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Haiku Dialogue: What’s at Hand Week 11

 

 

Welcome to Haiku Dialogue — What’s at Hand Week 11 with Guest Editor Craig Kittner.

Let’s talk about haiku! Through June 26 we will see what 21 common objects can inspire.

Our theme for April 17 is a hand-me-down toy.

Immerse yourself in the theme, then submit one original, unpublished haiku via our Contact Form. Please submit by Saturday April 13 at 6:00 pm eastern time. Include your name as you would like it to appear and your place of residence.

By submitting you agree that your work may appear in the column — neither acknowledgment nor acceptance emails will be sent.

I will select haiku that make good use of the theme and that are likely to generate lively discussions. I’ll add some thoughts below each week’s selections to get the conversation started.

Here are my selections for a smart phone app.

migrating geese
uninstalling
my Google Maps

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang – Indonesia

 

all the stars
lost to its light
moon phase app

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO

 

mobile wallet
the server issue
at the cash counter

Aparna Pathak

 

sleep app –
the rhythm of gentle waves
in our love making

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh,India

 

upgrade
grandma asks for
“doctor on demand”

Barbara Tate

 

dropped call
the apoptosis
of our cells

C.R. Harper

 

melting icicles
trying another
lose weight app

cezar-florin ciobîcă

 

morning rush
commuters speed-talking
on their iPhones

Devin Harrison
Vancouver Is, Canada

 

Grand Canyon photos
he asks if my phone
has Candy Crush

Edward Cody Huddleston

 

funeral among peach blossoms…
from amazon your last gift

Elisabetta Castagnoli

 

meditation app —
my cellphone charger
left at home

Eva Limbach

 

spring cleaning
the bugs
in the new app

Guliz Mutlu

 

h.appless.cog

Helen Buckingham

 

technoference –
the family disconnect
at dinner

Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, Macedonia

 

smartphone voice –
a dog-eared mapbook
in the back

Janice Munro
Canada

 

time to pray
says my phone –
what says my heart?

Jo El
North Carolina

 

Rijksmuseum
at home or on the go . . .
maid forever pouring cream

joanb
NY

 

smartphone apps
I delete the icons
of religion

John Hawkhead

 

ringtone magic
I turn you
into a bird

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

Uber travel
cycle rickshaws
dusting their seats

Lakshmi Iyer

 

palm reading-
which app
is the life line

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

weather app
she draws back
the curtains

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

“Reminders”
two years
of “to-do todays”

Margaret Walker

 

city spring –
almond trees bloom
on Whats App

Maria Teresa Piras

 

am I not I?
my face recognition app
keeps me locked out

Mark Meyer

 

dark moon
my ex lover’s face
on a dating app

Martha Magenta
UK

 

the map app points
to where I am…
earth day

Michele L. Harvey

 

Installing new app
so many hooks
in the virtual ocean

Nadejda Kostadinova
Bulgaria

 

instagram
all the selfies
in her portfolio

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

pocketed key
to the kingdom
of Babel

nancy liddle
Australia

 

nana’s new phone app
the lilt in her
native tongue

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH

 

younger than me
my older sister’s photoshopped
selfie

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama, USA

 

swiping left
and right
no love found

Rehn Kovacic

 

submerged inside my get fit app

Robert Kingston

 

messenger outbox
liquored up I love you
✓ seen two days ago

Sanela Pliško
Croatia

 

Frogger jumps
into the smartphone river
ringtone!

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY

 

cloudy day
smiley
in every message

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, UA

 

all in one app
my daughter checks if
i have space

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India

 

her name
no longer on my speed dial
spring rain

Stephen A. Peters

 

smartphone app
supposed to help–
abandoned

Susan L. Roberts
Sacramento, CA USA

 

missing you
I ask Pandora to play
…the sound of rain

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA

 

Gone–two hours gone
mindless playing one more hand
delete? deleted

Trilla Pando
Houston, USA

 

instagram posts
a chipping wall beneath
the bright facade

Vandana Parashar

 

Coins, clothing, vessels: these are ancient companions on our earthly voyage. Much has been written about them and the other subjects we have taken up so far. Now, at the halfway point of our 21 week exploration, we contemplate a fresher thing.

Apps, those bits of software that make these little computers we carry more useful, have altered the way we experience the world. So what are we to make of them?

As Nadejda Kostadinova points out, everything vies for our attention. It’s so easy to be lured in by shiny gewgaws.

Words crop up to express the changes technology brings. Ingrid Baluchi’s use of “technoference” captures the reality of a family ritual tainted by inattention.

Kath Abela Wilson lightens things up by expressing delight in the personalization of her ringtone.

I admit I had to look up the definition of apoptosis, but having done so, I was blown away by the aptness of C.R. Harper’s piece for this theme. The death of cells as a controlled part of a being’s development. It makes me wonder about the evolution of our smartphones and how far it can go.

Sari Grandstaff responds to all this with haiku logic. Tweaking our present and honoring our past with a good parody.

What’s your response to all this rampant technology? Please enter your thoughts in our comments section.

 

Guest Editor Craig Kittner lives near the banks of the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has worked as a gallery director in Washington, DC, and a program director for the Kentucky Arts Council. He took second prize in the North Carolina Poetry Society Bloodroot Haiku Award for 2019.

 

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.

After several years of moves, Craig Kittner has put down roots in the sandy soil of Eastern North Carolina. There the sunshine is clear. The climate gives rise to riotous growths of wildflowers. Birds abound, and the sky is alive with ocean breezes. Craig is content to walk the forests and beaches, gathering imagery for his poems. His work has been published in Frogpond, Chrysanthemum, Failed Haiku, bottle rockets, and the Autumn Moon Haiku Journal. In 2018, he had two poems selected as judges' favorites in the 5th Annual Golden Haiku Competition, and one poem selected for the Winston Salem Writers' Poetry in Plain Sight project. His first chapbook, Time's Sweet Savor, was published in 2016 by New Books on Front Street, an imprint of Old Books on Front Street in downtown Wilmington.

This Post Has 71 Comments

  1. This is a great theme to ‘ku upon, thank you Craig for another week of creative challenges with your skillful pickings of poems. I sooooo much enjoy this group, reading all the poems and exciting comments that they bring forth. The ways in which apps enhance, distract, or disappoint our lives is evident in this wide arrangement of writings. Thank you to all the poets sharing in this platform, we are halfway through and i want this never to-stop….is there an app for that?

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  3. Hi Everyone, A thoroughly enjoyable selection! I am one of the very few people in my group of friends and family who does not own a smartphone! If I ever get one, I’m sure I’d be in the position of the person in SRINIVASA’s poem – in need of my daughter’s assistance! KATH ABELA’s poem made me smile – every line is playful, much like the author!

    1. Pat,
      Neither my husband not I have a smartphone. We have, by choice, have flip phones. As I say, I don’t want a phone smarter than me.

      The haiku are thoughtful, funny, and all too true. I have to admit that my aha moment on Helen Buckingham’s monoku occurred( finally)this afternoon when I was writing another haiku. Duh…

    1. oh, you are very welcome, Helen. what apps are you using today?
      I am not talking to my Siri. He has absolutely no sense of whatever and humour …

  4. hello good haijin,

    It is such a good prompt and I could not get to write a poem, so I am in awe of everyone who has written one,
    What is interesting is that no app can work without human invention and involvement.
    Which is why
    Barbara Tate’s
    work resonates with me

    C.R.Harper’s
    use of scientific terminology works here, and is fascinatingly original

    cezar-florin ciobîcă’s

    poem made me laugh, I start every day with the six pack abs app, so I gel with what you write cezar…

    Devin Harrison’s
    poem is fun, esp. so as headphones have been replaced by earphones or earbuds and it looks strange to see so many people rushing by laughing and talking rapidly …with no one
    in particular
    Edward Cody Huddleston’s
    poem cashes in on the current craze of candy crush and the irony of the situation in there

    Helen Buckingham’s
    one liner is playful and fascinating

    Kath Abela Wilson…
    lovely lovely write

    Lakshmi Iyer
    are you speaking about Kolkatta or Bangladesh, because cycle rickshaws are not usual in most cities…does Orissa still have them?
    But I do see the pathos in progress, and the pollution on the rise. Not everyone can afford Uber, and car pools are good, but yes it is sad indeed that cycle rickshaws of whichever place are not really popular anymore…

    Peggy Hale Bilbro,
    the ridiculousness that life throws at us, hahaa

    Serhiy Shpychenko,
    …………..yes, I cannot imagine life without smileys …

    Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
    hilarious, did she make you download it ?

    Robert Kingston
    aw, yes I know that feeling …

    1. Thank you Pratima.
      So often we lose touch with all around when we allow ourselves to drift off.
      So much exists inside such an app, that it takes a fitness regime to keep up 🙂

    2. Thank you Pratima! If a photo is too good to be true…it is probably photoshopped!

  5. morning rush
    commuters speed-talking
    on their iPhones

    Devin Harrison
    Vancouver Is, Canada

    Interesting haiku.
    Always communicate via mobile phone: morning, during the day, in the evening; for meals or holidays. Unfortunately, even while driving! So the question: Adjust yourself or go to the wilderness !?

    ZM

  6. morning rush
    commuters speed-talking
    on their iPhones

    Devin Harrison
    Vancouver Is, Canada

    Interesting haiku.
    Always communicate via mobile phone: morning, during the day, in the evening; for meals or holidays. Unfortunately, even while driving! So the question: Adjust yourself or go to the wilderness !?

    ZM

    1. aaah, I would say, just observe, and take it all in, it is such fun

  7. Thank you, Craig, for including my poem and for your comments.
    .
    Reading this week’s selection, I doubt I’ll be rushing out to exchange my basic mobile phone (used only in emergency) for anything that accepts apps.
    .
    I do, however, find it useful to clutch an imaginary phone to my ear, gesticulating wildly with the other arm if on a collision course with someone I don’t wish to talk to . . . like the homeless man who makes a bee line for me knowing I often empty my pockets of small change. It’s a variation of talking to oneself. 🙂

    1. I understand what you mean. I have a flip phone purposely so that I can’t have apps. Too many people are controlled by them it seems.
      Thanks for choosing mine, Craig.
      There are so many clever apps, and haiku here. Most make me smile or laugh at the ideas…Well done all.

  8. Craig… Thank you for publishing my poem and your precious work.

    I especially appreciate:

    meditation app —
    my cellphone charger
    left at home
    —-Eva Limbach

    I enjoy the gentle humour in this.

    morning rush
    commuters speed-talking
    on their iPhones
    —-Devin Harrison

    so realistic… an aspect of our society told in a few words

    missing you
    I ask Pandora to play
    …the sound of rain
    —- Susan Rogers

    …poignant

    1. Thank you Elisabetta for your kind comments
      Sometimes I turn to Pandora just to hear the sound of something comforting
      I imagined the longing of missing someone so much and the loneliness of noone being available but Pandora to play
      so Pandora is asked to play
      and does so by playing
      the sound of rain being the sound of longing and loneliness
      and perhaps the sound of tears falling

  9. Reading this week’s selections I realized how vast this smartphone app topic is, both in the number of different apps and our experiences of them. Nadejda’s ku resonates with my experience of having being lured into trying apps…some useful and others useless.
    .
    .
    Installing new app
    so many hooks
    in the virtual ocean
    .
    Nadejda Kostadinova
    Bulgaria
    .
    .
    I found myself attracted to the image of ‘hooks in the virtual ocean’ maybe because I was recently looking over the shoulder of someone playing a fishing game (app) in which the screen showed hooks on lines hanging in an ocean.
    .

    Another ku that caught my attention was:
    .

    meditation app —
    my cellphone charger
    left at home
    .
    Eva Limbach
    .
    .
    Sometimes apps don’t offer a ‘better’ way of doing something, just an alternative, but when caught with a dead battery we may feel at a loss. I enjoy the gentle humour in this.

    This week’s haiku collection was an absorbing read. Thank you, Craig for including mine.

  10. Hi Alan,
    Having lived without apps for much more than half of my life I often remember ‘before’ and compare it to now. I have slowly climbed aboard with some new ways and ignore others…for example, more and more of my contacts are on my phone but I still have a tattered address book and my appointments are in a book. You mentioned my haiku about a navigation app voicing the route while the once well-used map book languishes in the back of the car. Although one can get frustrated with a GPS or GPS app, I don’t miss being the navigator peering over a map, sometimes with a flashlight, with glasses off to read and then glasses on to see the road…I went through that ordeal about 10 years ago when we did a lot of backroading looking for a new place to live. It would have been so nice to have had a navigation app…though data charges can be an obstacle…

    1. Hi Janice,
      .
      I guess apps have always been there in some shape or form though? Music and games are the biggest things pre-App and now. But I don’t use my cell much (funny name for a telephone, “cell”) but will use it more when I’m doing more live events later this year. 🙂
      .
      I’ve been a navigator front or back seat and not my favourite duty so relieved when there’s anyone else in the vehicle. 🙂
      .
      .
      smartphone voice –
      a dog-eared mapbook
      in the back
      .
      Janice Munro
      Canada

      1. I like the thought of a “dog-eared mapbook in the back” since mine is probably in one of the cars I traded-in. Nice to have a resource that always “works.”

  11. CRAIG, love the world-wideness of your selections. Is that deliberate?
    .
    On first reading, I especially APPreciate:
    .
    sleep app –
    the rhythm of gentle waves
    in our love making —arvinder kaur
    .
    ARVINDER, the romantic in me sighs.
    .
    melting icicles
    trying another
    lose weight app —cezar-florin ciobîcă
    .
    CEZAR-FLORIN, oh, if only pounds could melt away like that.
    .
    funeral among peach blossoms…
    from amazon your last gift —Elisabetta Castagnoli
    .
    ELISABETTA, rarely has a gift from amazon felt so poignant.
    .
    technoference
    the family disconnect
    at dinner —Ingrid Baluchi
    .
    INGRID, all too familiar, your family’s digitally induced dissociation
    .
    time to pray
    says my phone –
    what says my heart? —Jo El
    .
    Jo EL, have asked myself your question more than once; am glad not to be alone.
    .
    Rijksmuseum
    at home or on the go . . .
    maid forever pouring cream —joanb
    .
    JOAN, have a copy of Vermeer’s Milkmaid on my wall, so love your “at home or on the go” of her “forever pouring” presence.
    .
    smartphone apps
    I delete the icons
    of religion —John Hawkhead
    .
    JOHN, your ku has me wondering why they were there in the first place and why they’re being nixed now. Are they superfluous? Outgrown? Ineffective? Unused or unusable? Something else?
    .
    ringtone magic
    I turn you
    into a bird —Kath Abela Wilson
    .
    KATH, Love the ‘magic’ transformation of sound into a magician’s recognizable creature who can soar as sound can.
    .
    weather app
    she draws back
    the curtains Lucy Whitehead
    .
    LUCY, enjoy your juxtaposition of two methods of determining the weather. A drawn curtain often tells the truer tale — except for later in the day.
    .
    younger than me
    my older sister’s photoshopped
    selfie —Peggy Hale Bilbro
    .
    PEGGY, your ku makes me laugh; truth is, even without the wonders of photoshop my older sister (drats!) looks ‘younger than me.’
    .
    swiping left
    and right
    no love found — Rehn Kovacic
    .
    REHN, your ku’s one of my favorites. Apps uncover often instant marvels, but love’s discovery takes more than frantic or patient swiping, doesn’t it?
    .
    her name
    no longer on my speed dial
    spring rain — Stephen A. Peters
    .
    STEPHEN, am saddened by a relationship that seems to have turned out to be as temporary as ‘spring rain,’ though as essential for awhile.

     

    1. Christina, thank you for commenting on my milkmaid haiku. I, too, love that painting and was thrilled to see it in person. I also saw Girl with a Pearl Earring . . . I was awestruck.

    2. Hi Christina ! Thank you for your comment ! Its always very encouraging to know when poets/readers respond to your work. your comment made me smile. I hesitated for a moment while sending this one but then let it go 🙂

    3. Hi Christina ! Thank you for your comment ! I’m happy! You are very kind.

    4. Christina, thank you for commenting on my ‘technoference’ poem. I hasten to say that my family does not indulge in this unsociable behaviour, but that it was really an observation of the new norm happening around us. In cafés, restaurants, groups of youngsters together, even in board meetings, and probably in our UK Parliament, people often resort to their apps, for communication, entertainment, information, etc. Fine, so long as we don’t become too reliant on them, or become too introverted and forget to socialize face to face.

      1. Ingrid, I love your standing up for your actual family who do not, you ‘hasten to say’ ‘indulge in the unsociable behavior’ caught by that new-for-me-too word, ‘technoference.’ I ought to have said something like ‘your haiku family’ when referring to the one at dinner in your ku.
        Having said that, this gives me the chance to say how much I appreciate the twists and turns of the often provocative haiku you’ve submitted week after week. Have enjoyed your commentaries as well. — Christina

        1. Christina !
          I am delighted by your commentary, and honored, too. Thank you for your time and meaningful insight, not only into mine, but others’ work too.
          .
          Many of Craig’s subjects conjure up immediate visions and recollections from the past, but sometimes one has to rely on one’s imagination. (I’m sure there is a name in the ku world for this… Alan?)
          Not so with hand-me-down toys, though!
          Ingrid
          Macedonia

          1. technoference –
            the family disconnect
            at dinner
            .
            Ingrid Baluchi
            Ohrid, Macedonia
            .
            .
            It is a strange phenomenon, but I remember as an older child we eventually got a small TV for the kitchen/diner and was glued to it. 🙂
            .
            .
            You said:
            .
            “…visions and recollections from the past, but sometimes one has to rely on one’s imagination. (I’m sure there is a name in the ku world for this… Alan?)”
            .
            How about:
            .
            .
            過去の記憶
            .
            Kako no kioku
            .
            .
            or
            .
            思い出
            .
            .
            Omoide
            .
            🙂

    5. Thank you for your comment, Christina. I guess we can keep our virtual self forever young now! 😄

    6. Thank you Christina for admiring my poem! You cannot get everything you want from an App.

    7. Hi, Christina. The world-wideness is occurring naturally. It is a reflection of the strength of the global haiku community. Thanks for joining in!

      1. Thanks back for your response, Craig. That makes your choices — and the haiku community — all the more wonderful.

    8. Hi Christina. This haiku is a play on the word ‘icon’ which is often a representation of religious figures (have a look at Russian Orthodox Church icons). Smartphones are becoming so much a part of our lives it seems we cannot do without them. There’s an advertisement in the UK at present that plays with the words God and Good with the tagline “Phones are Good” where the second ‘o’ drops into the word ‘God’ so quickly you almost don’t see it happen. So for a moment the advert tagline says ‘Phones are God’. I can’t say all this went through my mind as I wrote the haiku, but I had pause for thought since! Cheers, John

      1. Thanks so much for your clear and charming explanation, John.
        The way you made it saves me from embarrassment.
        Far more importantly it makes your clever ku come alive.
        Love learning about the god – good phenomenon!
        You’d never know it, but when I lived in Rome, the Russian icon shop on Borgo Pio was a favorite haunt of mine.
        Among the many fine poets who contribute to THF, you’re a stand out for me.

        1. Now you’ve made me blush Christina!

          Spring correspondence
          the sudden blush
          of sunrise

          1. Wasn’t going to respond, but since another Wednesday is upon us, wanted you to know I’ve read your ku-response John. And love it!

  12. I enjoyed all of these but have only a moment today to comment on a few –

    I laughed at Helen Buckingham’s
    h.appless.cog.

    ………..

    I tried unsuccessfully to use “icons” with the same connotation that John Hawkhead did so very well!

    smartphone apps
    I delete the icons
    of religion

    …………

    Sandal Pliško’s poem first made me laugh – then on second reading I had a sense of sadness at the thought of “I love you’s” unanswered ” – “liquored up” or not.

    messenger outbox
    liquored up I love you
    ✓ seen two days ago

    1. Thank you for your review. I had in mind that at first glance it may have seemed funny but thinking twice it was actually sad. The liquored up part is due to the fact that the boost of confidence, in such situations, nowadays has no second chance, no rethinking, because the comunication with everybody is available 24/7 any time of day or night. And usually our outbox is filled with messages that we wouldn’t say easily.

  13. Thank you, Craig, for including my app haiku and your kind comments. I got a kick out of this one:

    younger than me
    my older sister’s photoshopped
    selfie

    Peggy Hale Bilbro
    Alabama, USA

    My mom and I joke around that when you actually run into someone in person nowadays, they are going to wonder what the heck happened to you if all they have seen lately are the digitally retouched photos online. Lucky for me that my younger sister does not participate in any social media I guess.

    1. Thanks for your comment Sari. I’ve had the very same experience of not recognizing the physical apprearance of a virtual friend. I do selfies, but no photoshopping for me! As Popeye used to say, I yam what I yam! 😄

  14. Dear Craig, thanks for lovely choices of apps reverberating . The one following here,by Arvind kaur has a magic touch.

    sleep app –
    the rhythm of gentle waves
    in our love making

    arvinder kaur
    Chandigarh,India

  15. Thanks Craig! A very entertaining set!

    👌🎉⭐😊
    🎈❗👍💥🗯️🙏🌞 —
    new emoji app

  16. app.tit.ude
    eggs over easy
    tasting plastic
    .
    Alan Summers
    .
    .
    I admire all the entries here. I didn’t get around to submitting anything, but appreciating all the examples on this tight theme! 🙂

    1. Good catch, Michael, thank you. My apologies to Michele for not catching that typo myself. Fixed now.

  17. Thanks Craig ! When I first read the theme I was kind of disheartened but later was amazed at the possibilities it could open, Really enjoyed doing it and reading the responses ! All amazing !

  18. all lovely haiku

    but mine was not the one listed..
    it was

    missing you
    I ask Pandora to play
    ….the sound of rain

    1. Sorry to hear that. There’s been a few glitches with messages being passed on etc…
      .
      .
      missing you
      I ask Pandora to play
      ….the sound of rain
      .
      Susan Rogers
      .
      .
      Pandora was the first human created, it appears, so great to have someone like that on speed dial! 🙂
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora
      .
      I used to turn to my old cheap singles record player (little 45s, vinyl) for solace, then it was a Walkman, then a music centre by Sony, now my laptop iTunes samplers. I had an iTunes lapel device but never used it, but it could have replaced a rose or carnation.
      .
      Deeply poignant haiku!

      1. thank you so much Alan
        your response is deeply appreciated
        I hope whoever wrote the other haiku is credited
        sending you grateful smiles
        susan

        1. Thanks Susan! 🙂
          .
          You said:
          “I hope whoever wrote the other haiku is credited”
          .
          Do you mean Michelle’s? I had a couple of messages not acted on, to do with other THF issues, and one of which I think was a haiku of mine, but so long ago I can’t remember, so hopefully no one else has had that trouble other than us?
          .
          I’m still loving this feature, and glad I got to see your contribution, even indirectly. 🙂

          1. no
            I mean the haiku that is posted under my name

            smartphone app
            supposed to help-
            abandoned

            The unknown writer must also feel abandoned as their haiku has runaway under someone else’s name..my name.

          2. Human error, I’m afraid, Alan. I wasn’t minding my Ps and Qs closely enough. Susan Roberts from Sacramento, California was the poet in question. I have added her name and restored Susan Rogers’s haiku to the blog.

          1. My gratitude for the fix Craig
            and for all the wonderful haiku inspired by your prompt!

    2. Sorry, Susan. This is my week for typos.
      To clarify: Susan Roberts wrote “smartphone app” and Susan Rogers wrote “missing you” and I somehow combined the two in setting up the blog.
      (So, I guess I should say “sorry, Susans”).
      I have made corrections.

      1. So interesting
        as both haiku engage the idea of something missing or a presence not there anymore.
        Thank you again for clearing up the confusion.

  19. ***Dry as Tinder***
    .
    .
    At first the term Tinder made me think of HC Andersen…
    and then about learning a few fieldcraft skills, keeping wood n’stuff dry.
    .
    Now it’s a radar like mobile phone device for hook ups that can end tragically. Ah, progress.
    .
    I rarely use my cellphone ever since I filled in a survey organised by reputable nationally famous retail outlets and now get sinister cold calls.
    .
    Having a discussion about when and how I died in a car accident recently, and how I can achieve litigation against the other parties was one of the more normal ones.
    .
    But apps?
    .
    .

    smartphone voice –
    a dog-eared mapbook
    in the back
    .
    Janice Munro
    Canada
    .
    .
    I remember having an argument with Siri as the AI started getting stroppy. Sometimes an old school paper map is best. Interesting that it is in the ‘back’ . 😉
    .
    .
     
     
    Rijksmuseum
    at home or on the go . . .
    maid forever pouring cream
    .
    joanb
    NY
    .
    .
    My wife booked us into the Museum Quarter of Amsterdam (The Netherlands, Europe) and we visited the Rijksmuseum just a few minutes away. Wonderful time, and I guess they have an app for that. 🙂
    .
    .
     
    Uber travel
    cycle rickshaws
    dusting their seats
    .
    Lakshmi Iyer
    .
    .
    As Helen Buckingham mentioned Lakshmi’s poem I had to check it out, and it’s a very subtle but brilliant haiku. Yes, Uber revolutionised taxi travel by knowing youngsters would rather touch an app then talk to an operator. I do prefer the banter of the cabbies, but there might be an interesting amateur cabbie doing Uber duty now and then that has a tale or two to tell. I guess it could also be Russian Roulette Taxi?
    .
    .

     
    “Reminders”
    two years
    of “to-do todays”
    .
    Margaret Walker
    .
    .
    Well observed senryu, but gosh, that is scary. I used to buy 18 month planner books, but an endless neverending scroll of things to do before I reach Nirvana, no thanks, but brilliant senryu! 🙂
    .
    .

     I’m sure Apps are incredibly useful, and perhaps I’ll use more. There is a haiku one that I was excited to get once I had a modern enough iPhone, and we all know the THFhaiku app, don’t we! 🙂

    1. Thank you Alan! I think it is time for me to delete the “To-Do Today’s” that are over a over a year old. 😀. Things like writing this and assignments from your course took precedence- and were much more fun!

  20. Wonderful selections, once more!
    Especially struck by:

    dropped call
    the apoptosis
    of our cells

    C.R. Harper
    thought provoking and true–and I love learning new words
    *
    h.appless.cog

    Helen Buckingham
    succinct, clever–apt
    *
    smartphone apps
    I delete the icons
    of religion

    John Hawkhead

    love the subtlety
    *
    ringtone magic
    I turn you
    into a bird

    Kath Abela Wilson
    Pasadena, California

    just lovely
    *
    Frogger jumps
    into the smartphone river
    ringtone!

    Sari Grandstaff
    Saugerties, NY

    Ha! terrific
    *
    so many nice lines drawn between the virtual and real worlds!

  21. Thanks Craig, and congratulations everyone – I found Lakshmi’s ku particularly poignant.

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