HAIKU DIALOGUE – Mountain and River – Mountains – commentary

Mountain and River with Guest Editor Lakshmi Iyer

Mountain is benchmark for patience, resilience and tolerance. Whether heat or cold, fire or melting ice, whatever may be the extreme opposites, mountain bears them all silently and effectively.
If Man has to exaggerate anything to larger proportions, it is often compared with mountains. There is a proverb “Making mountains out of molehills”. Hence, mountain is always at the highest peak whether for patience, height, size.
Mountains cannot be moved easily. They are fixed, steady and unwavering. That is why it is probably said – Prayers can move even mountains. Which implies that mountains can be conquered only through prayers and not through force.
Well, some of you may argue that mountains too get destroyed, but it may be an indirect force through Man’s negligence to maintain a balance in the surrounding physical structure or its geological strength.

River is symbolic of extending help to anyone who comes in contact with it, as it has cleansing properties. River always tries to clean up everything on the way, even rocks get cleared, and it helps them glitter. Though Man pollutes river in all possible ways, river never pollutes Man. River helps ever, hurts never.
Here again, one may point out that a river in spate can destroy whatever comes in its way, but this too may be an indirect manmade issue.
River doesn’t depend on anyone for its journey towards its destination. It finds its own way to march towards the ocean or sea or whatever. If any obstacle is found on its path, it changes directions to reach the goal.
Flow of thoughts is often compared with the flow of river. If a thought arises in someone’s mind, there are two options before him. He can visualise the thought as a river flowing and decide to plunge into the river or observe the river flowing towards its destination. If he plunges into the river, action follows, as thoughts become words and deeds. On the other hand, if he doesn’t plunge into the river, but only observes it flowing towards the ocean, no consequence follows. There is stillness of the mind, he is in a state of meditation. Thus, river and its flow can help mankind to understand the process of meditating on the Supreme Consciousness.

I shall be extremely happy if you would give me a homework to dig deep inside your poems. It can be simple and sincere, setting aside all those mind-boggling thoughts. Just be you! Just live your poems!

Below is Lakshmi’s commentary for Mountains:

A big thanks to The Haiku Foundation, to kjmunro, Lori, Lafcadio and Vandana.

My gratitude to all the poets around the world for honouring this prompt and giving it a name of your choice. It was quite difficult to select and I thought the following poems surely needed praise, for creation needs human interference of emotions and that our eye lens sometimes miss capturing and reading the in-depth potentials of the small and lovely wonders we call as Haiku in Nature!

the highest mountain
in the world-
dad’s shoulders

Anica Marcelic
Zapresic, Croatia

Climbing a mountain is not an easy task. So also are dad’s shoulders. This poem took me to the golden period of my childhood of the well spent days with dad. I explored the black and white photo album where my brother and myself try ourselves to climb that amazing space of dad – his shoulders. Yes, it’s the highest mountain – the pillar of strength, the pillar of discipline and the pillar of resilience! The child sitting on dad’s shoulders looks like the man from the moon! The poet’s expression of love and respect towards his father is what made me rethink picking up this poem and convey my gratitude to all the kids who consider this the greatest boon in their lives – dad’s shoulders! Thank you Anica!

summit
a little daughter
on my shoulders

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton UK

SUMMIT!! And you are sure of the destination. The dignity of the poem is the responsibility towards his daughter with absolute love and care. Though quite challenging, his firm statement, ‘a little daughter on my shoulders’ expresses the core value of the family ties. Where summit relates to the ultimate climb; a little daughter relates to the beginning of one’s journey. Summit is an experience, it’s a journey with unlimited boundaries; so too, the relationship between a father and a child – inexplicable and bountiful! The haiku shows it all to the world how proud the father is. The image is picturesque. Thank you Keith!

kangri rinpoche-
that thou art
that thou art not

R. Suresh Babu
India

‘kangri rinpoche’ – What a wonderful divine order of the existence of Mount Everest.
Tibetan Buddhists have named it Kangri Rinpoche (Precious Snow Mountain). According to the Hindus, It is the abode of Lord Shiva!
The poet has beautifully captured the Vedantic philosophy of connecting the self – the Atman with the divine. He says you either believe, ‘that thou art’ meaning ‘Tat Twam Asi’ or either ‘that thou art not’.
You are that! Thou is the unseen, unknown and hidden You! It’s a hard subject to understand and come to terms with the belief, but at the same time a genuine understanding that this is the truth!
A juxta with Mount Everest, of the ultimate miracle of the Mahavakya, of connecting our lives with Mount Everest. It’s an enunciation of mortal vs. immortality. It’s a straightforward way to believe that mountains are always immortal. We can never shift mountains. I firmly believe in the thought advised by my forefathers, “Chant the name of the mountain Gods and circumambulate the mountain in your heart”. Thanks much for reviving this Chandogya Upanishad and my gratitude to Suresh for this poem. Thank you!

mountain cottage…
as soon as I enter
I part the curtains

K Ramesh
Chennai

Well, I’m the first to do this…‘as soon as I enter I part the curtains’. Such a wonderful haiku moment of the day, to show and not tell. The most simple image and the most relevant action one attempts: to capture the scenic beauty, of the sunrise and sunset, of the season’s first and last light, of the waxing and waning moon through the branches outside the cottage, of the first bird and the silhouette of many natural wonders of the mountains. Beauty is endless and that too from a mountain cottage is another form of the discovery of timeless split-second moments of the day! It’s another way of opening the various blocks in one’s mind, to reveal that there’s a lot to see from an open mind.
My gratitude to the poet for sharing his experience through this haiku. Thank you Ramesh!

mountain descent
the relief after riding
on clouds

Nairithi Konduru, 10 years
India

My dear Nairithi,

I’m so proud of your ability to witness this moment and share your experience with us. I had set aside this poem for commentary the very first time I read this. What a relief for me for choosing this poem, the same way you felt after riding on clouds; lovely way to express your experience!
I remember the excitement and the fear of touching the clouds in Meghalaya. I thought I was falling down as the clouds sailed through me…oohh! And yes, what a relief after the free ride. As a ten-year-old child, I can understand your emotions, the thrill, the surprises, the anxiety, the mind-boggling descent tracks counting your footsteps downhill, the running down movements, the hip-hop flips of oneself and the giggles all the way. Though scary, it’s a lifetime experience and a dream come true for you.
Thank you so much Nairithi for this haiku and my best wishes for more of these from you.

Warm Regards
Lakshmi Iyer, India

Join us next week for our next prompt…

Bios:

Guest Editor Lakshmi Iyer lives in her world bound with duties to her mother and grand twins. Her voluntary services to under-middle-class girls nurturing their needs remain in the good books of the families. Her haikai journey has seen the worst of rejections and the best of acceptances. Her poems have found their own homes, and she profusely thanks the editors. Her dream to publish a book remains in her heart, soul and mind.

Assistant Editor Lafcadio, a former teacher, now works from home writing, editing and proofreading study guides for nursing textbooks. She lives in Tennessee. She has written poetry for a long time but a couple of years ago fell in love with Japanese micropoetry and hasn’t looked back. Lafcadio has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. She writes under the nom de plume of Lafcadio because nom de plume is so fun to say. You can read her poems on Twitter (X) @lafcadiopoetry or BlueSky @lafcadiobsky.

Assistant Editor Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. She lives in New York City and enjoys reading and writing haiku.

Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She served as Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada for ten years, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.

Portrait by Laurel Parry

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Photo Credits:

Banner photo credit: by Lalitha & Gnaneswar

Prompt photo credit:
prompt photo one – Mountains – by Lalitha & Gnaneswar

Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week.