Haiku Windows: outhouse 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”…

In the following weeks we will look at (or through?) the many possibilities raised by this thought – and you’re invited to join in the fun! Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence. I will select from these for the column, and add commentary.

next week’s theme:  computer display screen window

Now for the topic some of you may have been waiting for… the window that I stare at blankly every time I compose this little note… or perhaps it is staring blankly at me…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

Haiku Windows:  outhouse window

outhouse window
just enough light
to read by

Carole MacRury
Point Roberts, WA

Many of the submissions this week made me laugh out loud – this is an example of one of those… but this poem also leaves that gap I have mentioned before – the space that the reader fills in…

my dream house
from the outhouse window
out of reach

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

This poem takes a more wistful turn, and although people love their wilderness cabins and summer cottages, most probably dream of houses that have indoor plumbing…

outhouse window
the spider itself
a carcass now

Mike Gallagher
Lyreacrompane, Ireland

In my experience, outhouses are associated mostly with seasonal properties – we can imagine arriving to open up the place in early summer to discover what remains in the cobwebs that have over-wintered… among other things, a concrete reminder of the passing of time for all of us…

outhouse window
the spider spins a web
across the moon

Ron Moss

Here the moon can refer to the actual moon in the sky, as well as the possibly crescent moon-shaped outhouse window – this adds layers to the poem – also, if these poems are any indication, there are a lot of spiders in outhouses…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

sunbeams streaming
through the outhouse window
a Sears catalog

Al Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

 

outhouse window –
looking in, two curious
chipmunks

Angelee Deodhar

 

stained glass window
in the outhouse door
a blue moon

Ardelle Hollis Ray
Las Vegas, NV

 

windowless –
the warmth of sunshine
in the outhouse

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

a long line
before the outhouse
face in the window

Carmen Sterba

 

yelling “hurry up” –
my sister knocks on the
outhouse window

Carol Raisfeld

 

outhouse window
enframing
a dying pine

cezar florescu

 

March mud
the outhouse window
stuck shut

Chad Lee Robinson
Pierre, SD, USA

 

scenic view
of grandma’s cottage
outhouse window

Christina Sng
Singapore

 

outhouse window
a spider spins down
to another cobweb

Christine Eales
UK

 

wishing
upon a star
outhouse window

Claire Vogel Camargo
USA

 

high in a digger pine
warm wasp nests hang –
outhouse window

clysta seney
california

 

outhouse window
catalogue page covers
the moon

Colleen Rousch

 

spring breeze
through the outhouse window
a whiff of wild strawberries

Corine Timmer

 

outhouse window
a grove of fruit trees
not yet in bloom

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

 

Hoping for solitude
I read by moonlight
Outhouse window

Elizabeth Lorayne
Newburyport, MA

 

outhouse window
cherry blossom rain
over the roof

Eufemia Griffo

 

first cigarettes
at the outhouse window
my father’s shadow

Giovanna Restuccia
Italy

 

playing hide and seek
at the outhouse window
grandma’s smile

Helga Stania
Switzerland

 

renovated outhouse –
a study now with chapbooks
by the window

Ingrid Baluch

 

a flying squirrel
joins me
outhouse window

Joan Prefontaine

 

outhouse window box
I reach out
for a primrose

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

early morning
the shudder of a spider’s web
in the crescent window

Liz Ann Winkler

 

old outhouse…
from the dusty window
a gecko observes

vecchio capanno… dai vetri impolverati / un geco osserva

Lucia Cardillo

 

framing
the dusty outhouse window
morning glories

Lucia Fontana
Milan, Italy

 

at the outhouse window
only the silvery traffic
of snails

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

starry night
a glimpse of sky
through the outhouse window

Lynne Jambor

 

outhouse window…
the poem in his head
waits for the moon

Madhuri Pillai

 

the outhouse door
propped wide open…
boarded-up window

Marietta McGregor

 

outhouse window
a sit down view
of the lake

Marilyn Appl Walker

 

outhouse window –
the face of the next one
in the queue

Mark Gilbert

 

contrails
through the outhouse window
a paper plane

Marta Chocilowska

 

the moon
within the moon
of the outhouse window

Michael Henry Lee

 

watching the sunset
from an outhouse window
barn owl

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

spring peepers –
the moon within the moon
of the outhouse window

Michele L. Harvey

 

stargazing
he sees Venus
through the crescent moon

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

outside the outhouse window the garden tree’s outstretched shadows

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

outhouse window
hoping they’ll think
it’s the other guy

Peter Jastermsky

 

outhouse window
a cricket
on the chalk painted peonies

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

 

no outhouse window
a cobweb over the darkness
of the sitting hole

Randy Brooks

 

colored leaves fall
autumn seen through
outhouse window

Rehn Kovacic

 

privy window
my plumbing also
obsolete

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

 

a hovering
cloud of flies
outhouse window

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

outhouse
I cut a window
into the sky

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

 

outhouse window
a squirrel searches
for nuts

Skaidrite Stelzer
Toledo, Ohio

 

outhouse window
between moon and me
the mansion

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

 

outhouse window
wishing the crescent moon
was bigger

Stephen A. Peters

 

outhouse window
the robin sings
skyward

Sudebi Singha
India

 

outhouse window
spider crawling
out or in?

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

 

outhouse window
the wind brushes
my cheeks

Tia Haynes
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA

 

my friend moon
follows me even through
the outhouse window

Tomislav Maretic

 

up-cycled –
the crescent window
of the potting shed

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

deserted outhouse
moonlight on dry leaves outside
the  window

Vishnu Kapoor

 

 

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.