A Sense of Place

A Sense of Place: THE SHORE – smell

 

 

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 Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.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

We remain at the shore – if possible, the same actual ocean or lake or river or pond as in previous weeks – but now we explore the sense of taste…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

A Sense of Place:  THE SHORE – smell

fishermen –
pipe in the mouth
and nets in the sun

pescatori –
pipa in bocca
e reti al sole

Angiola Inglese

The scene described in this poem can be both general and specific – the pipe implies a scent, and the repetition of the words ‘in the’ is interesting… the phrase ‘in the sun’ adds another layer to the poem…

oil spill
a scent of fear
on the incoming tide

Karen Conrads Wibell

Here the poet takes on a different, more political topic, still well within this week’s parameters of shore and smell…

beach bonfire
the scent of an old flame
still lingers

Lamart Cooper

Both this and the following poem illustrate the power of the sense of smell to trigger a memory… perhaps a certain perfume, for example…

beach dreams
I sniff the bottle
of suntan lotion

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, MI

In this case, it is the scent of a lotion that triggers memories of times at the shore…

low tide…
the same wrinkled nose
as our ancestors

Peter Jastermsky

In this poem, the poet is able to convey a scent without actually mentioning it at all… and a lot more than just the scent is conveyed here as well…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

hollow conch
the beachcomber inhales
with closed eyes

Adjei Agyei-Baah
Kumasi, Ghana

 

long hair
the sea goes inside
her kitchen

Adrian Bouter

 

seaweed
on the night breeze…
distant surf

Al Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana

 

tidal beach –
I decide to inhale
a contrail

Alan Summers
Wiltshire, England

 

a heron blends
into the grey –
stink of river mud

Andrew Shimield
UK

 

beach party –
between margaritas
the smell of woodsmoke

Andy McLellan

 

A soft touch
Wakes me up
Smell of the sea

Anna Goluba

 

sea water
the lemons smell
of sun and wind

anna maria domburg-sancristoforo

 

sea breeze
a teaspoon of
bagoong*

(*traditional Filipino cooking ingredient made of either shrimp or fish with distinct fishy smell)

Anthony Rabang

 

summer bbq
lobster-baked skin
with coconut oil

Ardelle Hollis Ray
Las Vegas, NV

 

rising tide
the fishy scent
of Neptune’s breath

Barbara Tate

 

beachfront hotel
a whiff of barbecue
in the night air

Billy Antonio

 

oil spilled lake
how long before the smell
of water returns

Blessed Ayeyame
Ughelli, Nigeria

 

walking past freshly
stacked lobster traps
smell of the sea floor

Bob Whitmire

 

requiem at sea
the scent of burning incense
follows her ashes

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

drum circle…
the smoke still caught up
in our garb

C.R. Harper

 

Channel Islands
the smell of empty
oyster shells

Carol Raisfeld

 

why we wear swim suits
little fish sniffing
at fingers and toes

Charles Harmon
City of Lost Angels

 

gentle breeze
in her wet tangled hair
the ocean smell

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

 

a map
unnecessary
beach bbq

Christina Sng

 

fried onions
on her breath
the salty sea

Christine Eales
UK

 

scents of
fresh-caught fish
recipe exchange

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

Watamu beach bar –
on a cool breeze the scent
of roasting cashews

(Watamu is a peaceful village on the Kenya Coast, nestled between sandy beaches and tropical forest. Cashew Nuts are grown and processed near the coast in Kenia.)

Corine Timmer

 

rain swollen pond
fringed with damp pine needles…
a whiff of turpentine

Craig Kittner
Wilmington, NC

 

summer’s end
in a jar of shells
the smell of salt air

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

 

stepping gingerly
around the kelp wrack…
that briny ocean smell

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, CA

 

beach roses bloom
a scent of sweetness floats
on warm, salty air

Dianne Moritz

 

fetched home
on the wave of a sea breeze
Cape Cod clambake

dl mattila

 

starry sky, lavender
grilled fish, rosemary
party by the sea

Dubravka Šcukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

 

Cefalù island
among the beach umbrellas
scent of coconut

Eufemia Griffo

 

tropical sunset –
the smell of fried fish
from the shanties

Geethanjali Rajan
Chennai, India

 

fresh buttery popcorn
reels in
boardwalk strollers

Giedra Kregzdys
Woodhaven, NY

 

beach park
the musky scent
of fallen guava

Greer Woodward
Kamuela, Hawaii

 

scented shore
the flower necklaces
garlands and dresses

Guliz Mutlu

 

on the shore
mud smells
the rain

Gurpreet Dutt

 

southern shore
the scent
of a pine cone

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

barbeque aroma painting the beach sunset

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

Lake Victoria –
heady scent of
a flowering coffee bush

Ingrid Baluchi
(northern shore near Kampala, Uganda)

 

attracting the gulls
within seconds
smoked salmon

Jessica Malone Latham
Sonoma County, California USA

 

returning boats
heavy on the water
the smell of fish

Joanne van Helvoort

 

the cry of gulls
at the family friendly beach
a smell of hand wipes

John Green

 

cliff edge breeze
the awareness of salt scent
in the tracks of tears

John Hawkhead

 

the sweet scent of pond lilies
torn
from a muddy bottom

Judith Hishikawa

 

a sand caked dead crab
in the little girl’s hand –
her wrinkled nose

Judt Shrode
US

 

Walk along the shore –
The smell of seaweeds
in my husband’s hands

Julia Guzmán

 

mermaid perfume
I resist washing
my hair

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

briny gust
whips my face
rain forecasted

Kathleen Mazurowski

 

Kids on a dare –
what does it smell like
underwater

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

the aromatic smells
of ocean and sand
surf the salty winds

Linda Ludwig

 

in the city
far from the shore
the smell of the sea

Lori Zajkowski

 

the dusk ashore…
on the fishermen’s skin
the open sea

tramonto a riva… addosso ai pescatori / il mare aperto

Lucia Cardillo

 

Southend-on-Sea
freshly fried chips
on the salt air

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

salt and coffee
mingle in the air
sunrise sea-foam latte

m. shane pruett

 

Fido’s frolics
scent of seaweed
fills the car

Madhuri Pillai

 

salty tears
that first whiff
of ocean air

Margaret Walker
Nebraska, USA

 

french fries
and smell of tar –
wooden pier

Margherita Petriccione

 

garden stones
the sweet of jasmine drifts
through sea mist

Marilyn Appl Walker

 

secluded beach
a slew of seaweed
stinks

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

a silk scarf
smell of the sea
still there

Marta Chocilowska

 

scent of the sea
a gull shifts the wind
in its wings

Martha Magenta
England, UK

 

what is sea?
tide-swept salt-
water taffy

Mary Ellen Gambutti

 

taking the ocean
home with me…
two wet dogs

Mary Hanrahan

 

digging clams
our hands thick with the smell
of older tides

Melissa Howell
Sewanee, TN

 

Euclid Creek –
aroma of picnickers
grilling

michael ceraolo

 

high tide
a whiff of the Atlantic
reaches Moultrie creek

Michael Henry Lee

 

beach bonfire –
the smell of burning
marshmallows

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

sweltering heat
heavy on the beach air
the stench of a sperm whale

Michael Smeer
Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands

 

knowing I’m there
before I’ve arrived…
onshore breeze

Michele L. Harvey

 

at the pier
scent of fresh herring
a cat visits

Mike Gallagher
Ireland

 

dry pond –
the mud cakes smell
of fish

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar, Pakistan

 

summer heat
ascending drifts
of seaweed smells

Morwen
Cymru / Wales

 

turkey vultures gather
on the lake shore
rotting carp

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio (on the shore of Lake Erie)

 

high tide –
smells from childhood
with the wind

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

on your skin
the smell of ocean air
summer love

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

beach blanket
folding the scent of the shore
into it

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH  USA

 

receding sea
and then such a wave
the smell of fear

Pauline O’Carolan

 

his vinegar-breath
across the waves
a jungle murmurs

Philip Waff Whitley
Greenville, SC

 

black cloud-line
already the scent of rain
clears the beach

Pris Campbell

 

skinny dipping –
the scent of the sea
on bare skin

Rachel Sutcliffe

 

mid sea
salty smell
nauseating

Radhamani Sarma
Chennai, India

 

heavy lake slime smell
her intangible
married life

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

 

salty odor
meets terra firma
whisky glass

Randall Herman

 

hard to reach places
helping her with
coconut oil

Randy Brooks

 

odor of dead fish
memory of my home
on Lake Michigan

Rehn Kovacic

 

in this tin of anchovy
the smell of summer flings –
dinner alone

Réka Nyitrai

 

30 years older
the smell of fear stronger
between waves

Roberta Beary
County Mayo Ireland

 

red tide blooms a bouquet of rotting fish

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

 

baker beach dunes –
the scent of wild strawberry
comes and goes

robyn brooks
usa

 

sixteen years gone…
dad’s old fishing bag
still smells of the sea

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

 

Lake Erie
night air plays tag
with bonfire smoke

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH  USA

 

summer night –
from the nearby pond
scent of lilies

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

Jersey shore
the musty smell of the
rented beach house

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

night river
smell of fish-soup
tickles my nose

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

 

painful longing
for the smell of the shore
sea sickness

Shandon Land

 

charred grapefruit
in rusty oil-cans:
beach bikers revving up

Sheila K Barksdale

 

hidden cove
the distant scent
of coppertone

Skaidrite Stelzer
Toledo, Ohio

 

crowded beach –
my dog has a lot
of sniffing options

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

pleasure trip
backwaters’ stink
in the leeway

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India

 

driftwood in the breeze
the smell of it
in my DNA

Stephen A. Peters

 

empty shore
smell of yankee candles
fills the breeze

Sudebi Singha
Kolkata, India

 

I bring the shore to you
inside this small container
ocean smell

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

 

fisherman’s wharf
the briny smell
of old men

Terri French

 

out of sight
by the shore… just the fragrance –
the four o’clock flowers

Tomislav Maretic

 

summer breeze
with a scent of salt and fish –
passionate tango

Tsanka Shishkova

 

beach clambake…
chatting and aromas
intermingle

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

nostalgia…
the smell of sea
still in my hair

Vandana Parashar

 

the stench of it
before seeing the whale
winter sandspit

Victor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA

 

alien shore
the smell still reminds me
of my native land

Vishnu Kapoor

 

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.

 

This Post Has 83 Comments

  2. Thank you Alan for your comments on my haiku.
    Thank you Kathy for getting us to consider all five senses and not just sight. It made me read through a few collections.They are fairly similar with around 85% of the haiku based purely on what the poet sees.

    1. Thanks Christine!
      Yes, it’s a problem, everything is too focused on visuals alone, yet do we not bleed, taste copper, eat scrambled eggs, drink tea or coffee, smell the ozone or napalm? That’s not all necessarily before breakfast mind you. 🙂
      .
      Kathy’s series is timely, so timely.
      .
      warm regards,
      Alan

      1. thanks to you both, Alan & Christine – I am so happy with both the poems being generated by this column, & the comments!

  3. thank you, Kathy, for this wonderful set of haiku. Really enjoyed reading all.

    thank you, Alan, for the comments. really honoured!

  4. I am a little late getting to read these because I was away… at the shore! Thank you for including my haiku and congratulations to everyone here. Really enjoying catching up on reading these haiku and the comments. Thank you Kathy!

  5. Thank you Kathy for including my haiku!! A little late reading the blog this week but now I can relax and enjoy this wonderful collection.

    1. my pleasure, Lamart – & I am a little later getting to this blog than you, as it turns out…

  6. Thank you, Kathy, for including my haiku. Interestingly, I wasn’t thinking of politics, rather the ambiguity of who – or what – was feeling fear as a result of an oil spill: the fish, waterfowl, otters, seals and other marine wildlife that will be harmed or killed OR the people on the beach, looking out to sea, aware that the a disaster is inexorably approaching on the incoming tide.

    Thanks to all the poets who contribute their work each week for this wonderful column.

    1. thanks for these additional comments Karen – it is always fascinating to explore a poet’s intentions, & a reader’s interpretations…

  7. my thanks to KJ Munro for inserting my haiku in this beautiful selection

  8. Ms. Kathy, thank you so much for including my hauku in this selection! It made my day! And congratulations to all the others selected too.

  9. Thanks for the inclusion this week. I wish I wasn’t 2800 miles to the fish & chips wagon on the pier at Tobermory, Isle of Mull.

  11. .
    The Olfactory Contingent of Haiku
    Alan Summers (2018)
    .

    “There is no consensus as to the definition of emotion.”
    Y. Soudry, C. Lemogne, D. Malinvaud, S.-M. Consoli, P. Bonfils
    European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology (2011)
    .
    Paraphrasing the above, there have been numerous studies over the years on the relationship between emotion and odor (smell); and an emotion is classified as simple or secondary that we ‘process’ smell in a way that emotionally effects us.
    .
    How do we describe all of this in a haiku? We are too often visual image based yet our ability to smell is vital to our well-being.
    .
    We think of ourselves as mostly visual beings, but smell is a large factor concerning new and old memories, perhaps moreso than even touch and sound. I will be fascinated by next week’s results regarding taste, and how we approach this whilst avoiding the actual word (taste) but back to smell for the moment.
    .
    When I release the lid from a new jar of marmalade (citrus fruit preserve) I think of childhood, picking wild fruits, and generally growing up where everything appears ‘super-vivid’ and of cats both real and fictional:
    .
    .

    colour book the cat becomes marmalade
    .
    monoku by Alan Summers
    Right Hand Pointing: The Haiku Issue ed. Eric Burke (2016)
    .
    .
    And the seasons always seemed more distinct from the age of four to twelve years of age, in particular:
    .
    .

    petrichor

    the autumn leaves
    in a crow’s call
    .
    Alan Summers
    earlier version:
    Scope Vol 62 No 1 (Fellowship of Australian Writers (Qld) Inc, February 2016)
    .
    how is petrichor pronounced?
    http://wordsmith.org/words/petrichor.mp3
    .

    MEANING:
    noun: The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell.
    .

    The childhood vacation (holidays) memories are either of the British seaside, the smell of brine and seaweed, melting icecream, and vinegar on fish and chips:
    .
    .

    extra fish and chips…
    I dribble more vinegar
    on the newspaper
    .
    Alan Summers
    brass bell online journal (Edible haiku) May 2014
    .
    .
    The smell of vinegar on/in a bag of fish and chips conjures up the shoreline resorts of Britain even if I’m walking in a city or on a public bus with no sightline of a shore.
    .
    Interestingly both marmalade and fish and chips find their origins in the country of Portugal, where seafarers and ocean explorers left their shores to discover or rediscover the world and its many shores.
    .
    .
    There were a fantastic number of favorite verses this week, too many to mention, so I’ll just highlight:
    .
    .
    barbeque aroma painting the beach sunset
    .
    Hifsa Ashraf
    Pakistan
    .
    .
    Southend-on-Sea
    freshly fried chips
    on the salt air
    .
    Lucy Whitehead
    Essex, UK
    .
    .

    sea breeze
    a teaspoon of
    bagoong
    .
    Anthony Rabang

    .
    .
    And this is a terrific example, by Marilyn Ashbaugh, of how we transport ourselves back to a wonderful holiday memory!
    .
    .

    beach dreams
    I sniff the bottle
    of suntan lotion
    .
    Marilyn Ashbaugh
    Edwardsburg, MI
    .
    .

    In my case it was anticipation:
    .
    .
    smell of watermelon …
    the high sun factor face block
    just purchased
    .
    Alan Summers
    sundog, an australian year (sunfast press, 1997 reprinted 1998)
    .
    .
    Ah, onions!
    .
    .

    fried onions
    on her breath
    the salty sea
    .
    Christine Eales
    UK
    .
    I still remember being in a hot, humid, and cramped bunker for an hour or two and someone was eating from a packet of cheese & onion flavored crisps. I found discomfort back then, in that potato snack smell, and whenever I’m near that smell again, but I salivate joyfully at fresh onions being cooked to prepare for a meal.
    .
    Another note on Christine Eales’ haiku is the use of the pivot line (also known as a hinge or swing line) and how the sea gifts us so much and sadly we pour plastic debris back into it. I love the doubleness of the haiku:

    fried onions
    on her breath
    .
    .
    on her breath
    the salty sea
    .
    .
    After all we are mostly made of water, and live on a water planet (that we perversely call Earth, perhaps foreseeing climate change will make it a global dustbowl if we are not careful), and I found this haiku highly evocative.

    .
    .
    Summing up, can we bottle smells; aromas, scents; and our olfactory contingent, as this company of poets travelling through the senses is attempting to do? I think so, and we have only just started!
    .
    I hope to experience more smelly haiku and senryu over the year in various publications thanks to Kathy’s prompt!
    .
    Alan Summers

    1. Alan,

      I enjoyed immensely your commentary.
      .
      I always think of Hergé’s Tintin classic, The Secret of the Unicorn, when fish n chips is discussed.
      Tintin wants to keep a secret and tells Thompson and Thomson to keep it ‘mum.’ The next day there is a food truck outside Captain Haddock’s home selling fish n chips…

        1. Sorry for the wrong book. I looked it up and the fish and chips scene was in The Calculus Affair. I watched the You Tube film but they skipped that scene.
          .

          We always had fish and chips with vinegar, but if it was just chips then mayonnaise—while living in Brussels—1965 to 1969.

          1. There certainly seems to be different versions doing a search on videos, those fish suppers sure are elusive.
            .
            I do remember having spicy curry sauce, after nightclubbing, with an enormous bag of fries, in Denmark Street, Bristol, U.K. 🙂
            .
            Alan

    2. When we moved to England (from Holland) in 1984, certain things appeared strange to me. One of them being vinegar on cooked chips and crisps. In Holland we have mayonnaise with cooked chips and we don’t favour vinegar crisps. Another strange thing was marmite and the use of the word ‘tea’ to express supper or dinner. In Holland tea time means a cup of tea and a biscuit 🙂 I enjoyed your commentary, Alan.

      1. Thanks Corine! 🙂

        Fish and chips, as we know it, evolved out of extreme poverty and the welcoming of refugees including Portuguese and Jewish peoples. When I stayed in Amsterdam there wasn’t a single Indian food restaurant, most Indonesian, which was different.
        .
        Not sure, but vinegar might be more healthy, cutting through the fat and grease of chips (fries) although too much salt definitely isn’t healthy.
        .
        If I do the occasional take out fish n’ chips I sadly do too much vinegar and salt, but oven fries at home it’s all tomato ketchup and daddies sauce (brown ketchup), hot yellow mustard (British) but mostly for chicken, and chilli sauce to beef up the chicken.
        .
        So fish and chips for me is chicken and chips and anything beefed up has nothing to do with cattle. 🙂
        .
        We’ve always lived in extraordinary times. 🙂
        .
        Marmite might be for the extra vitamins as Britain was heavily poverty riven until the 1960s. And tea might indeed mean a cup of tea, and biscuits or cake, or a 5pm meal, whereas a fish supper might just mean buying take out after work or after the pub after work. 😉
        .
        Some people have biscuits and gravy, and next week I’ll bring up something else to do with islanders like the British, as I’ve always had a penchant for green food such as peas; spinach (by the truckload); and other stuff too.
        .
        I got used to the weirdness of mayo (used to be utterly disgusting in Britain until just a few years ago) when a restaurant chain called Belgo offered fries and mayo, and lots of oysters too, yummy!
        .
        warm regards,
        Alan

    3. thanks as always Alan, & John & Corine! did you notice how many of these smells can be tastes as well? I had vinegar on my chips tonight on the BC Ferry back to Vancouver Canada, after a fabulous reading on Gabriola Island with Lynne Jambor, Vicki McCullough, Carole MacRury, Sonja Arntzen, Naomi Wakan & Amelia Fielden… en route now to visit my son in Kelowna on my way home to Whitehorse… & I promise I will get to the submissions before next Wednesday!

      1. I always understood that our senses of taste and smell were basically the same thing, and that our sense of taste is based on detecting volatile components (smell, via the nose) as well detecting non-volatile components (taste via the mouth)

    4. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, our sense of smell is based on detecting volatile compounds, and often it is the concentration of these compounds and their blend with other compounds that determine our responses. Humans have evolved this capability to help us to survive and thrive. See this fascinating article on one such compound – which incidentally touches on the use of vinegar to garnish fish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosmin

      1. interesting, Mark – thanks for this… I do think taste & smell are related, & their differences can be emphasized in these poems…

  13. Wonderful selection, congratulations everyone!
    Thank you Kathy for including mine.

  14. Thanks KJ for including my one. To me this week’s crop show how difficult it is in English to describe smells – most of us didn’t really try. I’m going to try harder next week – it should in theory be easier ….

    1. thanks for this Mark, & for submitting, & for striving… I do appreciate how much you poets are thinking about these prompts!

  15. Thanks for choosing one of my poems, Kathy. Wednesdays are a little nicer with A Sense of Place in it 🙂 Here are a few of my favorites.

    tropical sunset –
    the smell of fried fish
    from the shanties

    Geethanjali Rajan
    Chennai, India

    I like the sound of this poem through alliteration.

    requiem at sea
    the scent of burning incense
    follows her ashes

    Bona M. Santos
    Los Angeles, CA

    a sand caked dead crab
    in the little girl’s hand –
    her wrinkled nose

    Judt Shrode
    US

    scent of the sea
    a gull shifts the wind
    in its wings

    Martha Magenta
    England, UK

    taking the ocean
    home with me…
    two wet dogs

    Mary Hanrahan

    knowing I’m there
    before I’ve arrived…
    onshore breeze

    Michele L. Harvey

    hidden cove
    the distant scent
    of coppertone

    Skaidrite Stelzer
    Toledo, Ohio

  16. Thanks Kate for choosing my haiku, I’m very excited. I’m born by the sea ….. Congratulations to all, I read some very interesting haiku, with all these smells.

  17. Thank you for including my work once again, kj. This next one is going to be a challenge. Ain’t no way I’m going to taste that old pond water!

  20. A wonderfully evocative compilation of smellies – many of them familiar, others an education.
    Thank you, Kathy, for including one of mine in this eclectic mix.
    This forum gets more and more interesting.

  21. Thank you Kathy for including me. I have so many favorites–they make me feel like I’m “right there”. Thank you everyone for sharing these.

  23. Great work fellow poets!
    I always like the pun in haiku, so some of my favorites this week are:

    fresh buttery popcorn
    reels in
    boardwalk strollers

    Giedra Kregzdys

    beach bonfire
    the scent of an old flame
    still lingers

    Lamart Cooper

    and one which I believe is a play on words, although new to me, certainly conveys an amazing machine-like image …

    charred grapefruit
    in rusty oil-cans:
    beach bikers revving up

    Sheila K. Barksdale

    … wow!

    Haiku about dogs attract my interest since I have two. So thank you Mary Hanrahan and Slobodan Pupovac for your fun poems!

    FInally,

    returning boats
    heavy on the water
    the smell of fish

    Joanne van Helvoort

    is my favorite for its simplicity and sharp image. Thank you Joanne, and thank you, kj, for sharing this one with us. What fun this is and what an education!

    Ron Craig
    Batavia, Ohio

    1. Hi Ron,

      Then you definitely know the “wet dog “ smell and how much water they can carry in their coats…for dog lovers this just means a great day at the beach!

      1. Never had my two at the beach, not even a pond. But they love walking in the rain! Despite towels on the floor they bring the rainstorm in with them! Gotta love our dogs though! Ron

  24. Well done all poets a fabulous collection of smells and the places they come from, truly amazing
    A wonderful read 🙂

  25. Dear Cathy, Greetings! Thank you so much for publishing mine. Going through the entire wonderfully drawn group, sea shore smell pervading every write still here.
    with regards
    S.Radhamani

  26. why we wear swim suits
    little fish sniffing
    at fingers and toes

    Thank you, Charles Harmon, for bringing back a childhood memory. My sister and I used to sit in the lake, just talking, and minnows would bite off our small moles. We’d feel a nip and see a tiny trail of blood in the water. Free mole removal!

    Shandon Land

  27. Thank you Kathy for all the great submissions and allowing me to be a part of this group.

  28. Thank-you Kathy for the effort you put into this column and for including my haiku.

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