HAIKU DIALOGUE – Sanctuary of the Senses – Sound and/or Sight

Sanctuary of the Senses with Guest Editor Carole MacRury

As haiku poets, we are familiar with being out in nature, living in the present moment awake to all sensory input, sight, sound, scent, touch, and taste. Sensory experiences can regulate the nervous system and support physical and mental health. Sensory practices and rituals can strengthen mind-body connections and regulate hormones to ease anxiety. I, myself, found ways to utilize the senses to remove debilitating anxiety attacks in my youth. Today, children identified as having sensory sensitivities receive treatment early on to help them process what can be overwhelming or underwhelming sensory responses. My own grandchild successfully underwent sensory processing treatment as a toddler.

A sanctuary is a place of refuge that offers safety and respite from the stresses of our lives, be it within our own homes, a bird sanctuary, a holy place, or at the kitchen table of a dear friend. A sanctuary is personal to each of us. We bring to these sanctuaries our senses whether it is our favorite color, a hot bath, a massage, favorite music, a cup of warm tea, or a hug from a loved one. Our ways and means are endless and unique. Our two prompts will invite you to discover the ways you create your own sanctuary of the senses to cope with the daily stresses of life and to enhance your own well-being.

prompt:  Sound and/or Sight

The brain often treats sight and sound as an integrated experience because both feed into the brain’s emotional systems. When a person loses one of their senses, the brain can often adjust by enhancing the efficiency, attention, and abilities of the remaining senses. Through sight and/or sound, we establish rituals and habits that affect our mood and sense of well-being, whether our sense of sanctuary is within our homes, or within spaces we seek or create outside our homes. Certain colors invigorate; certain colors calm. We lean towards certain colors when choosing clothing, art, and the wall paint of our personal spaces. The sights and sounds of nature also deepen our feeling of sanctuary, whether it is the gentle sound of rain at night or the peaceful hush of fresh morning snow. Music can energize, calm, or call us to action. Think of an orchestra compared to wind chimes, or the single note from a Tibetan singing bowl. Each of us responds to sensory stimuli in unique ways. Together, sounds can feel dark or bright, and colors can feel sharp or soft. What sights and/or sounds offer you a sense of sanctuary, respite, and refuge?

The deadline is midnight Eastern Daylight Time, Saturday, May 2, 2026.

Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry. (The Submit button will not be available until the Name, Email, and Place of Residence fields are filled in.) In the Poem box, with your poem(s), please include any special formatting requirements & your name & residence as you would like it to appear in the column. 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.

Join us next week for Carole’s selection of poems on the topic Sound and/or Sight…

Bios:

Guest Editor Carole MacRury resides in Point Roberts, Washington, a unique peninsula and border town that inspires her work. Her poems have won awards and been published worldwide, and her photographs have been featured on the covers of numerous poetry journals and anthologies. Her practice of contemplative photography along with an appreciation of haiku aesthetics helps deepen her awareness of the world around her. Both image and written word open her to the interconnectedness of all things, to surprise, mystery and a sense of wonder. She is the author of In the Company of Crows: Haiku and Tanka Between the Tides (Black Cat Press, 2008, 2nd Printing, 2018) and The Tang of Nasturtiums, an award-winning e-chapbook (Snapshot Press 2012).

Assistant Editor Lafcadio, a former teacher, now works from home writing, editing and proofreading study guides for nursing textbooks. She lives in Tennessee. She has written poetry for a long time but a couple of years ago fell in love with Japanese micropoetry and hasn’t looked back. Lafcadio has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. She writes under the nom de plume of Lafcadio because nom de plume is so fun to say. You can read her poems on Twitter (X) @lafcadiopoetry or BlueSky @lafcadiobsky.

Assistant Editor Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. She lives in New York City and enjoys reading and writing haiku.

Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She served as Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada for ten years, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.

Portrait by Laurel Parry

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Photo Credits:

Banner Photo credit:  Carole MacRury

Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week.  Read past Haiku Dialogue posts here.