HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract – day/night

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 – above/below

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Saturday September 5, 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Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form.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 day/night:

I believe we experienced a record number of submissions this week – at least, a very high number – thank you poets! As a result, I have selected more poems to comment on, but commented a little less on each one…

sitting
with insomnia…
a hard day’s night

Carole Harrison
Jamberoo, Australia

Too often the causes of insomnia have more to do with the day than the night…

sunflower field
delaying
the nightfall

cezar-florin ciobîcă

Here we have a wonderful contrast between the dark of night & rows of bright yellow flowers…

hospital window
the silhouette of ravens
darker than before

Clifford Rames
Freehold, NJ

In this poem, the setting of the hospital may help to set up a darker mood…

on the border
between night and day…
by plane

lungo il confine
tra la notte e il giorno…
in aereo

Daniela Misso

Travel often involves borders & time zones, & it is possible to extend a sunrise or sunset depending on the route one takes…

city party
testing
the limits

Deborah Karl-Brandt

As a pandemic poem, there are many levels here – the keyword ‘testing’ – & ‘the limits’ could refer to numbers as well as how late the party continues into the night…

fire season
day and night suspended
in particulate matter

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

Anyone who has had any experience with wildfires will know how truly horrible the smoke can be. Not only can it be difficult to tell day from night in extreme conditions, but the stress of being on evacuation alert can also make it seem as though time is suspended…

winter
turns to spring
dawn chorus

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

On second reading, winter & spring are like night & day…

after night
again a day…
a dog yawns

Vijay Prasad

Is there anything more to say? – in its simplicity, this poem seems to emphasize our human hopes & fears & dreams…

& here are the rest of my selections:

winter night
the darkness flows
into her eyes

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

vesper flights
the ever-falling blue
of swifts

(The “ascents” of Swifts are often called vesper flights, named after the Latin vesper for evening.)

Alan Summers
Avian Yard, Chippenham

 

last night’s rain
drips into rainbows
the shades opening

Albert Schepers
Canada

 

power outage –
in the corner of the blank screen
a full moon

Alex Ben Ari

 

birdsong chaotic dreams filtered through morning light

Alex Fyffe
Texas

 

counting the days…
for me and the garden
last full moon

Angiola Inglese

 

twilight lull
silver among dark tresses
on my pillow

Anitha Varma

 

following me into night crickets

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO

 

day & night
in the same sky –
her wink

Ashish Singh
India

 

dawn chorus
the rustle of bed sheets
all quiet now

Astrid Egger

 

midday
moonrise
…skippers swirl

B.A. France

 

the way of Venus
an evening star twinkles
at the crack of dawn

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

between night and day the next breath

Brăilean Mirela

 

winter silence
my breath cloud eclipses
the moon

Bryan Rickert

 

whatever gets you
through the night
day drinkers

Charles Harmon

 

sky lit
by sun and moon
summer solstice

Charlotte Hrenchuk

 

overlapping
shadows of trees…
high noon

Cherry A
Assam, India

 

midnight words
hanging on the return
of the sun

Cynthia Anderson

 

old age –
days wilt and the nights
grow longer

Dan Campbell

 

nightmare forgotten
when the birdsong
breaks day

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA

 

caliente days
skinny dipping
in moonlight

Dianne Moritz

 

dawn’s chorus
lulling me to sleep –
night shifts

Dorothy Burrows
UK

 

August rain…
this sky without sunrise
and without sunset

Elisa Allo

 

a bat nips a moth off a star

Elizabeth Moura

 

fading summer day
the never-ending mantra
of cicadas

Eva Limbach

 

night of the fireflies
bright as day
an egret’s feather

Helga Stania

 

summer twilight
a flock of ravens pulls
back the night

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

surrendering
to the dawn chorus
night owl

Ingrid Baluchi
Macedonia

 

twilight
the darkened shapes
of strangers

Isabel Caves
Auckland, New Zealand

 

day moon
lost innocence
of her smile

Isabella Kramer

 

night school…
the lingering weight
of gunny sacks

Ishaan Singh

 

awoken
from oblivion of you
morning light

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA

 

winter twilight
each night’s sleep
a little deeper

john hawkhead

 

winter long days –
the warmth of my mother’s knitting
in my hands

Julia Guzmán

 

as the sun rises
she dozes off…
insomniac

Karen Harvey
North Wales

 

the coolness
of your layered passion
tiramisu

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

day lilies, night jasmine
the mysteries of marriage
in the bride’s bouquet

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

 

casino
the irrelevance
of windows

Lorraine Padden

 

the scent
of pine needles
dawn walk

Louise Hopewell

 

insomnia
looking worse for wear
fading day moon

Madhuri Pillai

 

beaming
upon the LED lights…
a waxing crescent moon

Manoj Sharma
Kathmandu

 

sleeping porch…
the owl
turns his head

Margaret Walker

 

white sea waves hit upon black mountain sharp cutting night

Maria Papatzelou
Greece

 

moonflower
her fragrance lights
our path

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Christiana Lake, MI

 

wake house…
the darkness erased
by morning

(In Ireland there is a tradition of staying up all night to “wake” the deceased. Relatives often recount stories from the person’s life.)

Marion Clarke

 

cop copter hovering
an artificial star
over backstreet light

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

night shift
the morning coffee
before heading home

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

outlasting
the graveyard shift
day moon

Michele L. Harvey

 

longest night…
a single candle lights up
the empty bedroom

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

morning breeze
fireflies from the sunrise
recognize us

Minko Tanev

 

night-watchman
longing
for the daylight

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

solar eclipse…
crescent moon shadows
on the pavement

Nancy Brady

 

harsh daylight
demands flight
but then the night…

nancy liddle

 

moon and sun…
two true friends
never say hello

Nani Mariani

 

night magic in waking eyes

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

awoken by
the delivery van’s stereo –
morning chorus

Nick T
UK

 

web surfing –
daylight hours go on
into the night

Nicole Pottier
France

 

all day rain
all night rain
i turn out the lights

Pamela A. Babusci
Rochester, NY USA

 

morning mizzle
the caress of moss
between my toes

Pat Davis
NH

 

midnight thunderclap bright as day found my keys

Paul Geiger

 

we leave
the porch light off
slowing time

Peggy Hale Bilbro

 

2am boozy tweets…day erases night

Peter Adair
Northern Ireland

 

Television sunrise
faintly reflected
on a star-bright window.

Pippa Phillips

 

darkness creeps
over downed power lines
the world as it was

Pris Campbell

 

solar eclipse…
her fingers read
The Story of My Life

R.Suresh Babu
India

 

straws of dry grass
in her red braid
harvest moon

Radostina Dragostinova

 

dawn
sparrow song
wakes the sun

Rehn Kovacic

 

hoot of owls
last sack of today’s
olive harvest

Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

daylight ebbs
i turn the deadbolt
in cat pajamas

Roberta Beary
County Mayo Ireland

 

one day at a time
bronze token on the horizon
one night away

Ron Scully

 

night shift
my phone
on silent mode

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, Ohio USA

 

cloudy day…
putting a little blush
on my cheeks

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

elastic shudder
the bats swoop out in shadow
between day and night

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

split sky –
the world painted
in two shades

Shalini Pattabiraman

 

“Moon River” –
the harsh light
of the morning after

Sheila Sondik
Bellingham, WA

 

unreposed
the sun returns
the daws

simonj
UK

 

morning sun
the darkness of the room flees
under my bed

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

night into day
between us
cherry blossoms

Stephen A. Peters

 

night train
travels towards the morning
grandmother and grandchild

Stoianka Boianova

 

daybreak –
I still see the moon
in her eyes

Surashree Joshi

 

high noon –
a swallowtail stealing
into its shadow

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

laundry to lullabies
a young mother
on her toes

Teji Sethi

 

morning fog
mistaking the sun
for moon

Tim Cremin

 

silent night
before morning bells
birdsong

Tsanka Shishkova

 

moon magic
the invisible thread
suspends a star

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

overstaying
its welcome
…day moon

Vandana Parashar

 

owl eyes
a daytime cloud
darkens the sky

vincenzo adamo

 

night and day
brevity of togetherness
twilight

Vishnu Kapoor

 

encounter of
day and night insects
artificial light

Zdenka Mlinar

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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