A Sense of Place: CITY SIDEWALK – sight

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 Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.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 – hearing

The deadline for this theme is midnight Pacific Time, Sunday 02 December 2018.
Listen to the sounds of the city sidewalk – preferably the same one you have already had a look at – but, failing that, hear a memory or imagine…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

A Sense of Place:  CITY SIDEWALK – sight

morning rush
the homeless man’s
fetal position

Amy Losak

A graphic depiction of an all-too-familiar urban scene, yet without sentimentality or judgment…

red light
I absently step off
the sidewalk

Christina Sng

The reader absently follows along, until the end of the second line, where they find themselves suddenly trying to apply the brakes…

small desert town
all the sidewalks rolled up
till morning

Michael Henry Lee

An unusual take on the theme…

not one
familiar face
city sidewalk

Rachel Sutcliffe

Here the poet uses the location of the sidewalk to contrast urban and rural – implying one experience by stating the other…

city sidewalk
beyond all the graffiti
Starbucks

Stephen A. Peters

In some places it does seem that there is a Starbucks on every corner…

purple unicorn
under a pink sun –
sidewalk artist unknown

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

We often admire artwork without really knowing anything about the artist… perhaps this artist will be famous someday…

sidewalk café
all eyes glued
to the phone screens

Vandana Parashar

A simple observation of an occurrence that has quickly become a common sight in our society – again, the reader is not instructed on how to feel about this…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

winter playground hoodies hopping

Adrian Bouter

 

joining my walk…
fallen maple leaves
on the sidewalk

Agus Maulana Sunjaya

 

side alley bed
a main street gleams
with Christmas

Alan Summers
Wiltshire, England

 

autumn wind –
only piles of leaves
on the sidewalk

vento autunnale –
solo cumuli di foglie
sul marciapiede

Angela Giordano

 

a downpour –
the color of geraniums
on the sidewalk

Angiola Inglese

 

evening wander –
left on the sidewalk
gray snow piles

Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo

 

City sidewalk…
From all sides vacant eyes
Of mannequins

Anna Victoria Goluba

 

chiaroscuro –
hand in hand the lovers walk
on cobblestones

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

new sidewalk
writing my initials
in fresh cement

Barbara Tate

 

down the avenue
traffic lights blink yellow
November snow

Bob Whitmire
Round Pond, Maine

 

sidewalk graffiti
where there used to be
hopscotch rectangles

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

best leather shoes
another splash
from a fast car

Carmen Sterba

 

night light
a taxi disappears
down a side street

carol jones

 

circus parade
horses, giraffes, elephants
man, bucket, shovel

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA

 

two rivers meet
boats along
the city sidewalk

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

 

bag lady
her toothless smile
their quickened step

Christina Pecoraro

 

Paris pavements
so much
poodle poo

Christine Eales

 

black Friday
red-faced shoppers
shove each other

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

cracked sidewalk
red from the fallen
holly berries

Craig Kittner

 

a gloomy day
amazing street Mime
for random passersby

Danijela Grbelja
Sibenik, Croatia

 

autumn sunshine
on the sidewalk
flash of stockinged legs

David Gale
Gloucester, UK

 

sidewalk traffic
making way for
a maple leaf

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

 

holiday wreath
on every lamp post
gulls

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

 

street person
chanting the Om mantra
outside Starbucks

Devin Harrison
Vancouver Island, Canada

 

in sequined splendor
man with baby elephant
stroll the Walk of Fame*

(*Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, immortalizes stars of screen and stage.)

dianne moritz

 

from the splendor
of the city to the slums
on the same sidewalk

Dubravka Šcukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

 

crowded sidewalk:
rarefied Christmas lights
in the fog

Elisa Allo
Zug, Switzerland

 

stopping short
on the overpass
falling birch leaves

Erin Castaldi

 

deep autumn
the flight of the last leaves
on the sidewalk

Eufemia Griffo

 

Pelham Parkway House…
stuck wads of dried gum
on the sidewalk

Frank J. Tassone

 

weeds
growing through the cracks
reach for sky

Genie Jeanne Nakano

 

vento d’autunno:
il cappello del nonno
sul marciapiede

autumn wind:
grandpa’s hat
on the sidewalk

Giuliana Ravaglia

 

street map
subway map
layers of Manhattan

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

full tip box
the city lights
homeward

Guliz Mutlu

 

sidewalk café
the skewness
of ancient gables

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

the stray cat
stares at me
city sidewalk

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

late bus home –
shop doorways
blocked by sleeping bundles

Ingrid Baluchi
Macedonia

 

sharing a burger –
the homeless man
and his dog

Isabel Caves
Queen Street (Auckland, New Zealand)

 

captive
behind an iron fence
sidewalk tree

janice munro
Canada

 

T.F.
+
L.L.
wet
cement

Joan Barrett

 

half hidden
under fallen leaves
a stumbling stone*

(*The name Stolperstein in German  translates into English literally as “stumbling stone”. A stumbling stone is placed in the pavement in front of the address from where Jewish citizens were deported by the Nazis. The pedestrian stumbles upon a brass plaque in the pavement and is invited to bow his head and read the name that is inscribed there. According to the Talmud, a person is only forgotten when his name is forgotten, so each stone represents a person with a name.)

Joanne van Helvoort

 

chalk hopscotch –
the adults
who can’t resist

Judt Shrode

 

city sidewalk
the squirrel jumps
over the moon

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

bustling crowds
stop to study
Christmas windows

Kathleen Mazurowski

 

blustery
busking for a crowd
of pigeons

Kelly Sauvage Angel
Madison, WI

 

faceless mannequin
I, too, look away
from the homeless

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

 

Holiday foot traffic
Crumpled in the alley
No one sees him

Kimberly Spring
Lakewood, Ohio

 

filling with rain
wine bottle
by the church wall

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

glint of a dime
in the cracked sidewalk
summer sun

Lesley Anne Swanson

 

on the sidewalk
only the tourists
looking up

Lori Zajkowski
New York City

 

black friday
the homeless man’s
empty hands

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

on tattered blankets
an old man ponders progress
– his room with a view

m. shane pruett
Salem, OR

 

city side walk
spilling out of the tram
more join the swarm

Madhuri Pillai

 

small scarecrow
lying in the street
Super Bowl Sunday*

(*Annual Football Game to end all football games of the season.)

Marcyn Del Clements
Claremont, California, USA

 

snow
flurries
for emergency supplies

Margaret Walker

 

uneven pavement
the flower interrupting
the concrete park

Margo Williams
Stayton, Oregon

 

freezing cold –
a beggar and an empty bowl
on the sidewalk

Maria Teresa Piras

 

frozen moon –
on the dark sidewalk
a lonely dog

Maria Teresa Sisti

 

light rain
city lights shimmer
on the sidewalk

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, Michigan

 

closing time
the pub spills
onto the pavement

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

black friday
a crow gorges
on thrown-away fries

Martha Magenta
England, UK

 

rainfall last night
the bombed dorm in mist
across a river

Megumi Shibuya
Japan

 

November sidewalk –
fallen leaves
slippery with snow

michael ceraolo
South Euclid, Ohio

 

shining like gold
on the city sidewalk –
a copper penny

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

city sidewalks
my springtime two-step
around doggy-do

Michele L. Harvey

 

skipping along
the pavement
wagtail

Mike Gallagher
Kerry, Ireland

 

sidewalk sale…
a pink frock
for my granddaughter

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

Freezing afternoon –
granddad picking up from school
his twin girls

Monica Federico

 

on the sidewalk
a beggar tossing
the sound of coins

Muskaan Ahuja
Chandigarh, India

 

black Friday
the sidewalks crowded
with shoppers

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

street lights
the glitter of smiles
under masks

Neni Rusliana
Indonesia

 

moonlight
lady of the red high heels leans on the lamppost

Nuky Kristijono

 

city stroll
a face
in the crowd

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

bus stop
the sidewalk clears
for sparrows

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH USA

 

on his knees
with supplicating hands
fake beggar

Pauline O’Carolan

 

cheap wine in his cup a few small coins

Philip Whitley
SC, USA

 

early morning street
a jogger startles pigeons
into flight

Polona Oblak

 

Hare Krishna…
do they have cancer, too
the bald boy asks

Pris Campbell

 

her dream
planting all roses
sidewalk

Radhamani  sarma

 

glassy eyes of
a broken doll
the sidewalk at dusk

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

 

red light…
wisps of snow cross
the pedestrian walk

Randy Brooks

 

city sidewalk –
the tired eyes of a hawker
louder than his cries

Rashmi Vesa

 

footprints
on the snowy sidewalk
covered soon by snow

Rehn Kovacic

 

autumn wind
playing around –
deserted terrace cafe

Réka Nyitrai

 

city sidewalk
the one-way flow
of frowns

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

 

berkeley urban forest –
city tree roots split
the path

robyn brooks
usa

 

downtown sidewalks
shovelled and sanded
tis pratfall season

ron scully

 

sidewalk soothsayer
I see the path
out of town

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH  USA

 

moonlight –
the shadow of a butterfly
on the sidewalk

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

city sidewalk vendor
his fingerless gloves frayed
like the neighborhood

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

old city
time does not move
on the clock tower

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, UA

 

Sunday morning…
the leaves drift past
a hard-hat sign

Sidney Bending
Victoria, BC Canada

 

one solution
for a four colour problem
london plane

simonj
UK

 

after rain
a glittering glow from
the sidewalk

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

double bagged
would have been better –
sidewalk scrambled eggs

susan rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

 

street musician
coins tossed into
an open guitar case

Terri French

 

a boot polisher
calls me by wagging his
shoeshiner brush

Tomislav Maretic

 

morning cityscape
falling ginkgo leaves
on a sidewalk

Tomoko Nakata
Kanagawa, Japan

 

first snow…
on the pedestrian path
minisnowman

Tsanka Shishkova

 

downpour
among black umbrellas a pink one
on knee level walk

Vishnu Kapoor

 

sidewalk cafe
a wind-soaked stray cat
begs for attention

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.