Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry
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Spring 2007, vol 5 no 1

TANKA

Kala Ramesh
 

brooding deeply
over faceless fears
she carries on as usual
with a made-up mask
in a make-believe world

 

for eons
waves have danced
the pebbles to perfection,
but it's the sand in my fingers
that leave me spellbound

 

her voice as young
exuberance intact
a lightness in her steps
she moves around
this frail old woman

 

I stare deeply
into the blossom's bosom
and innocently
she opens
. . . . . . . . .still further

 

sick in bed
vacantly looking
into the sky
I see forms of clouds
reform into something else

 

why me?
"why not you"
my mind answered
but that's not the answer
to be easily accepted!

 

for a moment
our eyes met
a union so perfect
like breath from a flute
as it catches the note

 


Kala Ramesh Kala Ramesh has performed her Indian classical music (Carnatic and Hindustani styles) and poetry in many of the major cities of India. A haiku poet since 2005, Kala writes that she comes ". . . from an extremely artistic and culturally rich South Indian family" and believes---as her father is fond of saying---"that the soil needs to be fertile for the plant to bloom." Kala believes that she owes her poetic streak to her mother. Kala is herself a proud mother of two young adults and lives with her husband, a finance professional, in Pune, India.