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Per Diem Archive: R. Yarrow October 2012, Hands

To Hand 

We are a species heavily dependent on our eyes, especially for connection with others and world around us. But our hands also connect, and that connection often reaches the heart. These haiku about hands touch emotion. They range from humor, as in Randy Brooks’ hand in the cookie jar, to sadness, as in Cherie Hunter Day feeling the weight and warmth of her dying dog’s collar. They include fear, as in John Stevenson’s shiver at a warm hand before diagnosis, intimacy, as in Sari Grandstaff’s total attention to the hand on her thigh, and even exasperation or anger, as in Kenneth Elba Carrier’s deaf man grabbing at the other’s hands.

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Author: Marjorie Buettner
winter light—
she holds the teacup
with both hands
Author: Kenneth Elba Carrier
arguing—
a deaf man grabs
the other's hands
Author: Emily Romano
rodeo cowboy
hopefully clutching
a handful of sky
Author: Tom Clausen
meeting her boyfriend
        our handshake
                 out of synch
Author: Susan Antolin
pushing her nose
under my hand for a pat  —
spring morning
Author: Francine Banwarth
his hand on her thigh
                 one cloud slips
into another
Author: Randy Brooks
estate auction —
can’t get my hand back out
of the cookie jar
Author: Cherie Hunter Day
a salamander
passing the coolness
hand to hand
Author: Cherie Hunter Day
still warm
the old dog’s chain collar
heavy in my hand
Author: Mike Dillon
First day of school:
as we near the bus stop
his hand lets go
Author: William Scott Galasso
Amputee vet ...
gone are the hands she loved
to have touch her
Author: Barry George
my nephew's fastball —
I hand back his glove
and keep the sting
Author: Sari Grandstaff
his hand
on my thigh —
I miss the next joke
Author: Lee Gurga
professional conference —
in the restroom all the dentists
washing their hands
Author: Peggy Heinrich
teenager’s wedding
in her hand, fresh flowers
cut short
Author: Christopher Herold
the cell phone —
a neighbor pulls up weeds
with one hand
Author: Ruth Holzer
museum guard's white-gloved hand feels for the bomb in my purse
Author: Gary Hotham
hand to hand —
the unframed photos
of her life
Author: Gary Hotham
the newborn yawns –
her hands don’t go
far
Author: Joann Klontz
test results
a fly keeps returning
to the doctor’s hand
Author: Francis E. (Fran) Masat
a bird in hand
mine
the only pulse
Author: A.C. Missias
dusklit war memorial —
the stone beneath my hand
     still warm
Author: Lenard D. Moore
cottonfield whiter
than the thick mist
his black hands
Author: Lenard D. Moore
hot afternoon
the squeak of my hands
on my daughter’s coffin
Author: Tom Painting
detour
she returns my hand
to the wheel
Author: Patricia Prime
first steps
he lets go of one hand
for another
Author: Jane Reichhold
juggler
the children's eyes
in his hands
Author: John Stevenson
shiver at the touch
of a warm hand
... the diagnosis
Author: Michelle Tennison
pulling the covers
     off your shoulders —
         my hand passing into moonlight
Author: Michael Dylan Welch
spring breeze —
the pull of her hand
as we near the pet store
Author: Jeffrey Witkin
bridge construction
a wrench is handed
across the span
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