A Sense of Place: CITY SIDEWALK – hearing

A Sense of Place

In his essay ‘So:ba’, given at the International Haiku Conference (SUNY Plattsburgh, NY, 2008) and published serially in Frogpond, Jim Kacian discusses the concept of ba:

“If you look up ba in any Japanese-English Dictionary you’ll find it means “place” or “site” or “occasion”. And these are all true in the most general sense—ba is a pointer to a kind of awareness that something of importance is happening in time and space.”

So here we are…

In the following weeks we will get back to haiku basics and explore specific locations with an emphasis on the senses, and with the intention of improving our own haiku practice. Ideally, participants will select an actual location that they can visit, or a location from memory that they have visited in the past. Failing that, we always have our imaginations – and you’re invited to join in the fun! Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence. I will select from these for the column, and add commentary.

next week’s theme:  CITY SIDEWALK – smell

We remain on city sidewalks – if possible, the same one as last week – but now we explore the sense of smell… the deadline for this theme is midnight Pacific Time, Sunday 09 December 2018.

I look forward to reading your submissions.

A Sense of Place:  CITY SIDEWALK – hearing

This is an open call to readers of this column for the position of guest editor… if you are interested, let us know on a Contact Form! More information will follow later this month about what this column will look like in the New Year… but expect fewer poems in the column itself, and even more discussion in the comments section of the blog…

The following poems seem to be simple sidewalk observations, yet each contains elements that continue to ripple long after the poem is read… one idea leads to another, echoing…

busy street in Paris
only two people talking
in French

Christine Eales
UK

 

crosswalk wait –
the guy with earbuds
does a little wiggle

Judt Shrode

 

crowded street –
Grandpa on the sidewalk
talking to himself

Maria Teresa Piras

 

hopscotch
my mother’s footsteps
end the game

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

 

city sidewalk
no one
calling my name

Ruth Powell

 

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

nighttime city stroll
footsteps behind
speed me up

Aalix Roake

 

early jogging
running in the songs
of morning birds

Adjei Agyei-Baah
Kumasi, Ghana

 

tourist in my own town barrel organ

Adrian Bouter

 

evening rush –
clickety clack of high heels
on pavement

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

crack in the line
we don’t always sidestep
the cold queue sigh

(It doesn’t seem to happen so much nowadays, but I remember it seemed common practice to queue for ages outside shops. There seemed so many queues, but now shops are larger, faster, have more stock.)

Alan Summers

 

on the sidewalk
the echo of the rain –
soft applause

Alessandra Delle Fratte
Rome, Italy

 

Red kettle bells –
the homeless man gently holds
his homeless dog

Amy Losak

 

the sun at the peak –
on the pavement the noise
of roller skates

Angela Giordano

 

old receipts
in front of the shop window
dry leaves

Angiola Inglese

 

Quai des Orfèvres –
a musette waltz
of raindrops

Anna Maria Domburg – Sancristoforo

 

Beyond the time
Just on the street
A man plays didgeridoo

Anna Victoria Goluba

 

the sound of
hard-starting engine
rush hour sidewalk

Anthony Rabang

 

the silent eloquence
of sunset hues –
horns blare

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

underfoot
the squeak of last night’s
snow

Barbara Tate
Winchester, TN

 

sidewalk bar
I toss a step
to the music beat

Blessed Ayeyame
Ughelli, Nigeria

 

city sidewalk –
imagining silence
in a wall of noise

Bob Whitmire
Round Pond, Maine

 

sidewalk performer
drumbeats
under the marquee light

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

hailing
someone else’s cab
sharp patter

C.R. Harper

 

outdoor cafe
the first robin
entertains a crowd

Carmen Sterba

 

sidewalk traffic
languages merge
in a cacophony

Carol Raisfeld

 

under the lamp post
old soldier sings half asleep
Lili Marlene

(“Lili Marlene” is one of the most famous and popular songs in world history, but many people don’t know about it anymore.)

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA

 

hawker street
the loud stir fry
in flambé wok

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

 

missing silence
she misses
the curb

Christina Pecoraro

 

the sound
of two cats fighting
alley brawl

Christina Sng

 

early morning jog
the clang
of commerce

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

carillon rings out
Christmas carols
icy sidewalks

Colleen Rousch

 

early rise –
in the city the sound
of silence

Corine Timmer
Faro, Portugal

 

rainy day downtown
the sound of water finding
its way to the street

Craig Kittner

 

inaudible in the city street
a pleading mouth
a rattling cup

David Gale
Gloucester, UK

 

after the rain the Maserati all guns blazing

David Jacobs
London, UK

 

sidewalk cafe
overhearing the whisper
of a sycamore tree

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

 

shopping downtown
Christmas carols piped out
to the sidewalk

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

 

morning rush
commuters speed-talking
on their iPhones

Devin Harrison
Vancouver Island, Canada

 

sidewalk prophet
shouts diatribe to heathens
people hurry past

dianne moritz

 

passing tram
carrying your shopping list
from my cell phone

Dubravka Šcukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

 

dumpster lip
the fussy calls of gulls
land and re-land

Erin Castaldi

 

fire drill…
the noise of three-thousand
teens on the sidewalks

Frank J. Tassone

 

a rumble
underneath the sidewalk –
CRACK

Genie Nakano
Gardena, California

 

snowy sidewalk –
nobody listens to
his tired voice

Giovanna Restuccia

 

strade deserte:
suono d’un sax in lontananza

deserted streets:
sound of a sax in the distance

Giuliana Ravaglia

 

sidewalk
symphony
orchestral ringtones

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

rush hour hush a hymn to snow

Helen Buckingham

 

Squish swish splash
a tidal wave
when cars go past

Helen O’Connor
Whitehorse, Yukon

 

sidewalk sale
the low voices
of a Christmas choir

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

Black Friday
a beggar tosses
coins in the bowl

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

Christmas crowds
a sidewalk virtuoso
vying to be heard

Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, Macedonia

 

rustling sounds
of jacaranda flowers
windy sidewalk dreams

Jackie Chou

 

a pigeon lingers at the
chirping crosswalk*

(*some crosswalk signals emit chirping sounds for visually impaired people. This style is being phased out due to reports of birds imitating the chirps and confusing pedestrians.)

janice munro
Canada

 

whooshing air
the silent bicycles
of Amsterdam

Joan Barrett
Whitesboro, NY

 

the cold walk home
my silence broken
by crispy leaves

Joanne van Helvoort

 

overhearing
phrases on my walk –
found poetry

John S Green
Bellingham, WA

 

City sidewalk –
the voices of the sellers
among the horns

Julia Guzmán

 

after leaf blowers
and car alarms
birdsong

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

holiday tunes
piped outside
shoppers hum along

Kathleen Mazurowski

 

sunday matinee
the stage door’s
cold metal creak

Kelly Sauvage Angel
Madison, WI

 

two cars argue
over one parking place
holiday cheer

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

 

Alone in the crowd
A child cries
Mother

Kimberly Spring
Lakewood, Ohio

 

doorway keypads
the sound of home
as algorithm

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

on the sidewalk
so many languages
I don’t understand

Lori Zajkowski
New York, NY

 

frosty moon…
a bottle rolls down
from sidewalk

gelida luna …  s’infrange una bottiglia / sul marciapiede

Lucia Cardillo

 

deep
into city streets
the call of seagulls

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

two buckets
and a three string violin
standing room only

m. shane pruett
salem, OR, USA

 

tram stop
chatter of tourists
undecided

Madhuri Pillai

 

strains of Messiah
coming from way down the street
flash mob!

Marcyn Del Clements
Claremont, California, USA

 

sidewalk café
eavesdropping
at the next table

Margaret Walker

 

the singsong
of the taralli seller
Napoli sidewalk

Margherita Petriccione

 

morning walk
the city awakens
with a yawn

Margo Williams
Stayton, Oregon

 

water noise –
on the wet sidewalk
my new boots

Maria Teresa Sisti

 

Parisian dawn
from a bistro’s swing door
la vie en rose

Marietta McGregor

 

early hours
the click-clack of stilettos
on the sidewalk

Marina Bellini

 

above the click
of designer boots
“Spare change?”

Marita Gargiulo

 

broken glass
cracking on concrete
splintering alarm

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

pouring rain
a crow’s caw soaks
into my ears

Martha Magenta
England, UK

 

early morning
an archaeological dig
under the skyscraper

Megumi Shibuya
Japan

 

Winter sidewalk –
the scrape
of the snow shovel

michael ceraolo
South Euclid, Ohio

 

Rodeo Drive
an endless chatter of
self obsession

Michael Henry Lee

 

double heelflip –
the sound of skateboards
chipping the sidewalk

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

city sidewalk…
the bow and scrape
of double Dutch

Michele L. Harvey

 

old inn
clip clop of
brewer’s dray

Mike Gallagher
Ireland

 

sidewalk sale
the shrill voice
of a hawker

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

Hope in an inhaled breath
Indifferent footsteps pass
the weight of a sigh

Molly Hogan

 

roadside path…
a toddler jumping
on her chu chu shoes

Muskaan Ahuja
Chandigarh, India

 

ice and snow
the sidewalks crunch
under my boots

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

the human flow
against a street busker’s blues –
rush hour in town

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

morning rush
the high heels of shoes
cross the street

Neni Rusliana
Indonesia

 

the crimson twilight
beggar with harmonica
a song out of tune

Nuky Kristijono
Indonesia

 

Christmas lights
the sound of rain pitter-
pattering on the sidewalk

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

sidewalk sale
the vendor thanks me
in his language

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH

 

clatter of heels and traffic
unheard by most…
smartphones

Paul Geiger

 

urban ibis
scrape of beak
on metal bin

Pauline O’Carolan

 

the dog and I walk past your silence again

Philip Whitley
SC, USA

 

blues beat
the bar’s door
swings open

Pris Campbell

 

city sidewalk
the subway grates
hissing steam

Rachel Sutcliffe

 

improvised cradle
jingling with bells,
she asks for alms

Radhamani sarma

 

Silent night…
the torn cords of
the street musician

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

 

spring break
her rollerblades clack
over each crack

Randy Brooks

 

sidewalk bargains –
the tinkling laughs
of shoppers

Rashmi Vesa
Bengaluru, India

 

joyful noise
from the Black church
San Francisco street

Rehn Kovacic

 

his hands
holding her face –
moon song

Réka Nyitrai

 

excuse me ma’am
can you spare some change…
high heels click on cold cement

Richard Grahn

 

post office facade –
swish of a sleeping bag
at night

robyn brooks
usa

 

between the brakes…
and the sound of shatter glass
a breath withheld

ron scully

 

the slap slap slap
of running shoes
in sync with my breathing

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH  USA

 

village festival –
the sound of a band
makes me happy

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

Sul marciapiede
calpestio di foglie
Suoni d’autunno

On the sidewalk
trampling of leaves
Autumn sounds

Rosaria Lo Bono

 

jackhammers and beeping trucks
the sidewalk mime pretends
to escape

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

evening boulevard
the ringing of keys
in the coat pocket

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, UA

 

birdsong stops
at the corner
a jackhammer

Sidney Bending
Victoria, BC, Canada

 

notting hill
to dance all alone
on a rocking paver

simonj
UK

 

Sunday morning
the sound of roller skates
behind my back

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

city sidewalk
the sound of cars honking
morning migration

Stephen A. Peters

 

sidewalk beggar
tossing coins
in the bowl

Sudebi Singha
India

 

downpour
streets amass
with umbrellas and mime

Susan Mallernee

 

remembering
Gene Kelly in the rain
I start to hum

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

 

empty hat
a street musician
thanks me

Tia Haynes
Lakewood, Ohio, USA

 

whistling loudly
off key to no known tune
sidewalk minstrel

Tim Heaney
Johns Creek, Ga.

 

city sidewalk…
a man plays the violin
cold night

Tomoko Nakata
Kanagawa, Japan

 

christmas eve…
kids ringing bells
on the sidewalk

Tsanka Shishkova

 

hearing aids off –
workers jackhammering
the sidewalk

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

tending street plantings
homeless woman
sings

Valorie Broadhurst Woerdehoff

 

morning walk
honking cars drown
the birdsong

Vandana Parashar

 

“No Horn” zone
varying pitch of footfalls
on mute sidewalk

Vishnu Kapoor

 

city sidewalk
the pleadings
of a beggar

Willie Bongcaron

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.