HAIKU DIALOGUE – Looking Out – far from Earth – long list

Looking Out with Guest Editor Marietta McGregor

The phrase ‛looking out’ can mean to be on the watch in case something unexpected should happen. We shout, “Look out!” if we see danger approaching. We build physical lookouts. They may take the form of tall steel and wooden towers used as vantage points to search for forest fires, a crow’s nest high on a ship’s mast, periscopes on a submarine, or wooden clifftop decks on headlands overlooking scenic coastal vistas for travelers’ photo stops. Human lookouts are people whose job it is to warn against hazards on land and at sea. ‛Looking out’ can also mean observing our surroundings. As well as our own finely tuned senses, we use a variety of instruments to help us see more of the world. Microscopes and electron microscopes allow us to scrutinise very small things. Medicine makes use of X-rays, ultraviolet light and radio waves for scanning the body. Binoculars and telescopes help us look out beyond the planet. From our earliest existence, we look outwards to the world for a holistic view, through our parents and other family members, teachers, books, radio, TV and the internet. Space beckons us. And, of course, we look out for each other, to help in times of need or stress.

Below is Marietta’s selection of poems on the topic of Looking Out – far from Earth:

eight planets
a queue
for the telescope

Saumya Bansal
India

 

excited school kids
with their special glasses
and then it rains

Cindy Putnam Guentherman
Illinois, USA

 

a child with binoculars
as still as
the watching kingfisher

Ann Rawson
Scotland, UK

 

starry sky
the dreamer in me
wants out

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

 

looking in
those who-am-I questions
from a lighthouse

Alfred Booth
Lyon, France

 

rising wind
we stand full time watch
crossing the Gulf Stream

Pris Campbell
U.S.

 

cabin porthole
after the watch
studying the moon

Govind Joshi
Dehradun, India

 

small space
of skylight window
meteor

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

watering flowers
a look out for the next wave
of invaders

Randy Brooks
Taylorville, IL, USA

 

Marrakech feeria—
the bride comes gently
with the moon

Steliana Cristina Voicu
Ploiesti, Romania

 

Very Large Array
fifty mile field trip
to hear the universe

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

far from Earth
a green planet flashing
a midnight vision

Tuyet Van Do
Australia

 

a size too small footprints on the moon

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa, USA

 

lost in the dunes
the Milky Way presses
the curves of this night

Gary Rosin
Houston, Texas, USA

 

pale blue dot • slackjawed the whole trip

simonj
UK

 

far from Earth
am I too old to wish
on that shooting star

Deborah Guenther-Beachboard
Adna, WA, USA

 

kids finding
animals in the clouds, now . . .
horse-heads in the stars

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

 

winter stars
this same night sky
our ancestors saw

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton, UK

 

the stars
in a child’s eyes
Milky Way

marilyn ashbaugh
usa

 

losing count
the number of zeros
between here and there

wanda amos
Australia

 

stargazing
a firefly
intrudes

Ravi Kiran
India

 

night-time boat ride
the Milky Way above
and rippling below

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

butter moon
inches up
golden night

Kavita Ratna
India

 

ski camp night
the sky heavy
with stars

Keiko Izawa
Japan

 

First telescope—
I watch the stars
through a Smarties tube

Caroline Ridley-Duff
United Kingdom

 

boundless space
filled with dark matter
& my imagination

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

 

forgiving the child
who broke the melon vine
crescent moon

Deborah A. Bennett
Illinois, USA

 

big bang
on the head . . .
seeing stars

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

 

sleepless
under outback skies
I count Saturn’s rings

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

starry night—
I count your freckles
while you sleep

Lafcadio Orlovsky
USA

 

long lenses
the leaps
of an ibex

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

feynman point
strung from the trees
candle chandeliers

Jerome Berglund
Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

galaxy haze
an astronaut’s gaze
melts into stars

Sandip Chauhan
Great Falls, VA, USA

 

retirement—
discovering
new constellations

Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă
Romania

 

mapping the sky
she quizzes me—
where is heaven?

Grace De Sousa
Québec, Canada

 

gravity also
keeps the moon from falling
in love

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

 

son’s telescope:
the planets dance
in tiny eyes

Neena Singh
India

 

light from stars
that no longer exist
people we miss

Ivan Georgiev
Germany

 

campfire
boy and his dad
counting stars

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

moon viewing
the new lovers
have stars in their eyes

Marjolein Rotsteeg
The Netherlands

 

sailing through space
watching ancient films
of life on earth

Melissa Dennison
UK

 

patiently waiting
under leaden skies
UK stargazing

Nick T
Frome, Somerset, England

 

Andromeda
an alien vibes
with an alien

Nalini Shetty
Mumbai, India

 

North Star—
childhood friend
forever

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

 

deep space . . .
the enduring mystery
of the dark side of the moon

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

Flower moon
Grandma’s bag
of tales

Rashmi Buragohain
India

 

lonely stargazer—
the last human
on Earth

Dan Campbell
Virginia

 

empty birch
the sky and I
desolate

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

star gazing
my son asks me to point out
Asgard

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

Starlink
selling me the right
to watch me

Biswajit Mishra
Canada

 

a pause
in our stargazing
night jasmine

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

meteor jam
starlight squeezes
through the planets

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

 

first theme park
planets merry-go-rounding
the sun

Sumitra Kumar
Chennai, India

 

constellations—
all the stories
we still tell

Ruth Happel
United States

 

Pac-Man moon
the stars come out
to play

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio, USA

 

solar wind
my head releases
its star seeds

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

wheelchair
watching the butterfly emerge
from a cocoon

Fatma Zohra Habis
Algeria

 

the path of totality
all the ways we arrive
in sacred space

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

parallel universe—
I am forest bathing
under twin moons

Lee Hudspeth
California, USA

 

Challenger explosion
over east Texas
falling stars

Bette Hopper
Louisiana, USA

 

cold moon—
my thoughts floating like
space debris

Padma Priya
India

 

summer holidays
grandma asks us to look out
for the fishmonger

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

bonfire sparks
the Milky Way
unfolding

Archie G. Carlos
Minnesota

 

watching the autumn sky
nothing I expected
all I expected

Eva Limbach
Deutschland

 

southern lights
the radiance
of her smile

Sue Courtney
Orewa, New Zealand

 

I trace a path
through the Milky Way
firefly garden

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

telescope . . .
on the moon I see
a firefly

Ana Drobot
Romania

 

how she came and . . .
left with them in her sleep
her Perseids

for Deborah P Kolodji
8/1959-7/21 2024

Kathabela Wilson
USA

 

white cane
tapping with
the song of the stars

Lakshmi R Srinivas
Hyderabad, India

 

distant hills . . .
the ancient gods return
to their absence

Vijay Prasad
Patna, India

 

dead of night
opening the door
to a dream lion

Amoolya Kamalnath
India

 

the stars
way back home
Christmas eve

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

searching Earth
for signs of tranquility
. . . Lunarians

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

universe
the fly
and i

Dipankar Dasgupta
India

 

not remembering
what I just remembered
total solar eclipse

Claire Vogel Camargo
United States

 

ad alta quota
la gioia delle ali—
Via Lattea

at high altitude
the joy of wings—
Milky Way

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna, Italy

 

the farther I see
the smaller we are
one blue dot

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama

 

adolescent stars
I shift my gaze
to the girl next door

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois, USA

 

new year’s eve—
after the fireworks
stars!

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

the stars that are
and are not there
night sky

Helen Ogden
Pacific Grove, CA

 

cloudy night
dreaming of
vincent’s stars

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

imagining infinity my firefly mind

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

August evenings
a little more moon
with each walk

Susan Farner
USA

 

cloudy night
only a shaft
of moonlight

Christa Pandey
Austin, TX, USA

 

campfire circle
drinking the light
of a perseid shower

Lori Kiefer
UK

 

a shooting star…
before I look
at the telescope

Tomislav Maretić
Hrvatska

 

still waiting
for the body to appear . . .
Cat’s Eye Nebula

Julie Bloss Kelsey
Germantown, Maryland, USA

 

cielo infinito—
un girasole sfiora
la prima stella

infinite sky—
a sunflower touches
the first star

Angiola Inglese
Italia

 

bedroom full of space dust we scatter in the night sky

C.X. Turner
UK

 

total eclipse
the moon takes a bite
of the sun

Ann Sullivan
United States

 

summer night
my toddler reaches out to touch
the Milky Way

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

for centuries
outside our reach
the moon

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

meteor shower
washing away
the night’s friction

Kelly Sargent
Vermont, USA

 

death of a star
the telegram . . .
still in transit

Allison Douglas-Tourner
Victoria BC Canada

 

not expecting it
the wormhole
full of worms

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD

 

blinking star
she imagines it’s grandpa
driving the spaceship

M. R. Defibaugh
United States

 

solar eclipse
the diamond ring slips
off our marriage

Anju Kishore
India

 

holding her hand
as she slipped away
umbilicus cloud

Lorraine A Padden
San Diego, California USA

 

focusing
inside for insight—
the third eye

Stephen J. DeGuire
Los Angeles, CA

 

stepping into the multiverse
each one draws
the sun they see

Ruchita Madhok
Mumbai, India

Join us next week for Marietta’s commentary on additional poems…

Guest editor Marietta McGregor is a retired Tasmanian botanist and journalist who has made her home between 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 natural sciences, and has worked as palynologist, garden designer, science journalist, editor, university tutor, education manager, and grants developer for the national wildlife collection. 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.

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Banner photo credit: Marietta McGregor

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.