the wind howling horizon on a wave
Author: Kala Ramesh
Kala Ramesh co-edited the award winning Naad Anunaad: an Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku (Vishwakarma Publication 2016) and co-authored an e-book with Marlene Mountain one-line twos (Bones 2016). She is the author of two books: haiku (Katha Books 2010, reprint 2017) and beyond the horizon beyond (Vishwakarma Publication 2017) and a tanka e-chapbook unseen arc (Snapshot Press 2017).
Kala?s initiatives culminated in founding IN haiku in 2013. She teaches haiku and allied genres at Symbiosis International University Pune. To bring haiku into everyday spaces, Kala initiated HaikuWALL, haikuTRAIL, haikuTALK, haikuWORKSHOP, haikuYOUTH, haikuUTSAV, haikuDHYANA and haikuSAATSANGATH, the last being a stage performance with dancers and actors.
dense fog
the train evaporates
into a distant horn
painting class
children color each other
into laughter
slipping in
beneath the kitchen door
–first sunlight
white water rafting
we spin around
our laughter
ceiling mirror
between screams I see
my child being born
liquid sky . . .
a steel bucket hits
the well water
twilight trees
birds go in and out
of song
male gaze the female in me squares up her arms
Gita chanting —
as each stanza ends
the bell
an evening
of tangled thoughts . . .
through branches
even this rugged moon
looks tattered at the edges
(originally appeared in American Tanka ? June
midnight jetty
the sound of water
slapping water
(Originally published in A Hundred Gourds 1:3 ? June 2012)
how little
I know of bird calls
distant thunder
(Akita International Haiku Award, First Prize, September 2013)
her plait in step with her hips a string of jasmine
(First published in Bones, an e-book in PDF format by Kala Ramesh and Marlene Mountain)
after sunset
mountains become the sky
a muezzin’s call
(originally appeared in Frogpond 38:3.? Autumn 2015)
blossoms . . .
the dog leap-curves
toward the frisbee
(originally published in Frogpond,Vol. XXX, No. 2, 2007)
“The Look,” a haibun by Kala Ramesh
the darkness of my skin
on my soul
this stickiness
(Originally published in is/let, November 2017)
monsoons begin with each day's rains
the hills turn greener greener
Originally appeared in beyond the horizon beyond (Vishwakarma Publications 2017)
an eagle shadows a wheat field’s yellow whisper
thunderclap —
the darkening sky splits
into liquid night
(Originally published in beyond the horizon beyond)
I am
the city
twice born
imprisoned
with no key
to return
a nonchalant moon
passes through
mountain trek
my steps ringed
with birdsong
(Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn 2021)
notes trickle
down a riverbed of sand …
the memory of water
(Originally appeared in the 5th edition of the Santoka
who am i
a falling leaf
gives the answer
patina
on dancing Shiva
the guardian
of a ruined temple
humpback whale!
for a split-second
the sky steps back
(Originally published in Presence Haiku Journal #76, July 2023)
Gita chanting
birds become
the ellipsis
(Originally received an Akita International Haiku Award, September 2014, Honourable Mention)