HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract – here/there

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 – junior/senior

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Saturday September 26, 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Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form.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 here/there:

In past editing sessions, I did not select the same poets two weeks in a row, but this time around I am not limiting my choices this way. Inevitably, some of the same names are going to reappear here, simply because of personal preference, the same way that often a contest judge will blindly longlist more than one piece by the same author… also, there were a number of what I consider to be experimental poems this week… are they haiku?

swallows
almost ready
for the journey

Deborah Karl-Brandt

Birds? Or perhaps a person is being described here – it is an economical skill in short-form poetry to use words that can work both as nouns & verbs…

tokyo station platform
the long distance train
capped with snow

Keiko Izawa

The difference between ‘here’ & ‘there’ is effortlessly conveyed in this poem through concise word choices & clear details of description…

target practice –
hit and miss snow showers
graze the hilltops

Michele L. Harvey

Here is an example that illustrates juxtaposition – not every haiku needs to follow this structure, but this is a way to ensure a gap that leaves something for the reader to figure out…

granddaughter’s birthday…
the candles and cake
are virtual

R.Suresh Babu
India

A simple, clear snapshot of a celebration, with a twist on line three – the poet does not tell us how to feel, but feel we do…

classroom window
the teacher awakens
my senses

Robert Kingston

In times past this awakening might include corporal punishment of some kind – the rap of a wooden ruler on the hands, perhaps…

our eyes meet
across the room
different time zones

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

The zoom room, of course…

Alzheimer’s
she is my mother
on and off

Vandana Parashar

Another poem that evokes emotion so well without stating it, & encapsulates this cruel situation, where a loved one truly can be here & then somewhere else…

& here are the rest of my selections:

(t)here

Aaron Barry
Port Moody, Canada

 

life on Mars I change channels

Adrian Bouter

 

from here
to anywhere
fairy tales

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

sound of distant bells
through the early morning mist
daffodils’ trumpets

Albert Schepers
Canada

 

a missile –
my house is here
there and everywhere

Aljoša Vuković
Šibenik, Croatia

 

so far away
the sky without color –
so close

così lontano
il cielo senza colore –
così vicino

Angiola Inglese

 

strolling by the sea
moon follows
on gentle waves

Anjali Warhadpande

 

monsoon clouds
mother brings in petrichor
with the laundry

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

oceans away
my sister and I swap
covid stories

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

a ride ticket
in my pocket
migratory birds

Brăilean Mirela

 

lovers pledge
beneath a harvest moon
the tide turns

Bryan Cook

 

now you see it
now you don’t
dragonfly

Bryan Rickert

 

will-o’-wisps
somewhere ventured
somewhat lost

C.R. Harper

 

bedroom window
I look back at myself
viewing the moon

Carol Jones

 

the memory in her pillow case scent of summer

Carole Harrison
Jamberoo, NSW, Australia

 

first songbird
the spaces along the road
between here and there

cezar-florin ciobîcă

 

perched bird…
the touch of her hand
on mine

Cherry A
Assam, India

 

protected by a patch
of poison ivy
wild rose

Claudia Coutu Radmore
Carleton Place, Ontario

 

takeoffs and landings –
two different
emotions

Dan Campbell

 

ancient ruins –
to be here and there
step by step

rovine antiche –
essere qui e là
passo dopo passo

Daniela Misso

 

another day
and here I am
trail in the morning dew

David Gale
Gloucester, UK

 

galaxy t-shirt
dandruff hides
among the stars

David Oates

 

a wish –
his eyes blink
to a fallen star

Devoshruti Mandal

 

the priest’s cassock
fluttering by the door
white butterfly

Diana Webb

 

this pandemic
home alone here
with my memories

Dianne Moritz
Southampton, NY

 

Social Distancing
six feet…
apart

Didimay D. Dimacali
Norwalk, CA

 

her grave’s daisies –
the daughters
let them grow

Dorothy Burrows
U.K.

 

ducks traveling –
the first maple leaf
on my hand

Elisa Allo

 

fjaka
my remote on the other side
of the sofa

(fjaka is Dalmatian local word for physiological phenomenon similar to lethargy, only worse)

Franjo Ordanić
Croatia

 

wildfire smoke
fading in and out
field workers

Gary Evans

 

a loud call
from the magpie
a distant reply

Giddy Nielsen-Sweep

 

new love
in my home – the children
do not come

Gordana Vlašić

 

Phone message.
Miles away
A smile breaks.

Goutam Dutta
Kolkata, India

 

Yin
yang
circling

Graham Swanson

 

crescent of Ramadan…
the little girl cleans
her old lantern

(Ramadan is the fasting month for Muslims.)

Hassane Zemmouri
Algeria

 

mum and i
in love with the moon
from our landing

Helen Buckingham
Somerset, UK

 

mindfulness
trying to be here
not there or there…

Helen Ogden

 

there
pathless bedrock
here
the pendant bridge

Helga Stania

 

magpies cawing
on both sides of the border
presidential debates

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

St. Paul’s cathedral
bouncing off far walls
centuries of whispers

(With probably the most famous whispering gallery, St. Paul’s (London) was built in 1710.)

Ingrid Baluchi
Macedonia

 

two hundred days
to get to mars
she ties her shoes

isabella mori
Richmond BC, unceded ancestral Musqueam Territory

 

migration
the seagulls visit
before you do

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA

 

broad wings
a mouse’s journey
on high

Janice Munro
Canada

 

summer break…
at home the scorching sun
of harmattan

Jibril Dauda Muhammad
Bwari Abuja, Nigeria

 

forest trail sign
tells us that we are here
where is that?

Joanne Morcom
Calgary, Alberta

 

here          ∞          there

John S Green
Bellingham, WA

 

garden preparation –
the turtle prints here and there…

 

Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi

 

here and there
the inmigrantes’ corpses –
setting sun

 

Julia Guzmán

 

Modern Studies –
an out of date world map
on the classroom wall

Juliet Wilson
Edinburgh, Scotland

 

Black beetle
going helter-skelter
over white marble Aphrodite.

Kamal Parmar
Nanaimo B.C.

 

shooting season
a pair of mallards shuffle
to the old pond

Kanjini Devi

 

long distance romance
reaching out to you
zoom

Karen Harvey
North Wales

 

raising a glass
to where
we used to be

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

christmas ornaments
I see her
come back to life

Kelli Lage

 

mobius strip

Kevin Henry

 

from a cupboard
to the table
my ancestors

Kiti Saarinen
Finland

 

sandwiched between
two generations –
a forty year old

Lakshmi Iyer
Kerala

 

first steps
learning papa
is always there

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

the Milky Way
on the lake –
no ripples

Lemuel Waite
Georgetown, Kentucky

 

peeling the onion
what’s here
and there

Lorraine A. Padden
San Diego, California

 

all the places
I would rather be…
winter chill

Madhuri Pillai

 

crescent moon
her sharp glance
pierces heart

Mafizuddin Chowdhury
Nagaon, Assam, India

 

Constitution day –
a beggar watches
from the corner

Manoj Sharma
Kathmandu Nepal

 

facetime…
my grandchildren’s smiles

Margaret Mahony

 

sunrise service breakfast at the shelter

Margaret Walker

 

insomnia –
from the window,
the stars…

Maria Teresa Piras

 

warm night
her song swings from balcony
to balcony

Marisa Fazio

 

half-silvered windows
the sidewalk
unseen

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

deep in the woods
beyond my bear bell’s dinging
“fee-fi-fo-fum”

Maxianne Berger

 

picking stars
from my balcony
do I need gloves?

Melanie Vance
Texas

 

yellow autumn tree
surprise:
yellow flight of birds

Merridy Cox

 

From here to there
wild pine wind whistles and blows
whistles and blows

Michelle Beyers

 

Ramayana…
as the TV series starts
grandma’s prayer

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

life
sailing from shore to shore
I am the boat

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

View through the window
To mountain peaks
Morning fog

Mira Jungić

 

Black Friday…
you scuffle here
I grab there

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

politics…
the distance between
our galaxy and the next

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

on her wall
faces
long gone

nancy liddle
Australia

 

the here and there of ten thousand things        autumn moon

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

empty beach –
seagulls turn off shore
among trawlers

Nicole Pottier
France

 

whaleback ridge
separating summers
wet and dry

Nika
Calgary, AB

 

morning fog
no more distance between
here & there

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

 

moseying
across the field
a drift of goldenrod

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH

 

the girl dances
along the empty street
in her drop-hem dress

Patricia Prime

 

change of pace
downy woodpecker
at the suet basket

paul geiger

 

flicker of sunlight
yellow butterflies
on impatiens

Peggy Hale Bilbro

 

here/there the Beatles said it first

Pris Campbell

 

a single   tap
on enter tab – message
from here to     far

Radhamani sarma

 

birds migration
learning myself
to return

Radostina Dragostinova

 

in isolation
alone with myself
butterfly on the table

Refika Dedić
Bosna i Hercegovina

 

dreaming
of your embrace
isolation

Rehn Kovacic

 

ship
in a bottle
the need to break out

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa, USA

 

here I am
where you might find me
hineni darkly

Ron Scully

 

almost autumn…
a scent of heather
around here

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

still pond
a raindrop here
and there

Sanela Pliško

 

a smoky sun
rises from the ashes
burns off the morning dew

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

my Australian friends
now comfort me –
forest fires

Sheila Sondik
Bellingham, WA

 

summer morning
the ant’s shadow
to and fro

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

vegan and non vegan dreams
the cherry blossoms
between us

Stephen A. Peters

 

summer noon…
the breeze no longer
carries your scent

Surashree Joshi

 

you remain somewhere t(here)

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles

 

sunset descent…
the flurry of flamingos
he tries to paint

Sushama Kapur

 

drought –
in the moss garden
scattered bold patches

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

line of control
my identity
in halves

लाइन ऑफ कंट्रोल
मेरा वजूद
दो हिस्सों में

(This is the Hindi translation of the ku.)

Teji Sethi
India

 

lazy afternoon –
watching the shadows
growing longer

Tomislav Maretić

 

left on the church steps
a mother’s love
neither here nor there

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

refugees
somewhere to the east
are their homes

Tsanka Shishkova

 

I am here
and not there
shelter-in-place

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

i
can not escape from myself…
here or there

Vijay Prasad

 

far autumn
my foot tramples
a cicada

vincenzo adamo

 

does distance matter
travelling by train
moon travels with me

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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