Read Reread And Ruminating

What book are you reading right now?

I will give a slightly different reply to this prompt.

At the moment, I am absorbing what I have just finished reading a few days back.

I feel one must sit back and think about what one has finished reading in order to fully assimilate what one has read.

Jumping from one read to the other does not work for me though a number of books are lying in queue in my study.

As is evident from above this book is a beautiful anthology of haiku and senryu. Haiku, as I have often written before, is a four hundred years old ancient Japanese art form of writing poetry with minimum words. That is why they are also called wordless poems. Haiku is nature based while senryu is emotion based.

This is a book which I wished to read for a very long time but somehow couldn’t make time. Recently, I wrote on Teji’s  FB page that I was still longing to read her work. Reason? I just like the way she emotes through her poetry.

Teji Sethi is a kalaakaar (artist) in the truest sense of the term as our haiku mentor, the world renowned haikuist,  Kala Ramesh writes in the introduction of the book. Her aesthetics spill into her poetry with tender wistfulness.

Teji speaks of her journey through life with touching poignance. The title of the book itself signifies the diffusion of experiences into our being which makes and breaks us

moss laden walls

           her fingers trace

remnants of the past

Haiku thrives on uniquely expressing the emotional evolution of the poet

swinging door

I learn

        to unlearn

We derive essences of living not only from other human beings but also from the environment

backspace

writing one more time

my story

Teji’s exceptionally fine tuned perception is achingly palpable in every line

cold moon…

noone sees beyond

the skin colour

The most immersive quality of haiku is that it makes you ruminative.

With age, I guess, the interpretation of nuances and subtlety of these minimalist poems grow exponentially for a reader. That is why these can be read and re-read. And each reading experience will be different from the earlier.

Teji brings forth a deep sense of aloneness amidst the humdrum of life. She talks of isolation in alien surroundings. This is the space of quietude which fills her up with abundance.

line of control

my identity

in halves

Being estranged from one’s roots is the most haunting trauma of those who have lived this agony. In Teji’s haiku the unfulfillable vacuum perhaps rises from the consciousness of being the other one in a land ravaged by partition.

unmapped road

I wait for myself

on the other side

The book ends with a few equally beautiful haibuns and tanka prose. Haibuns are proses written in haikai language prefixed, suffixed or  intercepted by haiku or senryu. Tanka is a combination of haiku and senryu longer in construct – four or five liners – linked to a haikai prose. The ‘ahaa’ inducing  shift and link technique of haiku and senryu are also applicable to haikai prose. Haikai language is marked by simplicity of expression as decluttering is one of the reigning highlights of these gently flowing passages.

As is obvious, Teji Sethi’s moss laden walls is a highly recommended read published by Hawakal Publishers and  available on Amazon.

I have taken the liberty of quoting a few of her haiku and senryu in this post just to give a glimpse of Teji’s creativity.