HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract – big/small

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 – day/night

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Saturday August 29, 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Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form.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 big/small:

between two small cedars a hundred boxcars full of coal

John S Green
Bellingham, WA

Here we have a contrast between living trees & coal, & perhaps the eons of geologic time & the time it takes for a tree to mature, & then the human element of industry… complex ideas & implications from a ten-word poem…

tremors
in the small hours
waiting for the big one

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

A few years ago, in Whitehorse, Yukon, a 6.2 was followed by 6.3 – & then the waiting begins… is a larger earthquake next? Or is this it for now? The extra detail of ‘small hours’ adds another dimension to the poem & the prompt…

beneath Andromeda
pondering
ticks

Mark Gilbert
UK

An initial reading may lead the reader to the celestial Andromeda – a study of big & small – but (thanks to an Internet search) ‘Andromeda’ can also refer to a deer-resistant shrubbery, & deer are known to carry ticks…

spring rains a fistful of bolivars

simonj
UK

No topic is off limits in haiku. Many submissions each week can be concerned with similar subjects, so the ones that are different catch the eye. This poem is an example, suggesting international trade & fluctuating currencies…

& here are the rest of my selections:

world news –
she feeds the baby
at her breast

Adrian Bouter

 

a kestrel
dots the sky
winter sun

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

we live out our spans
the butterfly and the gate
making their own bond

(Note: gatekeeper butterfly – During the UK butterfly watch this fascinated me that we had a gatekeeper by our back garden’s gate, as if guarding it.)

Alan Summers
Buddleia Lane, England

 

yoga class
trying to become the peace
between breaths

Anitha Varma

 

one small bright leaf
the wide sky
tightens

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO

 

water stories…
the dance of river waves
in her pitcher

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

heavy salt air…
miles from shore
the night sky expands

B.A. France

 

looking for myself
the sun fitting into
a raindrop

Bakhtiyar Amini

 

first school day
a child holds on
to her mother’s hand

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

the summer sky in the deep of the fountain

Brăilean Mirela

 

making a way
through the thicket
the slightest breeze

Bryan Rickert

 

Our entire lives –
I park the U-Haul by trucks
twenty times bigger

Carlos Antonio Pittella
Michigan, USA

 

football lily –
the fading smell of
a powder puff

Cherry A
Assam, India

 

vaccine syringe
hope for a nation
with small pricks

Christa Pandey

 

thirsty sparrow sipping cold rain
in a pasture hoof print

Dan Campbell

 

pumpkin in the garden –
the eyes of a child
wide open

zucca nell’orto –
gli occhi di un bambino
spalancati

Daniela Misso

 

sunset
my shadow larger
than myself

Deborah Karl-Brandt

 

Thunder
On the horizon
The dog snores

Denny Stern

 

this pandemic
backyard barbecues
for one

Dianne Moritz

 

the best gifts
are in small packages –
his mother’s tall tale

Dorothy Burrows
UK

 

crescent moon
my son’s hand
between mine

Elisa Allo

 

the oars
in a sea of words
punctuation

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

no big deal
friends call me
the pea

Guliz Mutlu

 

shooting star…
the sky is so vast
for just one wish

Hassane Zemmouri
Algeria

 

backyard spider
slung between two loungers
catching flies

Helen Buckingham
Somerset, UK

 

Small worries
Loom large
In the dark

Helen Ogden
Pacific Grove, CA

 

the locomotive hisses
his little hand

Helga Stania

 

war cemetery –
the big shadow
of a small grave

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

slow thaw
the giant tracks
of a mouse

Ingrid Baluchi
Macedonia

 

the loudest voices
from the tiniest throats
sparrow chorus

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA

 

pulling a suitcase
behind dad
pulling a suitcase

Janice Doppler
Massachusetts, USA

 

space objects…
colliding with my face
a winged grasshopper

Janice Munro
Canada

 

his smile…
trapped in portrait
a younger version of me

Jibril Dauda Muhammad
Bwari Abuja, Nigeria

 

just passing through
a bluebottle
on my hand

john hawkhead

 

midday sun –
the dust of my beard
in the beam of light

Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi

 

a big     rock –
in the zen garden
I forget life obstacles

Julia Guzmán

 

ancient birch tree –
ants patrol up and down
the trunk

Juliet Wilson
Edinburgh, Scotland

 

a starry night in the lake in my eyes

Kanjini Devi

 

at the foot
of an apartment block
ants nest

Karen Harvey
North Wales

 

making
mountains of molehills
a swarm of ants

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

the day when his hand
will fit in mine
father/daughter walk

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles

 

her last words for the rest of his life

Lorraine A. Padden
San Diego, California

 

June morning bird song –
a small sweet voice ascending
to the sky’s expanse

Lorraine Schein
Queens, NY

 

autumn notes –
white herons pause
in the plow’s furrows

Luisa Santoro
Italy

 

shuffling steps hanging loose once perfect fit

Madhuri Pillai

 

small hands
hold our future
vote

Margaret Walker

 

end of holidays –
the immense sea
in closed eyes

Maria Teresa Piras

 

an ant
the skin can be bumpy

Mariani Brew

 

endless summer too short

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Lake Christiana, MI

 

a toddler
on each toe…
Festival of the Giant

Marion Clarke

 

dawn croak…
so much estuary
for just one heron

Mark Miller

 

world map
on a wooden slice
my fridge magnet

Melanie Vance
Texas

 

tiny fingers
wrapped around my pinky…
the world turns

Michele L. Harvey

 

lofty shrine…
I see myself
looking down at me

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

small family
the girl draws a picture
of her mother

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

a rainbow –
the bridge of lovers
on the horizon

Minko Tanev

 

oak tree…
a mushroom
under its care

Mohammad Azim Khan

 

the little girl
big secrets well kept
by her doll

Mona Iordan

 

chance meeting…
his childhood crush
no longer little

Nancy Brady

 

graveyard
stone reads
Baby Small

nancy liddle

 

sacred mountain
from the window –
my small eyes

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

stargazing –
his tiny hand
in mine

Nick T

 

Heading for the hills
Problems in rear-view mirror
Look small

Nickala Torkington

 

morning prayer –
rising with the mist
echo of the bells

Nicole Pottier
France

 

sunny day
a little boy riding
on his dad’s shoulders

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

 

yes instead of no
that little white lie
from long ago

Pat Davis
NH

 

larder empty a hole for his big toe

Pris Campbell

 

high rise apartment…
only the ground floor
quarantined

R.Suresh Babu
India

 

the big questions of a small voice gushing hydrant

Rashmi VeSa

 

vast desert
sand colored lizard
passes unnoticed

Rehn Kovacic

 

a dream planted
with a pine seedling
daughter’s birth

Richa Sharma

 

tide pool
my lover
an ocean
away

Roberta Beary
County Mayo Ireland

 

lottery ticket
washes up on the shore
uncharted seas

Ron Scully

 

teacup left out in the rain
a water strider
on top of the world

Sari Grandstaff

 

summer morning
a thrown pebble
wrinkles the calm sea

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

laughter in the playground
seeing myself
as I used to be

Stephen A. Peters

 

ancient statues
support the sky
an ant on the road

Stoianka Boianova

 

post surgery –
mom learns to take
baby steps

Surashree Joshi

 

Tokyo Bay
surfers sliding through
Hokusai’s wave

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

old age home –
grandma knits
tiny mittens

Teji Sethi

 

dusk
the first little flakes
of a big storm

Tim Cremin
Andover, Massachusetts

 

prayer candle
under the dome of heaven
cosmic silence

Tsanka Shishkova
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

too big to fit
in a paw-shaped puddle
super worm moon

Vandana Parashar

 

the shape
of a young girl’s fingers
coiled sweetgrass

Vicki Miko

 

in the cup
the tea sways –
stormy sea

vincenzo adamo

 

many stars
only one candle
against darkness

Vishnu Kapoor

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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