HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract – blunt/sharp

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 – arrive/leave

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Saturday October 10, 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Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form.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 blunt/sharp:

There were many, many poems on similar topics this week – the poems I have selected have slight variations – & I have chosen to briefly comment on a few that were more unusual interpretations of the prompt…

tiny chirps
the scissors snipping
too close to my ears

Barrie Levine
Wenham MA

A degree of trust is preferred between a barber & customer – ‘chirps’ could indicate squeaky scissors, like birds, or possibly electronic feedback…

cutting
the morning –
teenage angst

Carole Harrison
Jamberoo, Australia

Here the word ‘cutting’ conjures up another level of meaning – more than just skipping school, or sleeping until noon – it is known as a form of self-harming…

debate re-cap
slicing and dicing
onions

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

The poet has brought the current political climate into the poem… people often analyze the performances of politicians in televised debates, & the onions here might also bring a tear to the eye…

mini skirt…
the scrape of a gaze
on my skin

Ishaan Singh

An interesting take on the prompt, where perhaps unwanted attention is described as though it has been felt in a physical way…

autumn yard
caught in his pine bonsai
a dead mosquito

Keiko Izawa

Sharp pine needles have created a trap in a miniature world, & a poet has noticed it…

her long painted nails
a startling blue…
hands in my pockets

Margaret Mahony

Line 3 of this poem contains the twist in the story – without describing them at all, the poet communicates that the speaker’s nails may be different from the long blue ones…

sharp blade
tattoos now cover
the scars

Rehn Kovacic

The reader can decide if this sharp blade was wielded in an altercation, or there was an accident, or perhaps a medical procedure…

& here are the rest of my selections:

self isolation…
the blunt point of a pencil
from writing poems

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

ghost forms
in morning fog –
crow caws above

Alan Harvey
Tacoma

 

heartbroken
after the shower
a new razor

Alex Ben-Ari

 

gate closed –
a hydrangea cutting
in the trunk

cancello chiuso –
una talea d’ortensia
nel bagagliaio

Angiola Inglese

 

wind shift
the blue sky
sharper

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO

 

through
clouds of memory
sharp peaks

Ann Rawson
Scotland

 

cold breeze –
the dull ache
of a fading scar

Arvinder Kaur

 

golden wisps above
mounds of razor tipped blades
… autumn sunbeams

B.A. France

 

dull knife
the sharp tongue of
my wife

Bakhtiyar Amini

 

passing time…
his scent still in the shirt
she wears

Ben Oliver
Stroud, England

 

sparks fly
on a perfect match –
knife meets stone

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

blunted pencils
sharpened on and on
falling leaves

Brăilean Mirela

 

dull plough-share…
the bull’s sharp horns
disperse the fog

cezar-florin ciobîcă

 

camping on grass and leaves
without a tent
October stars

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California

 

piercing winter…
over his epitaph
first snow

@Cherry A
Assam, India

 

Halloween pumpkin –
my hesitation
before plunging in the knife

Clifford Rames
Freehold, NJ

 

her acid whispers
spicing up
his tedious report

Dana Rapisardi
Kearny, NJ

 

softening my sharp temper –
nightfall

ammorbidendo il mio carattere aspro –
cala la notte

Daniela Misso

 

cold skies
the nettles’ sting
as sharp as old

David Gale
Gloucester, UK

 

gravel garden
all the things
bees do not eat

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Germany

 

bottle gourd curry
with a pinch of pepper
monday morning

Devoshruti Mandal

 

whetstone –
that shrieking grind of
exam revision

Dorothy Burrows
UK

 

knights with blunt swords
the battle is interrupted
by mother’s sharp cries

Dubravka Šćukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

 

autumn sea…
smooth glass shards
under bare feet

Elisa Allo

 

ripe grain…
he never taught me how
to sharpen the scythe

Eva Limbach

 

winter moon
the crack
of a baseball bat

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

drawing in nature…
a ladybug lands
on the green pencil

Hassane Zemmouri
Algeria

 

clickety-click
sixty-six… vive
les tricoteuses

Helen Buckingham

 

the cave’s sharp shadows blunt edged petroglyphs

Helga Stania

 

sickle probe
the potter signs off
his terracotta bowl

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

river rocks
all my rough edges
smoothed out by now

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA

 

double standard
her blunt remark
off pitch

Janice Munro

 

Crescent moon
Owl talons
Piercing fog

Jerry French
Orlando, FL

 

piercing me
his candid remarks
a hawk’s shadow

John S Green
Bellingham, WA

 

plaf!… the nails of the cat

Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi

 

an eagle flying in circles…
in the distance
a dead rabbit

Julia Guzmán

 

piercing
his banter
her bluntness

Kanjini Devi

 

opposites attract
how blunt and sharp
I let him be with me

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

pandemic cooking
kitchen skills need
chef’s knife

Kathleen Mazurowski

 

damp dirt
on the underside
of my dog’s claws

Kelli Lage

 

dental clinic
milk tooth versus
the adolescence

Lakshmi Iyer
Kerala

 

bully’s fists
another sorry staggers across
chipped teeth

Lamart Cooper

 

stumbling on a root
the sharp pain
of falling short

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

shards shimmer
cold round stone –
     the       missing    sound

Lemuel Waite
Georgetown, Kentucky

 

icicles on the eaves
my softened tumbler
of scotch

Lorraine A. Padden
San Diego, California

 

paper cut –
the rejection email stings
for my flash writing

Lorraine Schein
Queens, NY

 

lockdown barbering
his words
cut

Louise Hopewell

 

icicles…
the roofs softened
by snow

ghiaccioli … i tetti ammorbiditi dalla neve

Lucia Cardillo

 

mind of her own –
how do you rebuke
a wagging dog

Madhuri Pillai

 

autumn dusk…
cutting a fresh apple
with a blunt knife

Manoj Sharma
Kathmandu

 

chiseled features
emerge…
a long voyage

Margaret Walker

 

sharp looks –
on trodden grass
soft snow

Maria Teresa Sisti

 

sudden squall…
my mother’s words
pierce my breastbone

Marion Clarke

 

sitting face-to-face
all those thorny issues
and blunt talk

Mark Meyer

 

winter deepens
my son’s cello plucks
a soft F sharp

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

his talk through
the face mask
my parrot copies in C sharp

Melanie Vance
Texas

 

mom’s hug
softens dad’s reprimand…
autumn equinox

Michele L. Harvey

 

a butterfly’s
luminous broken wing
forgotten wind arrow

Michelle Beyers

 

Parkinson’s
in her sewing box the scissors
lying unused

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

distant railroad
a sharp whistle is cutting
the snow forest

Minko Tanev

 

A blunt gust of wind
On the open door
Broken glass

Tupi nalet vjetra
Na otvorena vrata
Razbijeno staklo

Mira Jungić, Sisak
Republika Hrvatska

 

chipped nail
smoothing it
with bites

Mohammad Azim Khan

 

steel words –
your smile cannot
blunt them

Mona Iordan

 

the slice
of paper cuts
his harsh words

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

to my face
you said those
sudden words

nancy liddle
australia

 

high note –
she blunts the edge
of her half smile

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

blunt pencils –
the landscape turns into
watercolor

Nicole Pottier
France

 

thick fog
the sound of the knife blade
being sharpened

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

 

newly wed…
sharpening her knife
on deadwood

Palle Krishna Rao
Chennai, India

 

blunt remark
the sharpness
of her tongue

Pat Davis
NH

 

at the improv
local comedian
keen as a hammer

Paul Geiger

 

divorce the tang of your kiss

Pris Campbell

 

a comb’s teeth…
the saw’s back and forth
in a log

Priti Aisola
India

 

sharpening blade
on pencil still –
imprints on fingers

Radhamani sarma

 

her blunt words hit me sharp

Rajeshwari Srinivasan
India

 

arched tombstone
her death poem chiseled
into granite

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, IA, USA

 

ex best friend…
her sharp words
hurt my feelings

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

the sharp tone
in mom’s voice
gets her point across

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

bog child
                               an inch-wide
break
                               in the small spine

Shalini Pattabiraman
Dundee, Scotland

 

long meg’s white shadow sharp

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Meg_and_Her_Daughters)

simonj
UK

 

a lost pencil sharpener
unplanned bold letters
of a love message

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

mountain to mole hill
telling my child
its okay

Stephen A. Peters

 

her tongue –
the way a knife
goes through butter

Surashree Joshi

 

moonless night –
clear illumination
of Tokyo tower

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

cacti blooms
your blunt remark
cuts deep into me

कैक्टस पर फूल
तुम्हारी रूक्ष टिप्पणी
गहराई तक काटती मुझे

(Hindi Translation of the ku)

Teji Sethi
India

 

field of gourds…
lit by a faint light of
the sickle moon

Tomislav Maretić

 

blunt denial
he swears his wife
is just clumsy with knives

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

in the temple
a sharp-dressed woman
white lily in the pond

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

 

bathroom cabinet
nursing the cuts
by his tongue

Vandana Parashar

 

third day of rain
his Monet in watercolours
“Grainstacks in Sunshine”

Vishnu Kapoor

 

osjetio je tupu
a ubrzo i oštru bol –
zadnje zbogom

he felt a dull
and soon a sharp pain –
the last goodbye

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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