fragrant breeze
kids rush in to sell roses
at the traffic signals

Published by

Kala Ramesh

Kala Ramesh is a performing vocalist in Indian Classical music. Coming from an extremely artistic and culturally rich South Indian family, Kala believes -- as her father is fond of saying -- that "the soil has to be fertile for the plant to bloom" and feels that she owes this poetic streak in her to her mother. A proud mother of two young adults, Kala lives with her husband in Pune, India.

23 thoughts on “”

  1. kala,
    nice work. here’s a little different take on the scene, one
    i wrote last year after being stuck in traffic on michigan
    ave in chicago.
    lawrence

    rush hour
    flower vendors stroll
    from car to car

  2. Does this fragrant moment make a Haiku? This is just a faithful recording of a scene that happens over and over in any Indian city (or for that matter any developing country).

    Mary by calling it lovely has just romanticized child labour.

  3. kamesh,
    please forgive mary’s naivete. remember, alot of americans
    are political children.”” how else can one explain the
    reelection of of bush? americans tend to think everyone in the world lives like they do. they don’t think in terms of
    child labor, they think in terms of, “”oh how cute.””

    too hot to wear…
    this shirt sewn in a sri lankan
    sweatshop”

  4. Kamesh

    The answer to your 2 nd question …
    The first is for others to answer!

    at each traffic signal
    through the long year
    children beg –
    torn between
    to give or not . . .

    a tanka I wrote sometime back.
    this is the scene in India, and it is painful.

    I always ask these ‘flower’ children in Pune, whether they study, go to school –
    More than 60 % of them do.
    In their spare time they sell flowers.
    – kala

  5. such beautiful responses …
    just goes to show that every art has a heart embedded
    inside –
    -kala

  6. Do you know that in that wide – world have a nice county called Albania. And now I am saying you that in that Country is developing in good way the shorter poem: Haiku””, that has begun to invade the world. we here have a good Haiku – Club and it is well – known in Europe and broadly.
    My haiku: winter scorched oakling. spring brings. the verdant mantle. my best wishes! Kujtim”

  7. wolfgang,

    part I

    think not i’ve taken offense to your comment, yet i feel the need to clarify the points you’ve attempted to make.

    retrogressing, i’m reminded of a female friend who made the statement, she knew the thought process of men.

    i think mary’s words show not her being naive, but the unsuspecting innocence of youth, and the poetic manner in which kala expressed it; however, i sense the (naivete) within your words …

    within the seeds
    who knew —
    were we to have white peonies

  8. bob,
    child labor is child labor is child labor.
    there’s nothing lovely”” about kids
    working the street in 100 degree
    temperatures. by the way, those
    kids aren’t working 40 hours a
    week. but let’s turn back the clock
    a bit…

    appalachian dawn
    childrens faces
    dusted with coal dust”

  9. wolfgang,
    100 degree weather, huh; the haiku was not about sweatshops.

    in my adolescence, i’ve bagged grocery, sold newspapers, watched my siblings, picked grapes, and etc.
    sweatshops, no; my being industrious.

    i knew/know the difference

    g. bush re-election, there is a process, regardless of it’s faults, that continues to work, for lack of the perfect system.

    everyone could live as i do, just as everyone could live in your world.

    sunup,
    no different than so many before
    the jays return

  10. A little libret
    for
    Kala Ramesh

    A unseen poacher
    shooting a bird on the wing-
    my heart itself

    A lightning
    or a shooting star?
    The life ofa man…

    Celest music-
    the crickets cease
    to liesten to Kala

    Long after
    the sound was foded,
    her alive soul

    Last gesture
    of the swans’ conductor-
    an unmoved hand

    Shut up!
    let’s listen
    this silence

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