sorry, this one has been submitted for publication



all the way home
the rainbow hugging
the windshield




May 27 (dragonfly)

And two for this also.

leaf flutter-
a dragonfly settles
on my poems


did he smile,
did he not?
dragonfly...



May 28 (circle/spiral)




lotus viewing-
the circle of boats
mid-lake



raging wind beyond the circle of his arms


We have now come full circle and this completes our journey through the chakras. For the remaining few days of the month (May), we would explore the generally under-explored senses. We deal with that in the next post.