HAIKU DIALOGUE – Wanderlust – Seeking/Venturing Out – long list

Wanderlust with Guest Editor Marietta McGregor

Toddlers live in the present. Family forms the boundaries of their small world. It’s only as we grow up that we start to dream and plan to be somewhere else, to experience something new. Many writers have woven narratives around their travels. Hans Christian Andersen believed that to travel is to live. Aesop maintained that adventure is worthwhile. Do you have favourite travel tales you trot out to family and friends? I certainly do. They tell me they enjoy them, but I wonder if they’re just being polite. Travel is personal, after all. It’s what you alone see and how it makes you feel. Call it wanderlust or what you will, the urge to experience something new and different has long captured our imaginations. I’d like our first prompt to be about real-life journeys as you coddiwomple along, enjoying the trip while perhaps not knowing the destination. Prompt 2 will relate more to how we travel in our minds, whether it’s to the past, the future, or to some fictional realm we conjure up that feels very real.

Below is Marietta’s selection of poems on the topic of Seeking/Venturing Out:

sand dune—
I carve my shadow
before it’s gone

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

lost in the museum
suddenly—
Leonardo

Patricia Haddock
San Francisco CA USA

 

my way to the pond
unwritten poems hidden
beneath the duckweed

Urszula Marciniak
Poland

 

trip to Tuscany—
I’m growing to like this
unsalted bread

Eva Limbach
Germany

 

the golden years
this full time adventure of
growing old

Michael Henry Lee
The Forbidden City

 

after the op
my eyes explore
new worlds

Ann Rawson
Scotland, UK

 

free from winter’s snow
sunny lands pass by my train
I’m away at last!

Lorraine Schein
Sunnyside, Queens, NYC

 

autumn morning—
like the swallows
I head south

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

international train
it’s just the two of us
speaking French

Marie Derley
Ath, Belgium

 

summer morning—
I walk with a pine’s shadow
across the stream

Artur Zieliński
Poland

 

far from where I began
I find home in fleeting things . . .
a leaf, wind, and light

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore
Catania (Italy)

 

opening fb . . .
it’s raining in Kyoto,
I see

Nikola Đuretić
Zagreb, Croatia

 

Riverside stroll—
every wagtail has
a spring in its step

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

 

craters on the moon
some of my childhood
still there

Stephen A Peters
Bellingham, WA

 

cruising altitude
dots below
who-where-when-ing

Millicent Bee
Richmond, Virginia USA

 

who we are
who we were
at the first step

John Hawkhead
UK

 

city lights
from the air
first glimpse of Paris

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

 

the sun rising
behind the mountain
behind me

Sean Murphy
MD, USA

 

back home in Michigan
my childhood in the night
fireflies

Jennifer Gurney
US

 

back home . . .
each airport luggage
with a new story

Steliana Cristina Voicu
Ploiesti, Romania

 

group trip—
a toy abandoned at the service station

Benedetta Cardone
Massa, Italy

 

who we were
when we were there
passport photos

Barrie Levine
USA

 

a lingering coffee—
one boat after another
sails away

Sanjana Zorinc
Hrvatska

 

New Orleans—
the dim, dark interior
of a voodoo shop

Anne Curran
Hamilton New Zealand

 

morning prayers . . .
more voices
of my dead parents

Keiko Izawa
Japan

 

on the road
yet loath to leave
this view

Charles Harper
Yokohama

 

Himalayan cave
riding out the storm
on tight body heat

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

crosscountry roadtrip
three month old
cuts his first tooth

Laurinda Lind
Sackets Harbor, NY

 

return trip
pumpkin soup her way
saved in my pocket

Daya Bhat
India

 

evening detour
I pick winding roads
all the way home

Jagajit Salam
Imphal, India

 

night bus moving back home at forty

Lorraine Haig
Tasmania, Australia

 

sticky skin
under a Hawaiian sun
watermelon gelato

Reid Hepworth
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

 

travel rest break
on the gum tree
kookaburras laughing

Tuyet Van Do
Australia

 

plans for world travel—
my favorite bookstore
two towns away

Jean LeBlanc
New Jersey USA

 

rickshaw ride
rediscovering stars
on each pothole

Sheikha A.
United Arab Emirates

 

the cranes are gathering — time to hitchhike

Regine Beckmann
Holste, Germany

 

under
the wrong window—
my serenade

Dan Campbell
Virginia

 

spring breeze
the windmills
scan the sky

Kavita Ratna
India

 

reflections
floating down narrow lanes
gondola day

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

Vietnamese village
the old man and I converse
in French

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

alien place—
a stranger’s smile
stays with me

Sathya Venkatesh
Coimbatore, India

 

mountain pass the mossy side of trees

Billy Antonio
Laoac, Philippines

 

portal
the trip from
known to unknown

Joy Hallinan
Atlanta, Georgia USA

 

wheeling my suitcase
across cobblestones at dawn
a new city

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

winter seas
a childhood prayer
returns

marilyn ashbaugh
usa

 

Piazza Navona
a pigeon perched
on the Nile god’s knee

Terri French
Huntsville, AL

 

finding myself moved
by the unmovable
Monument Valley

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

stops along the way
through five centuries
London pub crawl

Mark Meyer
Mercer Island WA USA

 

stepping away
from my mother’s footprints
wildflowers

Meera Rehm
UK

 

Türkiye
Sunday School stories
whirl in my head

Susan Farner
USA

 

trip around the block
a black cat
to philosophize with

Luciana Moretto
Italy

 

Bosphorus breeze
a slow walk
towards Asia

Nazarena Rampiny
Italy

 

the journey goes on
in the marina
a drowned rat

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Germany

 

Serengeti tent kept up by the lion breaths

Adele Gallogly
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

 

hitching a ride
to Hawaii
humpback barnacle

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

just passing through
the diner waitress
calls me sweetheart

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

from Betatakin to the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings time travel

Sam Bateman
Everett, WA

 

Travelling
I find myself lose myself
am no longer me

Sudha Devi Nayak
Bhubaneswar India

 

clean windshield at dusk
central California
stretches forever

Damon Huss
Santa Monica, CA

 

at Stanley Park
c l i p c l o p c l i p c l o p
the wind in my curls

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

 

folded map
an ant disappears
into a border

Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia

 

maple leaf
on a moss-covered log
I also rest

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

Greek goat bells . . .
the familiar ring
of a game of tag

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

sand dune walk
i keep pace with
the changing wind

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

 

hotel breakfast
my ears
finally pop

thomas david
United Kingdom

 

long after our hike the quaking aspen

Lee Hudspeth
United States

 

returning again
winter in the leap
of a deer

Joanna Ashwell
UK

 

wanderlust running my fingers through her Parisian streets

Bruce Feingold
Berkeley, CA USA

 

first lesson
of noobie travel
too many suitcases

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama

 

timezones apart
the same moon
once again

Soumya Mukherjee
USA

 

Welsh Highland Railway—
a cloud beating
me down the mountain

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

Chang Mai
his ancient fingers
plucking the chakhe

Ann Sullivan
Massachusetts, USA

 

watching for whales whitecap after whitecap

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington

 

stony beach
in a narrow crevice
a letter in a bottle

Anica Marcelic
Croatia

 

distant river
feels like home I know
my way around

Kathabela Wilson
Pasadena, California, USA

 

wind and rain
waiting on the autostrada
for my next ride

Ruth Holzer
Potomac Falls, VA

 

traveling solo
my whole itinerary
up to me

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, Arizona USA

 

midnight ride
chasing the train tracks
in search of the light

Curt Linderman
United States

 

sleeping on sand
waking to the nearness
of a camel

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA USA

 

a dreich day
in Edinburgh
the cobblestones shine

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

 

circling carousel . . .
where the luggage is
no one knows

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

road trip
the gas attendant
speaks my dad’s dialect

Myron Arnold
St. John’s, Newfoundland

 

in the lee
of Moro Rock
a snowy plover

AJ Johnson
Stephens City, VA USA

 

documentary film fest
the globetrotting
we never did

Sheila Sondik
Bellingham, Washington

 

overseas worker
a luggage
of canned goods

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

all the trains delayed—
I forget I can no longer
do the Asian squat

Elisabetta Castagnoli
Italy

 

the Shanghai honeymoon weaves our porch chat . . . old photos

John Zheng
Mississippi

 

the Camino
nothing but meetings
and good vibes

de Camino
niets dan ontmoetingen
en een fijne sfeer

Guido De Pelsmaeker
België (Holsbeek)

 

inspiring me
to take hiking trips
a steel cane

Tejendra Sherchan
Nepal

 

at the train window—
between us more and more
yesterday

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

 

safari . . .
my phone swallows
even the lions

Mircea Moldovan
România

 

map routes
but for the native
it’s home

Vidya Shankar
Chennai, India

 

old bush trail
to Yirrkala . . .
a lingering nostalgia

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

up against railings
the road carries on without
me

Melissa Dennison
UK

 

high desert ghost town
the scent of rain
moving in

Katie Montagna
Ireland

 

Big Bend—
a river of stars on both
sides of the border

Stephanie Bauer
Chelmsford, MA

 

visiting
Grand Prismatic Spring
the scent of time

Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA

 

even on the road
hearing Canned Heat’s song
I long for the road

(A honkadori verse inspired by Bashō’s poem: “Even in Kyoto— / hearing the cuckoo’s cry— / I long for Kyoto.” That version was presented by Robert Hass in his book, The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson, and Issa (HarperCollins, Ecco, 1994, page 11.)

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

road trip signs
we circle St. Louis
three times

Cindy Putnam Guentherman
Illinois, USA

 

impervia montagna—
all’ombra dei cedri
com’è chiara la notte

rugged mountain—
in the shade of the cedars
how clear the night is

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna (Italy)

 

Viennese full moon
playing in my mind
the Blue Danube

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

Tower of London
two ghostly little faces
in a window

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

 

Himalayan trek—
I share a bowl of chowder
with the sherpa

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

river crossing
a Bhatiyali tune
outlasts the shore

(Bhatiyali: a traditional folk genre of Bengal associated with boatmen and river journeys.)

Nalini Shetty
Mumbai, India

 

silver ferns . . .
the geysers
of Rotorua

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

nineties solo trip
to the Eiffel Tower
still bragging . . .

Sumitra Kumar
India

 

far from home
a foreign bird sings
the same song

M. R. Defibaugh
USA

 

winter evening—
a trip to the moon
from east to west

sera d’inverno—
un viaggio con la luna
da est a ovest

angiola inglese
Italia

 

just roaming aimlessly
the aim—
in the roaming

Cristina Povero
Italy

 

salting a sour mango
in the rain still falling
from the banyan tree

Pippa Phillips
United States

 

Vatican walls—
the bowed beggar offers
a prayer for me

Jonathan English
United States

 

a crowd
of merry makers . . . we dance
to the flower show

Madeleine Kavanagh
California, United States

 

runaway
trike tires flat after
half a block

Stephen J. DeGuire
Los Angeles, CA

 

the call of Cairo
I crane my neck
at the apex of history

Sangita Kalarickal
USA

 

broken colonnade
an old vendor’s
toothless grin

Geetha Ravichandran
India

 

bedtime story
two moths travelling around
the earth globe

Cezar Ciobica
Romania

 

first flight
my grandson’s eyes
fill with clouds

Neena Singh
India

Join us next week for Marietta’s commentary on additional poems…

Bios:

Guest editor Marietta McGregor is a retired Tasmanian botanist and journalist who has made her home between Canberra and the scenic south coast of New South Wales for over four decades. A lover of the natural world since childhood, she went on to study biological sciences, and has worked as palynologist, garden designer, science journalist, editor, university tutor, education manager, and grants developer for the national wildlife collection. Her haiku, haibun and haiga have been widely published, have won awards and appear in anthologies.

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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Banner Photo & Prompt Photo credits: Marietta McGregor

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.