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Plants and Pottery

haiku and senryu

हाइकु और सेनर्यु

photograph sourced from wix


you and me 
together yet apart 
beads of a rosary

~ teji sethi, India
 

Under the Basho, Aug 2020, Uncharted Roads (2021)

the Year book of Indian Poetry in English 2020-21

 

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pottery and photograph: harmeet

Pottery Items

photograph sourced from wix

 

reading between lines
the silence
            he never wrote

 ~ Teji Sethi ,Bangalore ,India

First place, Indian Kukai, March 2021

Commentary on this ku

I have experienced these silences in music - when listening to others and when I sing for myself. I have seen these silences in paintings which the painter might not have noticed. Knowing that Teji is an artist and knows design - I see this as a *felt* moment. Silence getting folded in/under images, words and swaras is possible, peeping out from unexpected corners and this adds a poignancy to this senryu. Most importantly - as a reader it shows me that the narrator was pausing at every line/word, maybe? and I as a reader, wonder about the state of mind the narrator was in, when she wrote it. There is so much unsaid and unsaid most beautifully.
 

as it goes with 

the wind this cherry petal 

so shall I  

Teji Sethi, India

както си отива с

вятъра това вишнево цветче – 

така ще си отида и аз

translated in Bulgarian

  

Honorable mention at the Fifth International Haiku Contest,

May  2021, ‘Cherry Blossoms.’

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pottery and photograph: harmeet

delivery room —
cold palms against the warmth
of a stillborn
 
— Teji Sethi, India

Second Place, Monthly Kukai, The Haiku Foundation, Aug 2021
 

Comments by the editor:
I found myself momentarily wordless (i.e., speechless) upon reading this haiku. The cold hands/warm body image is truly a haptic one, and it carries the poem.


 

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pottery and photograph: harmeet

an aged banyan 

roots as deep 

as beliefs 

Teji Sethi, India 

Featured in The Haiku Foundation

Commentary by the Editor, Kelly Sauvage Angel 

This haiku by Sethi humbles me. Not only does it offer  an extremely resonant juxtaposition, but its depth and  complexity continue to unfold in a manner that propels  one into the most expansive of realms, the spiritual,  while remaining utterly free of the tethers of religious dogma. Indeed, the history and mythology of the banyan are rich, allowing our understanding to manifest in  whatever guise is most meaningful to us; at the same  time, one can hardly glance over the banyan’s unique  anatomy with its elongated aerial roots which, while  expansive, extend underground to an extent that would  prove insufficient for support as a single-root system. 

While the more obvious metaphorical interpretation  may leave us chuckling or nodding in agreement, we  would be remiss to disregard the tree’s cultural and  religious significance, whether as the site of the sermon of the Bhagavad Gita or within the context of the “world  tree,” with its roots stretching to heaven. And, to whom is this piece referring? Perhaps the “aged  banyan” is an older member of the poet’s community or  an allusion to the depth of our collective failings—or our  mythic potential.

Ceramic Art

photograph sourced from wix

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