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 Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.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

A view of the tops of the clouds, or the runway scene after an hour stuck on the tarmac, or the toy-sized trees and traffic enlarging as the runway approaches, or the glint of a sunrise, or a friend waving hello or goodbye to someone standing outside – the airplane window…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

Haiku Windows:  dollhouse window

I have been overwhelmed once again by the response and the wonderful poems! Thanks to all those who have taken the time to submit! Several poets submitted similar poems – there was a recurring theme of tea, and the idea that dollhouse life mimics real life, for example. Some poets abandoned concrete images in favour of ‘dreams’, ‘imagination’, and ‘childhood memories’. Some poems took a much darker turn than I had anticipated… also, it is Week Two and I am already breaking one of the rules I had set for myself, which is to select no more than one poem per poet per week… I hope my comments will help explain why!

Again, all of the following poems deserve a few words, but I will limit my comments to the following four:

dollhouse window
the same argument
an octave higher

Betty Shropshire
Texas

This poem is an example of the best kind of haiku – it says so much in so few words. Will the doll win the argument where the child presumably did not? How easy it is to picture this scene, and the poet trusts that the reader will supply almost all of the information…

dollhouse window                                                   dollhouse window
my daughter and I                                                   my son and I
seeing eye to eye                                                     seeing eye to eye

Lori Zajkowski
New York

What a difference one word can make in a haiku! I was struck by this reaction when I first read these separate entries, and it would not have happened had I not read them both. Here the poet describes a scene that can be taken literally – the parent possibly on their knees to play at the child’s level – and yet with either a son or a daughter there is perhaps something more to the phrase ‘seeing eye to eye’…

school open day
painting windows
on my shoebox dollhouse

Marietta McGregor
Canberra, Australia

The poet brings what could be a memory to life in this unique take on dollhouse windows – the freedom of childhood, and painting whatever one wishes, is emphasized by the first line – ‘open day’…

attic dollhouse
the window that marked
my sister’s half

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

Another unique view of the dollhouse window, again a possible memory, and again the reader will supply information to complete this poem, or to at least ponder the possibilities – here the poet ventures into the realm of sibling rivalry and the concept of sharing… or not sharing. The ripples from reading the poem may lead the reader to wonder why the dollhouse is in an attic (whose attic?), and about the state of the relationship of the adult siblings…

 

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

doll’s house window
still taking tea
the dolls she loved

andrew shimield
isleworth uk

 

dollhouse –
in the bay window
a little moon

ANNA MARIA Domburg-Sancristoforo

 

it’s ajar
since she left –
dollhouse window

Arvinder Kaur

 

dollhouse window
the child peeks into
empty rooms

Bernadette O’Reilly

 

back then…
a dollhouse life
of glassless windows

Carole MacRury
Point Roberts, WA

 

power cut –
through the dollhouse window
candles flicker

Carol Jones
Wales

 

all day rain
lowering the blinds
in her dollhouse

Debbi Antebi

 

a little longer
for a bit more privacy
this kerchief curtain

Ernesto P. Santiago
Athens, Greece

 

dollhouse window
the plastic lilacs
always blooming

Giovanna Restuccia

 

sharing secrets
through the window
the doll and I

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

just like Alice
my eye fills the frame
of the dollhouse window

Jennifer Sutherland
Viewbank, Victoria, Australia

 

morning at the dollhouse
drawing back the curtains
with a pin

Lee Nash
Cognac, France

 

dollhouse window…
the little hands pretend
to pour tea

Lucia Cardillo

 

junk shop –
cobwebs curtain
the dollhouse windows

Lyn Reeves
Tasmania, Australia

 

dollhouse window
three generations
of fingerprints

Marilyn Ashbaugh

 

upstairs window eye of the cat giant again

Marion Clarke
Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland

 

untouched
by
raindrops
Barbie’s
windows

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

spring cleaning
my little niece hangs
new curtains

Marta Chocilowska

 

the family
she always wished for –
dollhouse window

Martha Magenta
England, UK

 

dollhouse window   everything   just how she left it

Matthew Markworth
Mason, OH, USA

 

hurricane season
the dollhouse windows
boarded tight

Michael Henry Lee

 

her tiny nose
glued to the dollhouse window
since Christmas

Michael H. Lester

 

snowstorm…
granddaughter closes
the dollhouse window

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

 

dollhouse –
through paper curtains
a pink shine

Nazarena Rampini
Italia

 

night shadows
a noise behind
the dollhouse window

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

 

dollhouse window
watching the girl
she never was

Peter Jastermsky

 

dollhouse window
glimpse of the childhood
I missed

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

 

discarded toys…
a night full of stars
in the dollhouse window

Ron C. Moss

 

Open Day –
the fly flies
through the dollhouse window

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

 

through a doll’s house window the grandfather clock of childhood

Shloka Shankar
India

 

late afternoon
the dollhouse furniture
casting shadows too

Simon Hanson
Tamborine, Queensland Aust.

 

draughty old doll’s house
the hair dryer finishes
new cling film windows

simonj
UK

 

dollhouse window
my child
invites me in

Stephen A. Peters

 

dollhouse
the always draped
bedroom window

Susan Mallernee

 

his nightly visit
curtains closed on the
dollhouse windows

Terri French

 

abandoned home
a face in the window
of the dollhouse

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

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.