HAIKU DIALOGUE – Allusion – Connections to the Past – 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 Connections to the Past:

on a dry branch
a raven landed
late autumn

Bashô

leafless tree
with the last leaves
the birds fly away

Stoianka Boianova
Bulgaria

a nightingale —
my sandals stuck
in field mud

Bonchō

nightingale ode—
a soldier’s smile stuck
in battlefield mud

Adele Evershed
Wilton, CT, USA

songbirds—
how often the rain
cleans my sandals

Sharon Ferrante
Florida, USA

the first violets…
with muddy shoes
I trample the grass

Angiola Inglese
Rapallo, Italy

plum blossom scent
rises up —
halo of the moon

Buson

spring floods
rising up —
the Little Dipper

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, MI, USA

plum blossom
how the scent carries
the light of the moon

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

grasshopper—
cheeping in the scarecrow’s
sleeve

Chigetsu

second-hand shirt
a grasshopper jumps
out of my sleeve

thomas david
UK

all the way to Ise
we have been fellow travelers
wild geese

Chin-jo

noon bike ride
ladybug on my shorts
sharing the miles

Lyle Smith
West Sacramento, CA, USA

the footprints
of a man —
first cherry blossoms

Chiyo-jo

the hand of man
extended —
calm cow’s face

Herb Tate
Jersey, UK

a carpet
of cherry pink—
my black footprints

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

smoky candle —
the evening cold
with snow

Etsujin

the sweet sound
of Easter hymns …
curling candle smoke

wanda amos
Australia

the quiet —
the cherry blossoms unmoved
by the temple bell

Fuhaku

church bells tolling
the town’s fallen
cherry petals

Archie G. Carlos
Minnesota, USA

the gong-ging
of the temple bell
devi still

Kavita Ratna
India

spring to spring…
feeling the same
and different

Gekkyo

sprouting weeds —
the holes in her smile
filled up again

Michael Pappafava
Belgium

oxbow …
the river circles back
birthing a lake

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

a waterbird
beak in its feathers
falls asleep

Ginkō

on the ferry
she sinks into her coat
inemuri

Ivan Georgiev
Germany

winter wind –
it ends in the roar
of the sea

Gonsui

bora wind —
its sound in the stones
rolling to the sea

Sanjana Zorinc
Croatia

dawn—
the call of whales
beneath the sea

Gyōdai

midnight crossing
the Gulf stream sweeps away
a mother dolphin

Pris Campbell
USA

awake awhile
the call of whales
from my dream

Kathabela Wilson
California, USA

using a candle
to light my cigar —
hototogisu

Issa

everyone’s gone
but for you and I —
kobutomushi

Mark Meyer
Mercer Island, WA, USA

lighting
one cigarette with another
. . . distant geese

Ben Oliver
United Kingdom

don’t worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually

Issa

enjoy the day
little mouse, my mother
is not home

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

morning glory —
so white the dew
disappears

Kakei

skeleton flower —
the clarity of cemetery
raindrops

Kelly Sargent
Williston, VT, USA

pampas grass
takes the form
of the autumn wind

Kigin

autumn wind
gusting through
the bent bristlecone pines

Lee Hudspeth
USA

wind in the willows
the winter sky
talks to me

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA, USA

in the market
stones on the woodblock prints–
spring breeze

Kito

roadmenders’ lunch
bread rolls atop salad leaves —
spring breeze

Sheila Barksdale
Gotherington, UK

falling blossoms
and the calming down
of us all

Koyū-ni

after the bloom—
our breaths
in the same hush

Dorna Hainds
Michigan, USA

storm over—
the coolness left
in the bamboos

Makusetsu

argument over—
in the bedroom
a coolness

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton, WA, USA

warehouse burnt —
nothing left to impede
the view of the moon

Masahide

falling shells
through cracked wall
sun rises

Fatma Zohra Habis
Algeria

a dog’s bark—
a man passes in
the snowy night

Meimei

just one more day ….
as long as his life lasts
the snowman smiles

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Germany

cherry blossoms
scattering—
an evening in prayer

Moritake

last of the tulips
chewed down–
blown fuse

Laurie Greer
Washington, D.C., USA

in the mountains
autumn, briefly, and
the setting sun

Ōemaru

again autumn love loses a face

Daya Bhat
India

to know the plum:
a heart,
a nose

Onitsura

to know my heart
chocolate
in plum sauce

Alfred Booth
Lyon, France

unknown after me a plum

Vijay Prasad
Patna, India

dragonflies
all going the same way —
sunset

Rangai

sunset
the road to cemetery
made one way

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India

starlings
all turning as one
sundown

Richard Straw
Cary, NC, USA

noonday sun
going every which way
mayflies

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton, UK

plum blossoms —
traces of spring
nowhere else

Rito

mango blossoms
the koel’s call becomes
louder and louder

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

hamlets bereft
of blossoms and the sea:
tonight’s moon

Saikaku

supermoon
the hamlets won’t
sleep tonight

Sumitra Kumar
India

its body ends
in emptiness —
cicada

Saimu

its empty shell
still clings to a branch —
cicada

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

in the end
our death poems rush
downriver

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa, USA

nameless
but each weed
its flower

Sampū

without a name
yet colouring a whole hill
wildflowers

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

calling them weeds
the fireweed
in full bloom

Biswajit Mishra
Canada

in the doorway
a man’s shadow —
autumn evening

Seira

in the doorway
his silhouette
bending light

Peggy Bilbro
Alabama, USA

she folds his name
into the drawer—
last light

C.X. Turner
Warwickshire, UK

autumn sun —
the leaves brush
a man’s shadow

Katherine E. Winnick
Brighton, UK

winter gale —
a lone bird
looks cold

Shikō

a pyramid of cards . . .
falling to her song
the winter gale

Richa Sharma
India

rainy day —
a stranger passes by
with flowers

Shintoku

steady rain
a stranger offers
his umbrella

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, OH, USA

gloomy morning
the wag
of a dog’s tail

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

departing autumn —
the grasses hide
a stream’s flow

Shirao

departing autumn —
dried-up leaves
fold into flight

Anne Curran
Hamilton, New Zealand

loneliness—
the height of the temple ceiling
through the mosquito net

Shōha

loneliness —
the height of the skyscraper
through the smog

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

loneliness—
barren hospital room
while spring returns

Christa Pandey
Austin, TX, USA

overnight on the line
drying my underwear —
the Milky Way

Sōchō

across my back
the Milky Way glides
skinny dipping

Michelle Hoover
Castle Rock, CO, USA

felling the hedge
the young bamboo
becomes the hedge

Sodo

flailed hedgerow
old nests
never seen before

Ann Rawson
Glasgow, Scotland, UK

slant sunrays
on the temple bell
scant heat

Sogan

wave patterns
across folding fans
sweat drips

Stephen J. Deguire
Los Angeles, CA, USA

gazing up
at the great sky —
scent of plum blossoms

Soin

dad’s passing…
the end of a trail
of plum blossoms

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA, USA

cold wind—
through the torn shoji
October moon

Sokon

bent blinds
in the front window
my mother’s depression

Barrie Levine
Massachusetts, USA

 

the dog barks
at the roar of leaves —
the storm

Sono-jo

the cat paws
at the fluttering blooms —
first spring breeze

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

trudging, trudging —
when I fall, let me lie
in this field of bush clover

Sora

tottering
when I fall, let it be
into purple

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, California, USA

first in my field
the praise you almost give
grudging, grudging

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

snowy morning —
the sandals leave behind
their two and two

Sute-jo

virgin white —
waiting for its pair
a snow angel

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

mosquito larvae
the sunshine
on stagnant water

Taigi

stagnant water
and yet!
the lotus blooms

Lakshmi Iyer
India

this one and that one
must still have a name—
burning grasses

Tayo-jo

drifting smoke
over blackened fields
shallow graves

John Hawkhead
United Kingdom

bursting at the seams—
weeping cherries
in bloom

Teitoku

bursting at the seams my wife past due

M. R. Defibaugh
USA

overnight
the plum tree
becomes a bouquet

Debbie Sterling
Oregon, USA

spring
but the sky is not
my home sky

Tokoku

passport
each page a step away
from home

Nitu Yumnam
UAE

summer evening —
the smoke planes
mosquito columns

Tsunenori

a shift of shadows
bridges the beck…
swarming gnats

Marilyn Ward
Lincolnshire, UK

just their voices
passing in the dark —
the cold

Yaha

calling out to passersby
the kogarashi devouring
the oak

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

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.