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Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form.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 earsBarrie 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 angstCarole 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
onionsDeborah 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 skinIshaan 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 mosquitoKeiko 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 pocketsMargaret 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 scarsRehn 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 poemsAgus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia
ghost forms
in morning fog –
crow caws aboveAlan Harvey
Tacoma
heartbroken
after the shower
a new razorAlex Ben-Ari
gate closed –
a hydrangea cutting
in the trunkcancello chiuso –
una talea d’ortensia
nel bagagliaioAngiola Inglese
wind shift
the blue sky
sharperAnn K. Schwader
Westminster, CO
through
clouds of memory
sharp peaksAnn Rawson
Scotland
cold breeze –
the dull ache
of a fading scarArvinder Kaur
golden wisps above
mounds of razor tipped blades
… autumn sunbeamsB.A. France
dull knife
the sharp tongue of
my wifeBakhtiyar Amini
passing time…
his scent still in the shirt
she wearsBen Oliver
Stroud, England
sparks fly
on a perfect match –
knife meets stoneBona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA
blunted pencils
sharpened on and on
falling leavesBrăilean Mirela
dull plough-share…
the bull’s sharp horns
disperse the fogcezar-florin ciobîcă
camping on grass and leaves
without a tent
October starsCharles Harmon
Los Angeles, California
piercing winter…
over his epitaph
first snow@Cherry A
Assam, India
Halloween pumpkin –
my hesitation
before plunging in the knifeClifford Rames
Freehold, NJ
her acid whispers
spicing up
his tedious reportDana Rapisardi
Kearny, NJ
softening my sharp temper –
nightfallammorbidendo il mio carattere aspro –
cala la notteDaniela Misso
cold skies
the nettles’ sting
as sharp as oldDavid Gale
Gloucester, UK
gravel garden
all the things
bees do not eatDeborah Karl-Brandt
Germany
bottle gourd curry
with a pinch of pepper
monday morningDevoshruti Mandal
whetstone –
that shrieking grind of
exam revisionDorothy Burrows
UK
knights with blunt swords
the battle is interrupted
by mother’s sharp criesDubravka Šćukanec
Zagreb, Croatia
autumn sea…
smooth glass shards
under bare feetElisa Allo
ripe grain…
he never taught me how
to sharpen the scytheEva Limbach
winter moon
the crack
of a baseball batGreer Woodward
Waimea, HI
drawing in nature…
a ladybug lands
on the green pencilHassane Zemmouri
Algeria
clickety-click
sixty-six… vive
les tricoteusesHelen Buckingham
the cave’s sharp shadows blunt edged petroglyphs
Helga Stania
sickle probe
the potter signs off
his terracotta bowlIngrid Baluchi
North Macedonia
river rocks
all my rough edges
smoothed out by nowJackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA
double standard
her blunt remark
off pitchJanice Munro
Crescent moon
Owl talons
Piercing fogJerry French
Orlando, FL
piercing me
his candid remarks
a hawk’s shadowJohn S Green
Bellingham, WA
plaf!… the nails of the cat
Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi
an eagle flying in circles…
in the distance
a dead rabbitJulia Guzmán
piercing
his banter
her bluntnessKanjini Devi
opposites attract
how blunt and sharp
I let him be with meKath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California
pandemic cooking
kitchen skills need
chef’s knifeKathleen Mazurowski
damp dirt
on the underside
of my dog’s clawsKelli Lage
dental clinic
milk tooth versus
the adolescenceLakshmi Iyer
Kerala
bully’s fists
another sorry staggers across
chipped teethLamart Cooper
stumbling on a root
the sharp pain
of falling shortLaurie Greer
Washington, DC
shards shimmer
cold round stone –
the missing soundLemuel Waite
Georgetown, Kentucky
icicles on the eaves
my softened tumbler
of scotchLorraine A. Padden
San Diego, California
paper cut –
the rejection email stings
for my flash writingLorraine Schein
Queens, NY
lockdown barbering
his words
cutLouise Hopewell
icicles…
the roofs softened
by snowghiaccioli … i tetti ammorbiditi dalla neve
Lucia Cardillo
mind of her own –
how do you rebuke
a wagging dogMadhuri Pillai
autumn dusk…
cutting a fresh apple
with a blunt knifeManoj Sharma
Kathmandu
chiseled features
emerge…
a long voyageMargaret Walker
sharp looks –
on trodden grass
soft snowMaria Teresa Sisti
sudden squall…
my mother’s words
pierce my breastboneMarion Clarke
sitting face-to-face
all those thorny issues
and blunt talkMark Meyer
winter deepens
my son’s cello plucks
a soft F sharpMaya Daneva
The Netherlands
his talk through
the face mask
my parrot copies in C sharpMelanie Vance
Texas
mom’s hug
softens dad’s reprimand…
autumn equinoxMichele L. Harvey
a butterfly’s
luminous broken wing
forgotten wind arrowMichelle Beyers
Parkinson’s
in her sewing box the scissors
lying unusedMinal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India
distant railroad
a sharp whistle is cutting
the snow forestMinko Tanev
A blunt gust of wind
On the open door
Broken glassTupi nalet vjetra
Na otvorena vrata
Razbijeno stakloMira Jungić, Sisak
Republika Hrvatska
chipped nail
smoothing it
with bitesMohammad Azim Khan
steel words –
your smile cannot
blunt themMona Iordan
the slice
of paper cuts
his harsh wordsNancy Brady
Huron, Ohio
to my face
you said those
sudden wordsnancy liddle
australia
high note –
she blunts the edge
of her half smileNeena Singh
Chandigarh, India
blunt pencils –
the landscape turns into
watercolorNicole Pottier
France
thick fog
the sound of the knife blade
being sharpenedOlivier Schopfer
Switzerland
newly wed…
sharpening her knife
on deadwoodPalle Krishna Rao
Chennai, India
blunt remark
the sharpness
of her tonguePat Davis
NH
at the improv
local comedian
keen as a hammerPaul Geiger
divorce the tang of your kiss
Pris Campbell
a comb’s teeth…
the saw’s back and forth
in a logPriti Aisola
India
sharpening blade
on pencil still –
imprints on fingersRadhamani sarma
her blunt words hit me sharp
Rajeshwari Srinivasan
India
arched tombstone
her death poem chiseled
into graniteRoberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, IA, USA
ex best friend…
her sharp words
hurt my feelingsRosa Maria Di Salvatore
the sharp tone
in mom’s voice
gets her point acrossSari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY
bog child
an inch-wide
break
in the small spineShalini 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 messageSlobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia
mountain to mole hill
telling my child
its okayStephen A. Peters
her tongue –
the way a knife
goes through butterSurashree Joshi
moonless night –
clear illumination
of Tokyo towerTeiichi Suzuki
Japan
cacti blooms
your blunt remark
cuts deep into meकैक्टस 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 moonTomislav Maretić
blunt denial
he swears his wife
is just clumsy with knivesTracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK
in the temple
a sharp-dressed woman
white lily in the pondTsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria
bathroom cabinet
nursing the cuts
by his tongueVandana Parashar
third day of rain
his Monet in watercolours
“Grainstacks in Sunshine”Vishnu Kapoor
osjetio je tupu
a ubrzo i oštru bol –
zadnje zbogomhe felt a dull
and soon a sharp pain –
the last goodbyeZdenka 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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