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 Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.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

I work at home, so my office window looks out on my snowy backyard… a friend’s office overlooks the mighty Yukon River – she saw the competitors in the recent Arctic Ultra race trot by… plans are underway for an 8-storey building, the highest in Whitehorse, but another friend works on the 28th floor in downtown Vancouver – what is your view?

I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

Haiku Windows:  sunroof window

 

There are many moons in the window this week… but several surprises as well, as always… I can rely on poets to take the theme to places I have not thought of… this week I select 4 poems to highlight the kind of simplicity of language that can lead to a successful haiku – in each of these a scene is clearly drawn, and each implies without fully explaining…

a drop of rain
on the sunroof window –
first day of school

Giovanna Restuccia

the weather is used here to set the mood – the holidays are over…

 

new argument
the sunroof window
remains shut

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

spouses argue, parents and children argue – closed windows can keep an argument more private – or is the argument about opening the sunroof?

 

car broke down –
from the sunroof
clouds traveling

Nazarena Rampini
Italy

we do not know where the car has broken down, or for how long – only that it and its passengers are no longer traveling…

 

holiday traffic
through the open sunroof
the sound of the sea

Rachel Sutcliffe

slow-moving traffic driving to the seaside, and/or, the sound of traffic is replaced by the sound of the sea…

 

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

 

open sunroof
the voice of the wind
rougher and rougher

Adjei Agyei-Baah

 

open sunroof
the giraffe licks
a wide-eyed face

Al Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

 

graduation
we puff cigar smoke
through the sunroof

andrew shimield

 

with the wind arrives
the smell of rain –
sunroof window

(col vento arriva
l’odore della pioggia –
finestra del tetto apribile)

Angela Giordano

 

leaky sunroof –
a guest from my motherland
brings raindrops

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

starry night…
beyond the sunroof
so much space

Carol Jones
Wales

 

sunroof
my hair tries
to escape

Christina Sng
Singapore

 

open sunroof
the breeze ruffles
my fantasies

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

showroom tizz
the ferrari sunroof
stuck again

David Jacobs
London, UK

 

sunroof window –
the blanket of snow
I carry home

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

 

the sound of dreaming
beneath a swaying willow
sunroof window

Don Wentworth
Pittsburgh, PA

 

sunroof window
a child draws in the air
a little star

Eufemia Griffo

 

our first date
in the moonlight
under a sunroof

Genie Nakano
Hawthorne, CA

 

valentine’s day…
through the sunroof
heart shaped cloud

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

new year’s eve
using our sunroof
for moonviewing

Kath Abela Wilson

 

heading home
sunroof wide open
whistling dixie

katherine stella
river falls wisconsin u.s.a

 

sunroof broken
still able to see enough
stars to make a wish

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

 

marital compromise –
sunroof half open,
sometimes half closed

Lee Nash

 

open sunroof
his tongue hanging loose
Fido drinks in the wind

Madhuri Pillai

 

grandma’s visit
blowing bubbles
out the sunroof

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, Michigan

 

after the accident…
seeing stars
through the sunroof

Mark Gilbert

 

smooching
in a bowl of stars –
panoramic sunroof

Martha Magenta
England, UK

 

open sunroof she finally says yes

Matthew Markworth
Mason, OH, USA

 

sunroof window –
much like his ex-fiancé
it lets in anything

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

just a quick glance
at an age-old star
sunroof window

Michael Stinson

 

sunroof window…
the breeze caresses
my toes

Nancy Brady

 

the moon
our travelling companion
open sunroof

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

sunroof window ajar
catching & releasing
pale-amber stars

pamela a. babusci
rochester, ny  usa

 

from back seat
to sunroof
a bark toward the sky

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH

 

sunroof
window left open
cat basking

paul geiger

 

sunroof night…
the moon and stars
ride shotgun

Peter Jastermsky

 

moon roof open
pear blossoms
on the empty seat

Randy Brooks

 

open sunroof
i correct
my posture

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

 

driving with the sunroof
open in winter –
hot flashes

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

 

Star Wars drive-in
a stormtrooper pops open
the sunroof window

Ron C. Moss

 

even grandma
lets the music fly
sun roof

Sandi Pray

 

on prom night
the girls’ ribbons streaming
from the limousine’s sunroof

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, U.S.A.

 

sunroof window
pillar of dust
inside a beam of light

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

 

downpour
streetlights splashing
over the sunroof

Simon Hanson
Australia

 

a plantpot satsuma rides shotgun
its ripening fruit through the roof

simonj
UK

 

open sunroof
an unwished bird’s gift
from the sky

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

spring sky
opening the sunroof window
to let it in

Stephen A. Peters

 

a bird flipped
through the sunroof
summer heat

Terri French

 

sunroof
I roll back
the moon

Tia Haynes
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA

 

sunroof window
opened…  the boy enjoys
his spinning pinwheel

Tomislav Maretic

 

sunroof
my daughter asks
for a moonroof

Tsanka Shishkova

 

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 33 Comments

  1. class task
    slow pace of the hoe
    of the old farmer

    last lesson hour –
    elementary school children
    they leave the gym

    first snowflakes –
    all the attention of the students
    towards the window

    1. Sorry Karen, I’m not sure I posted on the right page, maybe this is it?

      compito di classe
      lento ritmo della zappa
      del vecchio contadino

      ultima ora di lezione –
      i bambini delle scuole elementari
      lasciano la palestra

      primi fiocchi di neve:
      tutta l’attenzione degli studenti
      verso la finestra

    1. Dear Al,
      .
      Have to say I really loved your haiku!!!
      🙂
      .
      open sunroof
      the giraffe licks
      a wide-eyed face
      .
      Al Gallia
      Lafayette, Louisiana USA
      .
      .
      Simple yet evocative, straight from the opening line, with a tantalising middle line, and a wonderful ‘reveal’ 🙂
      http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/haiku-and-reveal-device-to-create.html
      .
      Your haiku is one of those that a must-read when we need a pick-me-up!
      🙂
      .
      They are wonderful creatures, I envy my wife who worked in the Serengetti, and saw them often. Alas her wonderful giraffe haiku isn’t published in a magazine (yet), but in other types of media. So here’s an imagined one for you.
      🙂
      .

      ice-crystal clouds
      
a sudden urge to find

      the nearest giraffe
      .
      Alan Summers
      Publication Credits: Blithe Spirit 23.3 (August 2013)
      .

  2. kj,

    many thx for including my haiku with all the other
    wonderful works. blessings, pamela

  3. Thanks for including mine, Kathy. I may suggest that my local writer’s group use it as the first line for a short story competition (a blind collaborative haibun?).

  4. Another batch of delightful verses. I look forward to reading them.
    Many thanks for including my verse, Kate.

    *
    Smashing verse, Alan.

    1. Thanks Carol!
      .

      The driver was simply wriggling their fingers as it was an incredible hot Summer day in a central part of Bristol (SW English city). A way of cooling down, perhaps keeping in contact with nature, and definitely a sensual respite from a polluted hot Summer day. 🙂
      .
      Interestingly enough a handful of readers interpreted or perhaps re-interpretated the fingering of the breeze into one of an obscene gesture. The driver, a woman, if I recall rightly, was just catching some of that breeze while caught up in a dumb traffic jam. 🙂

      1. one of my favourite things about poetry is how interpretation can vary – thanks for sharing this, Alan!

  5. Thank you, Kathy, for including one of my sunroof haiku. So many wonderful haiku this week! Thank you for selecting, commenting on and curating these haiku windows. I look forward to each week’s rendition.

  6. Another set of wonder, excellent and amazing poems, around sunroofs this time.
    .
    .
    I remembered I did one years ago, and how, despite technology, most of us still try to ‘connect’ with the natural world.
    .
    .

    traffic jam
    a driver fingers the breeze
    through the sunroof
    .
    Alan Summers
    Publication credits: Snapshots 2 (1998); tinywords.com (2002)
    .
    Anthology: The New Haiku (Snapshot Press, 2002)
    .
    Feature: Travelogue on World Haiku Festival 2002 , Part 2 (Akita International Haiku Network 2010)
    .
    .

  7. Office Window

    missing my bus
    to watch the sun set
    office window

    out my office window —
    the reflections
    of office windows

    out my office window
    faceless workers framed
    in office windows

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