HAIKU DIALOGUE – first raspberry

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1. Normally I do not learn post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to check out and do so!
   Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, very great article.

2. waiting for sunset
   our raspberry liquor
   and some bergamot
   .
   Guliz Mutlu

   what a tasty and relaxing way to end a day!
   Guliz Mutlu i wanted you to know that bergamot is one of my favourite….scents…..how do you use it? are you cutting it like an orange and eating slices or in another form? marmalade?

   i have used it in shampoo….the shower leaves me feeling heavenly from its scent, and also in earl grey teas, etc.

3. I enjoyed this delicious basket of berries Kathy, and thanks for including mine that while inspired by the image, went off into my intuitive response. I see a few others along the same line, so wonderful to see such a lovely assortment of inspired poems. Here are just few of my favorites that leapt off the page immediately into my heart.

   persistent rain
   grandma’s betel-juice stained lips
   start another tale

   Anitha Varma

   I appreciate a peek into Anitha’s culture and the way a grandma’s storytelling is about to warm a rainy day and keep youngsters entertained.

   daughter-in-law
   our relationship
   still a bit thorny

   Carol Reynolds
   Australia

   I like the way the prompt inspired Carol to go deeper into an intuitive and inspired response while still retaining some aspect of berries, their thorns! 

   ripe raspberries…
   scenting the memories
   with my mother

   cezar-florin ciobîcă

   Of the many that spoke directly to the image, I liked this one particularly because it captured a moment in time, but a moment meant to move into the future as years later, the scent of raspberries will bring back memories of Mother.

   berry picking
   two for the bucket
   three for me

   Terri French

   Always alert to an emotional or sensory response to any poem, Terri’s just pierced me with familiarity, humor and truth!

4. Lovely surprise! Thanks Kj for choosing my haiku. Amazing compilation, congrats to all poets.

5. tthank you kj for including my haiku among the many delicious ones this week…

   Agus Maulana Sunjaya’s
   the wild berry
   on her lips
   morning drizzle

   makes my mouth water

   I also enjoyed Arvinder Kaur’s
   the last batch
   of mother’s berry jam –
   chimney soot
   ..so mysterious… was the jar hiding in the chimney?

   and there were so many others including Kathabela Wilson ‘s and Charles Harmon’s that I enjoyed. Really they were all wonderful.

6. Thank you, kj, for including my poem!

   All of the poems and responses are compelling! Thank you, every one!

   —

   almost ripe
   the blackberries –
   in me an aging child
   Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo
   I love Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo’s poem! It is musical, sweet and symbolic.
   —
   growing in peace
   far from the maddening noise
   mountain berries
   Dean Okamura
   Dean Okamura’s poem calls to me…I want to find that place “far from the maddening noise” right now!
   —
   sun on my back
   a gentle tug tells me
   the berry is ripe
   Debbie Scheving
   Bremerton WA
   Debbie Scheving’s poem hits every one of my senses …remembering those north shore berry patches!
   —
   wild berries
   the secrets of healing
   on the tip of my tongue
   Hifsa Ashraf
   Pakistan
   Hifsa Ashraf’s words are composed beautifully to reveal the true goodness of berries… “the secrets of healing“.
   —
   rivers and tributaries
   each leaf
   and its lifelines
   Ingrid Baluchi
   Ohrid, Macedonia
   Ingrid Baluchi’s thoughtful poem is a beautiful way to express the magic of nature in photosynthesis …and beyond.
   —
   berries –
   the color of the leaves
   in autumn
   Maria Teresa Piras
   Maria Teresa Piras’ poem brings me back to my home place, Minnesota … “in autumn” always a colorful drive to the north shore …stopping to buy crates of berries and more at country roadside stands.
   —
   mulberry jam
   still spreading childhood
   memories on bread
   Minal Sarosh
   Ahmedabad, India
   What a delightful way to express “childhood” “memories” …like a picture book!
   —
   life circle
   all shades of
   ripeness
   Nadejda Kostadinova
   Bulgaria
   Nadejda Kostadinova’s subtle lovely words describe another meaning beyond the heart of the picture.
   —
   wearing
   a raspberry shirt…
   summer days
   Rosa Maria Di Salvatore
   I love Rosa Maria Di Salvatore’s poem! For me, its simplicity gives a vivid feeling to “summer days”.
   —
   summer berries
   gather morning sunshine
   before mere words
   Steve Tabb
   San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
   Steve Tabb’s poem is beautiful. For me, sometimes nature seems too breathtaking for words!
   —
   extra sunshine –
   gold raspberries
   on the cereal
   Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
   Fairlawn, Ohio USA
   Valentina Ranaldi-Adams’ poem adds a tasty variety to morning breakfast … not only “extra sunshine” but with extra sweetness!

   1. Thank you so much, Vicki, for reciprocating my thoughts! – Ingrid

   2. Vicki, thank you for your kind words.

   3. Vicki, thank you.Happy you like my haiku.

   4. Thank-you for the comment.

7. I choose these three haiku for their feeling of freedom.
   .
   the wild berry
   on her lips
   morning drizzle
   .
   Agus Maulana Sunjaya

   ‘
   wild berries
   the secrets of healing
   on the tip of my tongue
   .
   Hifsa Ashraf

   .
   wild raspberries
   the sweet taste of freedom
   on our first camping trip
   .
   Christina Sng

   1. Happy you love my work my dear friend
      Thank you

8. mulberry jam
   still spreading childhood
   memories on bread
   .
   Minal Sarosh
   Ahmedabad, India
   .
   .

   I love how this is both a pivot/hinge line:
   .
   mulberry jam
   still spreading childhood
   .
   .
   still spreading childhood
   memories on bread
   .
   .
   And those last two lines are so powerful:
   “still spreading childhood memories on bread”
   .
   It reminds me of spreading meat drippings onto bread when we had eventually eaten our meat ration for the week, and after that it was white processed sugar on bread to spread the cost of food back in the 1960s.
   .
   .

   raspberry blues
   all grandma’s singing
   to help them grow
   .
   Xenia Tran
   Scotland
   .
   .
   As the color is from the range of blue, the starting line is so potent, as it’s also in the other range of blue, that of sad songs. A joint joyful and poignant haiku that is really as big as its heart, and grandma’s heart.

9. From flavours to memories, from colours to taste, and from feelings to healing…I enjoyed every single haiku.

   Thanks Kathy for this wonderful selection and encouragement. Stay blessed!

10. Thank you for including my haiku KJ, and thanks to Debbie Scheving for the mention. I thought the image was ripening blackberries. Many of these lovely haiku remind me of when we made loganberry pancakes on a campfire when we ran out of money in Portugal. We survived on loganberries for weeks.

11. Thank you Kathy for picking a great crop of berry poems! I relish each one.

12. .
    me with my sisters…
    the youngest two
    forever young
    .
    Marion Clarke
    Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland
    .
    .
    As with any kind of prompt whether a word, a phrase, or a photo, there is no need to include the topic directly by name.
    .
    This was one of the strongest haiku in this strong set of work to a theme of raspberries.
    .
    It would be easy to speed-read and gloss over this poem:
    .
    .
    me with my sisters…
    .
    .
    Active tense and I love the colloquialism of ‘me with my sisters’ which sounds so much more natural
    than ‘my sisters and I’ which although grammatically correct sounds rather daft, to put it diplomatically.
    .
    .

    the youngest two
    .
    .
    A day out amongst the sisters and the two youngest are doing what younger siblings do.
    .
    .
    forever young
    .
    .
    This is a deadly sad line. From a playful time as children, as if happening right now, we learn that it seems two sisters died before their time. Very powerful line, very powerful set up line after line, and very powerful evocation of the prompt.

    1. I didn’t pay the attention this haiku needed so I’d like to apologize. Thanks to Alan for pointing out how great it is!

       1. Thanks Rich!
          .
          From the entire series that KJMunro kickstarted there are lots of hidden gems. I hope many go into individual collections, and others find their way into various anthologies to be discovered.
          .
          I guess when I read a haiku every single word embeds itself into me like a pin cushion, I feel every one of them as both individual and as a group member.

       2. Thank you so much, Rich. I am pleased you also enjoyed this one.
          .
          marion

    2. Thank you so much for your commentary on my haiku, Alan.

       This one came to me when I examined the photo of the raspberries and saw that although all four berries were on the one plant, they were ripening at different rates. This made me think of a family photograph, in particular one my father took with my sisters and me at different ages.

       Line one is almost like part of a conversation, as though someone has just enquired about the subjects in a photograph in my home and I reply, “me with my sisters”. Line two refers to my two younger siblings who left us well before their time. Sheelín died of Cystic Fibrosis just days before her seventeenth birthday and the youngest in our family, Niamh, was in her early forties when she died three years ago from cancer.

       Thanks once again. I’m pleased this one works for you.

       marion

13. Love Carmen Sterba’s and Haifa’s Ashraf’s haiku here. Very poignant associations anchored by the raspberries. Thank you for including my raspberry haiku among these.

    1. I apologize, I meant Hifsa Ashraf.

    2. Thank you, Sari. 🙂

    3. Sari, I appreciate that you loved “raspberry garden.”

14. this dialog is one of my favorite activities and i relish all the delightful variations from talented poets. most special to me were:

    from the youngest
    to the oldest
    our last family photo session

    Radostina Dragostinova
    Bulgaria

    me with my sisters…
    the youngest two
    forever young

    Marion Clarke
    Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland

    and ….. thank you for selecting mine for inclusion kj

    1. Thank you, dysta. I’m pleased “my sisters and me” works for you.
       .
       marion

15. I enjoyed our celebration of the berry this week.
    .
    the last batch
    of mother’s berry jam –
    chimney soot
    .
    arvinder kaur
    .
    A melancholy image. End of winter or an empty house?
    .
    waiting for sunset
    our raspberry liquor
    and some bergamot
    .
    Guliz Mutlu
    .
    A colorful image of celebration.
    .
    autumn frost
    the warmth
    of blackberry pie
    .
    Martha Magenta
    .
    Loved the contrasts.
    .
    extra sunshine –
    gold raspberries
    on the cereal
    .
    Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
    .
    Happy abundance.
    .
    beneath the twirling tire swing
    wild raspberries
    .
    Vicki Miko
    .
    My apologies if this is supposed to be a one line haiku. Loved the exuberance of the four middle words.

    Was also intrigued by the science in Jo El’s “…pint-sized technology…” and the mystery poet or poets X3+us the Whale.

    .

    1. Thanks for appreciating Debbie ! yes,empty house,end of an era. I lost my mom last week. arvinder

       1. so sorry to hear this, arvinder – my thoughts are with you & your family

       2. Arvinder-that is sad to hear. Thank you for sharing and replying.

       3. sending warm thoughts your way Arvinder

       4. So sorry to hear this, but I hope you can gather some wonderful memories together as poems to keep her close.

    2. Thank-you for mentioning mine.

    3. Thanks so much, Debbie! My personal experience…” exuberance” is a great word!

16. raspberry garden
    the grandchild returns
    with red lips

    delicacy of deer
    how she learned her way
    through childhood brambles

    raspberry picking
    little girl fills the basket
    with every third

    They bring back memories of watching my daughter learn to love raspberries in her grandparents patch.

    1. I appreciate that you liked “raspberry garden!”

17. Thank you for including my words on raspberries in the blog. I enjoyed the writing the others, as well.

18. Thank you so much for including my haiku here Kathy and for putting together this wonderful selection. There are many haiku that resonate and awaken something, this one speaks to me personally too:

    ‘mulberry jam
    still spreading childhood
    memories on bread’

    Minal Sarosh
    Ahmedabad, India

19. Thanks to Kathy Munroe for selecting the kei raspberry grains. Congratulations to all the authors, I read a lot of creativity.

20. Nice poetry everyone! Here are my favorites for the week:
    .
    berry-colored lips
    her pail only
    half full
    Rehn Kovacic
    .
    This reminds me of a berry picking adventure with my young daughter. Colorful, Rehn! Spot on!
    .
    from the youngest
    to the oldest
    our last family photo session
    Radostina Dragostinova
    .
    This was the same idea I had, but was unable to submit for this week. I do believe you said it better than my aborted effort! Excellent image to fit kj’s pic.
    .
    budding mulberries
    the first time
    I wore lipstick
    nancy liddle
    .
    Not counting the first time my young daughter smeared mom’s lipstick all over her face and arms, I remember her “dolling” up in her preteen years. I see “budding” here as a fitting image of a young girl’s passage into womanhood. Thanks, Nancy.
    .
    petty larceny…
    neighbor kids raid
    raspberry patch
    Nancy Brady
    .
    Unfortunately for me, I was caught taking grapes from an arbor in my kindergarten years. Although I was put up to it by friends (who hid from sight during my crime), I remember my heart racing as I ran from the shouting owner! Part of growing up, I guess.
    .
    raspberry stained
    fingers counting
    summers left
    Marion Boyer
    .
    Your first submission? Nice poem, Marion! Appears to have a certain dark tone with an underlying current of happiness. Thanks for this wonderful image.
    .
    raspberry picking
    a cluster of
    sunburnt faces
    Lucy Whitehead
    .
    A nice turn of events, from cluster to faces! Been there, done that, during berry picking time.
    .
    family reunion
    on the hillside
    ripening raspberries
    Lori Zajkowski
    .
    What a great time to get together as a family! Enjoying the fruits of their labors and enjoying the company.
    .
    wild berries
    the secrets of healing
    on the tip of my tongue
    Hifsa Ashraf
    .
    Can’t say anything more about your poem, Hifsa, other than wow! A really wonderful blending of words and images in my opinion!
    .
    unripe raspberries
    yesterday’s questions
    without answer
    Giuliana Ravaglia
    .
    Interesting connection between “unripe” and “questions” but how true it is! How often we have to wait, patiently, for life’s circumstances to be revealed. Thank you, Giuliana.
    .
    sun on my back
    a gentle tug tells me
    the berry is ripe
    Debbie Scheving
    .
    This poem I found to be powerful! So much unsaid and left to the imagination. Nice poem, Debbie!
    .
    fast ripening fruits –
    I waited for too long
    to have the talk
    Cristina Angelescu
    .
    Well, that was my wife’s job with our daughter. But for me, a fine rendition of the need for close mother/daughter relationships!
    .
    raspberry garden
    the grandchild returns
    with red lips
    Carmen Sterba
    .
    A very simple and straightforward poem, saying so much with so little. To me this reflects a child’s joy when visiting her grandparents!
    .
    sunlight and thorns
    in every handful
    first raspberries
    Ann K. Schwader
    .
    So many of life’s delicacies include blessings and curses! We have to separate them out, be thankful for the good and gracefully handle the bad. Great choice of words, Ann!
    .
    the wild berry
    on her lips
    morning drizzle
    Agus Maulana Sunjaya
    .
    A fine image that conjures up many interpretations! For me, uncontrollable situations can be overcome with strong relationships. Thank you for stimulating my imagination, Agus.
    .
    Ron

    1. Thank you Ron!

    2. Thank you, Ron, for enjoying my poem!!!!

    3. Wow! Thank you Ron!

    4. thank you, Craig. Bless you!

    5. Thanks, Ron. I was lucky to grow up with my grandparents next door!

    6. Thank you so much for your commentary dear Ron

    7. Thanks for the comments on all of the haiku including mine. I was reminded of it a few years ago when my neighbor mentioned it at the visiting hours for my mom’s passing. She knew it all along, but never said anything at the time. Just years later…

    8. Thanks for commenting on mine Ron.

21. Bears are very important to this Raspberry prompt. As the seeds do not get digested,…Bears are critical, Especially. Black bears who love eating these spread them throughout the forests of at least North America….

    Thank you for choosing my fruity delight to the smorgasbord
    of C vitamins.

    here are my favorites:

    persistent rain
    grandma’s betel-juice stained lips
    start another tale

    Anitha Varma

    from the youngest
    to the oldest
    our last family photo session

    Radostina Dragostinova

22. Thank you so much Kathy for selecting my poem. This is my first haiku submission and it was so great to have it chosen!

    1. Congrats!
       Ron

23. Love the sensory melange in all these – thanks kathy for this ekphrastic challenge

24. her shaggy hair –
    raspberries

    Pere Risteski

    I’m assuming this is a reference to 70s band The Raspberries or am I missing the point?

25. wild raspberries
    the sweet taste of freedom
    on our first camping trip

    Christina Sng
    .
    Another that brought back memories.
    As children we too roamed the country lanes of Essex on holiday, filling bowls with what in some cases is forbidden fruits today. More and more we are being restricted by Ownership.
    promise land
    before the crush
    Summer fruits

26. spring thunder
    riding the bike inside
    old man johnson’s barn

    simonj
    UK

    This tickled me this week. Visualising Dennis amongst all the Beano and Dandy characters had me smiling for the afternoon.

    Thank you Kathy for including mine. So enjoyable to see such diversity from a single image.

    1. Apologies, It was Mr Wilson that was Dennis’s arch rival.
       Still, without research Simon’s poem took me on a journey.

27. Thank you, Kathy, for including mine. It was nice to read these haiku. Amazing creativity!

28. Dear Kathy,
    Greetings, Delighted to see my haiku included here, thanking you for the same. Thrilled to be in the garden of berries.
    Here is my favorite of so many. Something which makes me re read the write.

    family tree…
    but for our DNA
    our differences

    Carole MacRury

    1. Thank you Radhamani, for enjoying my offering to the prompt. The various degrees of ripening inspired the thought of family trees and ancestors. I’m delighted to see a few other minds were also led in a somewhat similar direction. I second your ‘garden of berries’, and felt the same. It was a joy to read through all the delicious offerings.

29. thanks Kathy for including mine – loving this foundation group 😀

30. Having been enjoying a lot of pick-your-own recently I appreciated this selection, thanks KJ for including mine. I also spotted the musical reference (but no berets?) and very much enjoyed Hifsa Ashraf’s ‘wild berries / the secrets of healing / on the tip of my tongue’.

    1. thank you, Mark. I enjoyed yours as well.

31. Thank you Kathy for including my haiku in this delightfully diverse collection. I enjoyed both the ones that echo childhood berry-picking memories that the image evoked for me and the many others with related or completely different associations. Two of these that stood out for me are:
    .
    persistent rain
    grandma’s betel-juice stained lips
    start another tale
    Anitha Varma
    .
    The rain, the red-stained lips, and a grandmother’s storytelling draw me in.
    .

    wild berries
    the secrets of healing
    on the tip of my tongue
    Hifsa Ashraf
    Pakistan
    .
    For me this poem evokes the physical and spiritual wealth of berries foraged from a bush…and more.

    1. thank you, Janice. 🙂

32. sun on my back
    a gentle tug tells me
    the berry is ripe
    .
    Debbie Scheving
    .
    A sensory overload (in a good way), including the little mentioned kinaesthesia in a “gentle tug”.

    1. Thank you simonj. I had just picked the first of the raspberries so the image was fresh.

33. Thank you Kathy for including mine. Looking forward to a wonderful afternoon of reading. …and congratulations everyone.

34. raspberry blues
    all grandma’s singing
    to help them grow
    .
    Xenia Tran
    Scotland
    .
    When I imagine a grandmother, I don’t imagine her singing the blues. This haiku created a new image in my mind.

    1. Thank you for your kind words Valentina. My grandmother loved to sing to flowers and fruit growing in her garden and when she sang to the raspberries she’d really give it some welly!

35. Kathy, I was surprised and pleased that you chose mine. Thank-you. Congrats to all the poets who were selected.

36. I am so glad that mine was included in this selection. Thank you, Kathy.

    Anitha.

37. It always struck me that raspberries are more delicate and refined than blackberries…something to do with their less prickliness and a more subtle flavour, but as a youngster, I hated to pull them off their inner core, leaving behind what my mother used to describe as their ‘soul’. What a lot of twaddle, bless her.
    There were a couple or more references this week to bears, and I’m pretty sure they don’t get that fussed about raspberry ‘souls’.
    Thank you Kathy for including my poem in this delicious assortment.

38. again – the variety of responses! lips, taste, balloons, colours, bears, food, & even what I think is a reference to Prince (?) (or the artist formerly known as Prince…), & themes of ripening, & groupings that lead to family groupings – fascinating!
    thanks to all for submitting, as always, & looking forward to what you will do with the ink… kj

    1. Thanks for including mine!

39. Enjoyed reading these. Raspberries are my favorite fruit. We grew them when I was a kid.

40. Just glancing through, a few caught my eye. Claire Camargo’s raspberries and babies’ stomachs (who hasn’t done this?), Terri French’s berry picking and eating more than putting in the bucket (who hasn’t done this, too?), Susan Rogers’ grandma’s way of showing love. Will read more thoroughly; I am sure to find more gems in the berry patch. Congratulations to all the poets.
    Thanks Kathy for accepting my confessional haiku and adding it to the brimming bowl of berries.

    1. Thank you for liking my haiku ! I also loved your raspberry rascals Nancy stealing their sweet treats!

    2. Thank you, Nancy Brady, for enjoying and mentioning my haiku!
       raspberries
       celebrating new life
       on babies’ bellies

       Claire Vogel Camargo
       USA
       .
       I so enjoyed your haiku:
       petty larceny…
       neighbor kids raid
       raspberry patch
       .
       Your line 1, “petty larceny…” reminds me of a poem I wrote about my puppy years ago being a “petty thief”!
       .
       Thanks,
       Claire

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