HAIKU DIALOGUE – Family Portraits – Portrait Three

Family Portraits with Guest Editor John S Green

For the month of September, a total of five weeks, we will write haiku in response to photographs of human faces – portraits of sorts. These will all be images of my family – hence the title, Family Portraits. This could be termed a photo-haiga exercise – composing a haiku in reaction to a picture.

Often, the instinct is to write a description of the image. However, this is rarely satisfying. From my experience, a poem that connects in a subtle manner is more rewarding. For some excellent examples, please take a look at The Haiku Foundation’s Haiga Galleries.

Many haiga do not mention the scene at all, but simply allude to it via the haiku. The image and the words complement each other. Let’s work on that over the next five weeks. I look forward to your poems.

next week’s theme: Family Portraits – Portrait Four

Who doesn’t love a cute baby? And who doesn’t love an affectionate dog? But when the two get together and share a kiss? Magic! Well, the photographer (my daughter) captured her son and dog just at that precise moment. I hope you write to emotions that are a step, or two, away from this exact experience. A slant response can be more rewarding.

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Time, Saturday September 24, 2022.

Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry.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 & residence 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 John’s commentary for Portrait Three:

Very similar numbers this week – 146 poets contributed 239 poems. A new high of 30 countries makes me happy – I love this global community. As my friend, Victor Ortiz, said at a recent Haiku Society of America conference on The Ecology of Haiku, “Haiku may even help to save our planet.” By the way, this photo is my lovely wife. Thanks honey for letting me use this as a prompt.

A lot of coffee poems were written – this one was my favorite:

cold coffee
luck that gaze don’t kill
said the parrot

Mircea Moldovan
România

Ha! I enjoyed the hip/non-traditional English of the parrot! Thanks, Mircea, for a refreshing perspective on this photo prompt. I wish I had written that one.

forever framed
on the fridge
bad hair day

Roberta Beary
USA / Ireland

Roberta’s poem took me a while to appreciate. Like a good wine, it grew on me the more I let it sink in. It takes a unique outlook to display quirky photos in your home. Many people only frame and mount smiling faces, but it’s the unusual shots that are more memorable. Indeed.

groundhog
is displeased
…wintery conditions!

Jerome Berglund
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Jerome’s haiku gets extra kudos because my wife was born on February 2nd, Groundhog Day. Of course, we love Bill Murray’s movie. Also, it doesn’t hurt that my wife was born and raised in Minnesota, and that’s where we were married.

morning bells…
will I dream of you
again

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

This has mystery. Haven’t we all had a particularly provocative dream with deep allure? I know I have wished to get back into a dream that was wonderful, but feel upset for being forced back to reality. You nailed it, Tsanka.

at 17 or 70…
summer has a history
of freckles

Adrian Bouter
The Netherlands

Winter brings flu season, and spring begets allergies. But summer and freckles? Yes! Thanks, Adrian, for noticing. You had the best ‘freckle’ haiku this week.

the silent eloquence of her eyes ambivertism

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

Ambivertism is an interesting and somewhat controversial concept. Ambiverts, apparently, have a balance of both introvert and extrovert features. Up until now, I always spoke of people as basically introverted or extroverted. Not anymore. Kudos to Arvinder for seeing something in my wife’s expression to spark this haiku.

not
what I signed up for
(fill in the blank)

Roberta Beach Jacobson
USA

Okay, this took courage to send in. It touches back to the photograph in a most delicious manner. Roberta has left the readers, each one individually, to ‘fill in the blank’ to this more than human feeling.

the talker
up before me—
morning thunder

Sarah E. Metzler
USA

 

nightmare
alone in a household
of morning people

Louise Hopewell
Australia

Both these poems, by Sarah and Louise, allude to a person wanting to sleep in, but the environment has been invaded by early risers, leading to ‘morning thunder’ and ‘nightmare.’ Well done.

The rest of my selections are all winners. There is no reason why these haiku could not have been commented upon. Please, as you read the entire batch below, make an effort to single out 1, 2, or 3 poems that elicited a response within you. Give a shout-out to the author. We all know how great it feels to have one of our poems commented on.

On another note, if your submissions were not selected, remember that if it were another editor, your poem may very well have been selected. Poetry is an art form, and as such, it is in the eye of the beholder. Now, baking – that’s another whole thing.

& here are the rest of the selections:

nobody to talk with
about her addiction
morning cloudiness

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany

 

morning fog this that the other

P. H. Fischer
Vancouver, Canada

 

scudding clouds
so many phases of love
this is one of them

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

 

expired milk her crankiness simmering

Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta
Hyderabad, India

 

road closed
you call me
by her name

Vibha Malhotra
Delhi, India

 

morning worries poptarts stuck in the toaster

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD

 

morning breath
all the petals fall
from the rose

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA

 

catching a
glimpse in the mirror
grandma’s nose

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

house of horrors —
family visit during
the holidays

Bonnie J Scherer
Palmer, Alaska USA

 

Myopic again…
Love lasts
Longer than dew

Sreenath G
India

 

Calling me pendejo while she pours me coffee

Dan Campbell
Virginia

 

eye opener
how many leaves
in the whispering branches

Dejan Ivanovic
Lazarevac, Serbia

 

caveman
before
coffee

Maurice Nevile
Canberra, Australia

 

half awake
i swim in
my dream’s colours

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

spinster aunt—
a world of memories
without smiles

Vincenzo Adamo
Italy

 

steaming . . .
our differing views
on politics

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

old novelist waking up from a dream in a dream

Hifsa Ashraf
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 

keeping mum
nothing left to say
about care homes

Patricia Hawkhead
United Kingdom

 

not a morning person
next door’s rooster
on borrowed time

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

I never understood
grownups
in my teens

Patricia Furstenberg
Pretoria, South Africa

 

under the bed sheet
so far

Bittor Duce Zubillaga
Basque Country

 

the spell
I cannot take back . . .
red begonias

Richa Sharma
India

 

morning fog –
shapes of dreams remain
in the hallway

Daniela Misso
Italy

 

first morning alone …
a cup of strong coffee
double bitter

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

the house is sleeping
mist and birdsong
all mine

J E Jeanie Armstrong
Canterbury UK

 

stirring the pot
a maelstrom of frost
in the window

simonj
UK

 

barely awake
the neighbour’s new dog
growling too

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

 

night owls sometimes
cannot look
at another banana

Charles Harper
Yokohama, Japan

 

still caught in the dream
the world floating unfocused
before my caffeine

Lorraine Schein
Queens, NYC

 

a night owl in a flock of early birds

Susan Farner
USA

 

still early
raccoons have emptied
the bird bath

Chad Henry
United States

 

whistling kettle
not everything is about
birdsong

Vandana Parashar
India

 

a pinch of salt
on a rotten egg . . .
grandma’s cure

Alfred Booth
Lyon, France

 

not knowing
I have taken a selfie with him—
a seagull

Ram Chandran
India

 

an old grizzly
edges out of the woods
the lure of civilization

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama

 

tied quilt
the shock
of waking alone

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

telling me
how lucky I am —
the morning coffee

Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia

 

the morning before
just like
the morning after

Mike Fainzilber
Rehovot, Israel

 

early morn
the take away coffee
brings back her father…

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

her look
says it all—
piled-up sink

Paul Callus
Malta

 

transitioning skies
in summer storm
those emotions on her face

Padmini Krishnan
United Arab Emirates

 

the modern world …
long before breakfast
rejection letters

Wendy Gent
Bristol, UK

 

morning horizon
coaxing the sleepy sun
to rise

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

still hold
a few aspects
you don’t know

薫音 Kaon H
Japan

 

annual Christmas photograph
among the smiling faces
her stifled yawn

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

 

terrycloth
rubbing her fingers
over her mom’s name

Kimberly Kuchar
Austin, TX

 

flat light—
our childhood smiles
except the wrinkles

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

terry robe
wrapping the night
around her

Barry Levine
Massachusetts, USA

 

slow awakening—
the anguish of the day
suddenly

Maria Teresa Piras
Sardinia – Italy

 

awakening …
my cat’s little rough tongue
on the cheek

risveglio … la ruvida lingua del mio gatto sulla guancia

Lucia Cardillo
Italy

 

no coffee break
out of the blue
the blackbird’s song

Florin C. Ciobica
Romania

 

freddo mattino…
così lontani
nella stessa stanza

cold morning …
so far away
in the same room

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna (Italy)

 

percolating pot
the weekend guests
extend their stay

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

morning fog
rolls in
the kitchen

petro c. k.
Seattle, Washington

 

Monday morning commute
yesterday’s makeup
in the rear view mirror

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, New York

 

early riser…
my dad greets me
with “morning glory”

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

Guest Editor John S Green, author of Whimsy Park: Children’s Poems for the Whole Family, is widely published in all styles of poetry – especially haiku. John lived in Europe before moving to the United States at age thirteen. His daughter cooks with spice, and his wife still laughs at his jokes.

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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