HAIKU DIALOGUE – Going for a Walk – wind and waves (at the beach) – commentary

Going for a Walk with Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt

The late Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh could see water in all its transformations. Water in the form of a cloud would soon become rain, a river, the sea, and it would help grow plants and trees. The trees would flourish and become paper on which the haijin would write their poetry, so that the cloud (water) would eventually be contained within the poetry itself. Nothing can exist by itself. Let’s take a walk together to follow the different paths of water and see where they will lead us.

Below is Deborah’s commentary for wind and waves (at the beach):

high tide
the refugee back ashore
eyes half open

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh India

The sea was often used as a path to a new and better life. People sailed to a new shore and longed for a place of their own where they could live their lives in peace and earn a living for their families. This sad poem is about a refugee and it does not say why this person fled or whether they are still alive or not. Whatever the intentions were, they obviously failed, because this person is brought back to land. I think of all the refugees who have died at sea on their way to a better future. These people, who are often seen as just a number, are still people who will be missed and mourned.

the only one
in a shirt and pants
wave upon wave

Alex Fyffe
United States

This haiku is written in ordinary words and in an ordinary way, but it is very effective in the images it creates and worth reading because of all the questions it asks. Why did the lyrical self choose the shirt and pants? What has happened to him/her/them? Is it shame (a serious injury), the need to protect himself/herself/themself from the sun, or the feeling of being uncomfortable in his/her/their own body because he/she/they once suffered sexual harassment? And last but not least, is the lyrical self attacked (wave after wave) because it is different? This poem tells us a lot about what it means to be different, to stand alone. An experience that most of us will have in the course of our lives.

words unsaid
pebbles roll
in the backwash

Daniela Misso
Italy

Communication is the theme of the poem, or rather the lack of communication. There are words, but they remain unsaid, there are topics that want to be discussed, but there is no opportunity to do so. Perhaps there will be time later. The need is there. Like the stones in the wake, the unsaid words never leave your head. They are heavy and sharp, clash against each other and demand all your attention. Sooner or later they will find their way to be spoken.

mermaid sighting
a lost doll tangled
in kelp

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

The wonders of the sea have fascinated people for ages, stimulating their imagination and inspiring them to embark on voyages of discovery. Monsters and wonder peoples inhabited islands and continents at the edge of the known world or called the sea their home. The mermaid sighting, however, turns out to be extremely mundane. A doll, presumably relatively cheaply produced and made of plastic, lies there tangled in kelp. The feeling of wonder is lost as the doll is. Maybe forever.

gentle waves
on an empty beach
a nurse cries

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington, USA

A nurse on the beach. They are crying. Being a nurse is hard. Too many suffering people, too little time to look after each one. Who takes care of the person who is a professional carer? There is no one to comfort them, but the waves are gentle. I can see them lightly touching their feet. At least that is a small comfort to them.

high surf –
for a while
I become a fish

Keiko Izawa
Japan

Yes, this is a happy haiku and brought a smile to my lips. It reminds me of Issa and how much he loved all the creatures that shared his spaces. Even the ones most of us wouldn’t give a second thought to. What must it feel like to be a fish or a bird or a cat? To be able to change into a new identity for just a short time, into a new element, into a body that is so different from that of a human? And yet we are closely connected. Don’t we share the same planet? Don’t we grow up, raise the generation that comes after us and then grow old? Are we not one family?

anxious the wave anxious too the wind

Mircea Moldovan
România

This one-liner manages with only seven words, two of which are the same: ‘anxious’. There are two opponents in this poem. The waves and the wind, but ultimately both forces (of nature) are driven by the same emotion. They are both fearful. What they fear is left to the reader’s imagination. Even though the wind seems to be the more active part and the waves are forced to move, they are pretty much the same at their core. Both are forces of nature, both act because they suffer from fears. The key question is: is it wise to act because of impermanent feelings? Am I to blame if I am tempted to read this as a metaphor for the ongoing wars?

evening beach walk —
the waves
do all the talking

Pappafava Michael
Belgium

Short, poignant, with a twist in the last line that makes me feel a lot of complicated emotions. The incessant sound of the waves is all that breaks the silence. But someone is listening. Is it just one person or is it more than one? Perhaps a couple who could talk to each other, but the flow of words has dried up? We all long to communicate, to be seen and recognized for who we are in our relationships. Perhaps the connection between these people no longer exists, perhaps the opposite is the case and they share an intimate silence that only people who trust each other completely can achieve. The interpretation is up to you.

with the rhythm of waves
i lift litter from the shore

Pamela Garry
Connecticut USA

The division of this poem into two lines supports the effect of the words in a wonderful way. The antagonism of garbage, consisting of ropes, fishing lines, plastic and other garbage that is repeatedly washed ashore. And a single person trying to do something about this overpowering phenomenon. Who bends down again and again to pick up what should never get into the water. Was it this person’s responsibility that the garbage is now being washed up on the beach? Hardly! But nevertheless, there is this conscious decision to make a difference and attempt the almost impossible.

asfaraseyescansee
plastic waves

Nitu Yumnam
India

So this is another haiku that deals with the same theme. The first line perfectly captures the eternal surface of the sea, while the second line brings in movement and time. Plastic is a material that is only used by humans for a very short time and yet has become one of the biggest problems for our environment. Our oceans are under threat like never before. Plastic swirls, hundreds of thousands of bathtub ducks floating in the world’s oceans, animals eat that indigestible plastic and die in agony. It’s time to take action and help our environment.

full moon
the tides ebb and flow
in me

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

The sea and the moon, what do they have to do with us? We look at them, we see their beauty and yet we often feel separated from them. And yet the human body consists mainly of water, which suddenly succumbs to the gravitational pull of the Earth’s satellite just like the sea.

the arrival
and departure of a wave
first crush

Sumitra Kumar
Chennai, India

Love is like a force of nature. Most of us will never forget our first crush, but it rarely stays with us forever. If we’re not so lucky, our hearts break at some point and after a while we heal and perhaps fall in love a second time. Everything changes, even the things we hope will last the longest. Like the waves, love comes and goes again and again. That’s life. But even when we suffer a loss and are devastated, we must remember that there is the promise of a new spring.

mirage–
waves sweep away
a sandcastle

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

This haiku kept puzzling me until I had a big revelation. How often do we make plans, hold on to our hopes and worries, think about how important we are, or about the things we are still missing in our lives? But are these things really what life is all about? How often are there circumstances, waves that sweep away our idle plans, and the mirage is lifted. And then when we are forced to let go, we wonder why we can let go at all. Perhaps for the first time we can see our self and our life clearly. And feel grounded.

Join us next week for our next prompt…

Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt lives in Bonn, Germany, with her husband, two rabbits and numerous books. After her PhD studies in Scandinavian languages and literatures, she now works as a freelance author and poet. One of her poems won 2nd place in the 2021 Pula Film Festival Haiku Contest. Her poems have most recently appeared in Prune Juice, Kingfisher, First Frost, Frogpond, Failed Haiku and Tsuridoro. If she is not outside for a long stroll or to do some birdwatching, she is an avid reader who is currently exploring Chinese Xianxia Webnovels.

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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Banner photo credit: Andreas Brandt

Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week.