Haiku Windows

Haiku Windows: open window

 

Haiku Windows

In the book Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem, editors Yamaguchi and Brooks quote David Lanoue:  “A haiku is a window”…

 

next week’s theme:  welcome to A Sense of Place

Starting in July, we will explore a specific location each week through one of our five senses. We will work through each of the senses in one location, (over five weeks), before moving on to a new location. Ideally, participants will select an actual location that they can visit, or a location from memory that they have visited in the past. Failing that, we always have our imaginations.
Next week, the specifics of the new feature ‘A Sense of Place’ will be described in detail, along with the first prompt. Yes – this means we can all enjoy a week off, to sharpen our pencils…

 

Haiku Windows:  open window

This is the final installment of ‘Haiku Windows’. It has been a privilege to compile this blog post each week – reading submissions from poets from around the world who have honoured me by trusting me with their words. I have enjoyed every syllable, and hope you will check back next week for details about the feature to follow…

open window
I shut down
my emotions

Amy Losak

Here we find a powerful contrast between ‘open’ and ‘shut’ – there can be many reasons for a person to try to control their emotions – one might be that lack of privacy when a window is open, where others might see or hear what a person is doing…

each city block
a canyon
of open windows

Carol Raisfeld

Word choice is important in any poem, but especially so in a poem of eight words – these words describe a scene of urban geography in such a way that the reader might also think about the natural world, as well as evoking both a hemmed in feeling, and the relief of that breeze…

open window
air conditioner
two summers

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

The contrast in this poem harkens back to a ‘famous’ poem attributed to Shiki (and incorrectly attributed to Buson, according to my limited research):

I go
you stay
two autumns

– the idea is that the season itself will be different if/when these people are separated, or if one opens that window… and the poems that follow show in many ways how a window opened can make the difference…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

open window
barks take nips
out of my nap

Aalix Roake

 

divorce day
two clouds merging as one
in the opened window

Adjei Agyei-Baah
Kumasi, Ghana

 

summer breeze
buzz and butterflies
open the window

Adrian Bouter

 

burnt toast
a child lets them
smoke outside

Alan Summers
England

 

falling in love
the open windows
of her eyes

andrew shimield

 

hospice
no open windows, just
faces pressed to the glass

Angelee Deodhar

 

open window
what does it mean
to let go

Angelo B. Ancheta

 

stonehenge –
an open window
on the solstice

Angiola Inglese

 

Breaking news…
Through an open window
Children’s laugh

Anna Goluba

 

summer rain –
through open shutters
whispering grass

Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo

 

open window –
a poem in high hopes of
making a star fall

Anthony Rabang

 

open window
inbound bird
meets outbound cat

Ardelle Hollis Ray
Las Vegas, NV

 

opened window
going and coming
the sound of a stray mosquito

Blessed Ayeyame
Nigeria

 

open window
cry of a distant loon
as I close my eyes

Bob Whitmire

 

open window –
a hand wind surfs
along the Pacific Coast Highway

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

summer nights
from the street below
adult chatter

carol jones
Wales

 

streaming…
through open window
first rays of Summer

Celestine Nudanu

 

cancer ward
through the open window
a shooting star

cezar ciobika

 

eloping
through bedroom window
her parents hold the ladder

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA

 

smoke from
the open window
burnt stew

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

 

a glimpse of him
through the open window
the one who got away

Christina Sng

 

open window
the smell of roses
on a summer breeze

Christine Eales
UK

 

Brahms
through an open window
uncle’s violin

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

propped window
he checks his tooth
and pillow

C.R. Harper

 

resting my elbow
out the window
summer wind

Debbi Antebi

 

open window
the loud scent
of gardenias

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

 

night driving
drifting out through the sunroof
and into the trees

Devin Harrison

 

open window
scent of night jasmine
intoxicates me

Dianne Moritz

 

april rainbow
opening a window
full of spring

Ece Cehreli

 

summer solstice…
the fireworks’ echo
from the open window

Elisa Allo
Zug, Switzerland

 

An open window,
Outside darkness roams freely,
Go see for yourself.

Eric Vacca

 

open window
a little snail walks
on my hand

Eufemia Griffo

 

evening bells
I open my window
to the past

Eva Limbach
Germany

 

a conch shell propping
an office window open
seagulls cry

Garry Eaton

 

rain drops
cling
to the ripped screen

Giedra Kregzdys

 

open window…
the undertow interrupted
by the seagulls call

Giovanna Restuccia
Italy

 

you and me
an open window
between us

Greer Woodward
Kamuela, HI

 

open windows
the soccer cheers
of the neighbors

Guliz Mutlu

 

open window
the things I keep
from others

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

shared open windows –
waves of washing down the street
dance above our heads

Ingrid Baluchi
Macedonia

 

border window
the broken links
of a chain-link cage

Jennifer Hambrick
Columbus, Ohio, USA

 

above the desk
the picture of an
open window

Joanne van Helvoort

 

nightfall
through the open window
the lure of stars

John Hawkhead

 

open window sunflowers lean in to take a peek

Karen Conrads Wibell

 

hearing his voice
through the open window
my caged bird flies

Karen Harvey
Wales

 

open window
a fledgling’s first flight
into our nest

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

open window
just baked pie
cooling on the sill

Kathleen Mazurowski

 

small sliding window
a weight is lifted
for ten hail marys

Ken Olson
Yakima Wa

 

escrow closed
I open all my windows
to the world

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

 

Nose at the open window
the blind cat
watches the snow fall

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

summers open window
the cat chirps at –
morning bird songs

Linda Ludwig

 

salt air
I inhale your memory
through the open window

Liz Ann Winkler

 

tea break…
from the open window
heavy rain

(pausa del thè … dalla finestra aperta / scrosci di pioggia)

Lucia Cardillo

 

the smell of dawn
in the mountains
open window

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

wafting in
through neighbour’s window –
Beethoven’s Silence

Madhuri Pillai

 

open windows
I wonder which way
the wind will blow

Margaret Walker

 

open window –
the widower neighbour
talks with the basil

Margherita Petriccione

 

Children play outside
With no fear – there is starlight
And open windows.

Mariana Vacca
Australia

 

distant jazz
thru an open window
love in bloom

Marilyn Appl Walker

 

open  window
a puddle of moonlight
slips in

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, Michigan

 

through the window
the cicada’s song turns
into cricket’s

Marina Bellini

 

daily music practice
I too, learn the melody
open window

Marita Gargiulo

 

propped up
to face the bay windows
curtains flailing

Mark Gilbert

 

one by one
opening windows
blackbird’s whistle

Marta Chocilowska

 

open windows
trying to love
the neighbors

Melissa Howell
Sewanee, Tennessee

 

Scrap yard –
plants growing through open
junked-car windows

michael ceraolo

 

open window
rain glistens on the Heartleaf
Philodendron

Michael Henry Lee

 

alarm company –
the burglar enters through
an open window

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

slack tide…
the submission period
an open window

Michele L. Harvey

 

Vivaldi playing
through the open window
Spring’s chorus

Mike Gallagher
Ireland

 

open window
I opt for birdsong
over pandora

Mike Stinson

 

open window –
two curtain hooks
missing

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

an open window has it –
a summer star blinking
until I sleep

Muskaan Ahuja
Chandigarh, India

 

open window
the wren serenades
his mate and me

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

open window –
jasmine-scented white night
shares my solitude

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

open window –
the distant call
of wandering peafowl

Nicole Tilde
Shady Dale, Ga.

 

open window
breathing in the strawberry
moon

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH

 

open window
I’ll hear the slightest sound
of her return

Paul Geiger

 

open window
another critter
for our household

Peter Jastermsky

 

sudden storm
the race
to close the windows

Rachel Sutcliffe

 

open window
summer’s ringtone – swarm
of mosquitoes

Radhamani Sarma

 

open window
she’s buying herself
one-way ticket

Radostina Dragostinova

 

spring fever
all the windows
open

Randy Brooks

 

unseen breeze
ruffles the curtains
open window

Rehn Kovacic

 

open window –
a passing tram
cuts off the sparrows’ chirps

Réka Nyitrai

 

insomnia
the open windows
of my mind

Roberta Beary
County Mayo Ireland

 

a pigeon intruder screams from my flatmate

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

 

wild magnolias bloom
near the old plantation –
open window

robyn brooks
usa

 

wide open window
whole of the blue ocean
yet to blow in

ron scully

 

crossing himself
and the open window
police tape

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH   USA

 

windows open
dancing to my
neighbour’s music

Ruth Powell

 

restless night
an argument of trees
outside my window

Sandi Pray

 

open window
warm breeze as her hair fans out
on the pillow

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

window to the yard
a boy with glasses
watches a game of baseball

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

 

raven flies
through the open window
seance turns serious

Shandon Land

 

Friday
the smell of boiled fish
through the open window

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

roof porthole
retired sailor’s hobby
stargazing

Somayajulu Musunuri ‘MUSO’

 

open window
between my ears
summer breeze

Stephen A. Peters

 

Tokyo hotel
through the open window
somewhere…ramen

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

 

opening window –
the sunlight discovers
secrets in the room

Tomislav Maretic

 

secrets whispered
secrets shared
open window

Trilla Pando
Houston, Texas

 

friday night…
I’m opening a window with
the weather forecast

Tsanka Shishkova

 

open window…
the stray cat enters
with her fleas

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

baked earth
the scent of first rain
through an open window

Vandana Parashar

 

lace
open window lets in
his gaze

Zuzanna Truchlewska

 

 

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 recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.

 

This Post Has 74 Comments

  1. This is basically awesome. Thank you for posting this. I needed a haiku to remind me to shut the windows to my classroom before leaving. Now I have enough to keep rotating notes for a long time.

  2. Thank you, Kathy, for the enjoyment you have given me down the weeks and for spurring us into writing with your inspirational prompts.

  3. I deeply feel the passing away of Anjelee Deodhar and pray intensely for the well being of her state of being.

  5. For me I have to thank KJ for inspiring me to write so many new haiku over these 6 months, and as well as appearing in Haiku Windows I have also had a reworked version of one of my HW entries accepted for Modern Haiku, and am looking forward to seeing three others in Time Haiku. I hope we all will continue to revise and improve on our work which has resulted.

    1. thanks for this Mark – knowing this work is moving out into the world is rewarding to me!

  6. Kathy, thank you so much for all your time and effort in running the windows feature. It has been terrific.
    We’ve got a week off before ‘sense of place’ starts – think I’ll wash my windows!

  7. I’ve enjoyed these so much even though I didn’t get a chance to submit to the last few. I’m looking forward to the next challenge. It’s fun to see so many takes on the same topic.

  8. Dear Kathy
    Thank you for publishing some of my haiku and thank you for not including others. We all know rejections come and we have to get on and and write better haiku or have a little break.

  9. Thank you for all the windows! I appreciate being included in these open windows. Amy Losak’s is wow! Congratulations to all the poets who had haiku here this week. Looking forward to the next incarnation.

  10. I guess continuing the sombre note…

    .
    .
    re:
    .
    burnt toast
    a child lets them
    smoke outside
    .
    Alan Summers
    England
    .
    .
    After seeing it in ‘virtual print’ I’ve read it as different to my explanation(s) to Kathy in the contact message, which intrigued me.
    .
    .
    Open windows are great passageways for smells we like and don’t like, and in-between, revealing secrets.
    .
    .
    Both my mothers smoked. One gave up, one continued, and had Emphysema and had to be on oxygen 24/7, even when we went out to the family Indian restaurant.
    .
    .
    Although my second mother gave up fairly early on, we can detect secret smoking if there’s an open window. As children we would either be unaware of someone doing something in secret, or the reverse, and holding that secret internally.
    .
    .
    A very young child, not practiced in the art of toasting bread (I’m still terrible if the toaster is stuck), might forget and the toast is sending out smoke furiously. Would, could a child, connect the two acts, human smoker, and smoking bread (burnt toast) and let the ‘bread’ go ‘outside’ to continue to smoke? As if it’s a secret. Thankfully my second mother wasn’t secretive, she just gave up cigarettes, but she was a secret drinker at times. We joked about it many decades later, and she did get to live a long life.
    .
    burnt toast
    a child lets them
    smoke outside
    .
    Alan Summers

    1. I like the way this haiku brings out the complex relations between children and adults. In a way the window seems like it could be a symbol for the boundary between the world of adults (smoking) and the world of a child, and in this haiku they seem to cross over.

      1. Thank you! Yes, I think one parent or another, or even both, might pop outside either for a smoke, a drink, or ‘adult’ talk, and dividing the world, certainly in the evening or night hours.
        .
        thanks Lucy!

  11. I didn’t know this lady, but I’d still like to send my deepest sympathy and condolences to her family and friends.

    Always sad to hear of a loss such as this.

    1. Thanks Carol,
      I’ve given myself the impossible task of a memorial piece for Blithe Spirit. How can I do just in just a few words? An incredibly awesome and modest human being and woman, and just plain lovely and decent, and more.
      .
      love, Alan

      1. I’ve always found honesty, sincerity, and a little humour go a long way. All the very best with your memorial piece, Alan. I have no doubt it will be a tribute to be proud of.
        *
        Carol x

  12. A shock, and the saddest news.
    .
    .
    It’s not often we realise someone has written their last haiku.
    .
    .
    hospice
    no open windows, just
    faces pressed to the glass

    Angelee Deodhar
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Our lovely incredible fellow human being who did so much in the world has left us this morning.
    .
    Rest in Peace
    .
    .
    A few links about Angelee and her haiku and haibun projects:
    .
    http://www.worldhaiku.net/poetry/eng/india/a.deodhar/a.deodhar.htm
    http://www.inksweatandtears.co.uk/pages/?p=10137
    http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv4n4/features/Deodhar.html
    http://area17.blogspot.com/2015/09/alan-summers-appears-in-new-haibun.html
    .
    .
    We have lost a dearest friend.
    .
    We can never know someone is going to pass from this world, keep in touch. I wish I had replied just once more to an email from this incredible human being, and friend.
    .
    in deepest sadness,
    Alan

    1. Oh, I am shocked! Two days ago I received a lovely picture from Angelee . She wrote: Thank you for being my friend,love and light,angelee
      I am so sorry, so sorry 🙁

      1. Thank you Marta. She was awesome but it’s only now just sinking in how much she did, and selflessly, for the haiku and haibun community.
        .
        love, Alan

    3. thanks so much for sharing this, Alan, & the others for your comments – such sad news

  13. In the very best way, this has been like going to Haiku Summer Camp, only without strange water and canned creamed corn on the menu every night. I’m looking forward to the July challenges and solutions.

    I write science fiction and fantasy haiku (scifaiku, if you wish) and it’s been fun to return to the real world.

    Thanks for running the camp, Kathy!

    Aloha,
    Greer

    1. Thanks Kathy,
      I’ve loved your thought provoking prompts for the theme.
      Thanks for including my haiku.
      I especially enjoy the variety, feelings and perspectves of international responses.

  14. Congratulations to all and in particular Amy, Carol, and Olivier. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the poems this week but six stood out for me. I look forward to the next challenge, Kathy. It’s been a pleasure to be part of Haiku Windows.

    open window
    barks take nips
    out of my nap

    Aalix Roake

    evening bells
    I open my window
    to the past

    Eva Limbach
    Germany

    open windows
    I wonder which way
    the wind will blow

    Margaret Walke

    open window
    I’ll hear the slightest sound
    of her return

    Paul Geiger

    Friday
    the smell of boiled fish
    through the open window

    Slobodan Pupovac
    Zagreb, Croatia

    baked earth
    the scent of first rain
    through an open window

    Vandana Parashar

  15. This has been a great place to be, not only for motivation to get down to composing haiku, but also to read the treasure chest of poems presented by other people from other parts the world. You’ve done a marvellous job Kathy, and thanks for adding some of my efforts into the mix, much appreciated.
    I look forward to the next session you have mentioned above.

    Warm Regards

    carol

  16. A most enjoyable journey Kathy. It has been a lot of fun peering through these different windows and fabulous catching glimpses of the views of others – a really stimulating prompt. Thank you so much for your time and energy.

  17. A nice collection to end the sequence. It has been a great journey. Looking forward to the next one. Thank you.

  20. Dear Kathy,
    Thank you for this fun, weekly challenge. I looked forward to it every week and am pleased that you posted some of my haiku in these beautiful collections.
    I applaud your hard work and dedication.
    Best wishes,
    Dianne Moritz

  21. Who would have thought one could find so many variations on the windows theme, nor the fun and enjoyment of learning so much in both the reading of other poets’ work as well as the research occasionally required for ones own? This was a rewarding experience and a delight to read each week, and thank you, Kathy for creating the opportunity, and for again including one of mine. I look forward to what comes next, but meanwhile have a well deserved rest.

  22. Dear Kathy,
    Greetings!

    Thank you so so much for including me here. To contribute every week in this
    wonderful platform is a rewarding experience with full prospects. Going through every
    poet is a pleasure indeed.
    with regards
    S.Radhamani

  23. Dear Kathy,
    Thank you so much for all your work on the Haiku Windows series. It’s been wonderful being included and I’ve enjoyed all the fantastic work each week. Nice to have a week off. The next series sounds interesting.

    I think my favourite this week was Sandi Pray’s

    restless night
    an argument of trees
    outside my window

    Best wishes
    Lucy

  24. Thank you, KJ, for another great and varied selection of haiku. This has been a fantastic series, and it has been fun to participate. I am sure you need that week off, too, as you’ve done a yeoman’s task dealing with all of these submissions each week. I have enjoyed reading them.

    Thanks, too, for selecting one of mine this week as well…It is gratifying to be included with all these excellent haiku.

    Best wishes,
    Nancy Brady

  25. This week I think I liked best Madhuri Pillai’s
    .
    wafting in
    through the neighbour’s window –
    Beethoven’s Silence
    .
    Would it work as well with ‘Nirvana’?

  27. Kathy, thank you so much for your work on this windows series. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading your selections each week especially all of the different interpretations from such a talented pool of poets.
    Best,
    Robin

  28. Kathy, thank-you for publishing one of mine this week and also for publishing mine in many of the past columns. A round of applause for the excellent job you have done with this column.

  29. Beautiful selection! Congratulations everyone! Thanks for Windows Haiku, Kathy!
    They were really fun to read and I’ve enjoyed them tremendously.

  30. Thanks KJ for including mine in this record crop but most of all thank you thank you thank you for giving us a week off – it’s very hot where I am.

  31. Dear Kathy,
    thank you thank thank you thank you for this amazing column. It was a great honor participate every week and read many beautiful poems.
    Ad maiora, semper!
    Grazie mille!
    Warmly,
    Eufemia Italy

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