HAIKU DIALOGUE – Finding peace and contemplation… in quiet spaces… in a second-hand bookshop
Finding peace and contemplation… in quiet spaces with Guest Editor Marietta McGregor
At times in our lives, fast-moving events of our day-to-day existence may become overwhelming. Between work and family responsibilities, daily needs and doomscrolling, days rush by in a breakneck blur and we sometimes end the week with a sense of ‘where did that go?’ We’re surrounded by the wonders of our shared universe. Maybe it’s time to become immersed in the enjoyment of one aspect of this spectacular world which amazes, delights and refreshes us. We can marvel at the night sky or clouds by day, cheer a ladybug as it climbs a twig and opens its wings, dangle our feet in a cool river, rest in a tree’s benevolent shade, stroke velvety green moss, smell ozone freshness at the coast, crunch through frosty grass, listen to morning birdsong, taste a last autumn apple. Small pauses in quotidian life may be devoted to living slower, using every sense, and sharing our pleasure through poetry. Simple gifts.
Each week for the next few weeks there will be a photographic prompt on the theme of ‘Finding peace and contemplation. . .’ with images capturing moments when we might seek inspiration if the going gets tough. I look forward to reading your personal response to the moments you’ve discovered.
next week’s theme: … in a gallery
Becoming immersed in a work of art encourages us to reflect on the artist and their world, as well as our own. When we enter a gallery, freed from bustling city streets we slow down, drop our voices, calm monkey minds, and begin to appreciate new perspectives. The atmosphere is soothing, almost a meditation. Everyone has their own reasons for attending museums and art galleries. Permanent collections become havens, and some people re-visit favourite works as they would treasured friends. Special exhibitions generate a buzz of excited interest, and stimulate different ways of looking. This photograph shows part of the collections of The Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, a lovely gallery set in stunning wooded grounds. I welcome your haiku about how time out in your favourite arts centre helps you unwind.
The deadline is midnight Eastern Standard Time, Saturday March 12, 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Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry.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 Marietta’s commentary for in a second-hand bookshop:
Thank you poets for your bookish contemplation this week. Lost in the pages of old books some of you discovered echoes of your own history. Some found traces of others’ stories in the form of intriguing margin notes, pressed buttonholes, four-leaf clovers, significant dog-ears, underlines and secreted letters. I was looking for original takes on the bookshop/old books theme, and if there were several poems along similar lines I have not always included them. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the selection, and find haiku which resonate with you to comment on. Thanks as always to Kathy, Lori and THF for coordinating Haiku Dialogue.
letting him
read me
annotated bookVandana Parashar
India
A spare first-person haiku which in the reading opens up several possibilities. Has the poet chosen to reveal their inner being to a lover through carefully staged real-life actions or words? Or is the subject of L1 a new acquaintance, perhaps someone encountered at a book club or poetry reading, who is offered a book with personal notes inscribed which may help open the poet’s heart to a receptive reader? Either way, I think the poet is keen for this person to get to know them better.
used copies of Gatsby
he holds each vintage
to his noseLaurie Greer
Washington, DC
An interesting juxtaposition. The protagonist here is cast in the role of connoisseur, apparently sniffing their way through a flight of early editions of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel set in the Roaring Twenties, America’s Jazz Age. Do these old editions have their own individual scent, depending upon whose shelves they resided? Considering that bootleg liquor flowed freely through the pages of the Gatsby novel, perhaps the copies are redolent of that time, as captured in the haiku. Another reading could set the poem in the book-lined library of a discerning bibliophile who likes to browse his collection with a fine vintage claret or port (or several) at his elbow.
beach read
a breeze gives away
the endingKristen Lindquist
Maine, USA
Readers of my acquaintance fall into two main groups – those who always turn to the back page before finishing a novel, and the rest who don’t want the end revealed because it spoils the story. I admit to the occasional flip over if I desperately want to know if a character is still present in the closing pages, or has been killed off (if the latter, I still finish the book but with a stronger sense of impending doom). Beach reads tend to be quite light and not too gripping. Maybe the poet has dozed off in the warm sun, book open beside them. As they sleep, the pages are being riffled by a sea breeze and the ending is revealed, but does the sunbather see it, or does the book close again before they wake?
next to recipes
for bouillabaisse
The Origin of SpeciesKeith Evetts
Thames Ditton, UK
Like haiku poetry, second-hand bookshops can be eclectic, even eccentric, in their juxtapositions. In this haiku, the poet observes Charles Darwin and cookery cheerfully co-existing side by side on a shelf. Bouillabaisse is called the king of fish soups. A speciality of Marseilles, it’s believed to have been invented to use up ugly and unsaleable, but tasty, spiny fish such as the rascasse, a type of scorpion fish. Any fish can go in, heads, tails and all, along with saffron, fennel, orange zest and Pernod. The brew must be boiled hard and long. The best examples take days to cook, during which a sort of culinary magic occurs. In a letter to a friend, Darwin laid the foundation for the biogenic ‛primordial soup’ theory, expounded in the 1920s by Haldane and Oparin, where building blocks of DNA coalesced from a simmering aqueous solution of organic molecules derived from early Earth’s atmospheric gases. A clever juxtaposition that works well.
moving for the last time
i choose my companion
books carefullySusan Farner
USA
Anyone with a treasured book collection knows how hard the task of culling can be, despite Marie Kondo telling us that 30 books are quite enough to own. As we age we often find the need to downsize, and that means possessions must be shed. Well-loved books are good friends, some of which are for life. The poet understands that change is inevitable and has come to embrace this, but that doesn’t necessarily make the job any easier. The haiku to me has a melancholy tone, conveying a sense of the inevitability of change, and wabi, of serene acceptance.
& here are the rest of the selections:
the scent
of a cracked spine
vellichorShloka Shankar
India
taking a look at
the life of the others
public bookcase . . .Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany
second-hand book
between its pages
a pressed poppy flowerOlivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland
tales of war—
behind a used book
the spider weavesVincenzo Adamo
Italy
dollhouse
in the bedroom a tattered book
of Andersen’s talesTsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria
used book
the underlined portions
tell a different storyRam Chandran
India
at the bookstore
I hesitate in between
War and Peace and IdiotŽeljko Vojković
Croatia
war at hand
I look out for a book
of love poemsTeji Sethi
India
bookmark . . .
heart-shaped skeleton leaf
says it allLakshmi Iyer
Trivandrum, India
book exchange our hearts race
Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa, USA
Little Women . . .
so many memories
when I was a girlRosa Maria Di Salvatore
Catania (Italy)
back again browsing—
the book i didn’t go in for
finds meAlan Peat
Biddulph, United Kingdom
store shuttered
the scent of paperbacks
stacked in the rainPris Campbell
United States
overfilled shelves—
volume after volume
about warfareMark Meyer
Mercer Island, WA USA
blank page of a book
my late father’s handwritten
driving directionsJackie Chou
Pico Rivera CA USA
hunger pangs—
rusty pages and silverfish
for half a pennyR. Suresh Babu
India
old dream book—
what it means
to dream nothingAljoša Vuković
Šibenik, Croatia
war-torn world
I travel back
with old booksPriti Khullar
India
deep spring—
lost in Saijiki
at a book caféTeiichi Suzuki
Japan
dust on a book—
i wipe off stagnant
yearsRicha Sharma
India
second-hand book
tracing the frayed spine
of an old friendFirdaus Parvez
India
strict silence
from a corner cubicle
a knuckle crackerIngrid Baluchi
North Macedonia
in a cookbook
mother’s handwriting
second-hand bookshopMirela Brăilean
Romania
folded cold inside the used bookshop butterfly
simonj
UK
second-hand store
on my knees
book foragingSuzanne Leaf-Brock
Pine Island, Minnesota
love poetry
a pen-underlined verse
on the last pageSlobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia
secondhand bookshop
lingering with Wang Wei
birds calling in the ravineHelga Stania
Switzerland
sepia forest
lost inside the pages
with the authorRavi Kiran
India
chypre scent
of bygone days . . .
old bookshopprofumo cipriato
di tempi passati . . .
vecchia libreriaDaniela Misso
Italia
flea market—
the past owner’s thoughts
in an old poem bookMilan Rajkumar
Imphal, India
Book of the Dead
key from afterlife
to the lifeStoianka Boianova
Bulgaria
Eureka!
leaving the library
full of ideasFranjo Ordanić
Croatia
shredded pages
in the book store
a brown mouseMarilyn Ward
Scunthorpe Lincolnshire UK
sea-breeze
in the smell of old pages
a long-distance loveSonika Jaiganesh
United Kingdom
bookstore escape
the travel choices
in Steinbeck and SwiftRichard Matta
San Diego, California
fiction all those happy endings
Dan Campbell
Virginia
Grandma’s war chest
a hand me down book
on girl guidingRobert Kingston
Chelmsford, United Kingdom
moving house
nothing but books and
Confucius himself夫子迁新居
未见细软与珍宝
唯有万卷书fu zi qian xin ju
wei jian xi ruan yu zhen bao
wei you wan juan shuXiaoou Chen
Kunming, China
pre-loved books
all the dog eared pages
in the romance sectionLouise Hopewell
Australia
between the pages
a love letter
not meant for meMargaret Mahony
Australia
the faint scent
of another’s pressed rose
second-hand Love StoryMeera Rehm
UK
the rust
on The Mill on the Floss . . .
dusty storeArvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India
another story
in the second hand book
a four-leaf cloverNazarena Rampini
Italia
rummaging through a stranger’s words four-leaf clover
Eva Limbach
Germany
second-hand bookshop
I quietly slip down
Alice’s rabbit holeBaisali Chatterjee Dutt
Kolkata, India
early spring breathing the peace bibliosmia
Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India
first love . . .
at the second-hand bookstore
lost and foundAnna Yin
Ontario, Canada
used books
self-help buried under
love poetryBryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA
in need of a happy ending reading the last chapter first
Kathleen Trocmet
Texas, USA
floor to ceiling
the owner goes straight
to the book I ask forCynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California
armload of books
the knowing nods
of the cashierPat Davis
NH USA
all these worlds
consisting of words . . .
libraryMarianne Sahlin
Sweden
old cooking book
mom’s humming from the page
of my favorite pieKeiko Izawa
Yokohama, Japan
LIVING LARGE
a selection of books
with 18 point fontsValentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA
covering titles
in the window display
bookstore catsCaroline Giles Banks
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
tattered bible
reading scribbled notes
to my older selfJeff Leong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
used bookstore
chance encounters
with marginaliaHelen Ogden
Pacific Grove, CA
highlights
in the secondhand book
I connect with a strangerPadma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India
autumn smell . . .
a library ticket in
the second hand bookMinal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India
after the bombing . . .
War and Peace
falls off the shelfMelanie Vance
USA
in the shadows
of old rose bushes . . .
bibliosmiaAlfred Booth
Colombes, France
old corner bookstore
re-reading the story book
mom read to me firstJoe Sebastian
Bangalore, India
looking for Proust . . .
the scent of time
whispers secretsElisa Allo
Zig, Switzerland
huddled together
Ginsberg, Kerouac, Bukowski . . .
a stranger’s smile at my delightMadhuri Pillai
Australia
on the flyleaf
a spidery
ex librisAnn Smith
United Kingdom
book club—
exchanging more
than words . . .C.X. Turner
United Kingdom
new novel
I set out to live
a king’s lifeMona Bedi
Delhi, India
grassy scents
in the old library . . .
my father so closeGiuliana Ravaglia
Bologna Italia
stroke of midnight I turn into a book
Lafcadio Orlovsky
USA
bookshop step stool
already in use
hey sleepy kitty!Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec
second-hand bookstore—
a blue and yellow candle
lit in the cornerXenia Tran
Scotland
road side book stall—
with a cup of coffee I meet
Jean ValjeanHla Yin Mon
Yangon, Myanmar
overdue:
the librarian’s
babyBarrie Levine
Massachusetts, United States
treasure island—
in the children’s section
unearthing gemsDorothy Burrows
United Kingdom
time traveling in
second-hand bookshop . . . hours
go by like secondsMargie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA
stacks of used books
I straighten my spine
before walking inSari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY
first edition
getting a whiff
of old ragsBona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA
the bell
in the olde bookshop
mockingbirdPeggy Bilbro
Alabama
dimly lit store
he passes me the warmth
of a dog-eared booksanjuktaa asopa
India
head over heels
between aisles
preloved booksKanjini Devi
The Far North, Aotearoa NZ
crowded bookstore
reading out loud
an old love novelEufemia Griffo
Italy
watching it tumble
from the musty book heap—
She Stoops to ConquerMargaret Tau
New Bern, North Carolina
escaping the heat—
I enter the bookshop
into autumnAsh Lippert
United States
missing “M” and “R”
remaining volumes
in the free binGreer Woodward
Waimea, HI
vintage bookstore
savoring the scent
of second chancesSharon Martina
Illinois, USA
not the ones
I would have starred
used anthologyTim Cremin
Massachusetts
book shop affogato
finishing my Calvino before
the ice cream meltsKath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California
slithers
through leaves of grass
the silverfishP. H. Fischer
Vancouver, Canada
Guest editor Marietta McGregor is a fourth-generation Tasmanian who has made her home between Australia’s national capital Canberra and the scenic south coast of New South Wales for over four decades. A lover of the natural world since childhood, she went on to study botany and zoology, and has worked as palynologist, garden designer, science journalist, editor, university tutor, education manager, and grants developer for the national wildlife collection. A photography and travel enthusiast since retiring, she enjoys capturing fine detail of fleeting moments. She came late to haiku, which appealed for its close observation and poetic expression of ephemeral experience. Her haiku, haibun and haiga have been widely published, have won awards and appear in anthologies.
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.
This Post Has 15 Comments
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Many thanks, Marietta, kj, and Lori. Congratulations to all!
A beautiful selection Marietta and thank you so much for including mine too.
Thank you, Marietta, for including my poem in this week’s column and for another insightful commentary. Congratulations to all the poets. There are so many poems to admire and so many different perspectives to enjoy. I loved all the poems chosen for Marietta’s commentary and many more including…
slithers
through leaves of grass
the silverfish
P. H. Fischer
Vancouver, Canada
I really enjoyed the slow movement in these lines. All those ‘s’ and ‘l’ sounds add to the creepiness. And the book title works really well too. Fab!
Thank-you, Marietta and thank-you, Dorothy for your kind comment. Funny, my partner also used that word – “love the poem, but oh so creepy!” 😉
I also really enjoyed your poem, Dorothy, with its reference to another classic and the nice wordplay!
On the note of finding hidden gems, as several poets mentioned, I also love the unexpected wonders that might appear in bookstores and in an old book itself including pressed leaves, handwriting in the margins, cards, bookmarks and as Margaret Mahoney mentions, love letters!
between the pages
a love letter
not meant for me
Margaret Mahony
Australia
I can’t think of many other places (apart from nature) that are as comforting to my soul as a good used bookstore!
—Peter
Dear Fellow Writers,
Since we recently completed the “Ad Astra” sequence, I asked kj if I might post a call for submissions for the 2022 Dwarf Stars Anthology. Speculative haiku selected and posted on our blog in 2021 would qualify.
.
2022 DWARF STARS POETRY AND PROSE POEM SUBMISSIONS
On April 1 submissions open for the 2022 Dwarf Stars Anthology, from which the best short speculative poem published in 2021 is selected. Anyone may submit their own poems or those of others; there is no limit to how many poems you may submit for the anthology, but poems are selected for inclusion by the editors. Only members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association may vote for the award. Open to all genres of speculative poetry, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and “unclassifiable, but speculative.” Poems must be no more than 10 lines (or more than 100 words for a prose poem) not including title or stanza breaks, and first published in 2021, include publication credit. For guidelines and more information:
https://www.sfpoetry.com/ds/dsguide.html
Greer Woodward and Adele Gardner, Editors
overdue:
the librarian’s
baby
.
Barrie Levine
Massachusetts, United States
.
Clever word play in this haiku.
Dear Valentina, thank you so much for your comment on my librarian’s baby haiku – so glad you enjoyed it. Best wishes, Barrie
Marietta, thank-you for including mine and welcome back. Congrats to all the poets.
Hello Valentina, thanks for your kind welcome! It’s good to be back. Admin has fixed your extra-long post. Would you be able to re-post your comment on individual verse/s, please? Cheers, Marietta
Yes, Marietta, I have re-posted my comment.
Thank you Marietta for including my haiku. As a lover of reading, libraries and all bookshops. I thoroughly enjoyed this prompt. Congratulations to all poets!
Thank you, Marietta.
I particularly enjoyed:
on the flyleaf
a spidery
ex libris
Ann Smith
—
road side book stall—
with a cup of coffee I meet
Jean Valjean
Hla Yin Mon
—
the bell
in the olde bookshop
mockingbird
Peggy Bilbro
—
not the ones
I would have starred
used anthology
Tim Cremin
—
fiction all those happy endings
Dan Campbell
—
floor to ceiling
the owner goes straight
to the book I ask for
Cynthia Anderson
Thank you Marietta for including mine. What a pleasure it was to follow last week’s art prompt with another close to my heart. Very much enjoyed your selections. Congratulations to one and all!
Thank you Marietta for this photo prompt and for including my haiku here. I am a school librarian and a passionate bibliophile so this week’s haiku theme is near and dear to my heart. I love the ones upon which you commented and there are just so many favorites here for me. This one I love because I am guilty of perusing people’s bookshelves when I am at their home. Also in any public spaces. And I love curating my living room shelves:
taking a look at
the life of the others
public bookcase . . .
Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany
This one also struck me. There is such a satisfying feeling of serendipity when you find just the right book in a vintage bookstore. The whole idea of second chances I just love:
vintage bookstore
savoring the scent
of second chances
Sharon Martina
Illinois, USA
An enjoyable journey in the world of books, with so many friends around…a lot of wonderful poems; I can’t wait to read them all, leisurely! Thanks a ton, dear Marietta for selecting one of mine, and congratulations to all!