Haiku Windows

Haiku Windows: spaceship 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 Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.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:  window-shop

It doesn’t cost anything to look – so go ahead – look through those shop windows, and write without actually spending any money…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

Haiku Windows:  spaceship window

 

The response to ‘Haiku Windows’ has been phenomenal, and for that I am grateful. I have a handful of windows left up my sleeve, and then, starting in July, this column will take off in a new direction… it is my hope that the many faithful readers and writers will join me for the ride… in the meantime, here is some otherworldly poetry:

spaceship window I dream in blue and green

Angelee Deodhar

This brief one-line poem sums up so much of what we know, feel and imagine about the world of space travel, from actual news footage, to movies, to our own imaginations… once again, so much is said and so much is left unsaid…

spaceship window
I wipe my space glasses
with my space tie

Garry Eaton

Many submissions this week appeal through humour – and sometimes it takes some thought to figure out why something is funny… in this case, the described behaviour in an imaginary scenario is normalized – presumably, humans are humans wherever they go…

space station meeting room
the window washer
floats by

Terri French

A previous theme reappears – notice how many details are left to our imagination in this poem, and yet how complete the picture is that we as readers create for it…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

string theory
through spaceship window
I see their songs

Akua LEZLI Hope

 

bulletproof glass
every astronaut tested
for their caliber

Alan Summers
England

 

everywhere
nowhere
spaceship window

Amy Losak

 

starship window
my reflection
unchanged

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO USA

 

interstellar flight
someone knocks
on the window

Ardelle Hollis Ray
Las Vegas, NV

 

cardboard spaceship –
making fish lips at my son
through the window

Chad Lee Robinson

 

just remember
it’s all a simulation
spaceship window

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA

 

wish upon a star in
one quick breath
spaceship window

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

 

deep space
nothing to see
but darkness

Christina Sng

 

spaceship window
a floating man
looking back at me

Christine Eales
UK

 

reaching to touch
the star I wish upon
spaceship window

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

spaceship window –
all these years spent
in isolation

Claudia Messelodi
Italy

 

spaceship window…
the Milkyway
embraces me

ruimteschip raam –
de Melkweg
omarmt mij

(Dutch translation)

Corine Timmer

 

spaceship window –
his vacuous look
when we argue

D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Hawai’i

 

spaceship window
balancing the earth
on my pinkie

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

 

spaceship window
the void between your world
and mine

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

 

spaceship window
a tiny star crosses
Saturn’s rings

Eufemia Griffo

 

floating
at the spaceship window
the dark side of moon

Giovanna Restuccia
Italy

 

space shuttle window
volcanic plumes
from my home state

Greer Woodward
Kamuela, HI

 

spaceship window
one galaxy
to another

Guliz Mutlu

 

sun glints
on the spaceship window
summer solstice

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

fragile marble –
our Earthly paradise
from my spaceship window

Ingrid Baluchi
Uganda

 

new arrival
welcoming waves from the
space station window

Karen Conrads Wibell

 

this path of stars
my universe was once
a lawn of daisies

Karen Hoy
Wales/England

 

planet  earth
through a spaceship window
déjà vu

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena California

 

capsule window
a forefinger & thumb
around the earth

Ken Olson
Yakima WA US

 

is that a blue world
floating in the depths of space
or a dream of home?

Laurence Raphael Brothers
Waltham, Massachusetts USA

 

space mission
i wave goodbye
to myself

LPConvey
Brisbane Australia

 

lost in the universe
the Milky Way leads me
home

Lucia Fontana
Milan, Italy

 

a handprint
on the other side of the glass
spaceship window

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

floating past
in his tin can…
Major Tom

Madhuri Pillai

 

our blue marble
hanging there…
spaceship window

Marilyn Appl Walker

 

starship window –
looks like Orion
has put on some weight

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

warp speed…
not one bug
on the windshield

Mary Hanrahan

 

solar eclipse
a brief aside through
the space station window

Michael Henry Lee

 

Martian
spaceship windows…
for sale by owner

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

a neighborly wave
to a passing star
space ship window

Michael Stinson

 

space orbiter –
earth rise in the window
between the stars

Michele L. Harvey

 

spaceship window
a tapestry of
stars

Mohammad Azim Khan

 

space window
he sees the earth
rising

Nancy Brady

 

spaceship portholes –
whatever way you look
infinity

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

in the museum
spaceship windows
surprisingly small

N.E. Taylor
Los Angeles, CA

 

the stars’
variations in brightness
zero gravity

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

by the spaceship window
I cup my hands
around Earth

Pat Davis

 

blank
spaceship window
at warp speed

Paul Geiger

 

spaceship window
staring into
my insignificance

Peter Jastermsky

 

reruns…
a view into other worlds
through captain kirk

Pris Campbell

 

long haul flight
counting stars
through the spaceship window

Rachel Sutcliffe

 

open skylight
the whole sky
home

Radostina Dragostinova

 

earth rise
over the moon’s horizon
an astronaut tries a rhyme

Randy Brooks

 

beyond the stars
infinity
through spaceship window

Rehn Kovacic

 

spaceship window –
behind the clouds
a winged horse

Réka Nyitrai

 

starship window
a red-haired teacher
cradles the moon

(In Memory Christa McAuliffe)

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

 

mission to mars
our tiny planet glows
in the spaceship window

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

 

spaceship window –
an endless trail
of bright stars

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

satellite window
looking down at the earth
in awe

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

view from the spaceship
the moon lights
the dew on the fields

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

 

window view
megaparsecs
dusted with stars

Simon Hanson

 

full moon
with American flag
on the left cheek

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

no turning back
now
spaceship window

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

 

roles reversed –
the Earth our moon
outside my spaceship window

Tammie Baluch
Uganda

 

spaceship window…
look at the worried face of
my guardian angel

Tomislav Maretic

 

in spaceship window
light signs from Japan –
obon holidays

Tsanka Shishkova

 

TARDIS window…
the ever-changing face
of Doctor Who

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

NASA trip
he asks if he can see the star
his mom became

Vandana Parashar

 

spaceship window
yearning for a home
I never knew

Yvette Nicole Kolodji
Encino, CA

 

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 45 Comments

  1. when our fantasies take shape within single a bubble of imagination, surprisingly everyone sees the same thing out there, human minds seem firmly bonded with each other even in their dreams!

  3. A very reflective one, pun part intended:
    .
    .
    space mission
    i wave goodbye
    to myself
    .
    LPConvey
    Brisbane Australia
    .
    .
    Poignant, as well as wry.

  4. I love the spookiness of this one:
    .
    .
    a handprint
    on the other side of the glass
    spaceship window
    .
    Lucy Whitehead
    Essex, UK
    .
    .
    I can imagine it both as a science fiction angle, but also by accident or prank, someone pre-launch managing to leave one, and surviving Earth exit. 🙂

    2. Thank Alan. I was definitely imagining it as a spooky sci fi scenario, but it also works as an accident or prank. Also the handprint was not necessarily human….

  5. A fun nod perhaps to Hemingway’s appropriation of a small ad made into a six word story:
    .
    Martian
    spaceship windows…
    for sale by owner

    Michael H. Lester
    Los Angeles CA USA
    .
    .
    Great start to a novel too!!! 🙂
    .
    .

    Ernest Hemingway’s use of the small ads culture:
    .

    For sale, Baby shoes, Never worn.
    .
    .
    And my attempt:
    .
    .
    For sale: space boots, still worn.
    .
    Alan Summers

  8. Thanks, Kathy. I love the weekly format of your “windows”. Lots of new poems to enjoy and always a fresh challenge.

  10. How apropo! I don’t think your timing with this window prompt could have been any better. Our NASA lady astronaut lifted into space yesterday with two other astronauts aboard a Russian Soyuz Space Craft. They were heading to the International Space Station and due to arrive on Friday.
    Her name is Serena Aunon-Chancellor. I saw her on the news this morning. 😉

    Thanks for all the great haiku!

  11. Thank-you Kathy for publishing one of mine. My favorite is
    space shuttle window
    volcanic plumes
    from my home state

    Greer Woodward
    Kamuela, HI

    for how space is linked to an important event that is happening right now on Earth.

    1. Thanks for your kind words, Valentina. It’s a treat to be in this collection.

  13. Thank you, KJ!
    I love these haiku windows! Every Wednesday is a magical journey. I will probably miss it.

    Congratulations to the authors of this great selection!

  14. Thanks, kj, for your insightful comments. I appreciate having mine selected.

  15. Thank you for including one of my spaceship window haiku. I particularly appreciate the haiku by Terri French, Alan Summers, Deb Kolodji and Vandana Parashar. This week’s selections offer a view into outer and inner space it seems to me.

    1. Thanks Sari! 🙂
      .
      I had a lot of fun researching about more current aspects of space travel, and how tough spacesuits are now, compared to the days of the moon landings.
      .
      .
      “one manufacturer of aluminum oxynitride bulletproofing products said 1.6 inches of AlON was sufficient to completely stop an armor-piercing .50 calibre round.”
      .
      Wow! And with Mars so hostile, it’s vital, because of those dust storms and high velocity winds.
      .
      warm regards,
      Alan
      .
      P.S.
      I wish we could all watch our planet from space, once in our lifetime, and realise we are all very lucky.

  16. Another beautiful set, well done everyone. I’m totally with Mark and Corine re Karen Hoy’s ku…..so many layers, seamlessly interwoven……the standout poem for me. Congratulations once again, Katherine, for assembling such a lovely collection.

    1. Thanks Helen! It was written while at Reading train station, between trains, getting ready for Texas!
      .
      Karen put a lot of thought into it, and I loved how she took the prompt.
      .
      warm regards,
      Alan

    1. Thanks Corine! 🙂
      .
      Karen is away in Texas, so I’ll thank you for her.
      .
      I could relate to your poem, as once living in Queensland for a few years, the night sky is clean of light pollution, and once while driving, I really thought I’d have my car be embraced.
      .
      Alan

  20. Thanks KJ, I loved these and am going to do a bit of an Alan with my comments …

    Some captured our perception of space very effectively (what it’s actually like I haven’t a clue), such as Amy Losak’s ‘everywhere / nowhere / spaceship window’ Christina Sng’s ‘deep space / nothing to see / but darkness’ and Susan Rogers’ ‘no turning back / now / spaceship window’ ….

    Whereas Arsene Hollis Ray’s ‘interstellar flight / someone knocks / on the window’ could be the starting point for a science fiction novel ….

    And I loved these two which swirled around between the future and the past – Karen Hoy’s ‘this path of stars /my universe was once / a lawn of daisies’ and Mohammed Azim Khan’s ‘spaceship window / a tapestry of / stars’. Thanks all.

    1. Thanks for standing in! 🙂
      .
      And many thanks for enjoying Karen’s haiku! She spends so much time on TV documentary treatment writing, or working on our courses, that I was chuffed she knuckled down to this prompt! 🙂
      .
      warm regards,
      Alan

    2. Wonderful comments, Mark – thanks so much for this ‘bit of an Alan’, & Alan too for your comments always… it was a stellar week!

  21. The stars do look very different today…with the variety of these haiku. Enjoyed reading them, and appreciate your inclusion of mine.

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