CH Showcase – Shloka Shankar

As a warm up to the book launch of our latest anthology, sharing my solitude, we asked those who submitted to write a few words about themselves and their work. Over this month we will showcase all those who shared, while we finalise the book launch which should be in August.

The anthology is available as an ebook on Amazon. Copy this ASIN code B0B59NSWPK into the Amazon of your country to find it.

The haijin we showcase today is Shloka Shankar

I. My haikai journey

I embarked on a life altering haikai journey on December 17, 2013, when I was invited to join the INhaiku Facebook group by Kashinath Karmarkar, a.k.a. Kash Poet. I had the audacity to post what I deemed was a haiku, complete with a title and in 5-7-5 free verse fashion. My illusions were shattered soon after and I learned that haiku was so much more than a syllable counting exercise. Vinay Leo R. explained the concept of haiku having a fragment and a phrase, introduced me to the then popular Shiki kukai, and I found my footing thanks to early mentors such as Kala Ramesh, Geethanjali Rajan, Arvinder Kaur, Akila, Paresh Tiwari, and several others in the group.

I sent out my very first haiku to Creatrix in January 2014 and was pleasantly surprised when two of my poems found their forever home in their upcoming issue. I was new to NaHaiWriMo and the prompts were a good training ground for me to write regularly. I started reading contemporary haiku journals and editors like an’ya (cattails) massively encouraged newcomers such as myself. I didn’t stop with just haiku. I was largely self-taught and tried my hand at senryu, tanka, haiga, and haibun within the first seven months of being introduced to these short-forms.

It was only after I joined Virtual Haiku, a group that still exists on Facebook, moderated by Michael Rehling, did I become exposed to more experimental styles of haiku, typified by the likes of Brendan Slater, Sheila Windsor, Hansha Teki, and Johannes S. H. Bjerg, among a host of others. I saw myself gravitating towards the abstract almost subconsciously. My style and voice were emerging and they were further strengthened once I began editing and publishing the literary & arts journal Sonic Boom.

I was very kindly invited by Kala to co-edit her dream project, naad anunaad, in 2015, along with Sanjuktaa Asopa, a poet I greatly admire till date. This was a phenomenal learning experience and the sheer number of poems we read made us feel simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated. Working on this first global anthology to be brought out from India led me to receiving an honour that I will cherish forevermore: the Triveni commendation for Promising Haijin & Editor. This was an immense confidence booster from my peers and I remain truly humbled and grateful.

As the stars would have it, I got to work with Kala for a second time, and long-time friend and co-editor Shobhana Kumar, on the Triveni Haikai Calendar 2021 in the midst of the pandemic. It was a pleasure putting the calendar together and it was so well-received in different parts of the world. My editing experiences have largely shaped me and informed my own writing.

The culmination of my haikai journey would have to be the publication of my debut full-length collection, the field of why, containing 51 poems that span over seven years. It was released in May 2022, on my birthday, and marked Yavanika Press’ 50th title. I founded Yavanika Press in 2018 as an imprint of Sonic Boom.

The one thing I will cherish the most are the countless friends I’ve made and the haiku community that has stood by me all these years. Thank you for your love, support, and constant encouragement. It fuels me immensely.

2. Favorite haiku/senryu

actuarial table
a firefly escapes
from the jar

autumn deepens…
I hang another day
on the nail

a superscript of stars displacing my name

winter rain…
the intermittent hum
of a light bulb

rewilding my amygdala the palm warbler’s chirps

brightness dying into goldfinch brightness

a rhetorical question through the ages cherry blossom

writer’s block
my desk shape-shifts
into a raven

a word for belief inside the wall of winter

the whiteness of language under my hands

3. Future of haikai writing

I think we are all doing our bit for furthering haiku and its allied genres. We each have our unique experiences to draw from and I hope more poets will be open to embracing the freedom that comes with pushing the envelope just that tad bit further. It’s easy to get set in our ways and fall prey to tropes. I feel it is incredibly important to spice things up every now and then and not become homogenous as a community. I’ve been teaching haiku for a year now and I tell my students the same thing. Yes, there are a billion cherry blossom poems out there. But have you written one true to you? Do you even wish to write one?

I leave you with this quote by my friend, fellow poet, and co-editor Kat Lehmann:

“The best aesthetic is the one you find for yourself, the one that expands your artistic vision. Cultivate your voice. Dig deep and write the poem that only you can write.” – Excerpted from her interview here.

To this I’d like to add, just write one good, fulfilling poem. Then repeat.

Shloka Shankar is a poet, editor, publisher, and self-taught visual artist from Bangalore, India. A Best of the Net nominee and award-winning haiku poet, her poems and artwork have appeared in over 200 online and print venues of repute. In addition, she has edited and co-edited six international poetry anthologies since 2016. Shloka is the Founding Editor of the literary & arts journal Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. When she isn’t poring over manuscripts, you can find her making abstract art, digital collages, or conducting poetry workshops. Shloka is the author of the microchap Points of Arrival (Origami Poems Project, 2021) and her debut full-length haiku collection, The Field of Why (Yavanika Press, 2022).

Website: http://www.shlokashankar.com

Haiku credits – actuarial table first published in Acorn #44, autumn deepens in Right Hand Pointing, February 2021, a superscript in kontinuum, Vol. 1, no. 1, 2021, winter rain in tsuri-dōrō, #8, rewilding in whiptail: journal of the single-line poem, #2, brightness dying in Kingfisher, #5, a rhetorical question in Modern Haiku, 53:2, writers block in Otoliths, #46, a word in bones, #18, the whiteness in Wales Haiku Journal, Summer 2019.