TALKING BOOKS
Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Neena Singh about her haiku collection, A Peacock's Cry
Talking Books
With Neena Singh
Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Neena Singh a banker turned poet about her book ‘A Peacock’s Cry-Seasons of Haiku.’ Neena's haiku have won Honorable Mention in Katikati contest 2021 (New Zealand), Sharpening the Green Pencil contest 2021 (Romania), Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2022, 6th Basho-an International Haiku Contest 2023 and Vancouver Cherry Blossom Contest 2024, in which her haiku also won the Sakura award. Neena’s 5-7-5 syllabic haiku was selected by Society of Classical Poets among 23 Best haiku of 2023. She won the Haiku Society of America's Second prize in 2021 and Third Place in 2023 for her collaborative rengay composition with Billie Dee.
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Neena is the author of “Whispers of the Soul - The Journey Within” (2016) , and “One Breath Poetry - a journal of haiku, senryu and tanka” (2020) , showcasing her passion for poetry, nature and life. “A Peacock’s Cry - seasons of haiku” is her third book.
Thank you Neena for talking with The Wise Owl
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RS: Your latest book A Peacock’s Cry is rooted in the five-season tradition of haiku. What drew you to this classic structure, and how did it shape the emotional and aesthetic flow of your collection?
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NS: The tradition of season word or kigo in haiku originated in the Edo period. The use of season word denotes a sense of place, time and culture. Rob Scott writes, “One of the strengths of Japanese haiku has been its ability to reflect its own culture through the use of kigo…” As Japan experiences four main seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter with rainy season being a part of summer, their haiku are divided into four seasons (lunisolar calendar). Further Japanese observe 24 seasonal divisions in a year and these are further classified into 72 micro-seasons. The five-season structure—spring, summer, monsoon, autumn, and winter—resonates deeply with the Indian subcontinent’s rhythms and my own internal landscape. I was drawn to this classical framework because it mirrors life’s cyclical nature, with each season holding its own emotional palette. When I thought of publishing this book, Jim Kacian, Founder of The Haiku Foundation, USA advised me to follow the seasonal classification rather than just the timeline of publication. The framework was laid by Dr Pravat Kumar Padhy, esteemed haiku poet and my mentor, who wrote a brilliant essay on “Kigo: The Soul and Splendor of Haiku” for the book on my request.
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RS: The title itself—A Peacock’s Cry—is evocative and steeped in natural imagery. Can you talk about the symbolism of the peacock and how it reflects the themes of the book?
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NS: A peacock is a symbol of beauty, grace and divinity, it is also the National Bird of India. In Hinduism, the bird is associated with Goddess Lakshmi. Peacock calls have reverberated throughout human history, finding their place in literary, cultural and religious contexts. The peacock’s mating cry, heard before a life-giving monsoon shower, is a paradox—both beautiful and melancholic. It captures longing, anticipation, emotional intensity and serene connection with nature. In the book, the peacock becomes a symbol of expressive silence—the kind that haiku embodies. Just as the cry alerts us to an unseen change, each haiku seeks to awaken a hidden truth or a fleeting emotion. The title reflects not only the seasonal changes but also the emotional undercurrents running through the poems.
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rain bath
shedding the dust
a peacock’s cry
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~ The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXXIII, Number 4: December 2021
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RS: Your haiku beautifully capture fleeting moments in nature and daily life. How do your personal practices—like moon gazing, long walks, and travel—influence your poetic vision?
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NS: These practices are the soil in which my haiku grow. Moon-gazing makes me pause with wonder, long walks attune me to the small details of the natural world—blossoming trees, fallen leaves, sweet birdsong, a child’s laughter—and travel allows me to shed routine and observe the world with fresh eyes. Haiku thrives on attentiveness and mindfulness. These habits anchor me in the present and allow the poetic moment to surface naturally, often unbidden, as a kind of inner response to outer beauty or transience.
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the full moon rises in me a high tide
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~ THF, Haiku Dialogue, 9th September 2020
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crossing the border
grass on the other side
the same green
~ The Haiku Foundation’s Monthly Kukai, March 2023
RS: The book includes haiku published internationally between 2020 and 2024. What was the process of curating this collection like, and how did you decide which haiku belonged in each seasonal section?
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NS: Curating was both an emotional and artistic process. I began writing haiku in 2016 and my book “One Breath Poetry” covered the published haiku till 2019. So I revisited my published haiku from 2020 to June 2024, with fresh eyes, listening to their seasonal and emotional resonance. Some poems clearly belonged to a particular time of year, while others surprised me—revealing a monsoon mood in a summer image, or a winter hush in what seemed like an autumn leaf. I allowed both the natural and emotional climates of the haiku to guide their placement, aiming for a seamless seasonal arc that also reflects the seasons of the soul. Of course the Japanese saijiki which contains the kigo words classified season-wise, sky and elements, animals & plants is the reference resource for us haiku poets. I also took guidance from my haijin friends where I was in doubt.
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RS: There’s a quiet wisdom and soulful resonance in your haiku that makes them feel both personal and universal. How do you balance introspection with accessibility in such a minimalist form?
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NS: Thanks for making such a profound statement. That balance is delicate. I begin from a place of authenticity—what moved me, which moment lingered—and then try to pare it down to its essence. Haiku works best when it offers just enough for the reader to enter and complete the experience. I try not to explain, but to evoke, show not tell. My aim is to offer a door, not a room—to leave space for others to find their own meaning. That’s where the universal can meet the personal.
autumn dusk
an old friend’s hand
in mine
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~ The Haiku Foundation, Monthly Kukai, April 2021
RS: This is your third book after Whispers of the Soul and One Breath Poetry. How has your haiku practice evolved over the years, and what distinguishes A Peacock’s Cry from your earlier works?
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NS: Over the years, I hope my haiku practice has become more intuitive and better crafted. In ‘Whispers of the Soul’, I was still discovering the form—it was more free verse and some poems which were 17 syllable-focused. “One Breath Poetry” reflected my growing fascination with brevity and the power of a single moment rather than the conventional 5-7-5 haiku and it also included senryu and tanka. “A Peacock’s Cry” marks a deepening as I have selected haiku from over the 600 published in reputed journals worldwide and these have been arranged chronologically and curated season-wise. It is more grounded in seasonal awareness, more attuned to subtle emotion, and more confident in silence. The voice has matured—not louder, but a little quieter and clearer. Now in ELH the emphasis is not on counting syllables but in capturing the ordinary in an extraordinary way.
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Zazen…
a lotus rises
above the mud
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~ Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2023
RS: The haiku form is often deceptively simple. What are some of the creative or philosophical challenges you face while composing a haiku that truly sings?
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NS: The biggest challenge is restraint. There’s always the temptation to say more, to explain. But haiku demands brevity and humility—trusting the image, trusting the silence around it. Another challenge is remaining present; haiku cannot be forced. Philosophically, I often grapple with impermanence—not just in subject, but in process. Sometimes a moment is lost before it becomes a poem. Accepting that too is part of the practice. Haiku teaches me to listen, to wait, and at times to let go. Haiku are not philosophical but express a moment in time yet these are not merely descriptive but evoke a human connect–this juxtaposition is brought through by the kire or cut, the syntactic break or pause. Reading, composing and practice hone this skill to rejuvenate sublime silence or ma between the juxtaposed images.
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the bare room
my childhood years
after mother’s death
~ Akita International Haiku Network, 15th June 2020
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Thank you Neena, for talking with The Wise Owl about your haiku collection. We wish you the very best in all your creative endeavours.
About Neena Singh
Neena Singh is a banker turned poet. Shortlisted for a Touchstone Award for Individual Poems in 2021, her poetry, and haiku, senryu, tanka, rengay, haibun, tanka prose, cherita, and haiga are regularly featured within international journals and magazines. Neena's haiku have won Honorable Mention in the following contests: Katikati contest 2021 (New Zealand), sharpening the green pencil contest 2021 (Romania), Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2022, 6th Basho-an International Haiku Contest 2023 and Vancouver Cherry Blossom Contest 2024, in which her haiku also won the Sakura award. Her haiku was a Runner-up in the Bulgarian Cherry Blossom Contest 2023. Her 5-7-5 syllabic haiku was selected by Society of Classical Poets among 23 Best haiku of 2023. Her senryu won Honorable Mention in the H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryu Contest 2023 and 2024. Her collaborative rengay with Billie Dee won the Haiku Society of America's second prize in 2021 and Third Place in 2023. Neena is the author of “Whispers of the Soul - The Journey Within”, and “One Breath Poetry - a journal of haiku, senryu and tanka”, showcasing her passion for poetry, nature and life. “A Peacock’s Cry - seasons of haiku” is her third book.
A doctorate in English literature and a former bureaucrat, Rachna Singh has authored Penny Panache (2016) Myriad Musings (2016) Financial Felicity (2017) & The Bitcoin Saga: A Mixed Montage (2019). Her book, Phoenix in Flames, is a book about eight ordinary women from different walks of life who become extraordinary on account of their fortitude & grit. She writes regularly for National Dailies and has also been reviewing books for the The Tribune for more than a decade. She runs a YouTube Channel, Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein, which brings to the viewers poetry of established poets of Hindi & Urdu. She loves music and is learning to play the piano. Nurturing literature & art is her passion and to make that happen she has founded The Wise Owl, a literary & art magazine that provides a free platform for upcoming poets, writers & artists. Her latest book is Raghu Rai: Waiting for the Divine, a memoir of legendary photographer, Raghu Rai.
About Rachna Singh
Talking Books
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Hi Joanna. Thanks for talking to The Wise Owl
RS: Your collection of Cherita ‘river lanterns’ has been released recently. Our readers would be eager to know (as I am) what inspired you to write this beautiful collection of 90 virgin Cherita.
JA: I have been published in Ai Li’s Cherita journals for a while and love writing in this form. I mentioned in my email correspondence to Ai Li that I aspired to have my own Cherita collection published. She offered to edit my selection of poems from a large selection that I sent her. I would say my inspiration came from reading Ai Li’s own collections of her Cherita verse, they are so beautiful.
When I began writing these, I was mindful to really show me as not only a writer but as the person beneath and how the Cherita form bends to the art of storytelling. It took me some time to write these and I am delighted with the narrative that Ai Li made with her choices for my book. When another person chooses, they can distance themselves from your work and look critically at what you have sent. It was a real honour for me to entrust the creator of the Cherita with my work.
RS: Your book is a collection of Cherita verse. Cherita is a genre of recent origin (1997). Tell us what attracted you to this genre of poetry. Were there any creative influences in your life that encouraged you to adopt this genre as your own.
JA: I am attracted to this genre of poetry as I hold a deep reverence for Ai Li’s poetry and the short form poetry forms as a collective. I was excited to see that Ai Li had developed this new genre. She published my short form verse in the 1990s in her journal Still and I was sad when this was no longer in print. I enjoyed the challenge of learning how to write this new form and find it really resonates with me as a writer.
I discovered her new form of Cherita and was hooked by these story gems. I really admire the way that the Cherita journals are produced and enjoy reading the work within these. As a writer it is important to keep on working at your craft and I love it when I get to enjoy the work of a fellow poet in the same genre.
RS: River Lanterns has been edited and published by ai li, the creator of Cherita as a genre. How was the experience of connecting with the doyen of Cherita and having her select your Cherita?
JA: As I mentioned earlier Ai Li had published my work in the 90s, then through offering Cherita to her for publication, the connection was reborn. I have always enjoyed reading Ai Li’s poetry and I have found her to be a gracious supporter of my Cherita. Sending my work to the creator of the genre I think really made me conscious that I had to elevate my writing to meet the standards to have enough quality Cherita for my own individual collection. The experience is something that I will treasure as I now have a collection published other people can enjoy and will hopefully encourage them to do the same.
RS: Cherita is said to be a unique form of storytelling…storytelling in 6 lines. M Kei says that Cherita verse ‘combine the evocative power of tanka with the narrative of a personal story, like the vignettes we glimpse as we sit in a café and watch the world go by.’ Do you agree ? For the benefit of the readers would you please elaborate on this.
JA: Yes, I think M Kei’s insight is correct. Cherita to me contain the voice/song/whispers around the campfire as the stories unfold. They can be written about such a wide range of experiences, focused through the lens of the individual. I love the power of tanka, and I see Cherita as a close cousin, both forms use beautiful language to sing a fragment of the world that we live in.
RS: I feel what differentiates Cherita from narrative storytelling, is that it tells a story about life & our spiritual journey. This is very true of your Cherita:
have you
found it yet
the fun arcade
where wishes
are the alchemy
of breath
What are your thoughts on this?
JA: Yes, I feel a real connection with Cherita and my spiritual side. This is an element that attracts me to using this form. It allows me to explore and highlight aspects that may not be accepted in other types of verse. The Cherita can be used as a blank canvas for me to embed my perspective of my inner and outer world through stories.
RS: What are the themes or stories you have touched upon in your various Cherita verse?
JA: Where to begin… The Cherita in this collection provides a map of my highs and lows. They reveal how I see the world and feel about it. I enjoy adding elements of fairytales, myths, rich imagery, and aspects of the natural world. The importance of love, loss, friendship, connections, truth etc. all are within. The Cherita captures a moment of beauty, in time, often of universal things that happen to all of us but told from the narrator’s perspective. Often there is a vein of spirituality running through the verse.
RS: There are some cherita terbalik also in your collection. For the benefit of our readers please tell us how this form is different from Cherita and why we need a different syllable arrangement for this form of poetic storytelling
JA: The Cherita terbalik also tells a story but ‘terbalik’ is the Malay word for upside down or reversal (https://www.thecherita.com/) It is a different arrangement of the original Cherita stanza format. By using another variation of the Cherita format it enables the writer to alter the flow of the story that they are telling, such as the example from my collection below:
the ruby shoes
the glass slipper
the fairy dust
as a child
I imagined all
in my cupboard
To me this verse is stronger with the terbalik arrangement. Writing Cherita I make a judgement as to which stanza suits the flow of the story.
RS: Do you also write in other genres like haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun on a regular basis? Which is your favorite genre among all these genres (we know your fondness for Cherita of course)
JA: Yes, I also write in other genres such as haiku, senryu, tanka, Haibun and other short form verse. I began writing contemporary poetry first and then I discovered haiku when I was looking for poetry journals to read and subscribe to. I fell in love with haiku and feel that they are the guardians of nature and our world. I find short form poetry very special; these dewdrops of tiny forms really capture a sense of the world around us.
I see the bonds between these genres as strings from the same bow –
the heart harp
wind and rainfall
skeins from sky
this humming
of a melody
our soul bonds
Selecting a favourite is like asking a parent to choose a child. They all hold a place in my heart. I began with haiku and then progressed to tanka – aspects of the heart. These are the two that led me into this world of short form poetry and were my entry point for exploring and discovering other genres. I wouldn’t like to be without any one of them as they each offer a different way to express aspects of the world and my own life journey.
RS: What advice would you give budding poets of Cherita verse?
JA: The advice I would give to writers of any verse is to READ, READ, READ. Study the form, work on your craft, support the journals that publish them – if you want to write them, then surely you will enjoy reading them. Write, keep on writing and honing, learning the form, find your own style/voice, make connections in the writing world – even if online and listen and appreciate editorial advice – they have a vast range of experience, and this is how you grow as a writer. The short form poetry world is a beautiful, supportive place. When you buy a journal that publishes Cherita verse or another genre, be open to learning and see how well other writers use the form. Try and buy the collections of writers that you admire, this keeps our writers’ world vibrant and alive.
Thank you, Joanna, for taking time out to talk to The Wise owl about your beautiful book. We wish you the best and hope you make this unique storytelling genre rich with your verse.
Thank you so much for asking me to talk to you.