HAIKU DIALOGUE – Intoxication – Sports – commentary

Intoxication with Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt

It has been with us since time immemorial, and almost all of us have experienced it firsthand: intoxication. Endorphins produced in the body during exercise give us a feeling of happiness known as a “runner’s high,” and once again we are intoxicated. Intoxicants have been used to awaken our spirituality, make us forget physical hardships, or elevate our imagination to unprecedented heights. And yet intoxication has its dark side. In the coming weeks, we want to explore how legal intoxicants affect us, our brains, and our everyday lives. I invite you to join me on a journey into our everyday lives and our brains to explore intoxication.

Below is Deborah’s commentary for Sports:

working out
the crossword in ink
endomorphin rush

Curt Linderman
Seattle, USA

This poem makes me laugh. Exercising our brains benefits our well-being immensely. The brain is also a kind of muscle and needs to be exercised. The first and last lines clearly have a sporty tone, but the middle line surprises us with an unexpected twist, prompting our minds to explore new ways of thinking. This is mental exercise in its purest form. In Germany, we call this Gehirnjogging (“brain jogging”). And the results of this exercise will also reward us, since our brains release endorphins and make us feel good.

Endorphins kick in –
Bon Jovi assures me
I’m halfway there

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

This senryu is very well crafted. The first line sets the mood. Without the scene being described in detail, I picture someone at the gym – someone who has been working out hard for a while and is now feeling the rush of endorphins. Someone who keeps going with music to keep their spirits up and push through. And just as the endorphins suddenly ‘kick in,’ we’re suddenly struck by a quiet self-deprecating humor. The exerciser is only ‘halfway there,’ but we as readers have already gotten our money’s worth.

addicted to life –
a superhero beats
intoxication

Paul Callus
Malta

The Fantastiku is an often-underestimated cousin of the haiku. Some dismiss the Fantastiku as a product of the mind, conceived at a desk, and therefore consider it to be of lesser value than a haiku drawn directly from life. However, this is by no means the case. This poem is well crafted, linguistically appealing, and tells of one of the most difficult struggles a person can face: the battle against addiction. It is precisely the superhero setting that gives the poem its power.

yet another attempt
to jump over the bar
flying butterflies

Boryana Boteva
Sofia, Bulgaria

Failing, get back up, failing again, and try once more anyway. Resilience is essential for making progress in sports, just as it is in life. We don’t know if this is someone who isn’t very athletic, forced to meet school requirements, or if it’s a high-performance athlete training. We also don’t know if the next jump will be successful. But the attempt is being made, and maybe that’s all that matters? I really enjoyed reading this haiku.

jogging stroller–
pushed to run
before he can walk

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

I love the subtle self-deprecating humor in this poem. Still, it’s just funny to see parents jogging in the park with a stroller. The parents are having fun, but what about the kids? I see them often sleeping through this experience. Whether we love sports and whether they play an important role in our lives also depends on whether our parents set an example for us by participating in sports when we were children.

last long run
my trick knee
spoilers the high

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

I was really moved by this poem. We often take it for granted that our bodies function perfectly well. But then we get older, our bones grow weary, and things we used to enjoy without giving them much thought are now impossible for us. This poem will resonate with so many of us and remind us that we are not alone in suffering from aching bones. There are others like us, and perhaps we will learn to accept these changes and live peacefully with ourselves and our bodies.

twisting wind
a bronze team consoles
the silver

C.R. Harper
United States

This poem is fresh and offers a surprising perspective on circumstances we have all witnessed (sitting in front of the TV). I’ve often heard that bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists because they’ve won a medal. Runners-up often focus only on the fact that they didn’t come in first and feel disappointed, since the difference between the podium places at the award ceremony is often minimal. This poem shows us that, ultimately, it is our attitude that determines how we evaluate things and what feelings they trigger in us.

mile eighteen—
the roadside weeds
keeping pace

Thomas L. Vaultonburg
Rock River, Illinois

This poem is so funny and refreshing. It’s subtle, full of self-deprecating humor mixed with a touch of frustration. No matter how hard we try to achieve peak performance, others will catch up. Or they’re not competitive, and our struggles are of no concern to them. Apparently, you can also make progress while treading water, and after jogging 18 miles, always past the seemingly endless field of weeds, the runner might also feel like they haven’t moved an inch. Almost surreal, this poem plays with our sense of reality and makes us laugh.

runner’s high
making a dash
to the liquor store

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

At first glance, this poem also seems harmless and funny. But on closer inspection, it’s not quite so harmless and raises many questions. Is someone here addicted to the substances you can buy at a liquor store? Is that why he’s running so fast? What exactly is an intoxicating experience? Is the intoxication caused by ingesting substances more intense than that triggered by the body’s own neurotransmitters? What drives us to seek out intoxication? And what does it ultimately do to us and our bodies? A poem that amuses us but also makes us think. A successful haiku, then.

Join us next week for our next prompt…

Bios

Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt lives in Sinzig, Germany, with her husband, two rabbits and numerous books. After her PhD studies in Scandinavian languages and literatures, she works as a freelance author and poet. Her poems have appeared in magazines like 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 explores Chinese and Japanese novels.

Assistant Editor Lafcadio, a former teacher, now works from home writing, editing and proofreading study guides for nursing textbooks. She lives in Tennessee. She has written poetry for a long time but a couple of years ago fell in love with Japanese micropoetry and hasn’t looked back. Lafcadio has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. She writes under the nom de plume of Lafcadio because nom de plume is so fun to say. You can read her poems on Twitter (X) @lafcadiopoetry or BlueSky @lafcadiobsky.

Assistant Editor Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. She lives in New York City and enjoys reading and writing haiku.

Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She served as Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada for ten years, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.

Portrait by Laurel Parry

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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.  Read past Haiku Dialogue posts here.