HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract – right/left

Welcome back to HAIKU DIALOGUE – Opposites Attract

Hello – kj here – welcome back to Haiku Dialogue!

Here is the post that we meant to run on 28 October, for the prompt ‘right/left’. We have one more prompt for ‘Opposites Attract’, & then we will be welcoming a pair of Guest Editors with a brand new theme for the next few weeks…

For this final 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 – hello/goodbye

The deadline is midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Saturday November 14, 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Please submit one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme by clicking here: Contact Form.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.

Here is my commentary for the week:

graphite
fingertip to wrist
lefthandwriting lesson

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO

There is no doubt that in many ways it is a right-handed world, so those who are not right-handed must find a way to cope – in this poem it is possible that the writing lesson involves a gentle correction to the finger or the hand, & it is also possible that the graphite is all over the writer’s left hand because their hand smeared the fresh letters as soon as they were written…

returning from war
he learns to write
with his left hand

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn

This poet explores one of the many challenges a veteran might face – importantly, without judgement, & without explaining or describing every detail – & the result is haunting, evocative, & emotional without a trace of sentimentality…

waze app
after three right turns
we ask a local

Lamart Cooper

Who hasn’t had a frustrating experience with an electronic device – especially when travelling in an unfamiliar place, trying to find a specific location – here, again, the poet does not mention how the speaker feels about the situation, nor how the reader should feel about it, although the message “Recalculating…” echoes…

Below are the rest of my selections:

countryside trip
mountains on each side of the road
maintain the pace

Adjei Agyei-Baah

 

a new tattoo
on her left breast
sign of spring

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

 

right brain writes haiku
while left side
counts syllables

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

 

leaning left
the glasses
I slept in

Alex Fyffe

 

a tap dancer
in New Orleans jazz time
sudden moonwalk

Alfred Booth
Colombes, France

 

equinox –
a local politician balances
left-right

Aljoša Vuković
Šibenik, Croatia

 

it’s on the left
she says
pointing right

andrew shimield

 

autumn sea –
left and right
rocks and seagulls

mare d’autunno –
a sinistra e a destra
scogli e gabbiani

Angiola Inglese

 

the flick
of a horse’s tail –
swarm of flies

( Punjabi translation )

ਮੱਖੀਆਂ ਦੀ ਭਰਮਾਰ –
ਘੋੜੇ ਦੀ ਪੂੰਛ
ਕਦੀ ਸੱਜੇ ਕਦੀ ਖੱਬੇ

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

red can buoy
sliding to starboard…
another homecoming

B. A. France

 

driving wife
our left and rights
differs

Bakhtiyar Amini

 

transcontinental rail
a ride through
sunrises and sunsets

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

kids’ stuff
left-right, left-right…
refugee camp

Brăilean Mirela
România

 

left or right wing test…
a flock of snow geese
flying forward

cezar-florin ciobîcă

 

left hook right cross
technical knockout
shadow boxing

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California

 

flag march –
the silence deepens
around foot steps

Cherry A
Assam, India

 

passenger seat
his glance on the left
slit of my dress

Christine L. Villa

 

doing headstands
east and west switch places
like right and left

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

family secrets –
left hand hiding
from the right

Cynthia Anderson

 

lonely at times –
the road less
travelled

Dan Campbell

 

furrows in the field –
to the right and left
scattered seeds

solchi nel campo –
a destra e a sinistra
i semi sparsi

Daniela Misso

 

the back and forth
of a tennis ball –
the candidates debate

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton, WA

 

final debate
the pendulum
swings

Didimay D. Dimacali
Norwalk, California

 

by the rail track
guards choose –
life or death

Dorothy Burrows

 

the right-hander
scores the three-pointer
with his left hand

Dubravka Šćukanec

 

summer end
our eyes focus on
different directions

Elisa Allo

 

fede nunziale –
la mano destra
stretta alla sua

wedding faith –
the right hand
close to hers

Giuliana Ravaglia

 

left and right
in one line
at the polls

Greer Woodward
Waimea, HI

 

statueTORY
demoLISTEN

Helen Buckingham
Somerset, UK

 

Coming from the right
Going to the left
Voters at the polls

Helen Ogden

 

double rainbow…
a refugee kid runs
left and right

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

rampant lion…
the flow
of Arabic script

(Reading from right to left, Islamic calligraphy can be zoomorphic, usually presenting secular thought in calligram form. Al-Mutanabbi’s lion is a good example.)

Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, Macedonia

 

an oak tree
leaning to the left
election time

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, CA USA

 

citrus moon
……………..facing its
western shadow

Janice Munro
Northern Hemisphere

 

clumsy paper cuts
left hander navigates
a world made right

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, AZ

 

left – right
boys file into a sunset
the red of poppies

john hawkhead

 

sunrise –
grandpa’s right hand
hanging

Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi

 

summer moon –
my late friend’s ring
in my left hand

Julia Guzmán

 

traffic lights
trusting her guide dog
through the park

Kanjini Devi

 

autumn dusk
the empty seesaw
taken by sparrows

Keiko Izawa

 

to the right / his freckles / to the left
rising sun

Kelli Lage

 

war wound
commissioning a concerto
for the left hand

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

back and forth
.tuning Tchaikovsky…
…distant thunder

Lemuel Waite
Georgetown, Kentucky

 

left right
traces in the snow
a drunken hunter

Ljiljana Dobra

 

driving on the
wrong side of the road
election day

Louise Hopewell

 

elections –
sitting on the fence
he ponders

Madhuri Pillai

 

evening walk
a maskless man comes
closer and closer

Manoj Sharma
Kathmandu, Nepal

 

grandson
on each hand
we cross the road

Margaret Mahony

 

right and left
in concert
“New World Symphony”

Margaret Walker

 

coronavirus –
left and right
the same wind

coronavirus –
a destra e a manca
lo stesso vento

Maria Teresa Piras

 

entering stage right
I perform my small role –
exit stage left

Mark Meyer

 

pink slippers
on …dad’s laces
………kitchen waltz

Melissa Moffat
Western Australia

 

black ice –
my right hand slips
into his left

Michele L. Harvey

 

money lender’s vault…
locking up with right hand
checking with the left

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

no moon night
my left eye begins
twitching

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

autumn whirlwind
the clock’s hands rotate
one hour to the left

Minko Tanev

 

Ferris wheel
the right and the left voters
on a spin

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

broken wrist…
six weeks being
right-handed

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

binned photo of the autocrat
as plump smiling
cherub

nancy liddle
australia

 

tears –
behind the sunglasses
enough is enough

Nani Mariani
Melbourne

 

autumn sun
the old couple
hand-in-hand

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

undecided…
he draws a smiley
on the ballot paper

Nick T

 

looking down at the curb
before crossing the street
London traffic

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

 

faded words
in her old letters…
lingering scent

Palle Krishna Rao
Chennai, India

 

cricket …bat
sandwiched …between …hands
left and right

Radhamani sarma

 

swaying left and right
the autumn leaf waves
a neat goodbye

Rajeshwari Srinivasan
India

 

old leftist
McGovern t-shirt
still fits

Rehn Kovacic

 

what’s left ?
after the second star
to the right

Robert Kingston

 

day-mahl
the long shadow
of my lead pencil

(dæg-mǣl (Old English) = sun dial, literally day mark)

simonj
UK

 

a little boy
tries to put the right foot
in the left boot

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

me ham and eggs
her crepe suzette
it must be love

Stephen A. Peters

 

left and right
the middle path
peace, peace, peace

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, Manipur

 

left…
now there’s no one
on my right

Surashree Joshi

 

jungle trail
a primal silence
left and right

Sushama Kapur

 

November –
narrow road
between right and left

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

ambidextrous –
both hands
full

Teji Sethi
India

 

all the faces turn
right to left and back –
the tennis ball

Tomislav Maretić

 

which path to take
her hand hovers
over the ballot paper

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

stone footsteps
to the left and right
Zen garden

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

 

four left feet –
taking dancing lessons
as a couple

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

google map
I still can not find
the way to your heart

Vandana Parashar

 

what’s left
in her life
… the right to life

Victor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA

 

first tentative steps
victory march
of the toddler

Vishnu Kapoor

 

learns how to write
from left to right
an Arab migrant

uči pisati
s lijeve na desnu stranu –
arapski migrant

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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