HAIKU DIALOGUE – Resolutions – Success (1)

Comments (32)

1. I enjoyed the poems highlighted. In terms of success or failure of New Year resolutions, as someone who is useless at even making one, several resonated…

   Jenny Shepherd’s unmade promises to change were an instant guarantee of success, and I hope Jennifer Gurney celebrated her record of 24 hours. ? Less talk and more action was evident in Kerry J Heckman’s concrete one-liner, situated in a yoga class. But even so, it was still only the first day of January.

   Finally, Keith Evetts’ haiku began by hinting at the beginning of something, rather than the breaking of a promise not to eat cake, but at least he made it a little further into the month!

   early January
   
our eyes meet
   
outside the cake shop

   Keith Evetts


   Haiku to make us smile as we embark upon another year with resolve—or not.

2. Thank you, John. I’m using the time to comment this week instead of writing to the next prompt and it feels good to slow down a little.

   Thank you, Nick for your wonderful comment and I am so glad this verse resonated in the way it did.

   Many stood out for me this week including:
   *
   spring victory
   in the leftover snow
   crocuses

   Kirsten Ge
   Germany

   This verse makes me pause, smile and reflect on the small victories that are all around us in nature.
   *
   january first end to end yoga mats

   Kerry J Heckman
   Seattle, WA

   Such a vivid image that strikes a chord as someone who picks up and puts down yoga practice more than I’d care to admit.

   1. Thanks, C.X. Turner. That is perhaps the main point—to slow the process down allowing not just the editor more time, but the participants additional time to read, digest, and put forth comments on favorites. Thank you.
      John

3. my first haiku book-
   even the Fuji Mountain
   it fits on pages

4. Greetings and Happy New Year to all!
   Just a quick note to thank you John for including my haiku in this selection.
   I did enjoy reading all the haiku which are very inspiring.

5. Thank you so much, John Green, for including my Haiku this week.
   Reading all of the selected Haiku’s was fun.

   This one stuck with me the most

   at eighty-five
   just happy to live
   another day

   Christa Pandey
   Austin, TX USA

   And this one I could relate to :-)

   branching out…
   I try some new
   poetry forms

   Nancy Brady
   Huron, Ohio

   1. Thanks Rebecca, for reading or noticing. I am glad that you could relate to mine. I may never master any poetry form completely, but I want to keep learning.

      I liked Christa’s as well and can hope I feel the same way at 85, too.

      Good luck with your mountain climbing. May you reach the top. I smiled when I read it because I battle that same mountain here, and then I notice the next one. ☺

6. Thank you John. So many interesting poems. These two stood out for me:

   winter sun escaping my shadows
   C.X.Turner
   United Kingdom

   I can feel the sun on my cheeks and my spirits lifting!

   ***

   sprinting past the finish line December haiku

   Ann Sullivan
   Massachusetts USA

   I am intrigued by this poem and the energy it exudes.

7. lots of good poems
   these 2 stuck with me:
   *
   graduation party
   calling my parents’ friends
   by their first names

   Tim Cremin
   Massachusetts
   *
   parity with the grown-ups…. wow! a milestone moment.
   *
   pouring rain …
   in the sewing box
   everything is in order

   Angiola Inglese
   Italy
   lovely fragment /phrase
   a rainy day put to good use

8. Hope you all are having a lovely new year. What beautiful poems. All those little victories in everyday lives put a smile on my face: so many I could relate too. Thank you John for mentioning mine in this lovely list.

9. Happy New Year to the haiku community!

   Thank you, John for your time to review, select and comment on the hundreds of haiku that come your way, weekly. You obviously love your work. From the number of haiku this week about haiku, there are others who share that joy.

   I enjoyed many of the haiku mentioned above, but wanted to say that this one particularly touched my heart. When we are away from home, don’t we revel in things that are familiar? Sounds, smells, foods, etc. can invoke both pleasant and perhaps not-so-pleasant memories of that place we call “home”. The Ukrainian refugee mentioned may be a specific person, but, to me, represents the citizens of a war-torn and displaced nation. This beautiful memory of a better time brought tears to my eyes. I can read both sadness and hope in the words. Lovely writing, Mircea. Thank you.

   quince jam
   yak u mamy vdoma
   whispered the refugee

   (In Ukrainian yak u mamy vdoma means “like at mom’s house”.)

   Mircea Moldovan
   România

   1. Thank you very much for the appreciation, for the emotion that my haiku evoked in you and for the kind words, Holly B.

      With friendship,
      Mircea

10. I am very excited about this new two week process. I hope it brings more time for editors and for poets alike.

    Thank you, John, for including my poem. It wasn’t surprising to find so many here who share my joy at success with the written word.

    That said, this verse made me laugh out loud for capturing how I feel about most resolutions:

    January first
    Through January second
    That is my record

    Jennifer Gurney
    United States

11. small victories
    i listen to
    what my body says

    Amoolya Kamalnath
    India

    Amoolya’s above haiku really spoke to me. After my many years of listening practice, it remains a victory when successful. Kudos to the poet!

    Also, thank you John for the clarification of long list this week and selected list next week. What a great idea!

12. new haiku
    the submission calendar
    fills with smileys
    /
    Neena Singh
    India
    /
    Sometimes writing a haiku brings a smile to the poet. Sometimes having a haiku published brings a smile to the poet. Continued Good Luck in the future Neena with filling your calendar with smileys.

    1. Dear Valentina, thank you so much for your appreciation and sweet wishes. You are so right about the smiles—penning & timely submission and acceptance by Editors (like you) bring them. ?
       Warm regards,
       Neena

13. Thank you, John, for including my haiku in this lengthy selection. I definitely don’t envy you the hard task of judging!
    Congratulations to all who feature in the list.

14. Thank you John for including my haiku on the long list this week and congratulations to all the poets here! I appreciate this one by Rebecca. Tackling the laundry pile is a great subject:
    new year, new me
    and I am moving mountains…
    in my laundry room

    Rebecca Kolstad
    Rochester, NY

    And this one by Laurie – what an interesting haiku on a way to think about little free libraries:
    little free library
    halfway house for books
    on the way to new lives

    Laurie Greer
    Washington, DC

    I am not quite clear on the new Haiku Dialogue procedure. Are the 17 haiku that will appear next week with commentary coming from this list or are those haiku not appearing until next week?

    1. Hi Sari,

       First off, thanks for commenting on two poems. That means a great deal to the ones you hand-picked.
       .
       Also, to answer your query, the 17 poems I have reserved will be additional selections—not from this ‘long list’.

       Cheers,
       John

       1. Ok, great John. Thank you for the clarification!

    2. Congrats to you! I also enjoyed your Haiku. Hopefully both of us will have clean laundry rooms and healthy plants in 2023.
       Thank you, Sari, for the appreciation of my submission!

    3. Sari – this is a work in progress, so we will try it this way for now & see how it goes… thanks for joining us for the ride, kj

       1. Hi KJ,

          Yes, absolutely. Thank you!

15. I am happy to be selected again but the way it was edited/posted was NOT the way I wrote/submitted it. I guess I’ll take the ‘W’. Congrats to all!

    1. Hi Stephen,
       Yes, here is your submission:
       .
       ninety-nine
       said no one said yes—
       ‘W’
       .
       Stephen J. DeGuire
       Los Angeles, CA
       .
       I had to read this a few times until I realized ‘ninety-nine’ went with ‘said no’. As editor, I probably would not accept it as you wrote it. But by bring the ‘said no’ up to the first line, it becomes a clear message of resolute determination, with a gentle sense of humor, and a ‘W’!
       Thank you,
       John

    2. Stephen – also to say that sometimes (read usually) formatting does not come through properly on the submission form, so we encourage poets to describe anything unusual – like spacing or italics – so we get it right… feel free to include your poem here as you would like it to appear! kj

16. Mr. Green, thank you very much for including my haiku work in this week’s publication. Congratulations to ALL colleagues!

17. little victories . . .
    today I got out of bed
    and put on some clothes

    Jonathan Aylett
    Liverpool

    We mostly take for granted the many actions required to live our daily lives, so this poem gave me reason to reflect, as did the following:

    adventure calls
    going on foot all the way
    to the second floor

    Samu Kreutz
    Ljubljana, Slovenia
    …
    As someone who just needs to look at an indoor plant to make it feel ill, I enjoyed the following:

    still alive
    one year later
    hardy houseplant

    Sari Grandstaff
    Saugerties, NY, USA
    …
    Something we all need to accomplish wherever the opportunity and facilities exist, unfortunately not everywhere yet:

    new habits . . .
    halfway
    to zero waste

    Cynthia Anderson
    Yucca Valley, California

    Thank you, John, for including my submission, and for the continued work by the team, appreciated as always.

    1. Thank you Ingrid for the appreciation. I do not have a green thumb either so this houseplant is a record for me.

18. Greetings to all!
    Reading so many success stories is uplifting and inspiring. So many poets wrote about success in haiku writing and that’s wonderful!

    This haiku expressed the joy of living each day and there’s success in this :

    at eighty-five
    just happy to live
    another day

    Christa Pandey
    Austin, TX USA

    Vandana Parashar’s spring garden also touched a chord.

    Congratulations to all featured poets, and looking forward to the 17 haiku selected for the Editors Commentary next week..

    Grateful to John for including my ku in his selection

19. Thank-you John for selecting mine and welcome. Thank-you also to Kathy, Lori, and the Haiku Foundation.

20. Happy New Year! Congrats to all the poets for all your successes. What a positive set of haiku. The haiku are intermixed, some with humor, warmth, fondness, sadness, and/or love.

    A couple haiku jumped out at me with a quick reading. First, I appreciated this one for the difficulty of achieving this feat since my list keeps growing:
    a sizable dent
    in my to-be-read list
    one hundred books

    Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
    although Laurie Greer might have part of the answer with her Little Free Library (except it hasn’t worked for me with my LFL).
    little free library
    halfway house for books
    on the way to new lives

    Laurie Greer

    The daily practice of writing one haiku…kudos to all who have already managed that discipline (reading through the list there are many). And those who are revising (pruning), editing, submitting, that’s commendable.

    Kudos to those who are making positive steps with health concerns whether dieting, avoiding disease, getting better, or dealing with issues.

    Overall, again, how uplifting these haiku all are.

    Thanks, John, for including one of mine in this mix.

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