HAIKU DIALOGUE – door to door – doorbell

door to door

With a nod to ‘Haiku Windows’, a past feature from when I first began this column, & also an idea suggested a long time ago by poet Laurie Greer, for the next several weeks we will explore some concepts relating to doors. Be inspired by these prompts – I can’t wait to read where they take you – & please note that there is no requirement to include the words of the prompt in the poems… enjoy! kj

next week’s theme: doorman 

At fancy hotels, &, I understand, some apartment buildings, an attendant waits at the entrance to open the door for you…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Time, Saturday May 01, 2021.

Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry. (The Submit button will not be available until the Name, Email, and Place of Residence fields are filled in.) With your poem, please include any special formatting requirements & your name as you would like it to appear in the column. A few haiku will be selected for commentary each week. Please note that by submitting, you agree that your work may appear in the column – neither acknowledgment nor acceptance emails will be sent. All communication about the poems that are posted in the column will be added as blog comments.

below is the commentary for doorbell:

pandemic blues
I try to recall the sound
of my doorbell

Eva Limbach
Deutschland

Of the many, many pandemic-related poems this week, this poem expresses what many of us may be feeling – to simply recall what life was like before all of this began. An additional level of meaning, & a connection between the two parts of the poem, is created by referring to ‘blues’, which can be a type of music, as well as the sound of the doorbell…

a strange buzz
announces their first guests
new home

Liz Ann Winkler
White Rock, BC, Canada

The poet captures the extraordinary in the ordinary in this poem, by noticing, or remembering, a detail that might have been overlooked – there are many things to get used to when one has moved to a new home – the sound of the doorbell being one of them…

sitcom doorbell –
the Yorkie stops yapping
at the window

Paul Cordeiro
Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Many poems this week were concerned with pets & other animals – in this poem, the repetition of the “Y” sound is pleasing to the ear. As well, the reader may understand that while this dog has stopped yapping at the window, it has, perhaps, started yapping at something else…

soft touch
ordering some more
Girl Scout cookies

Tim Cremin
Massachusetts

Here we can find a wonderful double meaning – ‘soft touch’ could refer to the child’s tentative touch on the doorbell or door, or the fact that the speaker is too readily buying more cookies…

& here are the rest of my selections:

the faint buzz
of neighbors’ doorbell
winter moon

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia

 

blood moon
the dead of night
doorbell

Alan Peat
Biddulph, United Kingdom

 

in lieu of a doorbell
she texts
Here

Alex Fyffe
United States

 

ding dong –
church bell
or mobile phone?

Aljoša Vuković
Šibenik, Croatia

 

doorbell…
I open our old
love letters

Ana Drobot
Romania

 

ghost
at the door
a dead ringer

Ann Smith
UK

 

doorbell chimes
in the UPS man’s pocket
dog treats

Anna Cates
Wilmington, Ohio

 

by the doorbell
sign of “please press” fades…
ex-husband’s shadow

Anna Yin
Ontario, Canada

 

the day
I was no one’s daughter –
silence of the doorbell

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

nursing home
the doorbell rings
at somebody else’s door…

Bakhtiyar Amini
Germany

 

UPS driver
at her door
grasses gone to seed

Bob Redmond
Burien, WA

 

doorbell ringtone
we visit
on face-time

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

doorbell
awakening the puppy
in our old dog

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA

 

laundry doorbell –
stamped on the switchplate:
PRESS

Carol Judkins
Carlsbad, CA

 

midnight
monk greets pilgrim
with a weary bow

Christopher Seep
United States

 

her jasmine perfume –
no need
to knock

Cristina Povero
Italy

 

doorbell –
I know that the postman
always rings twice

Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă
Romania

 

doorbell
of the antiques shop…
the silence of dust

Daniela Misso
Italy

 

bluebell
the door to fairyland
remains closed

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany

 

dog barks
the sound of mail
arriving

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

 

dancing bees –
that leaning wisteria
on the doorbell

Dennys Cambarau
Sardinia, Italy

 

first date –
peephole
after the first bzzzz

Didimay D. Dimacali
Norwalk, CA, USA

 

doorbell buzz –
she says hello to her
tinnitus

Dorothy Burrows
United Kingdom

 

eighty
honks
porch balloons

Dottie Piet
Tulsa, OK

 

giggles
behind the shrubbery
May basket

Edna Beers
USA

 

twilight
the old pine’s shadow
touches the doorbell

florin c. ciobica
Romania

 

lockdown…
rimbomba il silenzio del campanello

lockdown…
the silence of the doorbell resounds

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna Italia

 

doorbell short-circuits my desert island dream

Helen Buckingham
United Kingdom

 

saved by the bell –
ending an unwelcome
phone call

Helen Ogden
Pacific Grove, CA

 

self-isolation
the fading fingerprints
on my doorbell

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

no need
for a doorbell
geese by the farm gate

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

ringing bell…
playing on my doorstep
autumn wind

Ivan Gaćina
Zadar, Croatia

 

quarantine
a phone ring
instead of a doorbell

Ivanka Kostantino
Nova Gorica, Slovenija

 

doorbell rings…
she looks long in the mirror
before answering

Joe Sebastian
Chennai, India

 

doorbell –
two soldiers in full dress,
hats in hand

John Daleiden
Phoenix, Arizona in the Sonoran Desert

 

ding-dong
as I don my pants
ding-dong ding-dong

John S Green
Bellingham, WA

 

single note doorbell
the sound of yet another
dollar being born

John Hawkhead
UK

 

doorbell –
a spider knitting its web

Julia Guzmán
Córdoba, Argentina

 

ring once
and wait…
we aren’t deaf you know

Kala Ramesh
India

 

waiting
for the doorbell
cool brew

Kanjini Devi
The Far North, Aotearoa NZ

 

condo call box
rings my cell phone
we travel the globe

Kath Abela Wilson
United States

 

bodycam
Ring-cam
recording on

Kathleen Vasek Trocmet
Texas, USA

 

a ring
the widow rehearses her answer
again

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton, UK

 

funeral dirge –
uninvited guests
ring the doorbell

Lafcadio
USA

 

doorbell…
a cuckoo’s voice locked
in the sound

Lakshmi Iyer
India

 

germaphobe
I text “I’m here”
from the front porch

Lamart Cooper
Virginia

 

stained glass door
the kookaburra
mocks me

Laurel Castle
Coffs Harbour NSW Australia

 

glowing doorbell…
its twinkle as it takes
the wish from my finger

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

a different note
when my daughter arrives –
door chime

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

flowers
to a stranger –
I put them in water

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

the door chime again
another drop of tea
on the floor

Maria Concetta Conti
Catania, Italy

 

thunder and lightning
shake the house
the postman rings twice

Mariangela Canzi
Italy

 

too tiny to ring…
a hummingbird
at my garden door

Marilyn Ashbaugh
usa

 

doorbell chimes
a thumb’s up
through panes of glass

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

releasing the bzzzzz…
past the sunlit door
yellow jacket

martin gottlieb cohen
United States

 

birdsongs
so easy to ignore
the doorbell

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

pandemic lockdown
this ache for
the ringing bell

Meera Rehm
UK

 

growing trees…
my son standing on his toes
to reach the doorbell

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

for sale –
just the doorbell’s
echo

Mirela Brăilean
Romania

 

midday doorbell
rushing to the bedroom
to change my pajamas

Nadejda Kostadinova
Bulgaria

 

silent doorbell
spring breeze rings
windchimes

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

ringing
knocking
two visits

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

the bell tolls . . . butterfly

P. H. Fischer
Vancouver, Canada

 

doorbell buzzing
the umpteenth time
work from home

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

 

doorbell to doorbell
offering the Kingdom
of Heaven

Patrick Sweeney
Misawa, Japan

 

the Colonel…
doorbell tune still
whistlin’ Dixie

Paul Geiger
Sebastopol CA

 

after
the doorbell –
spring rain

Pippa Phillips
United States

 

broken doorbell
my roses go
au naturel

Pris Campbell
USA

 

doorbell…
the postman delivers
a self-addressed letter

Priti Aisola
Hyderabad, India

 

hearing aid
on the table
…ringing doorbell

Ram Chandran
India

 

the second wave
outside my door
ding dong

Ravi Kiran
Hyderabad, India

 

suited man
next to the bell
no soliciting

Rehn Kovacic
Mesa, AZ

 

security door bell
lining up time capsules
in a cloud

Robert Kingston
Chelmsford United Kingdom

 

empty dog crate
a deep silence surrounds
the door chime

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

 

honey bee
at the brass door bell
buzzed in

Ron Scully
Manchester NH

 

bu-buzzzz
it’s her

Sanela Plisko
Croatia

 

my brave dog
fiercely protecting me
from the doorbell on tv

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

new doorbell…
the woodpecker still
prefers to knock

Saumya Bansal
India

 

doorbell
parcels carefully
wiped down

Sherry Grant
New Zealand

 

the shiny nose
of the front door fox mask
christmas

simonj
UK

 

buzzer…
one boy says grocery
the other, medicine

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India

 

doorbell
the trick or treat
of another day

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, Wa. USA

 

midnight prayer
the doorbell rings
when the dead arrive

Stoianka Boianova
Bulgaria

 

the grass
awaits a shower…
doorbell tinkle

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

broken doorbell
my food delivery comes
and goes

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD, USA

 

retirement –
doorbell breaks
afternoon hush

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

knocking
at each door
this pandemic

Teji Sethi
India

 

new door chimes
my mother unamused
by the exorcist

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

Surprise! I’m home!
Whenever that bell rings
I dream

Trilla Pando
Houston, Texas USA

 

blueberry sky –
skipping to the jingle
of the ice cream truck

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

quarantine
the forgotten sound
of doorbell

Vandana Parashar
India

 

striking
ringing
till
still

Victor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA

 

high blood pressure –
an alarm bell
for my heart

Vincenzo Adamo
Sicily Italy

 

convinced by their barking
commercial’s doorbell
is ours

Wendy C. Bialek
az, usa

 

ding dong
a little bit later than
woof woof

Wiesław Karliński
Namysłów, Poland

 

afternoon breeze…
the tintinnabulation
of wind chimes

Willie Bongcaron
Manila, Philippines

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. A novice haiku poet, she lives in New York City.

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

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