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Tanka
Kala Ramesh
Kala Ramesh: Text
I spend months
learning to tune
my instrument …
a fakir down the street
is one with his ektara
illusions ride
on a fast fading rainbow
somewhere there
I let go of my childhood ...
I must have
my family wept
over our dog's death
I weep
for those days I grudged him
his early morning walk
I walk
into the forest
barefoot
my soul
in touch with roots
the shell
of my understanding
breaks open
on autumn shores
I feel the chill
​
[A Tanka doha fashioned on the couplets (with 24 sound units) of Kabir, the famous saint-poet of the 15th Century]
does the shadow move
with the swing or the swing
with the shadow
interlaced, my shadow
rides on time
mother laments
being old and bent
I see her
as a curved branch
laden with fruit
​
[A Tanka doha]
Kala Ramesh: Food Articles
Kala Ramesh, a Pushcart Prize nominated poet, is the Founder and Director of Triveni Haikai India, and Founder and Managing Editor of haikuKATHA Journal. Author of ‘haiku!' for children (Katha Books 2010); ‘Beyond the Horizon Beyond’ (Vishwakarma Publications) shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize in 2019. Her collection of poetry, ‘The Forest I Know’ (HarperCollins) was launched at Jaipur Literature Festival, March 2022. She has been experimenting with a fusion of japanese poetry and dohas (couplets with 24 sound units) of 15th Century saint poet, Kabir. The end-result is beautiful Tanka dohas.
Kala Ramesh: List
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