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HAIKU DIALOGUE – ink

 

Welcome to Haiku Dialogue

Let’s talk about haiku! You are invited to respond to photographs – I will share a photo each week as a prompt for your writing…

Submit an original unpublished poem via our Contact Form by Saturday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.

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.

Poems will be selected based on the potential to generate discussion – these poems will be the best to talk about…

next week’s theme:

This is the final photo prompt for now – next week we will begin a new series… stay tuned!

The deadline for this theme is midnight Pacific Time, Saturday 27 July 2019.

I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

HAIKU DIALOGUE:  ink

Here are my selections for this week:

dark matter my mother says not to worry

Adrian Bouter

 

paint it black
on a white canvas
night winter sky

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

fickle breeze and
dappled shade… the artist tweaks
her palette again

Al Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

 

image emerges
from the shadows –
flight toward infinity

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

 

summer room
a locker key glistens
with its secrets

Alan Summers
Chippenham, Wiltshire, England

 

cities flicker
trying to mirror starlight…
night rolls in

Alfred Booth
France

 

drunk painter –
one more work
of contemporary art

Aljoša Vuković
Šibenik, Croatia

 

dark period…
technical tests
of depression

Angiola Inglese

 

palette knife
an attempt to gauge the depth
of his eyes

Anitha Varma

 

painting mindscape
with
your colours

Anjali Warhadpande

 

blue afternoon –
the Rolling Stones sing
paint it black

anna maria domburg-sancristoforo

 

paint roller –
how my palm print
fits into grandpa’s

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

sea glass
the glow between
squalls

B Shropshire
TX, USA

 

abstract
off to lunch for a
brighter perspective

Barbara Tate

 

take the sludgy paint
shove and spread it around
my chunky verses

Bruce Jewett

 

silkscreen
before the impression
has set

C.R. Harper

 

closed grisaille
the sadness
behind a smile

carol jones
Wales

 

sumi-e course
those dark spots
on his lung

cezar-florin ciobîcă

 

adoption
re-coloring
a future

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

edgy night wind
stops and starts –
winter’s chill deepens

clysta seney

 

art nouveau –
so little I can hide
with makeup

Cristina Angelescu
Romania

 

after funeral
changing photos
in black & white

Cristina Apetrei

 

deleted in draft
all those words
we won’t regret

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA

 

Mother’s face
etched in linoleum
birthday gift

dianne moritz

 

a bright future
a four-year-old son
painting all black

Dubravka Šćukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

 

black on white –
jasmine blossoms
into the night

Elisa Allo
Zug, Switzerland

 

mayday! mayday!
from my atelier straight to
delivery room

Franjo Ordanić

 

a thin mist
ahead of the coming storm
battleship grey

Garry Eaton

 

broken shell:
nostalgia sinks into the shadows

Giuliana Ravaglia

 

out of darkness
a rogue thought
breaks into words

Greer Woodward

 

prognosis
she paints her feelings
in black and white

Hifsa Ashraf

 

roller primed
for a first print –
Bashō’s thousand edits

Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, Macedonia

 

writer’s block
my brain a dark canvas
of wordless thoughts

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera CA USA

 

red hilt and ink of
black white brown and more
all have the same colored blood

Jo El
North Carolina

 

black day
her dear john letter
starts to blur

john hawkhead

 

museum art –
the child plays with
a plastic bottle

Justin Orlando
Charlottesville, VA

 

red handled roller
in the sky not yet
a touch of pink

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, CA

 

artist’s attempt
new painting techniques
ebony flash

Kathleen Mazurowski

 

… colouring
vibgyor seems
to fit my space

Lakshmi Iyer

 

ink study
all I see
when I close my eyes

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

diver in a hunt
octopus draws with ink
on the sea

Ljiljana Dobra
Sibenik Croatia

 

ink spots…
the undefined contours
of my fears

macchie d’inchiostro … i contorni indefiniti / delle mie paure

Lucia Cardillo

 

antique printing block
Cinderella’s dress
fills with moonlight

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

unsure strokes
among wild thoughts
an unsolved riddle

Luisa Santoro

 

canvas of life
a splash of equanimity
to see me through

Madhuri Pillai

 

deep dark
secrets
slowly revealed

Margaret Walker

 

After musical
The theatre once more has
To return to black

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

 

in front of Rothko
a toddler standing
on her head

Marietta McGregor

 

stippled the canvas and the painter

Marilyn Ashbaugh

 

black canvas
she dips her fingers into glitter
and creates stars

Marisa Fazio

 

fading memories
scrape the canvas
black and blue

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

highlights and shadows
the chiaroscuro life
of my mother

Mark Meyer

 

ink brush
on the night jar’s wing
a sliver of light

Martha Magenta

 

Halloween
the boy uses up
all the black paint

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

deep in your eyes
exploring all shades
of the black

Nadejda Kostadinova
Bulgaria

 

Rorschach test
she sees a dragon
in the clouds

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

charcoal portrait
I smear my hands
all over your face

nancy liddle
broken hill, australia

 

losing out in
finding a particular speck
night sky

Neelam Dadhwal
Chandigarh, India

 

black…
paint in canvas
and also my hair

Neni Rusliana
Bandung, Indonesia

 

how blotting paper
soaks up ink
evening fog

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

black and white –
I remember the colours
in the old photo

Pasquale Asprea

 

etaoinshrdlu
the printer’s devil
inks the type

Paul Geiger
Sebastopol CA

 

cross-legged
I touch all the colors
in the night sky

Pris Campbell

 

painting on canvas
day and night
merge into one

Radhamani sarma

 

indoor repair works
her way to pronounce
miscarriage

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

 

tunnel vision
colour coding my world
in black and white

Rashmi Vesa

 

brush and ink
dancing the world
onto paper

Rehn Kovacic

 

the color of memories indelible ink

Rich Schilling
Webster Groves, MO

 

out of the cellar
my wax drawing
alive with fish

Robert Kingston
Essex, UK

 

dark matter –
the coming and going
of melancholy

robyn brooks
usa

 

India ink again
rolls out the soul’s pigment
lightfast absence

Ron Scully

 

artist adds colors
to a shady background
unfinished life

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

 

loneliness…
nothing to paint
except black

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

fresh coat of paint
on memories –
from long time ago

SD Desai

 

Rorschach inkblot
lovely butterfly wings
I lie about

Sanela Pliško

 

my teenager
paints her pink bedroom walls
black

Sari Grandstaff

 

layer after layer
covering the present –
black print of past

Saša Slavković
Slovenia

 

receding shadows the night layers to a footnote

Shloka Shankar

 

artist’s proof
my john hancock
drawkcab

simonj
UK

 

new wife
the traditionally white room becomes pink

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

darkness on the canvas
trying to walk away
from myself

Stephen A. Peters

 

unfinished work
the wavering vision
of yes and no

Steve Tabb
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

 

paint cans and rollers
redesigning my space
for this new dance

Susan Bonk Plumridge
London, Canada

 

rehab painting day
the brain-injured boy draws
his first miracle

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA USA

 

petrichor…
black-and-white photos
of mom and dad

Theresa A. Cancro
Wilmington, Delaware USA

 

daughter’s first painting
in place of signature
her fingerprints

Tomislav Sjekloća
Cetinje, Montenegro

 

Christmas eve
hobo paints a pretty
fireplace

Tsanka Shishkova

 

teaching cursive…
the writing is no longer
on the wall

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

dark chocolate
all the goodness beneath
dad’s firmness

Vandana Parashar

 

paint on his face
my nephew’s laughter
colours the walls

Veronika Zora Novak

 

the palmist circles
her mount of moon
a haiku

Vicki Miko

 

in the studio
question for the question –
black is ok

Zdenka Mlinar
Zagreb, Croatia

 

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).

 

This Post Has 80 Comments

  1. Dear Kathy,

    Thank you for including my haiku in this wonderful collection written for your Ink prompt.

    I so enjoy participating and reading the fine haiku written by all.

    Eyes glued,

    Claire

  2. Thank you Kathy for including my haiku in this week’s selection of ekphrastic writing. It’s amazing to see so many beautiful and thought-provoking haiku stemming from one source.

  3. Kathy –
    Thank you for the intriguing photo prompts! I look forward each week to the responses – and a new prompt to capture my imagination.

    1. Hello Laura. If this was intended for next week’s photo prompt, you just need to click on the red “contact form” in the above second paragraph before midnight today and it will go to Kathy for consideration.

      1. Thanks and apologies, being new to the blog, I mucked up and used the wrong contact box.

        1. thanks for catching this Debbie! & no worries, Laura – there is always next week! Please do submit again – a new prompt will be posted on Wednesday each week… kj

  4. Thank you so much Kathy for including mine among these fine haiku inkterpretations. And thank you Alan for commentary! I too very much look forward each week to trying my hand at haiku and reading everyone’s.

    1. A black light torch might be a great Christmas gift for your daughter! 🙂
      Fascinating haiku and I wonder how far can a person go, in order to make a room meld to black?

  5. Dear Kathy,

    My thanks for choosing my haiku once again. I am really in great company. Congrats to everyone.
    I especially enjoyed these three

    dark matter my mother says not to worry

    Adrian Bouter

    ink spots…
    the undefined contours
    of my fears
    .
    macchie d’inchiostro … i contorni indefiniti / delle mie paure
    .
    Lucia Cardillo

    the color of memories indelible ink
    .
    Rich Schilling
    Webster Groves, MO

  6. Dear, Dear, Marietta McGregor…
    .
    Within the wallow of all the dark, of all the prose, a haiku of merit!
    .
    You nailed it with unexpected whimsy, and with a perfect foil; the Rothko reference.
    .
    You are a prize, and a gift to the haiku community!
    .
    .
    in front of Rothko
    a toddler standing
    on her head

    Marietta McGregor
    .
    Jan in Texas

  7. Dear Kathy,

    Thank you for including mine in your artfully selected fine haiku this week. Working with a prompt is very helpful to our craft but we cannot do it alone.

    Thanks again,

    Margie Gustafson

    1. Dear Margie,
      .
      .
      Kathy runs a great feature, where people can discuss and comment on haiku and it’s really helpful isn’t it? 🙂
      .
      .
      Most weeks I try to post a themed commentary, and this week it’s The Five Quarters of Haiku:
      https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2019/07/24/haiku-dialogue-ink/#comment-105051
      .
      .
      .
      After musical
      The theatre once more has
      To return to black
      .
      Margie Gustafson
      Lombard, IL USA
      .
      .
      I love this phrase!!!
      .
      “The theatre once more has to return to black”
      .
      aka
      .
      The theatre once more has
      To return to black
      .
      .
      It takes me back to childhood and big thick black closing curtains where actors might come out for another run of applause, and then simply ‘vanish’. 🙂
      .
      It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a musical. The last one was Terje Isungset’s version of The Emperor’s New Clothes, with the Emperor as a kind of British Prime Minister closely similar to Tony Blair. I remember we bumped into the actor and praised his work. It was an incredible production!

  8. painting mindscape
    with
    your colours

    Anjali Warhadpande

    Maybe you paint an aura.
    I hope it’s not in black and white 🙂

    ——————-

    blue afternoon –
    the Rolling Stones sing
    paint it black

    I like this haiku.

    ————————

    teaching cursive…
    the writing is no longer
    on the wall

    Valentina Ranaldi-Adams

    …except on the walls of streets 🙂

    —————————————-

    daughter’s first painting
    in place of signature
    her fingerprints

    Tomislav Sjekloća

    what a charming haiku

  9. Another great week, and I learned several new words, not being an artist.
    .
    highlights and shadows
    the chiaroscuro life
    of my mother
    .
    Mark Meyer
    .
    The story and feeling here intrigued me.
    .
    the color of memories indelible ink
    .
    Rich Schilling
    .
    A lot packed into one short line!
    .
    new wife
    the traditionally white room
    becomes pink
    .
    Slobodan Pupovac
    Zagreb, Croatia
    .
    I enjoy hearing cultural traditions that are new to me. Is there some rebellion against the norm here?
    .
    blue afternoon-
    the Rolling Stones sing
    paint it black
    .
    anna maria domburg-sancristoforo
    .
    This lyrical haiku lifted the blues.
    .
    “…octopus draws with ink…” by Ljiljana
    Dobra was a clever use of the prompt.
    .
    And Alan Summers’ “…locker key glistens…” immediately reminded me of reading Nancy Drew mysteries when young.

    1. Thanks! 🙂
      .
      .
      deleted in draft
      all those words
      we won’t regret
      .
      Debbie Scheving
      Bremerton WA
      .
      .
      This reminds me of the old haiku email forums, where I tried to suggest that strong feelings be best put into draft and not sent a second later with regret. 🙂
      .
      If something or someone deeply upsets me I certainly consider a draft email with no email address inserted, and delete it a few moments later, having got whatever it was out of my system.
      .
      Sometimes to have no regrets, because we didn’t rush our words, is something to envy very much. Thanks for such a strong verse.

      1. Thank you Alan. My first attempts were about writing crossed out in ink, I go through a lot of pens myself, then it went in a different direction.

  10. Dear Kathy
    thank you for including my works

    This one is stunning:

    dark matter my mother says not to worry

    Adrian Bouter

    Love it

  11. Dear Kathy,
    thanks for including mine. this weekly challenge is a treasure trove for me.
    Nancy

  12. fresh coat of paint
    on memories –
    from long time ago
    .
    SD Desai
    .
    Time has a way of changing memories.

  13. Christmas eve
    hobo paints a pretty
    fireplace
    .
    Tsanka Shishkova
    .
    Nicely written haiku about the fact that not everyone is able to enjoy
    an abundance at Christmas.

  14. Thanks Khaty for publishing my haiku, as usual I read some very interesting things, trying to learn to do better and better

  15. Dear Kathy
    Thank you so much for including mine.
    I have so enjoyed responding to the images put up.

  16. dark matter my mother says not to worry
    .
    Adrian Bouter
    .
    The intangible and uncontrollable at both ends, connected by a real and sage presence.

  17. Amid all the darkness I appreciated these two humourous senryu (?) – Aljoša Vuković‘s ‘drunk painter – / one more work / of contemporary art’ and Barbara Tate‘s ‘abstract / off to lunch for a / brighter perspective’. Thanks KJ.

  18. this week we enjoy photos, night, weather, colour & shade, art & artists, writing & editing, words & letters, birth, health, hands, ink & paint of course… thank you all as always – we will be welcoming Craig Kittner back as guest editor for the month of August… & we are actively seeking new guest editors to join the team – please consider this & send a note on the contact form if you are interested in learning more!

    1. Dear kj munro –
      My apologies for my late reply…I’ve been out of the loop/ loopy with summer allergies and a bit of melancholy…It is the anniversary of my grandmother’s passing and my late aunt’s birthday…
      Thank you, so much, for publishing my haiku.
      Congratulations to this stellar group of poets. Thank you all! robyn

  19. Many thanks for including my verse in your line-up, and for your informative comment, Alan.
    Much appreciated.
    .
    Your verse has a profound tilt, its as if the ‘key’ has a mischief all of its own.

        1. I can’t remember the last time I had a locker key, and it would have been for some changing locker (swim kit or such). I think it was Glasgow in 1994 when I was taken along to the sauna, steam rooms, and those bitter cold pools!
          .
          I did know someone with a Swiss Bank Account, but he said he was just holding it open with about ten dollars. 🙂
          .
          So do you have a locker room stashed away, maybe somewhere in an accessible part of the Welsh Black Mountains? 🙂

          1. Well well, look you now, ‘cough’
            .
            I may have a little one somewhere, but nowhere accessible in them there hills 🙂

          2. haha… it is not my key!!
            it is my photo, though – taken last May at the Dawson Daily News Print & Publishing Festival in Dawson City, Yukon… so glad it provided such inspiration! kj

          3. Hi Kathy,
            I loved the amount of things on the fringe of the photo! In fact Call of the Page held a shahai convo available to our course students touching on this aspect.
            .
            I wonder whose locker key it was? 🙂

  20. Dear Katherine,
    thank you for publishing my haiku… it is a pleasure for me.
    Congrats to all the selected!
    Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

  21. Thank you, Kathy, for another great selection. Love Margaret Walker’s deep dark / secrets / slowly revealed. Here is my version of darkness and secrets:

    low light
    all the secrets
    we reveal
    (Olivier Schopfer, Failed Haiku 31, July 2018)

    1. Oliver,
      Thank you. I’m so pleased you liked my haiku! It looks like we had very similar thoughts or experiences at some time. I like your take on this as well.

  22. .
    THE FIVE QUARTERS OF HAIKU
    .
    by Alan Summers
    .
    .

    If anyone is or was in certain types of health and safety ‘jobs’ you will know we quarter each room, and know what’s beyond, what is ‘outside’. Doors or fire exits may be locked or jammed, and it’s good to know that and any hazards right outside.
    .
    With haiku, if we approach a picture (photograph or painting), or a room, it’s not a bad idea to look at each corner of the room, all four of them, plus that ‘fifth’ quarter, the area or areas ‘outside’ or ‘behind’ or ‘beyond’.
    .
    Any ekphrastic writing might directly be about the artwork in question, or the aspects ‘behind’ the work, whether about the artist or what is left out or ‘behind’. The 5th Quarter is always as valid as any visible or not-so-visible corner, or quarter of a room.
    .
    The photograph has several corners! There is the white board, there are the ‘corners’ of each swipe of the inking device, there is the corners of the room with the blue floor, and of course each floorboard is bound by four corners.
    .
    And of course there is always something lurking or lying deep inside one corner of something at least, whether photograph (think Bladerunner) or any of the ‘framed’ objects/subjects or images.
    .
    Then there is the corners of the photograph itself!
    .
    .
    Beware flashing lights/images!
    .
    .
    Blade Runner Enhance Scene
    “A photograph acts as interface to a 3D space”
    http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ironman28/clips/bladeRunner3DphotoH264.mov/view
    .
    Beware flashing lights/images!
    .
    .
    .
    And of course not everything is visible or present in a corner, perhaps the sharp angle of a corner points to something else, in us as much as ‘outside’?
    .
    .
    .
    There was certainly a lot of mention about ‘black’ and ‘dark’ including this wonderful monoku:
    .
    .
    dark matter my mother says not to worry
    .
    Adrian Bouter
    .
    .
    A parent is a parent regardless how old the ‘toddler’ is, whether they are six years or sixty years old! The dark matter might be one of the building blocks of the universe, or one of the disturbing dark matters that too many people in power (crime, politics, corporate activities) engage in, at our own peril, rather than their peril. A mother protects, as they can only do so much, and it would wrong to subject a child to the hidden wrongs of the human world all at once.
    .
    .
    Whole cities flicker with Alfred Booth’s haiku! This author successfully goes beyond one ‘thing’ to many things, but all them, we think, are under night aka nightfall.
    .
    .
     
    cities flicker
    trying to mirror starlight…
    night rolls in
    .
    Alfred Booth
    France
     
    .
    .
    paint roller –
    how my palm print
    fits into grandpa’s
    .
    arvinder kaur
    Chandigarh, India
    .
    .
    A beautful treatment here, very tactile, very physical and inter-generational.
    .
    .

     
    sea glass
    the glow between
    squalls
    .
    B Shropshire
    TX, USA
    .
    .
    Ah, there are always “in-betweenesses” to look for and appreciate. 🙂
    .
    .

    closed grisaille
    the sadness
    behind a smile
    .
    carol jones
    Wales
    .
    .
    Fantastic use of a word for an art technique many of us may have seen sometime, but not realised the name of it. Grisaille is a method of painting in grey monochrome, typically to imitate sculptures.
    .
    Great use of consonance with the ’s’ letters in almost every word!
    .
    .
     
    sumi-e course
    those dark spots
    on his lung
    .
    cezar-florin ciobîcă
    .
    .
    A fantastic use of juxtaposition that projects the reader in a participatory trajectory! This is rich in context and psychological inner journey.
    .
    .
     
    adoption
    re-coloring
    a future
    .
    Claire Vogel Camargo
    .
    .
    Adoption or fostering is a gift to a child bereft of family, and of care and diligence, and love. Wonderful poem.
    .
    .

    art nouveau –
    so little I can hide
    with makeup
    .
    Cristina Angelescu
    Romania
    .
    .
    Wow, what a phrase, and what a reaction or juxtaposition to the opening line. Very strong poem.
    .
    .

    roller primed
    for a first print –
    Bashō’s thousand edits
    .
    Ingrid Baluchi
    Ohrid, Macedonia
    .
    .

    As we know, Matsuo Bashō spent years editing his haikai verses, especially those in his famous haibun. A haiku can be a poem of a thousand cuts, and if anyone says we shouldn’t edit a haiku e ever, or hardly at all, point them to Bashō and his most famous Narrow Road to the Far North haibun!
    .
    .

     

     
    black day
    her dear john letter
    starts to blur
    .
    john hawkhead
     .
    .

    I remember a friend reading tens of thousands of letters for a book, and many of them would have been letters about family members passing away from piracy on the open seas or several world wars from medieval times to the mid-20th century. I’m sure other letters were about romantic losses of the heart as well.
    .
    .
    ink study
    all I see
    when I close my eyes
    .
    Laurie Greer
    Washington DC
    .
    .
    Intriguing! I know if I’ve looked into something bright (external source) and then close my eyes I have a lot of inkblots and my own personal rorschach test. And for those with intricate imaginations, doubtless you see whole countries of the mind unfold.
    .
    .

    ink spots…
    the undefined contours
    of my fears
    .
    macchie d’inchiostro … i contorni indefiniti / delle mie paure
    .
    Lucia Cardillo
    .
    .
    That’s a brilliant line of poetry (or even prose)!
    “the undefined contours of my fears”
    .
    .

     
    antique printing block
    Cinderella’s dress
    fills with moonlight
    .
    Lucy Whitehead
    Essex, UK
    .
    .
    So many of us have had a Cinderella moment, when midnight might reduce our realised dreams to those of rags and tears. I like how I can imagine a printing block reproducing the tale of Cinderella, and through the window come moonbeams full of promise, and a private telling of a story.
    .
    .
     
    deep dark
    secrets
    slowly revealed
    .
    Margaret Walker
    .
    .
    Ah, deep dark, and deep dark secrets, slowly revealed by dawn or another agent? An intriguingly mysterious poem.
    .
    .
    in front of Rothko
    a toddler standing
    on her head
    .
    Marietta McGregor
    .
    .
    The unrestrained honesty of a child! And a great way of fully enjoying a painting! A wonderful poem!!! 🙂
    .
    .
     
    stippled the canvas and the painter
    .
    Marilyn Ashbaugh
    .
    .
    A simple monoku but it has so much inside it. No corner is left unturned.
    .
    .

     
    fading memories
    scrape the canvas
    black and blue
    .
    Mark Gilbert
    UK
    .
    .
    Sadly whenever I read ‘black and blue’ it takes me back to people I’ve met who have been attacked, at home or in the street. The strong verb choice of ‘scrape’ counters and compliments the dual action of ‘fading’. A poignant verse.
    .
    .
     
    highlights and shadows
    the chiaroscuro life
    of my mother
    .
    Mark Meyer
    .
    .
    I love those lines!!! Brilliant poem.
    .
    .
     
    ink brush
    on the night jar’s wing
    a sliver of light
    .
    Martha Magenta
    .
    .
    Utterly and breathtakingly beautiful.
    .
    I’m not sure I’ve witnessed night jars aka nightjars or goat suckers, but seen many a Tawny Frogmouth, a distant relative.
    .
    .
    dusk at the golf club
    part of a marker pole
    a tawny frogmouth
    .
    Alan Summers
    1st Prize, Fellowship of Australian Writers, Queensland, Haiku Competition, June 1995 judged by Janice Bostok
    .
    .

    etaoinshrdlu
    the printer’s devil
    inks the type
    .
    Paul Geiger
    Sebastopol CA
    .
    .

    The language used by the operators of Linotype machines. A private insiders’ joke which would be a devil of a job to understand spoken or “set up”. 🙂
    .
    .
     
    cross-legged
    I touch all the colors
    in the night sky
    .
    Pris Campbell
    .
    .
    A beautifully expansive poem!
    .
    Only last night I was outside watching the sky lit up twice a second by lightning, glorious!
    .
    .
     
    painting on canvas
    day and night
    merge into one
    .
    Radhamani sarma
    .
    .
    Ah, the two corners of the 24 hours period, with the ‘other’ two corners of twilight hours at dawn and dusk. 🙂
    .
    .
     
    indoor repair works
    her way to pronounce
    miscarriage
    .
    Radostina Dragostinova
    Bulgaria
    .
    .
    Incredibly powerful, and deeply poignant. A masterful poem.
    .
    .
     
    tunnel vision
    colour coding my world
    in black and white
    .
    Rashmi Vesa
    .
    .
    Ah, gosh, we do that too often don’t we? Great phrase.
    .
    .
     
    the color of memories indelible ink
    .
    Rich Schilling
    Webster Groves, MO
    .
    .
    A wonderful monoku! 🙂
    .
    I love reading my different versions!!!!
    .
    .

     
    out of the cellar
    my wax drawing
    alive with fish
    .
    Robert Kingston
    Essex, UK
    .
    .
    Love that phrase! I wonder what else escapes the cellar?
    .
    .

     
    dark matter –
    the coming and going
    of melancholy
    .
    robyn brooks
    usa
    .
    .
    Beautifully poignant poem.
    .
    .

    Rorschach inkblot
    lovely butterfly wings
    I lie about
    .
    Sanela Pliško
    .
    .
    Wow! What a brilliant example of juxtaposition, and grasping all five corners.
    .
    .
     
    my teenager
    paints her pink bedroom walls
    black
    .
    Sari Grandstaff
    .
    .
    I’ve seen photos of people having painted walls and ceiling in black and it was nearly impossible to find any furniture, or the door! It’s a great challenge to transform the entirety of a room to black, so congratulations. I bet more than five quarters were covered! 🙂
    .
    .

     
    layer after layer
    covering the present –
    black print of past
    .
    Saša Slavković
    Slovenia
    .
    .
    The abruptness of that last line, withholding an article (a, an, the) or personal pronoun, makes this a powerfully effective poem throughout.
    .
    .
     
    receding shadows the night layers to a footnote
    .
    Shloka Shankar
    .
    .
    I love that ‘the night layers to a footnote’! The whole monoku is a beauty!!!
    .
    .
     
    artist’s proof
    my john hancock
    drawkcab
    .
    simonj
    UK
    .
     
    I remember a few comedy actors or comedians who were practiced at “The language of speaking backwards.” Perhaps all politicians should have to do this, and then perhaps the sheer overwhelming amount of talk for talk’s sake might reduce to an acceptable and practical level.
    .
    .

     
    darkness on the canvas
    trying to walk away
    from myself
    .
    Stephen A. Peters
    .
    .
    Powerful verse!
    .
    .

     
    unfinished work
    the wavering vision
    of yes and no
    .
    Steve Tabb
    San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
    .
    .
    Great last two lines!
    .
    .

     
    paint cans and rollers
    redesigning my space
    for this new dance
    .
    Susan Bonk Plumridge
    London, Canada
    .
    .
    Just love the musicality of the opening line! And the whole poem works beautifully! 🙂
    .
    .

     
    rehab painting day
    the brain-injured boy draws
    his first miracle
    .
    Susan Rogers
    Los Angeles, CA USA
    .
    .
    Outstanding! I’ve worked with adults at a head injury hospital unit. Painting and also writing haiku really helps.
    .
    A beautifully uplifting and crafted poem.
    .
    .
    I wish I could comment on more haiku, but these hours were a rare off-duty time, even on a day off!
    .
    .
    Alan Summers
    Call of the Page

      1. Thank you!
        .
        .
        I’d love to spend the day, commenting on these haiku including your’s, but I must venture out into the massed light of day. 🙂

    1. Many thanks, Alan, for seeing into my haiku, and your comments. I wasn’t sure it would be understood if one equates lino cutting with editing haiku, but as a scraperboard artist and lino printer, it was easy for me to see the connection. Both need ‘editing’ (adding to/cutting out) to achieve their final form.

      1. Dear Ingrid,
        .
        roller primed
        for a first print –
        Bashō’s thousand edits
        .
        Ingrid Baluchi
        Ohrid, Macedonia
        .
        .
        I love linocuts, and I jointly held a few exhibitions with Trevor Hadrell, where he designed cocktail recipes in linocut for the Floating Nightclub Exhibition, as well as for my lime quarter haiku etc…
        https://area17.blogspot.com/2013/03/lime-quarter-sixth-day-haiku-poetry.html
        .
        I’m astonished how you linocut artists can do either small works so accurately, or massive city scenes!

    2. Alan,
      Thank you for your comments about my haiku and all of the others on which you commented. Another wonderful learning experience from you!

    3. Always enjoy your comments in Dialogs, Alan. Thanks for mentioning mine among an extraordinary set of far-ranging poems. Cheers!

    4. Alan,
      Thank you for your comment on mine. So many you could have chosen. KJM certainly gives us plenty to submerge ourselves in.
      Thank you for the five corner tip.
      Love your entry into your analysis through your own turning keys ku.
      Best wishes
      Rob

      1. Rob,
        .
        .

        out of the cellar
        my wax drawing
        alive with fish
        .
        Robert Kingston
        Essex, UK
        .
        .
        There were a lot of other good haiku, and I hope others will commentate on them, as this webpage is all about haiku dialogue, and I look forward to that.
        .
        I systematically went through each haiku, and looked for certain things, including a mention of a room, or something that might have what we perceive to have four corners or four quarters.
        .
        I really liked the suggestion of the vividness and sheen of the wax crayon drawing of fish that were rising from the cellar just as salmon rise when the rivers are in spate.
        .
        But also ‘cellar’ can additionally be metaphorical or symbolic of something within us that is good and wishes to surface.
        .
        It certainly contains a lot of resonance as I’ve read the haiku many times now, and it increases in its ‘movement’ as a haiku.

    5. seeping light
      *~(*)-
      his fingertips find the words
      _^~*
      in our braille

      Always insightful Alan, and always bringing new perspectives. Hope to catch up soon.

      1. John,
        .
        .
        black day
        her dear john letter
        starts to blur
        .
        john hawkhead
        .
        .
        My middle is John, on both occasions, although I’m addressed by two different ‘given’ names. The poem feels so sad, and I worry what the black day was, and if things ever got back to some level of happiness or contentment.
        .
        Moon is also a beautiful braille system and Felix Dennis had this made into poetry books when he was doing his wine cellar tour by helicopter. Both systems as communication must be amazing, to physically have words move under our fingertips, even in utter darkness, metaphorically and literally.
        .
        My favourite haunts are The Angel and The Rivo, and the latter is, as you might know, around five or six minutes from the train station if Siemens take you there one fine day. And the ‘Nam station cafe is pretty darned fine too! 🙂
        .
        warmest regards,
        Alan

    6. Thanks Alan,for your comments on my poem and on all the others. Somehow it all remains kind of incomplete without your commentary that we look forward to each week. Thanks kj for wonderful pictures every week and for including my poems. I thoroughly enjoy this blog. Best,arvinder

      1. Dear Arvinder,
        .
        .
        paint roller –
        how my palm print
        fits into grandpa’s
        .
        arvinder kaur
        Chandigarh, India
        .
        .
        That’s also a lovely line break/enjambment where you’ve artfully withheld the verb until the final line. Great haiku! 🙂

      1. Thank you, that is very kind of you.
        .
        .
        ink spots…
        the undefined contours
        of my fears
        .
        macchie d’inchiostro … i contorni indefiniti / delle mie paure
        .
        Lucia Cardillo
        .
        .
        Wonderful!

    7. Alan
      .
      Claire Camargo has pulled a deep meaningful haiku from the abstraction of the picture.
      .
      Adoption may well bring to mind humans, but to know Claire is to know her devotion to adopting pets, especially dogs, into healthy families.
      .
      Claire’s haiku has enough white space (in all that is dark surrounding it) to allow several reads.
      .
      A seasoned haiku, indeed!
      .
      Jan in Texas

      1. Dear Jan,

        Thank you so much for your insightful comments on my haiku “adoption…” addressed to Alan. Your reading and interpretation of more than one layer is gratifying and instructive. And true.

        Thanks much,

        Claire

      1. I really enjoyed your haiku!
        .
        .
        cities flicker
        trying to mirror starlight…
        night rolls in
        .
        Alfred Booth
        France
        .
        .
        Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just see those star systems we attempt to replicate in soulless office windows though?

    8. Dear Alan,

      Thank you for your “Five Quarters” of haiku presentation. Good for several more reads and application.

      Happy that Kathy Munro included my haiku. A big thank you for your kindness in commenting on my haiku:
      adoption
      re-coloring
      a future

      Something that in my mind applies not just to people, but to animals too.

      Much appreciated,
      Claire

    9. Dear Alan –
      I hope that it is never too late for a heartfelt and sincere thank you…
      Thank you so very much for your kind words about my poem. I have been dealing with the enormous loss of my female elders…trying to sort out my own dark matter. I truly appreciate it.☺️ robyn

  23. Kathy–thank you so much for the inclusion–this was fun with flashbacks of art school many years ago. Looking forward to a great afternoon of reading!!

  24. Perhaps like Jackie Chou’s
    .
    writer’s block/my brain a dark canvas/of wordless thoughts
    .
    and Laurie Greer’s
    .
    ink study/all I see/when I close my eyes
    .
    I imagined this photo would be difficult to translate into a poem. But none of it! What an amazing variety!
    Particularly liked the two above, along with Barbara Tate’s humorous comment on the color black:
    .
    abstract/off to lunch for a /brighter future
    .
    Adrian Bouter’s comforting
    .
    dark matter my mother says not to worry
    .
    and recognized something similar in my own childhood in Vandana Parashar’s lovely
    .
    dark chocolate/all the goodness beneath/dad’s firmness.
    .
    What a pleasure to be among you all. Thank you Kathy!

  25. Thanks dear Kathy for adding my haiku to this beautiful collection on photo theme Ink. An array of emotions and dialogue. Congrats to those works are selected.

  26. I ink, therefore I am…

    By the time I get through all of these haiku I suspect my fingers (and mind) will be inky with the all the images presented. A quick glance at some of them finds humor, poignancy, depth, and more.

    Thank you for including mine in this grouping, KJ. I feel honored to be among this stalwart group of poets.

  27. I am so glad to be among those who got selected.. enjoyed all.of them, congratulations, all.

    Anitha Varma.

  28. Thank you, dear Kathy, for choosing my haiku work! Congratulations to all worthy haikuists!

  29. Kathy, thank-you for publishing my haiku. It is always a pleasure to be published in this column.

  30. Thanks for choosing mine, Kathy. Wow, what an amazingly rich selection of haiku. I think this is my favourite week so far. I love so many of them. Fascinating to see what has come out of the contemplation of black ink.

  31. Who would have though so much humour, sadness, psychology and memories could be portrayed by one small inky patch, an amazing read.
    .
    Thank you so much for including one of mine Kathy, appreciated.

  32. Dear Kathy,
    Greetings. Thankfully delighted to see my haiku in this colorful forum; My eyes are dipped in so many paintings. Going through one by one all the wonderful word paintings.
    with regards
    S.RADHAMANI

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