HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract – arrive/leave

Opposites Attract

Hello – kj here – I will be taking the reins again for the next few weeks, with the theme ‘opposites attract’. The prompt each week will be a pair of opposites – feel free to be inspired by one or the other, or both! I hope this draws you towards excellent haiku – the way the compass, even in these uncertain times, will always settle on ‘North’…

                  quarantine
                  compass needle
                  spinning

                           kjmunro

next week’s theme:  OPPOSITES ATTRACT – destroy/create

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Saturday October 17, 2020.

Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form. Please put Haiku Dialogue in the Subject box, & include your name as you would like it to appear, & your place of residence, with your poem. I look forward to reading your submissions.

A few haiku will be selected for commentary each week.

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.

Below is the commentary for arrive/leave:

art school endowment
leaving everything
to the imagination

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

What a wonderful, hopeful celebration of generosity, expressed here in a way that is fresh & new – it has always been true, but perhaps in our current world situation it has become clearer, that money changes everything, & certainly artists who have some degree of financial security are free to concentrate more fully on their art, their imaginations…

back home
I call my mother
back home

Marisa Fazio

Where home is where we are & also where we used to be, & where someone else is…

so long universe
as I enter another –
chapter eleven

Mark Meyer

On first reading, the first two lines of this poem lead the reader in a particular direction, perhaps a spiritual one, & line three turns this to a completely different interpretation – that of the bankruptcy of a business – where the business may have been someone’s whole universe, & which can be viewed as a form of rebirth…

departure lounge
we compare
our life lines

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

There is an interesting connection between the setting of this poem & the activity described – also, the reader can decide if the people involved have just met – is this an icebreaker?

& here are the rest of my selections:

the long whistle
of a flycatcher
departing train

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

ashes spread
where they met
for summer camp

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

 

omnipresent cat –
the mouse comes
and goes

Aljoša Vuković
Šibenik, Croatia

 

winter evening –
traveling with the moon
east to west

sera d’inverno –
in viaggio con la luna
da est a ovest

Angiola Inglese

 

super puma
lift-off
goodbye oil rig
hello home

Ann Rawson
Scotland

 

isolation ward –
recognising the footsteps
that come and go

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

on glideslope
descending on course
remembering her

B.A. France

 

arrival
I stop
breathing

Bakhtiyar Amini

 

company arrives –
my kids bring their kids
bring their friends

Barrie Levine
Wenham MA

 

furlough
first homecoming
swallows

Ben Oliver
Stroud, England

 

empty nester
time on her hands
with a blank calendar

Bona Santos

 

daisy petals
she loves me
she loves me not…

Brăilean Mirela
România

 

arrivals board
behind the glass window
departing geese

cezar-florin ciobîcă

 

getting ahead
of our selves
time machine

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California

 

soaking
in the first rain of spring
a clump of morels

Cherry A
Assam, India

 

the first cry
of my baby brother…
mother’s last breath

Christine L. Villa

 

takeoff –
a different emotion
than landing

Dan Campbell

 

goose honks overhead
either direction
dusk or dawn

Dana Rapisardi

 

fleeting glances –
sliding doors of the metro

sguardi fugaci –
le porte scorrevoli del metro

Daniela Misso

 

late spring
my winter hands
coming and going

David Gale
Gloucester UK

 

a new year
we leave the masks
in the closet

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton, WA

 

deer
crowded at the fence
visitors

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn

 

autumn comes –
a leaf comes off
and fly away

Dennys Cambarau
Italy

 

appointment –
new leaves replace
the old ones

Devoshruti Mandal

 

my mother’s house
as soon as I arrive
can’t wait to leave

Dianne Moritz
Southampton, NY

 

tombstone
a life span
engraved

Didimay D. Dimacali
Norwalk, CA

 

winter’s snowdrop –
days before her death
an acceptance

Dorothy Burrows
UK

 

between arrivals
and departures flickers
“cancelled”

Dubravka Šćukanec
Zabreb, Croatia

 

moving away
what goes and
what stays

Edna Beers

 

another birthday
every ending is
a new beginning  

Elisa Allo

 

lone autumn night
I rummage around
mother’s jewel box

Eva Limbach
Germany

 

videochiamata –
nel trolley un fiore in bottiglia

video call –
in the trolley a flower in a bottle

Giuliana Ravaglia

 

Clouds come floating
Dispelling gloom.
Farmers till the soil.

Goutam Dutta
Kolkata, India

 

November afternoon
poll workers finish
the urn of coffee

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

coming and going
the waves
everpresent

Helen Ogden

 

leaving my garden
red leaves fall
on neighbor’s lawn

Helga Stania

 

summer’s end
at the hospice window
hazy moon

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

shaft exit
night shift’s high fives
with the morning crew

Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, North Macedonia

 

seasons changing
the coming and going
of fair weather friends

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA

 

fleeting autumn
frost tinges
each leaf

Janice Munro
Canada

 

First tooth
(re)places my head
Under a pillow

Jerry French

 

winter solstice
a new bud before
the last leaf falls

Joanne van Helvoort

 

first chill in my bones
the sound of trumpeters
overhead

John S Green
Bellingham, WA

 

shooting star
explaining to the child
where I will go

john hawkhead

 

entrance of infected people –
sad eyes in spring…

Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi

 

coming back home –
grandpa’s open arms
behind the glass door

Julia Guzman

 

the first kiss
also our last…
departing train

Kanjini Devi

 

arrivals and departures catered for
florist shop

Karen Harvey
North Wales

 

the first frost,
rabbit tracks –
      dissolve

Lemuel Waite
Georgetown, Kentucky

 

train station
always in the same place
trains are passing

Ljiljana Dobra
Croatia

 

hurrying the elevator
to reach
her last breath

Lorraine A. Padden
San Diego, CA

 

elbow bump
an avenue
of bare elms

Louise Hopewell

 

apple blossoms…
my dreams too leave
one by one

Madhuri Pillai

 

winter sun…
absconding
the light of Buddha

Manoj Sharma
Kathmandu, Nepal

 

first to arrive
last to leave
her ex husband

Margaret Mahony

 

dream house ghosts in every room

Margaret Walker

 

to return
to the starting point
upwind

ritornare
al punto di partenza
controvento

Maria Teresa Piras

 

a virtual coffee break
watching my colleagues
arrive and leave

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

baby’s teeth
coming together and moving apart
my face tattoos

Melanie Vance
Texas

 

airport runway
between takeoffs and landings
well fed chicks

Michele L. Harvey

 

our broken
wedding vows
spring snow on roses

Michelle Beyers

 

dawn chorus…
at last a haiku
of migrating birds

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

baby bump
grandma’s knitting needles
click with joy

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

bicycle bell
my father’s silhouette
passes the horizon

Minko Tanev

 

economic migrant…
happy arrival
short lived

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

such a long time…
only his words arrive at me

Mona Iordan

 

discovering his death
she sends her ex
a friend request

nancy liddle
australia

 

autumn…
how easy it is
to let go

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

migrating –
at border crossings
to-and-fro murmur

Nicole Pottier
France

 

two pink lines
become one
yet motherhood lingers

Padma Srinivasan

 

her eyes
glancing past me…
my friend

Palle Krishna Rao
Chennai India

 

our last lunch shadows creep into the pudding

Pris Campbell

 

her last breath
when he arrives
into this earth

Radhamani sarma

 

return ticket
virus modifies
my itinerary

Rajeshwari Srinivasan
India

 

first light
when the door closes
she doesn’t cry

Rehn Kovacic

 

leave a message
the next time you call
wait till I’m in Spain

Ron Scully

 

suppertime
a great horned owl
drops in for take out

Ronald K. Craig

 

leaving for college
a red leaf flies off the car
lands in the driveway

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

sashes wide
a starling enters
by the chimney

simonj
UK

 

faded moon –
surrounded by red
sunrise

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

from the city
lost leaves from the tree
hometown visit

Stephen A. Peters

 

the dog is waiting
at the lonely station
the moon arrives

Stoianka Boianova

 

November’s hope
delivered to my mailbox
a mail-in ballot

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles

 

new leaves
… the spring
in my step

Sushama Kapur

 

still visitor
from the next door –
morning glory

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

migratory birds
taking home
a piece of sky

प्रवासी पक्षी
एक टुकड़ा आसमान
घर ले चले

(Hindi translation)

Teji Sethi
India

 

wondering
if people can change
half-packed suitcase

Tom Bierovic
DeLand, FL, USA

 

Milky Way –
the crickets’ song
from one side to the other

Tomislav Maretić

 

packed bags
still I don’t know
if I’m coming or going

Tracy Davidson
United Kingdom

 

storks fly south
on the old chimney
empty nest

Tsanka Shishkova

 

garden party
the butterfly appears
all in a flutter

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

covid ward
every vacant bed taken
within minutes

Vandana Parashar

 

arrivals
and departures…
reaching nowhere

Vijay Prasad

 

time to migrate –
the traveler stops
at the inn

Vincenzo adamo

 

moon
vacates the pond
onrushing clouds

Vishnu Kapoor

 

arrival of autumn –
memory of grandfathers
departure

dolazak jeseni –
sjećanje na djedov
odlazak

Zdenka Mlinar
Zagreb, Croatia

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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