Haiku Windows: window shade, window blind

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 Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.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

Riverboat, tall ship, ocean liner, submarine, houseboat, sailboat, freighter, ferry, fishing boat, paddlewheeler, yacht, cruise ship, pirate ship, supertanker, icebreaker, galleon…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

Haiku Windows:  window shade, window blind

Another wonderful and varied selection – thank you poets!

early start…
the blinds
half open

Carol Jones

I am not a morning person – perhaps that is why this poem appeals to me… straight-forward language, and a gap that the reader can fill, maybe after a cup of coffee…

painting rainbows
right on the windows
for lack of shades

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, CA, USA

Every week there are a number of poems that are unlike all the others – the perspective is different, or in some way the window or the view is turned in a direction no other submission has taken. This is one of the things that makes reading all the submissions so enjoyable! Here we simply have no window covering at all except paint…

morning snow
window curtains
are filled with light

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

There can be a certain brightness in morning snow – looking out into the whiteness – or perhaps it is a dark winter morning, and looking at the house from the street, the room is filled with light… either interpretation can work, and there could be others…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

closing the shutters
on the peeping moon –
the late night boss

Adjei Agyei-Baah
Ghana

 

old window…
faded curtain fringes veil
a mud dauber nest

Al Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

 

drawing the curtains
I see my neighbour
drawing the curtains

Andrew Shimield
UK

 

new neighbours –
all the window blinds
always tightly shut

Angelee Deodhar

 

venetian blind
the bending of light
against me

Angelo Ancheta

 

thin rain
the cat plays hide and seek
with the fluffy curtain

Angiola Inglese

 

air raid siren –
blue orchids tremble
on the curtains

arvinder kaur
chandigarh, India

 

behind
transparent curtains
naked sound

Basant Kumar Das

 

evening lull
the cats groom their claws
on the curtains

Beverly Acuff Momoi
Mountain View, CA

 

blinds closed…
the things we don’t say
to each other

Carol Raisfeld

 

tearing down
the heavy drapes
spring fever

cezar florescu

 

a rare glimpse
of mom crying
shaded windows

inspired by christine eales’ haiku from last week

Christina Sng
Singapore

 

manipulating
circadian rhythm
black-out curtains

Claire Vogel Camargo
USA

 

writer’s cabin
opening the blinds
past midnight

Debbi Antebi

 

dandelions opening
my neighbor’s window shades
shut

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, CA

 

window shade
the glittering dust
of a sunbeam

Eufemia Griffo

 

hidden
behind white window blinds
the shadows of spring

Eva Limbach

 

fluttering curtains –
scent of roses
among the sheets

Giovanna Restuccia
Modena (Italy)

 

visiting hours
peeking through the blinds
the foster child

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

twitching curtains
a neighbor misses nothing –
loneliness

Ingrid Baluch
Uganda

 

divorce papers
on the table
sliced sunlight

Joanne van Helvoort

 

no drapes necessary
deep in the north woods
the bears don’t care

Judith Hishikawa

 

hide-and-seek
sunshine and silhouettes
behind the curtains

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

 

funeral parlor
through the venetian blinds
a fractured world

Lee Nash

 

sunny window…
behind the crochet curtain
mama’s shadow

(finestra al sole … dietro la tenda a crochet / l’ombra di mamma)

Lucia Cardillo

 

holland blind
over window geraniums
a scalloped world

Madhuri Pillai

 

nursing home
the bent up blind
she peeps through

Marilyn Appl Walker
madison, ga, usa

 

shading the cot
lots of rainbows in rows
for a rainy day

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

sun and shadow
painting the tiger stripes
on the ginger cat

Marta Chocilowska

 

stalker moon
from window to window
I draw the shades

Martha Magenta
England, UK

 

Venetian blinds our on-again-off-again

Matthew Markworth
Mason, OH, USA

 

sheers…
getting to know
all about you

Michael Henry Lee

 

remembering
when it was our silhouettes –
winter cabin

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

presenting
a brand new day
the curtain cord

Mike Gallagher

 

open window…
two hooks
missing

Mohammad Azim Khan

 

peeking out the blind
at the neighbor
the cat

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio, USA

 

two pigeons
in love –
window shade

Neha Talreja

 

hand me down
lace curtains
a borrowed view

Nicole Tilde
Shady Dale, Ga.

 

before turning on the lamp
moonlight through
the venetian blinds

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

breathing
through sheer curtains
blue incense of lavender

pamela a. babusci
rochester, ny  usa

 

between the wall and the drapes
a cat without its
tail

pat davis
pembroke, nh usa

 

in the shade
Venetian wine tasting
blind

Paul Geiger

 

fear of discovery
too much pull
on the window shade

Peter Jastermsky

 

Christmas Eve night
a young child peeps
though the curtains

Rachel Sutcliffe

 

dawn leaks in
through the window shades
wiggly one between us

Randy Brooks

 

drapes wiggle
the cat catches sight
of a hummingbird

Rehn Kovacic

 

blinds closed
in the empty room
her rosary

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

 

parted curtains –
we lie in a sliver
of moonlight

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

 

through green curtains
tree and hedge seem
the same

robyn brooks
usa

 

mountain hut
rice sack curtains
lit by the moon

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

 

slats open
just enough
neighborhood watch

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH 45103  USA

 

slice by slice
through window blinds
rain clouds

Seretta Martin
San Diego, CA

 

summer breeze
enticing moonlight
into the curtains

Simon Hanson
Queensland, Australia

 

opening the blinds
the outline of pressed leaves
against the glass

Skaidrite Stelzer

 

curtain dance
the cat hunts
the speedy mouse

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

clinic window blind
I follow the rise and fall
of a bulbul’s song

Sonam Chhoki

 

night fall
the window blind
wraps up

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

 

open blind
the spring sun
wider

Stephen A. Peters

 

a space
between shade and sill
the boy with binoculars

Susan Mallernee

 

waiting for daddy
our blinds
bent

Tia Haynes

 

shades drawn
setting boundaries
with the News Feed

Tiffany Shaw-Diaz
Centerville, Ohio, USA

 

wooden blinds –
the night still locked
in her room

Tomislav Maretic

 

grandma’s house
all shutters covered
with moss

Tsanka Shishkova
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

vertical blinds…
eyeing a stray cat
who is eyeing me

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio   USA

 

hospital bed
broken sunlight coming in
through window blinds

Vandana Parashar

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.