HAIKU DIALOGUE – Dreams – Day and Night – commentary

Dreams with Co-Guest Editors Sherry & Zoe Grant

Dreams. Where do they come from? Can we foresee the future? Are our conscious thoughts during the day reflected in dreams at night? So many questions yet no definite answers. Dreams can be vivid, or half forgotten; they can be spun into beautiful poems or analysed and studied using Freudian techniques. Some dreams can be soothing, while nightmares are mostly disturbing. Dreams have EVERYTHING to do with our mental health and well-being. Dreams can be abstract or measurable, they can also be the start of something great, for as soon as you dream of something, you send out a message to the universe and the universe might just respond for your wishes to come true. It remains Zoe’s and my dream to inspire at least one billion people with what we create together: perhaps dreaming something up is rather like setting a tangible goal…Zoe and I promote haiku and rengay through editing our own poetry journals, chalk on the walk haiku and monoku, hosting workshops and our own online radio station because we strongly believe that our joint efforts can lead us all to the Next Golden Age. We have been gathering up our own “army” to combat commercialism in an age of depression, in the hopes to heal the world with the power of arts and creativity. Zoe and I would like to bring back kindness and gratitude through building networks and global communities, so nobody will have to feel alone or left out. In November 2025 Zoe and I will host our 5th online international music, poetry & arts festival to celebrate my favourite composer Alexander Scriabin’s (Russia, 1872-1915) 110th as well as haiku poet Fukuda Chiyo-ni’s (Japan, 1703-1775) 250th anniversaries since death. We would like to now leave you with Chiyo-ni’s beautiful haiku about dreams, translated to English by Marco Fraticelli in his book A Thousand Years: The Haiku and Love Letters of Chiyo-ni. Come dream with us!

………………………………………………………………dream fragment
………………………………………………………………a butterfly
………………………………………………………………through wildflowers

…………………………………………………………….– Chiyo-ni

Below is Sherry’s & Zoe’s commentary for Day and Night:

Zoe’s comments:

I’m happy to be editing Haiku Dialogue again with my mum. We got to read so many good poems. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

open window
the wind at dawn carries away
the nightmare

Željko Vojković
Croatia

This haiku made me feel very safe. Even if there was a nightmare, the wind at dawn blows it all away.

breaker’s yard
an old brindled dog
snaps at dreams

John Hawkhead
United Kingdom

It makes me wonder what the old dog has been through, to be snapping at dreams in a junk car yard. I like the use of ‘brindled’, although I had to look it up in the dictionary first.

walking barefoot on shards of a shattered moon

Dan Campbell
Virginia

This monoku is simple and complex at the same time. I like the use of alliteration but I don’t enjoy thinking about the pain of walking through such sharp objects.

morning dream fluffing my pillow

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington

I had trouble deciding on which of two haiku to comment on. They were both so pretty! I love this monoku for its simplicity and peacefulness.

anxiety dream –
the toilet cubicle
with the missing door

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

I love funny haiku! I also heard that in some countries, toilets don’t have doors. I can relate to how anxious one must feel when put into that situation. But if it’s just a dream, it’s okay.

t rex jumps the fence
still sleeping soundly
I punch him in the nose

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

At first, I was very confused. My mum explained it to me, then I burst out laughing. This is another anxious dream, being chased by a T-rex, and a very vivid poem. I feel sorry for the person punched in the nose, sleeping next to this dreamer.

ghost pumpkin
eats away
at my dreams

kris moon kondo
Kiyokawa, Kanagawa, Japan

What a creative poem. This sounds like a scene out of a horror movie.

covered in cream
I dive into a
hot chocolate ocean

Melissa Dennison
UK

I absolutely LOVE desserts. In New Zealand’s summer, we enjoy dipping giant strawberries in melted chocolate and freshly whipped cream. I think cream and hot chocolate make the perfect combination. And this is a dream I would love to have!

Earth Day—
all the green doors
painted black

Michael Smeer (Mikō)
Hoofddorp, Netherlands

It makes me sad to see how polluted our world is. Everywhere we go, there is smoke and litter. Is there anything we can do to prevent the earth from dying?

moon dancer
young dreams carved
from light

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

This is another poem I found difficult to pick because I loved both of the submitted poems. As a ballet dancer myself, I find this poem very beautiful and charming. I can imagine the graceful movements and the gentle light from the moon. Carving dreams out of light – that is incredibly dreamy.

Sherry’s comments:

I will keep my comments brief, to fit Zoe’s style. Merry Christmas 2024 to dear poets and readers alike! Zoe and I will see you back for prompt two of Dreams at Haiku Dialogue in the New Year of 2025.

midjourney a bath in Nutella

Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
Verona – Italy

Much like indulging in a luxurious milk bath to soften one’s skin, swimming in a Nutella bath might just be many sweets-loving children’s dream. This poem has a very surrealistic, almost sci-fi feel to it.

desert sands
a money bin swim
for uncle Scrooge

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

Wouldn’t it be nice if money grew on trees? I love the contrast between being filthy rich in the material world in the desolate setting of a desert, which might also imply an empty inner world.

only one eye at rest duck

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa, USA

This unique monoku stands out by capturing the vigilance of ducks and their survival skills needed to stay alert and keep watch during sleep. I wonder if the ducks can still dream with only one eye closed, or if they dream at all. It also reminds me of other fascinating natural phenomena such as goldfish having to sleep with eyes open and certain moths developing patterns of eyes employed to scare off enemies.

the colour
of if and maybe
iridescent wings

Orense Nicod
Paris, France

Here the author throws us a philosophical question. If one has chosen differently, maybe he or she will be led down a different path. The combination of this wondering of what might have been, along with the light fluttering wings of wondrous iridescent colours adds magic to this poem.

• dreams
• in black & white
• and grey

Mark Gilbert
UK

As an avid promoter and performer of contemporary music myself, I love seeing new experiments in all sorts of art forms. Here the poet adds bullet points to emphasise his point, but then what is his point exactly? Is this a shopping list or a prescription for dreams that are devoid of vivid colours? It reminds me of black-and-white movies in the olden days – despite the lack of a full spectrum of colours, they are full of emotions.

the way Grandpa
folds the world map…
postponed dream

Steliana Cristina Voicu
Ploiesti, Romania

From this poem there is a sense of hesitation and regret. I can imagine a heavy sigh. Most parents and grandparents that I know put the welfare of their young ones ahead of themselves. The sacrifice ‘Grandpa’ has made for us to enjoy a better life, reminds me of my own father, who unlike myself having played frequent concert tours, has never really travelled the world but has been dedicating himself to working hard for his children and grandkids’ sakes. I hope all grandparents’ postponed dreams in this world get fulfilled, and that their offspring will help them in realising these.

night terror
hundreds of spiders
knot the floorboards

Maurice Nevile
Canberra, Australia

This is one scary haiku. It remains a mystery to me how in New Zealand we have flightless birds and harmless animals, whereas across the Tasman Sea in Australia many vermin flourish. The use of the verb ‘knot’ adds to the tension of this poem. One can clearly feel the hair-raising rustling of these creepy crawlies.

eight decades…
still dreaming I missed
an assignment

Bruce Feingold
Berkeley, CA USA

This kind of nightmare used to haunt me when I was young. As a child I went to a special class for musicians and after academic exams it would be time for music exams. Being a bit of a perfectionist, daily homework and music practice throughout my school years gave me never-ending stress, and I was always worried about missing an assignment or doing badly in exams. I am sure many of us have gone through something similar, but I am grateful for the education I received in Taiwan and New Zealand, which made me who I am today. I only got to relax a bit more in my NZ university years, having finally learned how to relax and worry less about people’s opinions. I think finding one’s hidden special powers can help conquer nightmares!

hydrangea skies
my mind floats into
itself

Susan Holmes
San Diego, CA

This poem had me in the first line, with the dreamy ‘hydrangea skies’, and then the mind floating not away, but back ‘into itself’. This is such a lovely haiku. Like Zoe, I had such a difficult time deciding which dream poem to choose when poets submitted two equally beautiful poems. We ended up making a third list of over 30 excellent poems, outside the long list and short list!

teething problems
in the business meeting
they all fall out

Marion Clarke
Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland

I love the double meanings. One learns so much from reading haiku, be that new words, expressions and about other cultures. I am pretty sure I had a nightmare about falling teeth once before…although in public that would be super embarrassing. But on the other hand, isn’t it a relief finding out it’s just a bad dream after all! All our worries and stress that turn against us in dreams hopefully can be blown away by the dawn and morning birdcalls, even though I suppose nightmares leave a somewhat bad aftertaste in our subconscious mind.

children’s room
the height of my dreams
marked in pencil

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh India

I love seeing wordplay at work. In this simple yet effective haiku, the child’s growth is documented in pencil marking. It’s wonderful to also see hope and dreams growing over time.

last night’s dream
i hoola-hooped
saturn’s rings

Meera Rehm
UK

This would be a fantastic dream to have. Saturn’s rings are made up of billions of ice particles, dust and so on, and pulled to the planet by gravity. How cool would it be to use them as a hoola hoop! Another scene that can only happen in a happy dream or under the pen of artists…This poem is very visual and full of action.

woolgathering
when they cannot sleep
do sheep count us?

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

We human beings usually consider ourselves to be at the top of the food chain and potentially the cleverest animal of all. While we unapologetically gather resources from nature, this author asks a very valid question. I am immediately reminded of George Orwell’s 1984 where all the animals had personalities, and also the great Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (莊子) who started wondering whether if he actually dreamt of the butterfly or the butterfly dreamt of him! To top it off, I recall with fond memory the days watching Shaun the Sheep TV series with my kids when they were young and sharing our laughter together.

late winter
the unfulfilled dreams
in a cardinal’s song

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

Here is another poem of sadness. Cardinals’ songs are meant to be notes of happiness, as the saying goes “cardinals appear when angels are near”. However, cardinals are also said to bring messages from a departed loved one. The poet keeps us guessing what ‘the unfulfilled dreams’ might be, and the starting verse ‘late winter’ adds to the regret.

tailor-made
my dream bursting
at the seams

Daya Bhat
India

This is a clever poem where the dream constantly grows, like young children. I believe it’s the natural property of a dream to expand, for from my own experience of organising poetry events, festivals and concert tours, one thing leads to another. Quite often nothing is set in stone, so anything might happen to a ‘tailor-made’ life with all the expectations from those around us, and who knows what would happen when a dream expands out of proportion?

the howling of wolves
the old hunting dog’s paws
move in sleep

Mirela Brailean
Romania

The reflex from an old habit is quite incredible. Earlier today, I watched a video where an old lady with dementia could still play the piano gracefully despite her failing memories. In this poem, the old dog, even in sleep, remembers the good old hunting days. It brings a smile to me. The world is truly remarkable, along with what might be locked in our memories.

second cup–
she fills it
with a dream

Pippa Phillips
United States

Such a simple poem. But I would read it over and over again because of how beautiful it is and how it fills me with renewed hope for the future. Second cup, for me signifies second chance. It’s never too late to pursue one’s dreams, but our lives on this earth are short and limited…so, carpe diem.

Join us next week for a holiday message, & news about Haiku Dialogue 2025…

Bios:

Guest Editor Zoe Grant, a well-published 10-year-old haiku poet from New Zealand, is the co-author and illustrator of Bat Girl (2020) at the age of 6, and illustrator for Being Katherine (2023) at the age of 9. Her haiku “snowy night” won the first prize at the 2021 NZPS International Haiku Competition (School/Junior) and she is the co-editor of Chalk on the Walk Haiku, Chalk on the Walk Monoku, Haiku Zoo Journal and Raining Rengay. Zoe enjoys drawing, crafts, singing, playing the flute, ballet and writing poetry. She co-hosts the International Rengay Gatherings (https://www.artsinfinitypress.com/irg) with her mother Sherry Grant twice a year. This daughter-mother duo plans to go on concert tours to share their poetry and music with the world. Zoe read 250 haiku and other short form poems during the 2022 International Scriabin 150 Festival, and was the judge for two haiku competitions, the 2023 Sri Lankan Haiku Contest and 2023 KM100NZ Haiku Competition (junior category). Zoe is the host of “Haiku Journey”, where she interviews haiku poets and journal editors from around the globe since January 2023. Follow Zoe’s projects at www.linktr.ee/zoe.grant and listen to her interviews at Sherry’s Next Golden Age Radio (https://www.artsinfinitypress.com/13point10).

Guest Editor Sherry Grant is a Taiwan-born New Zealand classical concert pianist, cellist, poet, author, translator, radio broadcaster and festival organiser. Her own poetry writing journey started in June 2020, with her youngest daughter Zoe. Since 2021 this mother-daughter duo has been promoting short form poetry by co-editing several journals, presenting at haiku conferences (2020 Haiku Society of America conference and 2022 Haiku Down Under conference) and organising poetry workshops. As a musician, Sherry plays multimedia concert tours around the world (2022 USA/Canada, 2023 Thailand/HK/Taiwan/NZ, 2024 Brazil/Argentina/Chile). Sherry is a well published haiku/cherita/rengay poet. Her rengay written with Alan Peat (UK) won the first prize at the 2021 Otoroshi Rengay Contest. Sherry has organised many international music/arts/poetry festivals including the 2022 International Scriabin 150 Festival, the 2023 KM100NZ Festival for Katherine Mansfield’s centenary and is planning the International Scriabin 2025 Festival and the 2026 International Dialogues Down Under Festival to curate New Zealand and Australian Culture. In July 2024 Sherry started her own online radio station “Next Golden Age” curating world literature, arts, poetry, haiku and music weekly, sometimes including interviews from her “Creative Hub” and “Finding Scriabin” interview series. Find the radio programme schedule at https://www.artsinfinitypress.com/13point10 and subscribe to listen at https://nextgoldenage.substack.com/ Visit www.linktr.ee/sherrygrant for updates on Sherry’s projects and concert tours. Sherry’s upcoming 2025-2026 concert tours are planned for USA, Taiwan, Australia and Europe, including her own solo piano + haiku lecture-recitals and Vio-Latino (https://www.artsinfinitypress.com/vio-latino) with Dutch violist Emlyn Stam.

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.

The Haiku Foundation reminds you that participation in our offerings assumes respectful and appropriate behavior from all parties. Please see our Code of Conduct policy.

Please note that all poems & images appearing in Haiku Dialogue may not be used elsewhere without express permission – copyright is retained by the creators. Please see our Copyright Policies.

Photo Credits:

Banner photo credit: Sherry Grant

Prompt photo credit: by Joe from Pixabay

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.