HAIKU DIALOGUE – Family Portraits – Portrait Two

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 Three

This surprise photo was taken before morning coffee. You or one of your family members may have felt similar emotions. Write about where this takes you. Thanks for your poems.

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Time, Saturday September 17, 2022.

Thanks to all poets who are making things easier for our Guest Editors by including in the ‘Poem’ box both your NAME & RESIDENCE as you would like it to appear in the column, along with your poems… kj

Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry.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

This week, I received 237 haiku from 149 poets representing 29 countries. In the end, I selected more haiku than last week. Still, there were many poems that didn’t create a rewarding juxtaposition between the photograph and haiku. This week, I had to research many words associated with marriage traditions, and therefore, learned new things – thanks. You made me laugh and wonder, two traits that make us human. Here we go:

destination wedding
the aunt who never calls
calls

Vandana Parashar
India

Vandana’s humor is classic. It’s just about perfect, in my way of seeing the world, and staying optimistic.

smiles changing the weather

petro c. k.
Seattle, Washington

Here is another buoyant viewpoint. Attitude makes all the difference. One thing I’ve decided as I have more self-directed time is to not spend time with pessimists. Thanks for this, petro.

new sunrise
as if everything were
so simple

Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia

Now back to reality, ha! How many times can a haiku mention a sunrise and keep it fresh? Samo has done it here with maturity and wisdom.

morning sun…
kissing each other
a pair of shadows

Chittaluri Satyanarayana
Hyderabad, India

 

lighting the fire
we discover ourselves
casting new shadows

Patricia Hawkhead
UK

Chittaluri and Patricia both use shadow to great effect – the subtle link to the wedding image is sublime.

myraid of emotions
in father’s eyes
kanyadaan

(kanyadaan is giving away daughter’s hands in marriage)

Amrutha Prabhu
Bengaluru, India

 

at my wedding my father’s smile without him

al mio matrimonio il sorriso di mio padre senza di lui

Maria Teresa Piras
Sardinia – Italy

 

her brown eyes
a part of grandad
re appears

Marilyn Ward
Lincolnshire UK

The above three haiku by Amrutha, Maria, and Marilyn share similar sentiment about a father/child or granddad/grandchild bond. I, being a father and granddad, appreciate these just a bit extra.

Below are the rest of my selections. Please comment and mention specific haiku that you appreciate.

& here are the rest of the selections:

maid of honour
at my ex’s wedding
a cake with two grooms

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

 

expectancy in her white dress wedding cake moon

Seretta Martin
California, USA

 

wedding photo
all the people
we used to know

Maurice Nevile
Canberra, Australia

 

wedding album
a happiness
I haven’t seen since

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA

 

wedding photos
one of us
always out of focus…

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

even after ten years butterflies

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa, USA

 

city hall:
not so dreary
after thirty years

Charles Harper
Yokohama, Japan

 

wedding procession
the decorated horse
steals the show

Nitu Yumnam
India

 

Indian wedding –
the fine embroidery
on a horse

Daipayan Nair
Silchar, India

 

unmarried —
dodging the bouquet
a couple of times

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
Bombon, Philippines

 

home run
bouquet goes beyond
the bridesmaids

Ravi Kiran
India

 

newlyweds –
the bouquet thrown
towards the moon

sposi novelli –
il bouquet lanciato
verso la luna

Dennys Cambarau
Sardinia, Italy

 

exchanging rings
within the silence
rubberneckers…

Robert Kingston
Chelmsford, United Kingdom

 

eons
the hoodoos
bear witness

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, Michigan

 

starry sky
I seem to have fallen
into her eyes

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

 

fangirling
even in her poems the love
of Wangxian

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany

 

honey drizzle dawn
I believe in a heaven
tasting of her kiss

John Hawkhead
UK

 

mehendi nite
his name deepens
on her palms

Daya Bhat
India

 

a first flash
of déjà vu . . .
apple blossoms

Alfred Booth
France

 

A tuxedo
laughing
in the wilderness

Mike Fainzilber
Rehovot, Israel

 

a kiss
vanilla-scented …
Saint Honoré

Daniela Misso
Italy

 

sea lilies
in the sand dunes
our first kiss

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

 

laughter tears laughter the melody of love

Terry Whitebeach
Tasmania

 

after argument
my guitar
well tuned

Keiko Izawa
Japan

 

spring breeze
two birds building
a new nest

Meera Rehm
UK / Nepal

 

from the guy
who just got divorced
wedding toast

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD

 

the fine line(n)
of family politics –
wedding seating chart

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

something new…
the canyon echoes
our wedding vows

Margaret Tau
New Bern, North Carolina

 

desert hike…
she wears blundstones
to her wedding

Lynne Jambor
Vancouver BC Canada

 

the veil removed
a bride meets her groom
for the first time

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

 

the ring
of hammer on anvil
winter wedding

simonj
UK

 

dandelion seed
lifted on butterfly wing
that Utah morning

Patricia Furstenberg
South Africa

 

wrapping
six yards of gran’s love
wedding day

(the length of a saree is six yards and girls often wear the one worn by their grandmother on her wedding day)

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

white roses
at the young girl’s headstone …
wedding bells afar

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

same sex marriage
all of us
on the brides’ side

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

green wedding
on the guest list
flowers and birds

Neena Singh
India

 

quiet rustle
inside a blooming poppy
the full moon blushes crimson

Padmini Krishnan
United Arab Emirates

 

at the end of a sentence stem- tulips

Sarah Metzler
United States

 

backyard wedding
the photographer requests
bigger smiles

Alex Fyffe
Texas, USA

 

matrimonio…
guadando il fiume
sulla stessa foglia

marriage…
fording the river
on the same leaf

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna Italia

 

autumn wind
the space between us
so different now

Mark Scott
Hardwick, Vermont, USA

 

a trail of fireflies
in the dark
if ever…

Adrian Bouter
The Netherlands

 

till death do us part
a wedding guest whispers
latest divorce statistics

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

 

settling
in a nest
two feathers

mendarat
di sebuah sangkar
dua bulu

Christopher Calvin
Kota Mojokerto, Indonesia

 

sumi-e
the different shades
of our marriage

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

the escape
from the maddening crowd
autumn leaves

Hla Yin Mon
Yangon, Myanmar

 

the newlyweds
veiled with fog
mt. pulag sunrise

Anthony Rabang
Manila, Philippines

 

on summer’s grass a fresh dewdrop

Amoolya Kamalnath
India

 

before and after you the blur

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton UK

 

lingering sunshine—
questioning again, how long
is forever

A.J. Anwar
Jakarta, Indonesia

 

harvest moon
zucchini blossoms
among azaleas

Ronald Degler
Harbor City, California

 

spring tide
the pulls beyond
our ken

Gary Evans
Stanwood, Washington

 

third time charm —
the bride in white
again

Roberta Beary
USA/ Ireland

 

dawn
the marriage of
night and day

Munira Judith Avinger
Bellingham, WA

 

butterfly knot
each of us
a wing

Ella Aboutboul
West Sussex, UK

 

outdoor wedding…
two bison wander through
providing witnesses

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

just spring
whirligigs spin
and spin

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

the sound of waves
her pause before
“I do”

Kath Abela Wilson
USA

 

wedding day moon her maid of honor

Sharon Martina
Warrenville, IL

 

saying I do
honeysuckle
clings to the vine

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

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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