HAIKU DIALOGUE – Facial Expressions – sadness (1)

Facial Expressions with Co-Guest Editors Hifsa Ashraf & Arvinder Kaur

Facial expression as non-verbal communication is the most significant way to express emotions. Darwin also considered facial expressions as a significant part of the evolution of communication. We may run short of words, but our face symbolically says a lot. It is said that a person’s eyes can lead us to their heart and soul, something that poets and writers have used to the hilt. Apart from the movement of facial muscles, facial expressions have their own language that varies from culture to culture in terms of their understanding and interpretation. In this era of technology, emoticons are used to convey a range of emotions. In fact, one can safely say that emoticons have softened and lent a personal touch to messages that might otherwise seem dull and drab.

In literature, and especially in poetry, facial expressions have a special place. One can immediately understand the import of the moment if the poet says that her large eyes filled with wonder, a tremulous smile played on her lips and the moon appeared pale. In micropoetry, many famous haiku poets have used facial expressions in their poetry in an interesting way. Some examples from Basho’s poetry:

A sense of terror, fear, or surprise in both poems:

an old river
making big eyes
at the willow

stars in my eyes
wishing to see blossoms
on weeping cherries

Translator: Jane Reichhold
Basho: The Complete Haiku

And Kobayashi Issa used facial expressions in a different way:

autumn wind—
the face of the man
who planted pines

Translator: David Lanoue
Used with permission, Haiku Guy.com

Many facial expressions have been identified now but we will stick to the basic six facial expressions. And these are happiness, surprise, contempt/disgust, sadness, fear, and anger. You can let your imagination run wild and share some personal experiences or stories, or your observations related to these facial expressions in the weeks to come.

Below is Hifsa’s & Arvinder’s selection of poems on the theme of sadness:

aggressive cancer—
tears well up
at this friend’s news

Christa Pandey
Austin, TX, USA

 

at the window
reflection of my
darkness in the night

Vandana Parashar
India

 

unsettling the wabi sabi of this stained moon

Daya Bhat
India

 

winter sleet
trying to remember
her voice

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany

 

retracting glaciers—
tiny pools of melting
tears

Katja Fox
England

 

bottom lip trembling –
the tragedy of
a dropped ice-cream

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

 

rainy day…
a sudden rush of tears
reading Facebook posts

Jackie Chou
United States

 

trigeminal pain
“never noticed!”
always mirrored

Helen Buckingham
United Kingdom

 

second miscarriage
no well tended graveyard
for butterflies

John Hawkhead
UK

 

roaring rockets-
stained smiles
of victims

Radhika De Silva
Sri Lanka

 

reading your love
letters from the war –
a tear in the eye

Jovana Dragojlovic
Belgrade, Serbia

 

my trembling lips
in between
headstones

Sharon Ferrante
Florida, USA

 

a large teardrop
smears the report…
dead hearing nerve

Richard L. Matta
San Diego, California USA

 

day moon
her last breath there
in his eyes

Alan Peat
Biddulph, United Kingdom

 

breakup note
she bites her lip
to taste the hurt

Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
Kolkata, India

 

broken toy . . .
tears in the eyes
of a child

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore
Catania (Italy)

 

peony petals fall…
the weight of another
postponed dream

Steliana Cristina Voicu
Romania

 

tears swelling
I hold my fur baby
for the last time

Tuyet Van Do
Australia

 

the quiver
of mom’s lower lip
each goodbye

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

does your absence
hurt more than your words
autumn equinox

Ravi Kiran
India

 

we know what’s coming
even before they fall
the pre-shine of tears

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

glittering eye pools
blinked away
river carved stone

Kavita Ratna
India

 

faded oil painting
of a cherry blossom
our lost love

Tsanka Shishkova
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

soldier cemetery
the sunflower
lowers its head

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

deep wood glade
a wanderoo copies
my sad face

Suraj Nanu
India

 

sad movies
the boy keeps handing
her facial tissues

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

 

leaving —
in his restless eyes
the clouds

Mariangela Canzi
Italy

 

pet funeral –
tears falling
in the rain

Dan Campbell
Virginia

 

father’s sniffles lifting the palanquin

Nitu Yumnam
India

 

cracked mirror
something missing
behind her eyes

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

dewdrops
on the rose petal
a mother’s tears

Evan Spivack
Teaneck, NJ

 

your first day
of school
…the lump in my throat

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

love lock bridge
hiding her tears
in the rain

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

funeral sprays
her downcast gaze
on a fallen lily

Archie Carlos
Minnesota

 

snowdrops
their drooping faces after
losing the match

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

twilight-
a streak of melancholy
in her wrinkled eyes

Ram Chandran
India

 

autumn blues …
in the looking glass
sadness

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

last of the Baby on Board
a shadow
passes over her face

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

his last breath
my tears
on his cheek

Susan Farner
USA

 

starless night
the abused child’s
blank look

Neena Singh
India

 

old bridesmaid
a teardrop
on the wedding ring

Padmini Krishnan
United Arab Emirates

 

brooding eyes…
a tattered teddy in
father’s hands

Vipanjeet Kaur
India

 

last breath —
the light in her eyes
slowly fading

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

hung out to dry
between clouds
autumn sadness

marilyn ashbaugh
usa

 

flitting by
the butterfly’s blue
in my eyes

Herb Tate
Jersey, UK

 

weeping willow
for no reason
my sudden tears

Ruth Holzer
Herndon, VA

 

father’s casket mother’s empty stare

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

fading into gray rain another tear

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama

 

her eyes
reflections of her life
underwater

Jan Stretch
Victoria BC Canada

 

lost baby
the sparkle in her eyes
long gone

Hla Yin Mon
Yangon, Myanmar

 

picking daffodils
my hands hold
the scent of sorrow

Adele Evershed
Wilton Connecticut

 

holding her fast
in my gaze
our preemie

Barrie Levine
Massachusetts, USA

 

shiver of moonlight
on the dark pond
tears on my cheeks

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

Mother’s Day
old age homes decorated
with tears

Bipasha Majumder (De)
India

 

leaves and leaves
in my clouded eyes
another autumn

foglie e foglie
nei miei occhi offuscati
un altro autunno

Angiola Inglese
Italia

 

such gloom—
even gulls fly home early
squeaking

Biswajit Mishra
Canada

 

mourning
the bright coldness
of Milky Way

Florin C. Ciobica
Romania

 

too sad to speak
the alien’s jaws
lock up

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD

 

lost lollipop…
a toddler screws up his face
to cry

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

dad’s sudden loss
all the light from my eyes
drained

Cristina Povero
Italy

 

shaping
my every reflection
melancholy

C.X. Turner
UK

 

trudging through rain
nobody notices
tears race down cheeks

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

 

tattered suitcase
her face carries the weight
of her sorrow

Lafcadio Orlovsky
USA

 

final visit to the vet—
the trust in her eyes
still haunts me

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

Join us next week for Hifsa’s & Arvinder’s commentary on additional poems, & our next prompt…

Guest Editor Hifsa Ashraf is an award-winning poet, author, editor, and social activist from Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Her work has been widely published. Hifsa is the author of six micropoetry books on gender-based taboos, mental health, socio-cultural, and socio-political issues. She has won The Touchstone Award for Individual Poems 2021 from The Haiku Foundation. She received special mention for her book, Her Fading Henna Tattoo, in the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award 2020 and in the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award 2021. Her most recent micropoetry collection, hazy crescent moon, is about Islamophobia and is published by Alba Publishing, UK.

Guest Editor Arvinder Kaur, author, translator and an award-winning poet, specializes in English literature and Media Studies. Her haiku have appeared in several international journals. She is the author of four books of micropoetry, two of which are bilingual where she has translated her own work into vernacular. Her books have been very well received in India and abroad. She lives in Chandigarh, India with her family.

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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