HAIKU DIALOGUE – World of Animals – (Put Me in the Zoo) – long list

World of Animals with Guest Editor Nancy Brady

As a child, all I wanted to do was learn to read, and I couldn’t wait for first grade because that was when reading was taught. Unfortunately, my younger sister didn’t appreciate the fact that I’d rather read my book when she’d rather play outside so she’d hide it. We’d play, but I finally had a work-around for missing books. I’d randomly choose a volume from our family’s Funk & Wagnall’s encyclopedia. At the time I just thought I was the weird kid. In retrospect, I suspect I wasn’t the only one who spent time with random volumes of encyclopedias. Regardless, I discovered all sorts of things including my favorites:  animals.

Whether it was learning about wombats (still my favorite marsupial) or another kind of animal, I found (and find) the natural world fascinating.  Even now, I find myself watching Nature on PBS as they present programs featuring all sorts of animals, from the smallest to the largest and often those that are being rehabilitated or are in danger of becoming extinct. This brings me to the subject of the next couple of prompts – I am looking for haiku about animals of all kinds, from invertebrates to vertebrates. Each prompt will have a particular focus. Please join me in exploring the zoological world.

For inspiration, listen to They Might Be Giants’ “Mammal”.

Below is Nancy’s selection of poems on the topic (Put Me in the Zoo):

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! (and Other Zoo Animals)

a few blossoms
near top of the tree
white hawk kiting

(‘Kiting’ is a specialized hunting behavior used by White-tailed Kites and White-tailed Hawks, where they hover nearly motionless in the wind, often 50-80 feet up, to scan for prey in open grasslands. Facing into the wind, they use small wing adjustments to stay in place before diving on small mammals, snakes, or insects.)

Jerome Berglund
New Orleans, Louisiana

 

lemurs in the wild
top of my list
Madagascar

Jennifer Gurney
US

 

a duck-billed platypus
in my uncle’s river –
the thrill of hearing about it

Ann Rawson
Scotland UK

 

in my stroller
the baby elephant
and i, caged

Curt Linderman
Seattle

 

high noon
the chimp mimics
my back scratch

R. Suresh Babu
India

 

inside the toad’s throat
a firefly
still glows

Debbie Feller
IL, USA

 

little hands stretch up
wet tongue wraps around fingers
feeding the giraffes

Veronica Hosking
Avondale, AZ

 

gorilla’s dazed gaze my eyes reflected

Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
Verona  –  Italy

 

King Kong
only on TV
such love

Pris Campbell
US

 

ducks in the sky
back where they were born –
I think about my father

Marie Derley
Belgium

 

look, dad
something like you
yawns

Refika Dedić
Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

a dark silence
in the kiwi house –
a shuffle of brown feathers

Anne Curran
Hamilton, New Zealand

 

first zoo visit
my toddler eager to meet
the lion keeper

Boryana Boteva
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

ai the three-toed sloth –
still her favourite
Scrabble word

Penny Lowery
Devon, UK

 

first acquaintance —
in my little granddaughter’s drawing
a smiling axolotl

Goda Virginija Bendoraitienė
Lithuania

 

out of a basket
coaxed by a snake charmer
no zoo glass

Christa Pandey
Austin, TX, USA

 

School trip –
the mynah bird teaches me
how to swear

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

 

no beta version yet the platypus

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

 

twilight dunes
the camel’s shadow
lengthens into song

Sandip Chauhan
USA

 

gentle smile
yet contagious
—quokka

Patricia Haddock
San Francisco CA USA

 

tembe elephant park
a python spits out his strangled
impala

tembe elephant park
een python spuwt de impala
weer uit

Guido De Pelsmaeker
België (Holsbeek)

 

unreal experience
standing beside a giant moa
outside the hotel

Carol Reynolds
Australia

 

Masai giraffe –
a two meter drop
to earth

Katherine E Winnick
Brighton UK

 

drooping earlobes
like Buddha
elephant wisdom

Luciana Moretto
Italy

 

back of the tank
a coiled spring flexes
heads and/or tails

Helen Buckingham
Somerset, England

 

steppe cat at the zoo
returning from escape with
freedom in one eye

Urszula Marciniak
Poland

 

sloth —
all day long
before the cage

Danijela Grbelja
Sibenik, Croatia

 

safari park
the kangaroos hop
across our path

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

Bronx Zoo in the ’50s
my soft spot for the homely yak
outlives him

Barrie Levine
Massachusetts USA

 

petrichor —
wiggling through leaves
a dik-dik’s nose

Vaishnavi Ramaswamy
Chennai, India

 

night safari
just the eyes
of a black panther

Ravi Kiran
India

 

rescued
the slow loris
even slower

Jagajit Salam
Imphal, India

 

chitter-chatter. . .
a lot of
monkey business

Pamela Jeanne
Yukon, Canada

 

a Sangai
in mid-leap
poised equilibrium

(‘Sangai’ [Rucervus eldii eldii], a subspecies of Eld’s deer, is found only in the floating Keibul Lamjao National Park of Manipur.)

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

the big five:
one fine day
in kruger

Charles Harper
Yokohama

 

hinterland zoo
mother’s joy
feeding the sika deer

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

Children’s day-
my toddler spots
the big kitty on the tree

Nisha Raviprasad
India

 

morphing orange
under a human’s spell
the bearded dragon

Pamela Garry
Connecticut USA

 

elephants fresh
from the watering hole…
thunderheads

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

 

midnight express
lone elephant across tracks
vacant zoo

Ashoka Weerakkody
Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

my five-year-old self
finds her spirit animal
pygmy sloth

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

a path worn
around the fenced in yard
bengal tiger

Peggy Hale Bilbro
AL

 

termite dig
a lone pangolin
shuffles beneath stars

joanna ashwell
UK

 

first rains
a white peacock dances in
its enclosure

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

 

a kangaroo . . .
he says his soft toy
is different

Daniela Misso
Italy

 

tiger paces
behind rusty bars
bird prints in the frost

Daniel Hughes
UK

 

my berry snowcone
the giraffe also
has a blue tongue

Cindy Putnam Guentherman
IL, USA

 

long zoo day
the gaping yawn
of a hippo

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington USA

 

since birth these stork legs

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson Arizona USA

 

end of the affair
an outline of venom
on the cobra’s glass

John Hawkhead
UK

 

acacia leaves
the giraffe’s nap
inside the cage

foglie d’acacia
il sonnellino della giraffa
dentro la gabbia

Angiola Inglese
Italia

 

Visit to the zoo
My daughter asks the chimp if
he remembers her.

Herwig Stas
Meldert (Belgium)

 

child’s eyes shine —
the baboon’s
red bum

Artur Zieliński
Poland

 

lion safari
the humans
in a cage

Kanjini Burgess
Far North, Aotearoa NZ

 

skin memory
the flapping of elephant ears
on my child thighs

Sarah Paris
Santa Rosa, CA

 

an ant-eater
daily enjoys the sourness
in his own sweet way

jeer newjeer
The Netherlands

 

born in captivity –
naive lions feel at home
behind bars

Paul Callus
Ħal Safi, Malta

 

long-legged beauties
clad in coral pink . . .
flamingo exhibit

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

empty habitat
the platypus
goes for lunch

Tré
Blue Ridge, USA

 

middle school
forgetting the venom
of a platypus

Adele Gallogly
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

 

class field trip
mimicking the monkey
mimicking me

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

tiger moat
I pace with its stripes
in my frock

Neena Singh
India

 

meerkat sentry
a passing chopper sends the mob
diving underground

Louise Hopewell
Australia

 

gummy smile
of a chimp across moat
dentist’s delight

Kavita Ratna
India

 

Asiatic lion
the pug marks
from ages ago

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh India

 

moving day —
the gazelle’s gaze
beyond the border

Nitu Yumnam
UAE

 

born in the zoo …
young polar bears frolicking
under falling snow

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

end of winter
a worn wolf path behind
the wire mesh

Ivan Georgiev
Germany

 

a visit
to distant relatives
lemurs play

Susan Farner
USA

 

Wombat asleep
in red wagon
Australian spring

Vicki Vogt
Watertown, MA USA

 

summer afternoon…
zoo cheetahs
fast asleep

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

teatime
at the zoo
the chimpanzees
are watching

Mike Fainzilber
Tel Aviv, Israel

 

macaques
mom’s advice to rinse fruits
before eating

Bipasha Majumder (De)
India

 

finally time
for the birds and the bees
liger exhibit

thomas david
United Kingdom

 

snake park
the mamba’s hiss
is enough

Biswajit Mishra
Canada

 

para relay-
two-legged turtles
battle in tank

Radhika De Silva
Sri Lanka

 

stepping off the pages
of fantasy daydream –
okapi

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

 

black and orange
crouching by the pool
majestic tiger

Tuyet Van Do
Australia

 

panda magnet—
a friendship begins
at the zoo

Sanjana Zorinc
Croatia

 

the super long neck
and tongue of the giraffe
my wide open eyes

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

iron bars
the lonely lion
sleepless tonight

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

in the darkest room
the nocturnal animals
eyes see through darkness

Bob Clark
London, UK

 

red purple blue —
such a lurid display
by the mandrill

Mark Meyer
Mercer Island WA USA

 

my kids
first trip to the zoo
cuddly koala the prize

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

behind bars –
I dream of roaming free
in the wild

Ana Drobot
Romania

 

Sky remembers none
not the dinosaurs
winds sing a requiem

Sudha Devi Nayak
Bhubaneswar India

 

oceanarium tunnel out of the blue whale

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

disappointing dad
all I ever asked for
was a gazelle

Kathabela Wilson
USA

 

ticket in hand—
the giraffe lowers
another sky

Nalini Shetty
Mumbai, India

 

summer moon
a camel lies down
in the sea

Lev Hart
Calgary, Canada

 

feeding time
slinking into
the reptile house

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

At the zoo
To see polar bears –
Toddler fascinated by butterfly

Haley Pearse
Australia

 

at the zoo
twisting on my finger
the wedding ring

Mirela Brailean
Iasi, Romania

 

giant tortoise
admired for centuries…
a treasure

Gwen Bitti
Australia

 

baby bears
climb up the tree
one pushes the other

Stoianka Boianova
Bulgaria

 

koala’s roar –
low-frequency sounds
chase away the males

Minko Tanev
Bulgaria

 

elephant grass
a dik-dik appears
and disappears

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

 

trapped —
the lion and I
our eyes converse

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

sunlit savannah —
striding long
neck to the sky

Sathya Venkatesh
Coimbatore, India

 

zoo savannah
an imagined Eden
with real giraffes

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

in captivity …
a young giraffe rises
to slurp the sky

Lori Kiefer
London, U.K.

 

cloudy noon –
aviary cranes
answer the sky

Hynek Koziol
Czechia

 

who’s chirping
up there, a nest –
red panda

Arrigo Bassi
Switzerland

 

not safe
both in water and air
the flying fish

Tejendra Sherchan
Nepal

 

nightlife
a coyote sneaks
into the zoo

AJ Johnson
Stephens City, VA USA

 

Happy Feet —
walking up
to a real penguin

Rashmi Buragohain
India

 

organ grinding-
capuchin comfortable
on cranium

Andrew Olshan
Carrboro, NC

 

patches of sun
monkeys’ tracks, children’s tracks
in the snow

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

cell to cell
vacant eyes
where are you Homo sapiens?

Lanka Siriwardana
Sri Lanka

 

fall migration —
the low pitched grunt
of a painted stork

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

zoo —
in the baby bonobo’s arms
a teddy bear

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

 

floating village
swinging at sunset
next to a crocodile

Rita R. Melissano
Rock Island, IL USA

 

the panda’s eyes
her bamboo smells of forests
she’s never seen

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

our urban zoo
the uncaged turkey terrifies
my toddler

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

summer sun . . .
the mother in me
caresses a koala

(The koala was caressed under supervision at a sanctuary in Queensland, Australia where it is legal to hold a koala and several protections are in place for each koala.)

Monica Kakkar
India and United States of America

 

aquarium date
passing the otters
you grab my hand

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

panda enclosure
— not everything is black and white

Clodagh O Connor
Ireland

 

anticipation
but the elephant
has left the room

C.R. Harper
United States

 

missing autonomy
a gorilla rages
through reinforced glass

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA USA

 

moon jellyfish
in black light aquarium
living lava lamp

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

 

both of us
eyeing the glass
Amur tiger

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO

 

first visit
the giraffe lowers
the sky

C.X. Turner
U.K.

 

dad’s bedtime story –
longing to spot my echidna
behind the zoo bush

Cristina Povero
Italy

 

the bored elephant
his two ton shadow
chained at the foot

Ron Scully
Burien WA

 

magnified
water droplets
Microbe Zoo

Greer Woodward
Kamuela, HI

 

giraffe
looming into view
her large eyes

madeleine kavanagh
United States

 

blinks and yawns
just like me
this tiger cub

Geetha Ravichandran
India

 

a zoo tiger extends its palm Goddess Shakti blessing me

(The Hindu Goddess Shakti is the epitome of strength and power and is worshipped throughout India. The tiger is the divine vehicle of the Goddess reiterating the same strength and power.)

Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA

 

monkey house
babies stare through the glass
from both sides

Mary Beth Defer
Rocklin, CA

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

Bios:

Guest Editor Nancy Brady is a pharmacist by profession, a haiku and senryu poet by nature. She often found inspiration on her treks back and forth to work as a pharmacist; her first book of haiku, Ohayo Haiku, was a foray into publishing haiku. Three Breaths, her second book, is a mix of haiku, senryu, alternative forms, and other poems. Her work has appeared in journals all over the globe (both print and electronic) and has been rejected by many more. Nancy also writes other genres and has published a children’s book, The Adventures of Aloysius, in November 2023. It is catalogued in the Library of Congress. She also reads lots of novels. Her favorite is, and remains, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, but she is also a big Harry Potter fan. Now retired from the pharmacy profession, she works part-time for the local Board of Elections and volunteers at Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Center. She, her husband Rob, and their cat, Regulus Arcturus Black, live in Huron, Ohio, a block from Lake Erie, where the bird population is constantly changing.

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:  Rob Smith

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.