HAIKU DIALOGUE – Finding peace and contemplation… in the great outdoors… with curious donkeys

Finding peace and contemplation… in the great outdoors 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 worn, imperfect and transient things… rustic wagon

Among art galleries along long narrow Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, there are reminders of the early farming days of the City Different, as its inhabitants call it. This old wagon with its faded copper-verdigris paint and finely detailed railing could have carried supplies to outlying farms, then returned with loads of wood for town dwellers. The wheel rim is iron-bound, so maybe it really was a working wagon, not a prop outside a gallery. Overgrown by creepers, it has the wabi-sabi appeal of simple and rustic objects. This week you’re invited to write a haiku about thoughts stirred by the old wagon, or by how we travel.

The deadline is midnight Eastern Daylight Time, Saturday September 04, 2021.

Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry.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

An enjoyable ‛ride’ with you and donkeys this week, thanks all! Poems ranged from playful to surreal and somber. Donkeys featured in affectionate childhood memories of places and family. The eye is said to be a key to the soul. Many found this true of donkeys and their expressive liquid gaze. Their distinctive voices came in for mention too. The donkey and its traits also provided rueful metaphors for human foibles. Nick Bottom with his ass’s head, the only character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream who co-exists with humans and fairies, playfully turns up in one haiku. There are other encounters with animals from invertebrates to toys, and moments which may or may not have been with members of the animal kingdom. This brings us to the end of our great outdoors prompts. Through September I’ll be with you again, seeking peace and contemplation observing simple, aged or rustic objects. I hope you’re inspired and I look forward to your haiku. Please send just two poems, in English. We’re happy for submissions also to include your poem in your own language as well as English if you like. Thank you as always to managing editor Katherine Munro, post manager Lori Zajkowski and The Haiku Foundation for bringing us Haiku Dialogue.

Yarmouth beach
donkeys and children return
to full size

Robert Kingston
United Kingdom

I head for the sea wherever I travel, but I’ve never made it to Yarmouth Beach except in photos. With its sweeping stretch of sandy beach bordering the coast of Norfolk in Britain’s east, Yarmouth has been a resort since 1760. The popular beach has a number of piers and amusements, including donkey rides. Several readings are possible. Perhaps years have elapsed, and the poet returns to Yarmouth where they holidayed as a young child. Rather than feeling small among a forest of donkeys’ legs with older kids milling around, the surprise is discovering a new perspective, a sort of reverse ‛Alice in Wonderland’ experience. Or maybe the poet is stretched out drowsing in the sun, staring at the long vista of sand and sea. Donkeys and their riders slowly trail out of the distance, appearing bigger as they get nearer. Either way, it’s a haiku imbued with nostalgia and a sunny peace.

political turmoil
the donkeys don’t
stop braying

Vandana Parashar
India

This sharply pitched senryu may be read as a straight account of a day’s activity, perhaps during a village demonstration on polling day or a visit by a controversial politician. As a noisy backdrop to the general commotion, stirred-up local donkeys begin to call, one after the other, adding to the hubbub. Or the poem may be a metaphor which plays on another meaning of ‛donkey’. Early authors of moral tales, such as those credited to Aesop (6th Century BCE), often depicted the donkey as stupid and lacking in discretion. In Australia and New Zealand, a ‛donkey vote’ is a cast ballot which marks all candidates on a ballot paper from top to bottom in the order they are listed, without any reference to their political affiliation. Because it counts in the tally, candidates like to get their names high on the ballot list, rather like runners drawing a good starting gate in a horse race! A third meaning can be drawn from the descriptive sound itself. Someone who speaks in a loud, hectoring way is said to have a ‛braying voice’. This could well be what is happening here.

their rumble
through the valley
wild horses

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA

As a horse lover and avid former reader of children’s books about prairie mustangs, this haiku appealed to me both for its sound and the pictures it conjured. I imagine a cloud of dust rising in an arroyo as the band gallops through, and the way their hoofbeats echo from the rocks. A ‛rumble’ can also mean a skirmish between two rival gangs. This poem could be alluding to a show of strength between stallions fighting over territory and leadership of a group of mares in a herd.

ouzo moon—
I tell my troubles
to a donkey

Pippa Phillips
United States

I like the image of ‛ouzo moon’, a new one for me, but one I can easily imagine. The Greek anise-containing liquor ouzo is crystal clear until water is added, then swirls into a milky opalescence, like clouds suddenly veiling a full moon. While not strictly a prescribed kigo or season word, the haiku could in fact refer to spring, the time of a hazy moon. So it seems we’re in a coolly moonlit field, leaning over a fence as a donkey approaches. Maybe after a couple of glasses of ouzo it’s easier to open up to a sympathetic confidant, a donkey which can be relied on never to give away any secrets.

my daughter nuzzles
the little donkey . . .
straw hats with daisies

Barrie Levine
Wenham MA USA

An irresistible image redolent of childish pleasure. The poet’s child has quite clearly fallen head-over-heels in love with the donkey and is giving it a big hug. Line 3 adds to the delightful picture as we have not one hat but ‛hats’, plural, which hints that both child and donkey are wearing flowery headgear. It’s easy to imagine her donkey friend having a surreptitious nibble of the little girl’s hat, on the sly. A delightful and fresh haiku.

& here are the rest of the selections:

these eyes green nettles just out of reach

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany

 

transit area—
travellers and cockroaches
both in a hurry

Nicole Pottier
France

 

curious history . . .
untamed ancestors
tamed donkeys

Amrutha Prabhu
Bengaluru, India

 

mountain peak
a donkey’s bray echos
deep in the valley

Terri French
RV

 

a long gaze
at their tied legs . . .
the bonded labour

Lakshmi Iyer
India

 

Amarnath Yatra . . .
donkeys cap the piety
of the pilgrims

(Amarnath Yatra: one of the holiest and toughest Hindu pilgrimages to the Amarnath cave in the Himalayas)

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

autumn wind—
the moon is mirrored
on the donkey’s eye

Dennys Cambarau
Sardinia, Italy

 

modern times—
I carry a heavier load
than my donkey

Aljoša Vuković
Croatia, Šibenik

 

cobwebs shaking
lions in full throat
outside the camp

Tim Cremin
Massachusetts

 

my donkey child
feet planted firmly
on the ground

edna beers
Rensselaer, NY, USA

 

the farmer’s wife
knits ear-gloves for donkeys—
SPF50

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

Beethoven’s 6th—
another goblet
of Montepulciano

Joshua Gage
Cleveland, OH, USA

 

melting my
cold cold heart—
donkey smile

Dan Campbell
Virginia

 

autumn dusk
talking to the donkey
hauling cotton

John Zheng
Mississippi

 

mountain shrine
grimace of the pilgrim
riding a donkey

Anitha Varma
Kerala, India

 

awaked at dawn
cry of deer—
Nara Hotel

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

galloping
through the lens
the Ghudkhur

(The Ghudkhur is the Indian Wild Ass that roams freely in the ‘Little Rann’ Wildlife sanctuary of India. It is an endangered species and also a photographer’s delight.)

Ravi Kiran
India

 

loaded with
myriad colours
a washerman’s donkey

(In rural India, donkeys are used by washermen to carry clothes back and forth.)

Teji Sethi
India

 

through the fence
my dog licks
the donkey’s ear

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

cat and me
have a distant aura
blue moon

Nani Mariani
Melbourne, Australia

 

thistles a-plenty
two donkeys making faces
and pretend faces

Sheila Barksdale
Gotherington, England, U.K.

 

big kids
maybe the donkeys
should ride them instead

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

a pat
on the donkey’s back . . .
cloud of dust

una pacca
sul dorso dell’asino . . .
nuvola di polvere

Daniela Misso
Italia

 

summer meadow
in the donkey’s eyes
years of weight

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

circa 1980s birthday party
pin the tail
on the donkey

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

packing out
I offer to carry her load
she hee-haws back

Richard Matta
San Diego, California

 

harmattan haze
catching my eye
a zebrinny

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

frisson  the fox yet warm

simonj
UK

 

country road—
I give priority to
a donkey

Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă
Romania

 

ghost town
a wild burro’s bray
wakes the dead

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, CA

 

weekly market
the seer takes pride in his
prophetic mule

Richa Sharma
India

 

essential workers—
the deer continue
their pruning

Sheila Sondik
Bellingham, WA USA

 

before quake
at mountain pass—
our donkeys bolt

Neera Kashyap
India

 

silent woods
a lone woodpecker
is measuring time

Rajeshwari Srinivasan
India

 

autumn morning . . .
the sparrow’s singing
awakens the cat

Ronald Degler
United States

 

photo memories
a three-year-old girl
riding a donkey

Zdenka Mlinar
Hrvatska

 

deer scat
getting fresh tips
on urban foraging

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

dusky sky . . .
a symphony of
brays

Dr. Priti Chahar
Agra, India

 

kitchen window
the face of a donkey
hee-haw

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

on a hiking trail
next to me . . . floating
Muhammad Ali

Ronald Degler
Harbor City, California

 

deer’s call our eyes first meet

Mirela Brăilean
Romania

 

Palm Sunday
the donkey’s ears
pricking up

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

holding stubbornly
to a moment of sadness
birdsong

Rehn Kovacic
Mesa, AZ

 

dusty sandpit
having a good scratch
the donkey kicks the sky

Kathleen Vasek Trocmet
Texas, USA

 

morning walk
I let the family of deers
pass through

Wakako Miya Rollinger
Topanga, CA

 

workaholic the donkey in us

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

windswept sands—
beach donkeys carrying
my childhood

Dorothy Burrows
United Kingdom

 

summer festival
a donkey steals
the show

Meera Rehm
UK

 

a well in the heat
donkey with eye-flaps
in a water-wheel

Stoianka Boianova
Bulgaria

 

one at first
then the whole herd
Jersey cows

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

threadbare
velveteen donkey
winter semester

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama

 

pilgrimage
the rhythm of a hymn
in my donkey’s trot

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

farmer girl
the velvet she knows
from her donkey’s ears

Sandra St-Laurent
Whitehorse, Yukon

 

in the front line
pandemic’s beast
of burden

Didimay D. Dimacali
California, USA

 

awakening the puppy
in old beagle
fluttering pigeon

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

 

‛errant wings’ swivel
in greeting—
lone village donkey

(from G K Chesterton’s ‛The Donkey’)

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

holiday photo
between the drops of dew
frog eyes

Wiesław Karliński
Namysłów, Poland

 

overloaded cart
in the donkey’s eyes
dusk deepens

Hifsa Ashraf
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 

sharing meal . . .
a weather beaten donkey
with its master

ꯆꯥꯛꯌꯣꯝ ꯆꯥꯃꯤꯟꯅꯔꯤ . . .
ꯀꯥꯍꯠꯂꯕ ꯒꯙꯥ ꯑꯃꯁꯨꯡ
ꯃꯥꯒꯤ ꯃꯄꯨ

(The above haiku is translated in Meitei mayek script. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitei_script)

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

morning walk
a wallaby’s momentary gaze
before he melds into the bush

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

grassy path—
grandpa’s little donkey
in my memory

sentiero erboso—
l’asinello del nonno
nella mia memoria

Maria Teresa Piras
Sardegna – Italia

 

the first flowers
of convolvulus—
grazing horses

Angiola Inglese
Italia

 

a hot day—
a donkey snoops
behind the wall

Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi
Chivilcoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

closing the tent—
the raccoons’ shining eyes
on the picnic table

Julia Guzmán
Córdoba, Argentina

 

country of childhood—
in the street the ticking
of the donkey’s hooves

Elisa Allo
Zug, Switzerland

 

stubborn as a mule mother’s favorite reprimand

Pris Campbell
Lake Worth, FL

 

Labor Day—
the donkey business
as usual

Melanie Vance
USA

 

dense fog—
i follow
burro’s braying

Devoshruti Mandal
Varanasi, India

 

twenty years later
same holiday house
same donkey wanting a scratch

Sue Courtney
Orewa, New Zealand

 

home range
a donkey’s bray
remains

Sherry Grant
Auckland, New Zealand

 

donkey . . .
carrying the weight
of my thoughts

Ana Drobot
Romania

 

swan
feeding
a half moon
mirrored
swan

Helen Buckingham
United Kingdom

 

dining al fresco
hidden crickets chirp
a serenade

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
USA

 

Grandpa’s funeral—
across the pasture
his donkey’s bray

Carol Judkins
Carlsbad, CA USA

 

metro-park farm
the donkey hangs
with the llamas

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio, USA

 

Shakespeare camp
a young Puck yells
Bottom’s up!

P. H. Fischer
Vancouver, Canada

 

Donkey Crossing
descendants of the braying
Kona Nightingales

(Donkeys were part of the workforce in the early Kona Coffee farms. Because of their braying, they were affectionately nicknamed the ‛Kona Nightingales’.)

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

nuzzling a baby
in their manger
curious donkeys

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California USA

 

donkey eyes
mother told me to look
into them for truth

Kath Abela Wilson
USA

 

cloudbreak
the unburdened brays
at the trough

C.R. Harper
USA

 

the camel kneels
offers us a ride
over the dunes we fly

(This took place in the Thar desert of India. I’ll never forget it! I loved my camel and sang him songs.)

Genie Nakano
Gardena, CA 

 

Mercado del Lago
under the sign don’t feed geese
they eye my pizza

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles

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.