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HAIKU DIALOGUE – paper dress

 

Welcome to Haiku Dialogue

Let’s talk about haiku! You are invited to respond to photographs – I will share a photo each week as a prompt for your writing…

Submit an original unpublished poem via our Contact Form by Saturday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.

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.

Poems will be selected based on the potential to generate discussion – these poems will be the best to talk about…

next week’s theme:

The deadline for this theme is midnight Pacific Time, Saturday 13 July 2019.

I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

HAIKU DIALOGUE:  paper dress

Here are my selections for this week:

the iridescent
of butterfly wings
haute couture

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Banten

 

designer dress –
no human outlines
for a long time

Aljoša Vuković

 

yellow moon
the cat woman in me
scents adventure

Anitha Varma

 

paper couture
models
make headlines

Anjali Warhadpande

 

after
spring rains
papier mâché

Ann Rawson
Scotland, U.K.

 

Paper gown…
How wide and long is
This path from the cave

Anna Goluba

 

paper couture –
she wears my love letter
close to her heart

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

paper wasps –
another hive abuzz
for my nest egg

B Shropshire
Texas

 

haute couture
recycled grocery bags
do not touch

Barbara Tate

 

cutting out
the dresses and suits
playdate

C.R. Harper

 

hot couture
her firebrand persona
Miss Demeanor

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles (Shakeopolis), California, USA

 

I refuse to try on
the evening gown
knobby trees

Christina Sng

 

paper couture
he shreds her confidence
with a glance

Claire Vogel Camargo
USA

 

mom alive… she, me
and tissue paper patterns
simplicity

clysta seney
northern California

 

cutting doll sized patterns
from paper bags
he dreams of Project Runway

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA

 

high fashion
little girl sewing on the floor
surrounded with dolls

Dubravka Šćukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

 

sales time –
a boy is mirrored
in the showcase

Ezio Infantino

 

papier coquette
hangs folded
on a rack

Giedra Kregzdys
Woodhaven, New York

 

brown paper gown
origami boutonnière
first anniversary party

Greer Woodward
Kamuela, HI

 

pure paper prom dresses [no plastic bling] these are a few ill-affordable things

Helen Buckingham

 

evening chill…
a refugee girl’s doll
in the paper gown

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

Betsy McCall paper dolls –
dressing up fun
before hugging trees

Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, Macedonia

 

belladonna
her champagne dress
in small sips

Isabel Caves
Auckland, New Zealand

 

the phantom
hovering under the stage lights
a vintage gown

Janice Munro
Canada

 

hands off
the origami dress
a fragile dream

Jo El
North Carolina

 

dressing room
she smooths the creases
in her frown

john hawkhead

 

origami sari
rapt in my unfolding
book

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California, USA

 

paper dress
at the bridal shower
discussing her poor choice

Kristen Lindquist

 

cloth store –
trials and
tribulations

Lakshmi Iyer

 

diagnosis…
going out in a gown
of couture paper

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

origami orchid
another layer
to our fairy tale

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

mall closing –
the mannequin and me
exchange a hurried look

Manoj Nair

 

summer evening –
on the paper dress
salt spray

Maria Teresa Piras

 

coloring
outside the curves
paper dress

Marilyn Ashbaugh

 

my party dress
the vibrato in mamma’s voice
as she sews

Marisa Fazio

 

paper whispers
a wordless cacophony
in the background

Mark Gilbert

 

all over her dress
it’s the same old news –
yesterday’s paper

Mark Meyer

 

pareidolia
this fear
of my stepmother

Martha Magenta

 

paper dress
she hears the rustle of leaves
with every step

Minal Sarosh

 

campbell’s soup
the dress she never
wore

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

hungry woman
struts a gold dress
towards the buffet

nancy liddle
broken hill, Australia

 

paper couture
a little boy stares at pencil
in his hand

Neni Rusliana
Indonesia

 

potential problem
how to make stockings
stay up

Paul Geiger
Sebastopol CA

 

dressing her paper doll
in dreams
of silk

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama, USA

 

chemotherapy
she wants
a new dress

Pere Risteski

 

a sorting out…
fashion magazines stacked
in the attic

Pris Campbell

 

couture
paper sari in multi folds
hiding

Radhamani sarma

 

wedding dress…
she draws herself
another Phoenix tattoo

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

 

misstep
paper gown becomes
a cocktail dress

Rehn Kovacic

 

mall walkers
the rustling
of origami dresses

Rich Schilling
Webster Groves, MO

 

paper dress
the golden wish
to be in focus

Richa Sharma

 

spun straw
a row breaks out
in the king’s stable

Robert Kingston
Essex, UK

 

first light –
sun spun gold dress awaits
a chariot

robyn brooks
usa

 

from doll clothes
to paper couture
the child in us all

(dedicated to Joan Son)

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

 

zipper
stuck in paper
teary eyes

SD Desai

 

trick or treat
her newspaper gown sewn
with tomorrow’s wars

Sanela Pliško

 

wrapped on her wiry frame
refugee’s paper-thin dress
has no border

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

desire
wrapped in paper –
read between the lines

Saša Slavković
Golnik, Slovenia

 

the freedom
in a paper gown
bailed to return

simonj
UK

 

the art gallery
feeding my creative side
with paper couture

Susan Bonk Plumridge
London, Canada

 

Christmas fair…
matching my wife’s gown
with a dummy

Taofeek Ayeyemi (Aswagaawy)
Port Harcourt, Nigeria

 

past bedtime…
cutting a gown
for her paper doll

Theresa A. Cancro
Wilmington, Delaware, USA

 

tossed aside
brown paper bags
dream of Cinderella

Tim Heaney
Johns Creek, Ga.

 

prom night –
environmentalist’s
stiff dancing

Tomislav Sjekloća
Cetinje, Montenegro

 

rain…
my yellow washi
umbrella

Tsanka Shishkova

 

haute couture
it’s just a matter of how long
I can hold my breath

Vandana Parashar

 

dawn
i prepare new clothes
for my origami dolls

Vessislava Savova

 

my vernal age
twiggy pop art
recycled

Vicki Miko

 

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).

 

This Post Has 50 Comments

  1. Thank you very much, Vicki Miko, for your kind words about my haiku. 😌

    Your haiku is so subtle yet powerful!
    And using the word “vernal” just sets it off. Beautiful!

    my vernal age
    twiggy pop art
    recycled

    Vicki Miko

  2. Yep, that’s exactly where I was going. My sister had one if them and never wore it. Several years ago on Antiques Road show(PBS), someone had a never worn dress like it. Worth thousands. Thanks for mentioning my haiku.

  3. on the internet, i just caught a quick glimpse of Diane Keaton, (actress), as a paper doll…with those\ slanty/ tabs coming out from the top of her shoulders. She is wearing black and white clothes. Did anyone here see it too?

  4. Thank you kjmunro!

    the phantom
    hovering under the stage lights
    a vintage gown
    Janice Munro
    Canada
    Janice Munro’s poem is my favorite! “the phantom” . . . that headless, bodyless “vintage gown” “hovering”.

    paper couture –
    she wears my love letter
    close to her heart
    arvinder kaur
    Chandigarh, India
    arvinder kaur’s poem is a beautiful version of the image. It’s very musical!

    belladonna
    her champagne dress
    in small sips
    Isabel Caves
    Auckland, New Zealand
    Mysterious . . . maybe Isabel Caves’ poem prompts Shakespeare’s tale of Romeo and Juliet.

    paper dress
    she hears the rustle of leaves
    with every step
    Minal Sarosh
    Minal Sarosh’s poem is wonderfully simple, “she hears the rustle of leaves”. Seems to send a poignant awareness, I love that.

    campbell’s soup
    the dress she never
    wore
    Nancy Brady
    Huron, Ohio
    Not certain, but for me, Nancy Brady’s poem seems likened to my memories of the paper dress fad. I had a couple paper dresses in the Twiggy era.

    dressing her paper doll
    in dreams
    of silk
    Peggy Hale Bilbro
    Alabama, USA
    Peggy Hale Bilbro’s poem is like a wistful little girl’s picture book!

    couture
    paper sari in multi folds
    hiding
    Radhamani sarma
    Radhamani’s last word is perfect! The “multi folds / hiding” maybe more than just any perceived body flaws.

    first light –
    sun spun gold dress awaits
    a chariot
    robyn brooks
    usa
    robyn brooks’ poem is music out loud!

    1. Thank you for your comment on my poem Vicki, and thanks kj for including me in your paper couture collection! I loved all the different responses to this simple prompt.
      Peggy

    2. Yep, that’s exactly where I was going. My sister had one if them and never wore it. Several years ago on Antiques Road show(PBS), someone had a never worn dress like it. Worth thousands. Thanks for mentioning my haiku.

  5. Very happy to have my haiku included here. Thank you, Kathy !! Congrats to all poets !

    Minal Sarosh

  6. There are so many interesting stories in our collection of few words this week. One that I appreciated the use of lyrical words is:
    .
    hands off
    the origami dress
    a fragile dream
    .
    Jo El
    .
    For the readers that don’t follow the television show Project Runway, my nod to the show was inspired by the partially hidden Zac Posen storefront sign. He was a designer judge on the show.

  7. I am very glad that my poem was included in the selection. Thank you, KJ

    Anitha Varma.

  8. Thank you Ingrid, Helen and Kathy.
    My mother made a paper dress for me when I was three years old.
    It was for an on-stage tap dance. When played with later, outside, in the rain, we soon discovered how rapidly the dye in crêpe paper runs and my fingers were covered in red.

    1. Ah! Red crêpe paper chains at Christmas and how my sister and I got told off colouring our lips on the quiet!

  9. Thank you KJ for including mine. I particularly admired John Hawkhead’s clever ‘dressing room / she smooths the creases / in her frown’, and the poignant image in Hifsa Ashraf’s haiku of the girl dressing her doll in a dress made of paper.

    1. Thanks Mark – always great to see constructive appreciation.
      *
      I’m really enjoying this set of challenges kj – it seems to trigger new thinking for me.
      *
      I really like this from Isabel Caves:
      *
      belladonna
      her champagne dress
      in small sips

  10. Thank you Kathy for including mine. Such a varied compilation.
    Congratulations to all poets.
    This one took me back to my daughters ever lengthening schooldays
    .
    past bedtime…
    cutting a gown
    for her paper doll
    Theresa A. Cancro
    Wilmington, Delaware, USA
    .

    1. Thank you, Robert, for picking out my haiku. I’m pleased that it brought back memories for you.

      Best,
      Theresa

  11. Kj,
    Thankyou very much for selecting my contribution to this week’s theme.
    After months of writer’s blue’s (a veritable watesland) you have reignited my desire to write, seeing the every day around me. I hope all poets take the time to take deep breath…and compose…
    Thanks Tim Heaney

  12. thanks Kathy for including mine – the hungry woman – I am enjoying your prompts very much – a lovely opportunity to practise haiku in a gentle talented community <3

  13. Dear Kathy,
    Greetings. Profusely thanking you for including mine among the featured ones. Delighted to go through all the
    haiku around on the couture ; how many designs and fritters ;
    My favorite this week given below;
    how wonderfully between the whispers and cacophony!

    paper whispers
    a wordless cacophony
    in the background

    Mark Gilbert

    1. Thank you Radhamani Sarma – these dresses and saris must be so noisy to wear!

  14. thanks to all who have commented so far… how we move from an actual paper dress to paper dolls & fairy tales, to the hospital… a wonderful commentary on fashion & the environment… a truly remarkable group of writers!
    thank you, kj

    1. Thanks to you for providing us with the visual prompt! It seems to have struck a chord with many of us.

    2. Thank you kj munro for including my haiku in this amazingly creative collection. Congratulations to all of the poets! Well done!

  15. Great collection of haiku. Congratulations to all the poets. Loved Ingrid’s Betsy McCall, reminding me of my sister and me fighting over the magazine and hoping for an ad on the obverse page. Without an ad, we had to wait until Mom okayed it. It was her magazine after all.

    Serious, poignant, and more. Clysta’s reference to simplicity patterns another childhood memory. Paper mache from the rain…classic!

    Thanks Kathy for including mine along with the others.

    1. Thank you, Nancy! Glad mine brought back some good memories. Innocent times.

  16. coloring
    outside the curves
    paper dress
    .
    Marilyn Ashbaugh
    .
    Very good. Short and full of content. Taking an idiom, mixing it up, and the reveal makes sense of it all.

    1. Simonj,

      Thank you so much for your comments on my ku!

      Kathy,

      Thank you for the fun prompt! And the great selection. Kudos to all poets!

      Marilyn

  17. Kathy, Thank you for including my haiku. It is such a broad selection. I enjoyed them all. Two that especially stayed with me were Greer’s about gift categories for anniversaries (I envisioned two handmade paper ornaments atop a cake) and Hifsa’s evocative image of a child and her doll:

    brown paper gown
    origami boutonnière
    first anniversary party

    Greer Woodward
    Kamuela, HI

    evening chill…
    a refugee girl’s doll
    in the paper gown

    Hifsa Ashraf
    Pakistan

  18. I like Marilyn Ashbaugh’ “coloring” for its clever slyness, Isabel Caves’s “belladonna” for its rhythm and implied deadliness (femme fatale?), and Sanela Pliško’s “trick or treat” for its sobering use of double entendre. Well done everyone!

  19. There are some wonderful haiku in this week’s series. These are my favorites:
    .
    .
    yellow moon
    the cat woman in me
    scents adventure

    Anitha Varma
    .
    .
    evening chill…
    a refugee girl’s doll
    in the paper gown

    Hifsa Ashraf, Pakistan
    .
    .
    hands off
    the origami dress
    a fragile dream

    Jo El, North Carolina, USA
    .
    .
    paper dress
    at the bridal shower
    discussing her poor choice

    Kristen Lindquist
    .
    .
    paper couture
    a little boy stares at pencil
    in his hand

    Neni Rusliana, Indonesia
    (Might need an article between at and pencil though)
    .
    .
    from doll clothes
    to paper couture
    the child in us all

    (dedicated to Joan Son)
    Ronald K. Craig, Batavia, OH USA
    .
    .
    past bedtime…
    cutting a gown
    for her paper doll

    Theresa A. Cancro
    Wilmington, Delaware, USA
    .
    .
    Congrats to all poets!

    1. Thank you so much for the appreciation…so glad you liked my contribution.
      Anitha Varma.

  20. paper couture –
    she wears my love letter
    close to her heart

    arvinder kaur
    Chandigarh, India

    this certainly made me melt!

    All the many posts that spoke of paperdoll clothing…i can totally relate….as a three year-old, and older, when there was a rainy day, or i was sick home in bed….i liked nothing better than to have my dog on one side and my scissors in hand cutting out paperdoll dresses with the slanty tabs.

  21. What a riot of fun this week, and who doesn’t laugh at the impractical silliness of stuff on the catwalk? Among the many to giggle at:
    .
    Ann Rawson’s take on a disastrous evening out in Scottish weather:
    .
    after
    spring rain
    papier mâché
    .
    Barbara Tate’s poke at environmental concern:
    .
    haute couture
    recycled grocery bags
    do not touch
    .
    and even more poignantly, Helen Buckingham’s play on The Sound of Music:
    .
    pure paper prom dresses [no plastic bling] these are a few of ill-affordable things
    .
    Lots more to talk about and to enjoy. Thank you Kathy for including my rather more sober take on a fascinating photo.

    1. …..and simply laugh out loud:
      .
      my party dress
      the vibrato in mamma’s voice
      as she sews

      Marisa Fazio
      .
      potential problem
      how to make stockings
      stay up

      Paul Geiger
      .
      misstep
      paper gown becomes
      a cocktail dress

      Rehn Kovacic
      .
      prom night –
      environmentalist’s
      stiff dancing

      Tomislav Sjekloća
      .
      haute couture
      it’s just a matter of how long
      I can hold my breath

      Vandana Parashar
      .

      There are, of course, some serious takes, among them my fellow Ohrid resident I’ve still to meet:
      .
      chemotherapy
      she wants
      a new dress

      Pere Risteski
      .
      Thank you everyone for this entertaining, thought-provoking output. So looking forward to comments this week, as usual.

      1. Thank you, Ingrid for your kind appreciation and a big thanks to Kathy for including mine among a such lovely collection.
        Thoroughly enjoyed the poems!

    2. Thanks so much, Ingrid – and to Kathy, of course, for selecting my ku. Anne Rawson’s brought the biggest smile to my face – says it all!

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