HAIKU DIALOGUE – Allusion – Communing with the Contemporary – long list

Allusion with Guest Editor Allyson Whipple

Though the writing of haiku is often a solitary act, each individual effort is part of a centuries-old tradition that is bound up in a larger collective impulse. Allusion allows us to be in dialogue with both the past and present, focused within the world of literature or expanding out to broader cultural memory. Using allusion also reminds us that nobody creates in a vacuum; our poetic selves are comprised of all we have written, studied, and experienced. Over the next several weeks, we will focus on writing allusive haiku that foster our sense of a global haiku collective.

Below is Allyson’s selection of poems on the topic of Communing with the Contemporary:

a little cuckoo
but stepmother raised us
as her own

M.R. Defibaugh

A little cuckoo
still willing to nest
on a further branch

Eclo
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

how free and familiar
with my cuckoo child,
my co-kids

Guido De Pelsmaeker
Holsbeek, Belgium

a star-filled sky
the pinholes
in my casket

M.R. Defibaugh

a smattering of stars
through the threadbare quilt
refugee sky

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

aurora borealis
the needle pricks
in my shroud

Sandip Chauhan
Virginia, USA

heavy door
closing fast i slip through
into this small sky

Kathabela Wilson
USA

after the party
he guides her towards
another planet

M.R. Defibaugh

after the party
foil balloons floating
above dad’s head

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA, USA

a galaxy between his sheets patchouli

Sharon Ferrante
Florida, USA

the milky way
moving with her in
the same direction

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA, USA

already
out of the picture
wedding frame

M.R. Defibaugh

wedding album
who we once were

Margaret Mahoney
Australia

wedding ring resale
a deep cut
for the impurities

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India

Moonset in Pahalgam—
Home alone
With her wedding snap.

Lakshmi R Srinivas
Hyderabad, India

another nightmare
passes through her wall
of dreamcatchers

M.R. Defibaugh

ICU patient
hallucinations seep
into his room

Richard Straw
Cary, NC, USA

arthritis
the twisted limbs
of a bonsai pine

M.R. Defibaugh

dementia
mist rolls in
from the sea

Susan Farner
USA

kindling wood
an assorted collection
of snap crackle pops

Michael Henry Lee
Saint Augustine, FL, USA

subluxation
a willow breaks
at the bend

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tuscon, AZ, USA

autumn deepens another day without you

M.R. Defibaugh

shadows fold within shadows
the gravesite’s purple rose

martin gottlieb cohen
Egg Harbor, NJ, USA

autumn everywhere I look your absence

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

autumn moon as if it were the last one in this life

M.R. Defibaugh

ginkgo tree the quiet grace of her leaving

Daya Bhat
India

campfire
in a celestial performance
Orpheus’ lyre sounds

M.R. Defibaugh

midnight serenade
air kiss from the balcony
on the ninth floor

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

fireworks
they turn my bed
for a better view

M.R. Defibaugh

nursing home
her gaze follows
the flight of birds

Refika Dedić
Bosnia and Herzegovina

more airstrikes
the night nurse lowers
the volume

Archie G. Carlos
Minnesota, USA

slow move of crowds
under dad’s hospice window
fireworks end

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

first Christmas
my wife and I make an angel
in the snow

M.R. Defibaugh

snow
where the fallen
become angels

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, MI, USA

first road trip
I’ll go anywhere
she takes me

M.R. Defibaugh

first road trip
he takes me to the moon
and back

Marion Clarke
Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland

one for the road
she leaves with a kiss
on her cheek

Biswajit Mishra
Canada

dense fog
I take the road
my horse choose

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

frayed brush the moon left scratching its head

M.R. Defibaugh

ancient keep
the moon guards the star
in its crescent arms

Dejan Ivanovic
Lazarevac, Serbia

gone on vacation
she writes daddy
in the sand

M.R. Defibaugh

daughter’s weekend
she draws my ex and I
holding hands

John S Green
Bellingham, WA, USA

swept-away castle
a stooped dad
consoled by kids

Richard L. Matta
San Diego, CA, USA

daily prayer
I chant daddy’s
handwritten stotras

(Stotras are hymns in Sanskrit)

Raji Vijayaraghavan
Bangalore, India

grilling kabobs
a dog pokes his nose
through our fence

M.R. Defibaugh

snags on the barbie
a dingo snuffles
through leftovers

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

barbeque evening
my dog and I
return sniffing

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

frying fish…
the cat keeps pawing
at the kitchen door

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

gutted pumpkin
the gap in its smile
matching my own

M.R. Defibaugh

unsold pumpkins
deer come to the field at dusk
to gnaw them faces

Cindy Putnam Guentherman
Illinois, USA

side-eye
twinning by the curbside
lopsided pumpkin

Monica Kakkar
India

after the rut
forage and rest
the moose and I

Bonnie J Scherer
Alaska, USA

I fall in love
every time she sings a little
out of tune

M.R. Defibaugh

she loves me
then she loves me not
contractions

Stephen J. DeGuire
Los Angeles, CA

perfect pitch
out of tune
opposites attract

Jennifer Gurney
Colorado, USA

undoubted love
еach time I sing off-key
my dog wags his tail

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

midsummer night
the wind chimes in
with an answer

M.R. Defibaugh

sharing wishes
with the wind~
dandelion field

C. Jean Downer
White Rock, BC, Canada

midsummer night
the moon fills in
what’s missing

Lori Kiefer
United Kingdom

pansies nodding
as if they understand
so many questions

Mary Beth Defer
Rocklin, CA, USA

monthly checkup
grandma can’t hear
the ocean anymore

M.R. Defibaugh

putting his ear
to her ear
an emptied shell

Laurie Greer
Washington, D.C.

clouding of the lens . . .
mother can’t see
the garden anymore

Corine Timmer
Faro, Portugal

paperwhite narcissus
in front of the mirror
feeling ugly again

M.R. Defibaugh

thorny succulent avoiding every mirror in the house

Shloka Shankar
India

hating my reflection
in the bedroom mirror
dried out daffodils

Jenny Shepherd
London, United Kingdom

paperwhite
the hall of mirrors
fixes my smile

simonj
United Kingdom

telling me a story
I don’t want to hear
bathroom mirror

Ravi Kiran
Hyderabad, India

potluck
my plate full
of cherry petals

M.R. Defibaugh

standing ovation
for cherry blossoms
silence

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, IA, USA

rising tide is it possible to love them both

M.R. Defibaugh

new spring another child blooms more love

Sébastien Revon
Ireland

rising hope I know how love works

Bittor Duce Zubillaga
Basque Country

roaring and roaring
the baby’s plastic
dinosaur

M.R. Defibaugh

forever young
a doll with no hair
smiling back at me

Julie Ann Espinoza
Los Angeles, CA

kiddie pool
his plastic tugboat
lost at sea

Barrie Levine
Massachusetts, USA

Graduation Day—
toy duck in the audience
making a speech

Caroline Ridley-Duff
United Kingdom

she can’t wait
until we’re married
summer meadow

M.R. Defibaugh

after the wedding party
a deep relief
summer meadow

Boryana Boteva
Bulgaria

winter wedding
she wishes
we waited

Herb Tate
Jersey, UK

he’s forgotten
our anniversary
ice on the pond

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

she’s living in her pajamas summer clouds

M.R. Defibaugh

all day long in pajamas blue stars

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA, USA

hanging her cape on the crescent moon batgirl pajamas

Michelle Hoover
Castle Rock, CO

her voice unwoken sun glinting in the sink

C.X. Turner
United Kingdom

showing off
his cicada shell
. . . first crush

M.R. Defibaugh

an opalescent conch
in his hand
. . . her first blush

Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA

slum life the stars remain stagnant

M.R. Defibaugh

hunter’s moon
waste pickers tell each other
the same treasure stories

Ivan Georgiev
Germany

slum life
full moon, the only light
at the cul-de-sac

Anthony Q. Rabang
Philippines

some leaves
have to fall before
they can touch

M.R. Defibaugh

up the creek
only our shadows
touch

Sarah Paris
Santa Rosa, CA, USA

falling away
from you
I find myself

Debbie Sterling
Oregon, USA

shaking petals
a breeze gentle enough
to share my pain

Fatma Zohra Habis
Algeria

spring cleaning
my youngest nephew
tries on a rug

M.R. Defibaugh

sorting Mom’s clothes
keep or donate
her fox boa

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

making the bed
my youngest son
hides in the duvet’s folds

Cristina Povero
Italy

spring cleaning
my daughter haunts
every sheet

W. G. Randles
Durban, South Africa

stargazing
grandpa knows their names
but not mine

M.R. Defibaugh

winter fog
my aunt repeats and repeats
stories from her past

Nancy Brady
Huron, OH, USA

text messages
it’s a shame you can’t fold them
into an airplane

M.R. Defibaugh

folding junkmail
into digital cranes
scam season

C.R. Harper
USA

half-sent
the way my fingers
hesitate

Nalini Shetty
Mumbai, India

the American Dream
a soldier paints her toes
ultramarine

M.R. Defibaugh

nail polish remover
trans women disappear
from the ranks

Adele Evershed
Wilton, CT, USA

the soldier poses in a dead dress collateral damage

Mark Gilbert
United Kingdom

the art of pilgrimage
my excuse for getting away
from the wife

M.R. Defibaugh

crackling
headphones wires frayed
by frequent nagging

Paul Callus
Malta

random encounters –
the way of pilgrims
to holy places

Minko Tanev
Bulgaria

the kimono
wrapped loosely around
my memories of her

M.R. Defibaugh

his hat gathers dust
on my top shelf –
race day

Anne Curran
New Zealand

long gone
her perfume lingers
on her old kimono

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

the Milky Way making new wishes on old stars

M.R. Defibaugh

Milky Way
the littlest star
nobody’s wished on

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton, UK

the Milky Way
wish
i had a wish

Vijay Prasad
Patna, India

unfallen
ancient stars hoard
all my wishes

Elizabeth Shack
Illinois, USA

under foreclosure
a robin nesting inside
the red umbrella

M.R. Defibaugh

moving house
only a dead cockroach
remains

wanda amos
Australia

tumble-down house
the porch couch a crazy quilt
of feral cats

Anne Fox
Broomes Island, MD, USA

watermarks
that sinking feeling
whenever it rains

M.R. Defibaugh

watermarks on piano
feeling off key
whenever it rains

Leena Anandh
India

leaden clouds…
a weather-ache
deep in my bones

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

when the light was gone
I could not escape
her pull

M.R. Defibaugh

honeymoon boat
looking through glass bottom
her thoughts touching him

Govind Joshi
Dehradun, India

young love an icicle melts in mittened hands

M.R. Defibaugh

beneath bare branches
a love etched into the bark
full of melting snow

Goda Virginija Bendoraitienė
Lithuania

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

Bios:

Guest Editor Allyson Whipple is the author of the haiku chapbook Postcards from Texas (Cuttlefish Books), as well as two free-verse chapbooks. She is the founding editor of Haiku Girl Summer and currently serves as the managing editor of Frogpond, and is at work on her reference work The Culinary Saijiki.

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: “Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals”, mid 1700s. Attributed to Tatebayashi Kagei (Japanese, active mid-1700s). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1960.183.

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.