HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract – open/shut

Opposites Attract

Hello – kj here – I will be taking the reins again for the next few weeks, with the theme ‘opposites attract’. The prompt each week will be a pair of opposites – feel free to be inspired by one or the other, or both! I hope this draws you towards excellent haiku – the way the compass, even in these uncertain times, will always settle on ‘North’…

                  quarantine
                  compass needle
                  spinning

                           kjmunro

next week’s theme:  OPPOSITES ATTRACT – hot/cold

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Saturday August 15, 2020.

Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form. Please put Haiku Dialogue in the Subject box, & include your name as you would like it to appear, & your place of residence, with your poem. I look forward to reading your submissions.

A few haiku will be selected for commentary each week.

Please note that by submitting, you agree that your work may appear in the column – neither acknowledgment nor acceptance emails will be sent. All communication about the poems that are posted in the column will be added as blog comments.

Below is the commentary for open/shut:

Thanks to you all for the warm welcome back! It is wonderful to be here, & I do hope you will all stay safe & well during this difficult time, wherever you are – & I hope you all keep writing! Not surprisingly, a number of poems this week can be read through the lens of the pandemic – here is my commentary on a few of these:

lockdown
in the walled garden
roses bloom

Juliet Wilson

 

lockdown
every crocus in the municipal garden
open

Marion Clarke

Both of these poems contain a striking contrast between our lockdown situation & the sheer beauty of a common flower – the power of the natural world to influence the speaker’s, & the reader’s, mood…

delivery van
driving by
shuttered businesses

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

Here, an added dimension – the economic impact… in a clear, simple observation, the poet describes the present reality, leaving the reader to contemplate what this may mean for the future…

rediscovering
myself after the shut down
menopause

Vandana Parashar

In this poem, a more personal view – on reading the first two lines, the reader may be thinking about the impacts of physical distancing or working from home, but the twist in the third line brings in the fresh idea of a completely different system shutting down…

& here are the rest of my selections:

talkative hours the husband’s *is that right…*

Adrian Bouter

 

morning yoga
a lotus bud opens
to catch the light

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

prairie wind…
old barn door’s ceaseless
to and fro banging

Al W Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana

 

care home
the window and a fly
both see dunes

Alan Summers
England

 

a touch and
gentle caress
her last breath

Albert Schepers
Windsor, Ontario

 

her muffled cries
from behind the slammed door –
my father’s blood

Alex Fyffe
Texas

 

closed shutters –
first flowering iris
in the tall grass

Angiola Inglese

 

sand stretches –
how blue the oasis
of her large eyes

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

worn covers open
columns of words battle
the shut mind

B.A. France
Maryland

 

blue sky
I close my eyes
to still my mind

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

no matter
of color skin
the same shadow

Brăilean Mirela

 

closing time
the barmaid thumbs through
a stack of ones

Bryan Rickert

 

leaving Michigan
for Japan
in my junior year

Carmen Sterba

 

shut lips
across the open field
a skylark’s song

cezar-florin ciobica

 

busy doing
absolutely nothing
meditation

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California

 

eyes shut
her heart opens
first kiss

Charlotte Hrenchuk

 

traffic jam
we lose the thread
of our conversation

Christine L. Villa
USA

 

a new home
no one can visit
funeral sprays

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

foreclosure –
the bedroom door
nailed shut

Dan Campbell

 

open and shut…
even sunflowers
do that

aperto e chiuso…
persino i girasoli
fanno così

Daniela Misso

 

temptation
grandma unfolds
her arms

Deborah Karl-Brandt

 

closing
the open door policy
COVID-19

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

 

yin and yang
that thin border line
between us

Dennys Cambarau
Italy

 

dandelion clock –
her old ballerina spins
as the lid rises

Dorothy Burrows
UK

 

hair trigger
the mouse trap
waits for the nibble

Edward Dallas

 

Père Lachaise
columbarium
“Toi et Moi”

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

winter wind –
the mother sings
for the baby

Hassane Zemmouri

 

mask on
my mouth
wide shut

Helen Buckingham

 

gathering twigs –
the evening draws
to a close

Hemapriya Chellappan

 

notice
welcoming arms on the door
of a bolted church

Ingrid Baluchi
Macedonia

 

defying odds
a dandelion sprouting
from a sidewalk crack

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA

 

unmown lawn
dandelions and violets
intermingle

Janice Doppler

 

sinking in
my own thought
elevator opens

Jibril Dauda Muhammad
Bwari Abuja, Nigeria

 

the pause
between each pulse
her long yawn

John S Green
Bellingham, WA

 

open heart –
my daughter’s innocence
in her diary

Julia Guzmán

 

drowsy gloam
she opens a window
to cicadas

Kat Lehmann

 

Venus flytrap
at the orchid show
her blush

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

open diner
he shuts off
the motorcycle engine

Kelli Lage

 

playgrounds
the teeter-tottering between
          opening/not opening

Laurie Greer

 

open house
the furniture he’d always
kept covered

Lorraine A. Padden
San Diego, CA

 

her smile…
in the pomegranate rind
the first crack

il suo sorriso … nella scorza di melagrana / la prima crepa

Lucia Cardillo

 

linear mind
twisting and turning
spring storm

Luisa Santoro
Italy

 

the tire swing
between each push
an open road

M. R. Defibaugh

 

open window –
the cadence of a cricket
from my youth

m shane pruett
Salem, OR, USA

 

quarantine
the same old moon
settles on my window

Madhuri Pillai

 

sideways rain umbrellas inside-out

Margaret Walker

 

COVID checkpoints
the social distance
from common sense

Marilyn Ashbaugh

 

the morning after
one of the lilies
has opened

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

grand opening –
a boutique mask shop
where our old pub was

Mark Meyer

 

monsoon river…
the silent words
in the flow

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

separating
sun from dark clouds
a windy road

Nadejda Kostadinova

 

coronavirus
reopening restaurants
only to close them down

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

your face
swings open today
I tiptoe

nancy liddle

 

silent retreat –
behind closed doors
he opens his mind

Nick T
UK

 

cold night
the thunderclap
of a car door slamming shut

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

 

divorced
Cancer and Capricorn
always so crabby

paul geiger

 

in the closing and opening
of an eye
a life

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Huntsville, Alabama

 

shielding –
my door
slams shut

Peter Adair
Northern Ireland

 

a single touch…
the mimosa closes
into itself

Pris Campbell

 

opening
the shuttered factory’s gate
winter wind

Rashmi VeSa

 

cat sits
facing the door
deliberation

Rehn Kovacic

 

climbing Monadnock
my scout compass flatlines
summit points above

Ron Scully

 

summer breeze…
from the open window
the scent of the sea

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

topless
neddy’s nose above
the stable door

simonj
UK

 

locked door
a full moon enters through
an open window

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

mountain stream caressed by stones caressing

Steve Tabb

 

abandoned home
the wind opens the doors
and closes them

Stoianka Boianova

 

shelter in place
I change my zoom background
to outer space

susan rogers

 

half moon
1/2 for yin
1/2 for yang

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

new boss
his door is always open
except when it’s shut

Tim Cremin

 

daystars…
the yellow blooms
of the cucumber vine

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

night
touches the day…
i repeat myself

Vijay Prasad

 

candle
lighting
shadows

Vishnu Kapoor

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. A novice haiku poet, she lives in New York City.

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

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