HAIKU DIALOGUE – Times of Transition – Becoming parents (1)

Times of Transition with Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt

For the next few weeks let’s talk about Times of Transition. Arnold van Gennep and Viktor Turner explored these times of transition scientifically, because human existence is defined by them. So, together, let’s do the same – by reflecting on our lives. All of us experience periods in life when alteration takes place and we have to change too. Everything changes: the seasons, moods, the weather – there might even be times when the boundaries of right and wrong, of good and evil seem to change. We are caught in the middle of transition, becoming opaque like water in turmoil. Looking back, we hardly recognize our way up to the present; looking forward, our path seems to be foggy and uncertain. Sometimes we are challenged to let go of our former self to become someone new.

Below is Deborah’s selection of poems on the theme of Becoming parents:

mermaid’s purse—
the ultrasound confirms
her worst fear

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

bathing a newborn –
instruction manual
not included

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

 

newborn baby –
the sea that connects
two distant coasts

Aljoša Vuković
Croatia

 

mini me –
i find the answers
deep within

Amoolya Kamalnath
India

 

she can finally
play with Barbie dolls –
it’s a girl

Ana Drobot
Romania

 

worrying we waited too long . . . miracle child

Ann Sullivan
Arlington MA USA

 

a cold space
in the cot …
I stroke your absence

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

wrinkled newborn
we fight over who
he resembles more

Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
Kolkata, India

 

pregnant wife
kissing
the Globe

Bakhtiyar Amini
Germany

 

what do you write
when words are not
enough?

Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
Verona, Italy

 

upholstery buttons . . .
our toddler takes off
to outer space

Barrie Levine
Massachusetts USA

 

newborn girl child
my mom’s puffy eyes tell me
a lot of tales

Bipasha Majumder (De)
India

 

wrapped in white—
my life since hasn’t had
enough room

Bittor Duce Zubillaga
Basque Country

 

seed fluff
that never lands
her miscarriage

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

born into one
grown into another
family

Bonnie J Scherer
Palmer, Alaska USA

 

february second
my son throws beans
and laughter

Charles Harper
Yokohama

 

baby twins
one watches the other
being bathed twice

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

 

birthday cake
teaching a two year old
to blow out candles

Cindy Putnam Guentherman
Illinois, USA

 

coastal fog
first time walking to school
alone

D. Huss
Santa Monica, California

 

after a hard fight –
Godzilla and T-rex
in the same toy box

Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă
Romania

 

reemergence
from the ocean
river

Daya Bhat
India

 

wake
lulling our insecurities
with the baby

Dejan Pavlinović
Croatia

 

your foster Korean name
meant “calm shine”
you arrived loud and ready

Diane Funston
Marysville, California

 

helplessly
watching him cry
month-old

Dipankar Dasgupta
India

 

grandchildren
something else all my
friends will have

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

to watch you breathe
so slowly
the cloud moves

Elisa Theriana
Indonesia

 

autumn leaves…
baby’s first steps
on red carpet

Florin C. Ciobica
Romania

 

delivery room
the silent agonies
of a helpless father

Harrison Lightwater
Netherlands

 

violent shove
motherhood option
deleted

JL Huffman
Blue Ridge Mountains of NC, USA

 

summer fading
I’ll never walk
them to school

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, Arizona USA

 

my first husband
gazes through my son’s eyes
I try to forget

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

becoming a wife
and parent of two …
simultaneously

Jennifer Gurney
United States

 

every poem
we gave up on
needed a second image

Jerome Berglund
Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

babble a baby this stream my mind

John S Green
Bethlehem, Palestine

 

moth dust
falling through moonlight
the remembered child

John Hawkhead
United Kingdom

 

morning cafe—
the woman phones her son
for his grade report

John Zheng
Mississippi

 

a baby’ s kicking –
love and fear at
the same time

Jovana Dragojlovic
Belgrade, Serbia

 

over a decade
how we beam at both
rescued dogs

Kanjini Devi
The Far North, Aotearoa NZ

 

playing house
my inner child always
was a mother

Kathabela Wilson
USA

 

not born to me
but at first glance he became
the child of my heart

Kathleen Cain
Arvada, CO

 

childless…
hugging
my cat

Keiko Izawa
Japan

 

first motherhood
a cherry
blossoms

Lakshmi Iyer
India

 

child’s first steps lollapalooza of my dreams

Lakshman Bulusu
Princetown, NJ, USA

 

never sure if it would last…
our decades
of childless marriage

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

soft stirrings
loving this start
of who you are

Linda Ludwig
Inverness, Florida

 

childless
saddened by the loss
of a cactus

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
Bombon, Philippines

 

news of my pregnancy
the creases in
my mother’s brow

Lori Kiefer
London UK

 

your first kick
promising not to repeat
my mother’s mistakes

Louise Hopewell
Australia

 

pregnant and weary
overcome by labour pains
baby stillborn

Lys Brown
Ballyshannon, co Donegal, Ireland

 

this feeling of love
laced with awe…
her debut

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

2am feeding moon on my breast

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL, USA

 

grafting an orchid
to the ancestral tree
adoption day

marilyn ashbaugh
edwardsburg, michigan

 

fetal ultrasound
for a moment our future
in black in white

Maurice Nevile
Canberra, Australia

 

dry mouth..
our partners-to-parents coach tells us
she is divorced

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

craving for ice cream…
he knotts four shoelaces

Mihaela Iacob
Romania

 

the sound of the rainbow
almost as loud
as the baby’s smile

Mike Fainzilber
Rehovot, Israel

 

nine months old
a mystery to us
her daydreams

Mike Gallagher
Ballyduff, Ireland

 

all the love –
to the unborn brother
not to fly away

Minko Tanev
Bulgaria

 

newborn’s first whimper
all the parenting lessons
forgotten

Mirela Brailean
Romania

 

parenthood —
all the blurred
timelines

Mona Bedi
India

 

colic…
my son and I crash
on the carpet

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

spring solo
son’s first cry
wets my eyes

Neena Singh
India

 

how fragile
our dreams
miscarraige

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

 

born again,
with this first cry
of another life

Ram Chandran
India

 

coos and gurgles
desperate to master
the new language

Ravi Kiran
India

 

being the child of snow sometimes I dream of fire

Richa Sharma
India

 

breathing monitor
a bear snaps out of
hibernation

Richard L. Matta
San Diego, California, USA

 

a newborn
the knowing looks
of grandparents

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

the dead cat’s
six kittens
motherhood

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

 

on your first day
I knew that you
were worth the wait

Ruth Happel
United States

 

a squirrel hoards
away an acorn
late parenthood

Sangita Kalarickal
United States

 

from another aisle
a child calls “mom”
I turn to look

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

waiting room –
at last a baby cry
from other side

Satyanarayana Chittaluri
Hyderabad, LB Nagar, India

 

pre-teen
all the dishes
under his bed

Sharon Ferrante
Florida, USA

 

third echo…
the music of her
heartbeats

Steliana Cristina Voicu
Ploiesti, Romania

 

summer breeze
that one seed
about to sprout

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

 

a cup of tea
an advice
on my son

Sudarmanto Salamun
Bandung – Indonesia

 

dying grass moon
he chooses to save
the baby

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD

 

my children
not by birth
but by death

Susan Farner
USA

 

home coming–
talking to father
in the grave

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

son and daughter
before their concert —
I take over stage fright

Tomislav Maretić
Croatia

 

staging a coo
not a maternal bone
in my body

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

wildfire
two storks are in the nest
with eggs

Tsanka Shishkova
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

going down
in the history as a villain
teenager’s mom

Vandana Parashar
India

 

she left
left me with a life
to grow with

Vishnu Kapoor
Chennai, India

 

sleepless night
my lullaby
becomes a prayer

Vladislav Hristov
Plovdiv, Bulgaria

 

our female firstborn…planting a lilli pilli

Wanda Amos
Australia

Join us next week for Deborah’s commentary on additional poems, & our next prompt…

Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt lives in Bonn, Germany, with her husband, two rabbits and numerous books. After her PhD studies in Scandinavian languages and literatures, she now works as a freelance author and poet. One of her poems won 2nd place in the 2021 Pula Film Festival Haiku Contest. Her poems have most recently appeared in Prune Juice, Kingfisher, First Frost, Frogpond, Failed Haiku and Tsuridoro. If she is not outside for a long stroll or to do some birdwatching, she is an avid reader who is currently exploring Chinese Xianxia Webnovels.

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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