HAIKU DIALOGUE – All the World’s a Stage – Break a Leg – long list

All the World’s a Stage with Guest Editor Alex Fyffe

Welcome to our latest performance of Haiku Dialogue: All the World’s a Stage! Tonight’s program will begin shortly. Don’t forget to tell your favorite performers to break a leg! And let’s hope they don’t take you up on it – after all, tonight’s show is full of trap doors! That’s right: The inspiration for the next several weeks is once again going to come from theatrical terms. In the past, we’ve seen how terms like “intermission” and “curtain call” could inspire some bravura haiku, so we’re coming back on stage for an encore!

Below is Alex’s selection of poems on the topic of Break a Leg:

Superstition Acceptances

gala evening –
a black cat waits
at the performers’ entrance

Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă
Romania

 

One for sorrow –
the frantic search for
a second magpie

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

 

hurt my back
reaching for
a four leaf clover

Dan Campbell
Virginia, USA

 

ceasefire…
a woodpecker and I
knock on wood

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

saying “gesundheit!”
to the black cat –
wind through the lemongrass

Deborah A. Bennett
Illinois, USA

 

backward pratfall
over a not so lucky penny
…landed face up

Ron Scully
Burien, Washington

 

big game night
the lucky shorts
in the laundry

Ravi Kiran
India

 

safety week –
a black cat snoozes
on the zebra crossing

R. Suresh Babu
India

 

touch wood
the gaps in my
storyline

Shloka Shankar
India

 

ending a difficult day …
the feng shui
of a peace lily

wanda amos
Australia

 

whistling past
the graveyard…
monologue

Stephen J. DeGuire
Los Angeles, California

 

brownout
the wishing candles
are extra bright

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

knock on wood
roof repair
beneath storm clouds

Michael LaBella
Wayne, Pennsylvania

 

spilt salt …
her dad talks about
his school years

Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia

 

students line up
along the temple’s worn steps
another prayer

Joseph Kitagawa
Vancouver, Canada

 

stage fear
his mom’s fingers
tightly crossed

Nitu Yumnam
India

 

spilled salt–
learning to tell left
from right

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

spring due date
baby’s things stored at grandma’s house
kinehora

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, New York

 

new moon wish
she counts her steps
to the well

Meera Rehm
UK

 

first tooth
bringing it out
to the fairies

Biswajit Mishra
Canada

 

the pitcher
steps over the foul line
moon landing

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington

 

1st of March
red and white dolls
on my jacket

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

 

seven magpies
roost by my window
the secrets they keep

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

stars
aligning, misaligning
aligning again

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

seven long years—
she avoids her reflection
in puddles

C.X. Turner
UK

 

Break a Leg/Performance Luck Acceptances

final rites
his friends still tell him to
break a leg

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

 

………………director!
……………….offered
ten pence for a cup of tea
……..outside the venue

(Line 3 quotes a phrase used for many years here by people begging in the street.)

donal mclaughlin
glasgow, scotland

 

break a leg
tonight the poetry group’s
sassing Shakespeare

Kathleen Cain
Arvada, Colorado

 

not the lead
but a broken leg
stole the show

Randy Brooks
Taylorville, Illinois

 

one ghost light
superstitions still
whistle in the dark

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, California

 

I’ve had enough
of this melodrama…
exit, stage left!

Mark Meyer
Mercer Island, Washington

 

first rehearsal
her demure
‘break a leg’

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

stage debut the shine of her ponytail ribbon

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa

 

the bad omen
of the dress rehearsal
too perfect

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

pre-match ritual
the wrasslers whisper
break a leg

Curt Linderman
Seattle, Washington

 

breaking a leg
the doctor tells me
it could be worse

Patricia Hawkhead
UK

 

saying Break a Leg
I bite my tongue – a friend
with crutches

Tomislav Maretic
Zagreb, Croatia

 

elsinore
we touch the skull
for luck

John Pappas
USA

 

opening night diarrhea out out damned spot

Kimberly A. Horning
St. Augustine, Florida

 

ghost light
on stage curtains
shadows move

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

he jokes before
her keyboard concert
break a finger

Kathabela Wilson
U3A

 

thin clouds
my old cat reattempts to
jump onto the table

Keiko Izawa
Japan

 

breaking a leg
the veteran tries
a new prosthesis

Mike Fainzilber
Rehovot, Israel

 

the lead’s soliloquies
ban initialisms—
waiting in the wings

Caroline Giles Banks
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

 

piano recital
racing past the phrase
I forgot

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

falling into
the orchestra pit
break a leg indeed

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

burst water pipe
swan lake
freezes

Jenny Mattern
Montana, USA

 

break a leg
geese and ducklings
on the cycle trail

Lori Kiefer
UK

 

scream on stage-
spider
in Cinderella’s slipper

Anica Marcelic
Zapresic, Croatia

 

break a leg
little tadpole
break a leg

Pamela Garry
Connecticut, USA

 

Idiom Acceptances

lights out
the janitor’s
last sweep

Robert Kingston
Chelmsford, UK

 

fourth wall
the cold eye cast
by a carrion crow

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton, UK

 

small talk
burying the power lines
underground

marilyn ashbaugh
gulf stream, florida

 

getting that itch again
wanting to scratch it
spring breeze

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, Washington

 

the same TV show
in separate rooms
’til death do us part

Lev Hart
Canada

 

jumping
on the bandwagon
bruised

Luciana Moretto
Italy

 

had I known
our last argument
was a dress rehearsal

Emil Karla
Paris, France

 

haiku
a piece of cake
no icing

Ann Rawson
Scotland, U.K.

 

“grass is greener” …
I accept the
overseas posting

Anne Curran
Hamilton, New Zealand

 

Mum’s curry recipe tip
stick it all in
and Bob’s your uncle

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

winter storm
entire family
under the weather

Susan Farner
USA

 

cheap piano
the player tickles
no ivories

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

 

cliff’s edge
a hush falls over
the crowded train

C. Jean Downer
White Rock, British Columbia, Canada

 

herding Cats
the drama teacher
sighs deeply

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, QC

 

fertility clinic
her eggs
in my basket

Timothy Daly
Bordeaux, France

 

riot of color . . .
ferris wheel by the ferries
welcoming the sun

Monica Kakkar
India

 

walking on eggshells
the cracks
in this marriage

Kelly Sargent
Williston, Vermont

 

ego clashes
no one but Siri
breaks the ice

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

three crows
into the daytime storm
winging it

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

 

chestnut street
cutting corners
to the bazaar

Govind Joshi
Dehradun, India

 

lost for words
the stage prompter
asleep in her pit

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

the greener grass on approach
artificial

Sumitra Kumar
India

 

potter’s wheel
i too go
with the flow

Nitu Yumnam
India

 

quantum physics
trying to wrap my head
around dark matter

Neena Singh
India

 

tripping over
the light fantastic
two left feet

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, Arizona

 

long story short falling star

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, Washington

 

college break
Dad greets me with
“a bad penny”…

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

cutting corners
the richness of mother’s
leftover bread’s pudding

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

reap what you sow bitter rain

Rashmi VeSa
Bengaluru, India

 

cawing breaks the ice down memory lane

Hifsa Ashraf
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 

how green
our grass is !
staycation

Anne Fox
Broomes Island, Maryland

 

all-girls summer camp a snake in the grass

corine timmer
Faro, Portugal

 

boots on the ground
the new recruit’s another year
away from home

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

January morning
Mother Nature gives me
the cold shoulder

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio

 

trembling legs
behind the podium…
a fish out of water

Amoolya Kamalnath
India

 

leap of faith
the young dancer’s grande jeté
a sudden zephyr

Colette Kern
Southold, New York

 

on cloud nine –
just the two of us
indulging in poetry

Cristina Povero
Italy

 

seen
but not heard,
mutated childhood

Herb Goldsmith
Bastrop, Texas

 

morning chores—
the hummingbirds beat
around the bush

Richard L. Matta
San Diego, California

 

learning to cook
in her kitchen
mincing words

Matt Robison
Bellbrook, Ohio

 

a juggler
playing with fire
the red trump card

Rita Melissano
Rock Island, Illinois

Join us next week for Alex’s commentary on additional poems…

Bios:

Guest Editor Alex Fyffe teaches high school English in the Houston area. His haiku and senryu have been published in various journals, including Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Failed Haiku, Akitsu Quarterly, and the Asahi Haikuist Network. Some of his favorite short form poets include Issa, whose work he discovered in the intermediate Japanese textbook he used while studying in Hikone, Japan, and Santoka, whose writing introduced him to the liberating concept of “freeform haiku.” Currently, Alex uses haiku in the classroom to ease students into poetry and build their confidence as readers and writers. Alex also posts haiku, including translations of contemporary Japanese haiku, on Twitter @AsurasHaiku.

Assistant Editor Lafcadio, a former teacher, now works from home writing, editing and proofreading study guides for nursing textbooks. She lives in Tennessee. She has written poetry for a long time but a couple of years ago fell in love with Japanese micropoetry and hasn’t looked back. Lafcadio has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. She writes under the nom de plume of Lafcadio because nom de plume is so fun to say. You can read her poems on Twitter (X) @lafcadiopoetry or BlueSky @lafcadiobsky.

Assistant Editor Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. She lives in New York City and enjoys reading and writing haiku.

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

Portrait by Laurel Parry

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Photo Credit:

Banner photo credit:  “Interior of the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1874. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library.

Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week.