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Haiku Windows: window seat

 

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 Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.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


putting them up… taking them down… a detachable outer window put up in winter as insulation and to protect an inner window from the effects of storms…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

Haiku Windows:  window seat

airplane window seat
the number of times
I have to say “excuse me”

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

It is worth it, of course, for the privilege of the view (and only having one immediate neighbour), or is it?

bay window
hydrangeas bloom
between chapters

Roberta Beary

The reader’s attention (both the reader in the poem and the reader of the poem) alternates between the words on the page and the garden view from the window seat… sounds perfect to me…

take off –
he pulls the shade
across my mountains

Skaidrite Stelzer
Toledo, Ohio

Here we have the unfortunate person in the next-to-the-window seat, who may have been looking forward to a partial view at least… the use of ‘my’ to describe the mountain view, and the fact that this happens at the beginning of the flight, both add to the scene…

window seat
grandpa smokes his pipe and
counts the passers-by

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

Grandpa may wish he still had the energy to do more, but hopefully he can enjoy the luxury of relaxing, smoking his pipe, and keeping tabs on what others are doing…

 

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

 

bus window seat
my mind roams along the contours
of distant hills

Adjei Agyei-Baah
Kumasi, Ghana

 

sharing my window seat
with half a dozen
snotty toddlers

Angelee Deodhar

 

high speed –
the journey of the rain
on the window

Angiola Inglese

 

Window seat
Wherever
I go

Anna Goluba

 

evening stroll –
a black cat sleeping
on a window sill

Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo

 

window seat –
a stranger’s reflection
smiles back

Arvinder Kaur

 

window seat
my purse becomes
my pillow

Beverly Acuff Momoi

 

a window seat
for dreaming on the bus
out of town

Carol Raisfeld

 

window seat
I watch my dreams disappear
through moving clouds

Celestine Nudanu

 

seated opposite
visit window, mother, son
LA County Jail

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA

 

window seat
she asks where’s the
nearest
toilet

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

 

window seat
a teddy bear
left behind

Christina Sng

 

window seat
me and my cat
watching snow

Christine Eales
UK

 

café window seat
the cycling sound
of his oxygen

Claire Vogel Camargo

 

convent guest house –
from my window seat
white mountain meadows

Corine Timmer

 

window seat
holding off the loo
as long as possible

David Jacobs
London, UK

 

train window –
stories that unfold
without words

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

 

faded pillow
on the window seat
her diary

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

 

and yet a window
closes every time he sits
beside another –

Deirdre Hines

 

our passion flamed there
on that bay view window seat
fizzled by neglect

Dianne Moritz

 

is it my face
in a tram window or is
that a stranger

Dubravka Scukanec

 

window seat
a child smiles at me
from the sidewalk

Eufemia Griffo

 

journey to the past
I offer you
my window seat

Eva Limbach
Germany

 

wind sand and stars
a window seat
lost found and stolen

For memories of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Egypt.

Guliz Mutlu

 

gloomy face
even the window seat makes
no difference

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

staring at the faces
from my window seat –
a field of sunflowers

Ingrid Baluchi
Uganda

 

road trip
scanning the scenery
for a haiku moment

Jennifer Hambrick

 

window seat
behind old curtains
a page is turned

Joanne van Helvoort

 

her closed eyes –
I whisper for a tomato juice
from the window seat

John Green

 

a gibbous moon
bulbed above the window seat
her belly’s soft curve

John Hawkhead

 

window seat
puppy
school’s out

Judith Hishikawa

 

window seat
reflecting her coy smile
first date

Karen Harvey
Wales

 

true love
he always gives me
the window seat

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

views from seventh floor
brewery below crafting
balance of bitter hops

Kathleen Mazurowski

 

sunrise
captures the moon
night train window

Ken Olson
Yakima WA

 

a diary left
on the window seat
— summer’s end

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

 

glassy canvas
beautified by small hands
near an empty window seat

Loretta Diane Walker

 

window seat
only the glass
divides us

Lori Zajkowski

 

wheelchair…
from the window the sun
on her embroideries

sedia a rotelle … dalla finestra il sole / sui suoi ricami

Lucia Cardillo

 

plane window seat
castles I build
in the clouds

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

 

window seat
how fragile the wing
shuddering in the wind

Madhuri Pillai

 

window seat –
a wind of rose petals
on the drying rack

Margherita Petriccione

 

a bad cough
she watches friends at play
from the window seat

Marilyn Appl Walker
georgia, usa

 

rush hour tram
in the window seats
faces unmoved

Mark Gilbert

 

window seat
closer to the action
of falling leaves

Michael Henry Lee

 

dense fog –
wishing he hadn’t paid extra
for the window seat

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

 

the window feeder
by my window seat…
popcorn afternoon

Michele L. Harvey

 

At the window seat
the sound of raindrops
enters the heart

Muskaan Ahuja
Chandigarh, India

 

drifting on daydreams
and clouds
window seat

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

family repast
dad’s chair at the window
empty

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

bay windows
up and down the street
shiny shoes pass

paul geiger

 

window seat
the man outside
points to his mouth

Peter Jastermsky

 

fast food restaurant
a face covered in ketchup
in the window

Rachel Sutcliffe

 

window seat
subliminal message
in her silent film

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

 

window seat
watching children wave
at the train

Rehn Kovacic

 

bay view lunch…
sea lions fish
from the dock

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

 

watching an eagle
watch me
window seat nook

robyn brooks
usa

 

long flight home
children in window seats
counting cloud angels

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

 

exit window seat
harder to pass through
the eye of a needle

Ron Scully

 

window seat storage bench
hopes and dreams
stowed here

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

 

looking at the view
from my window seat –
already enjoying my trip

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

 

River’s End
a paddle floats by
between french fries

Sandi Pray

 

wondering about
life in those tiny houses
airplane window seat

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, New York, USA

 

window seat bird watching cat

Simon Hanson
Queensland, Australia

 

view through the window seat
my ability to forgive
easier

Stephen A. Peters

 

tea for two
on the window seat
her favorite doll

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

 

rock/paper/scissors
calling dibs
on the window seat

Terri French

 

after school
alone
on the window seat

Tia Haynes
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA

 

listening to jazz…
this rain
on the train window

Tomislav Maretic

 

window seat…
over the blossom tree
hair of veronica

Tsanka Shishkova

 

family luncheon
sympathy flowers
on the window seat

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

window seat
my fingers trace
the raindrops

Vandana Parashar

 

foggy
a little girl draws flowers
on the train window

Vessislava Savova

 

empty space by the window
I left it for
my Invisible friend

Zuzanna Truchlewska

 

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.

 

Comments

  1. Hi KJ

    i would like to submit mine for next weeks storm windows theme
    .
    .
    .
    storm clouds
    in her eyes-
    i shut mine
    .
    .

    Thank you

    Reply

  2. Thank you, Kathy, for your sensitive comments on these haiku. You chose a topic that writers interpret many ways. You describe so well the haiku voice and where the writer directs our attention. I am struck by two different types of haiku: in Deborah Kolodji’s haiku, the middle line is a pivot that brings our thoughts back to the first line and forward to the third. In Peter Jastermsky’s, the literal separation between the person in the window seat in the first line and the man outside is made even stronger. Each haiku is evocative and brilliant.

    Reply

  7. So many different interpretations to enjoy. I liked Angiola’s
    high speed —
    the journey of the rain
    on the window
    Thank you again Kathy for including one of mine, and also for the several opportunities that, for me, require some research . . . outhouses (did they still exist . . . we have flying toilets in this part of the world), storm windows?! The Yukon maybe, not Uganda, though could be useful against the constant red dust . . . I’ve learned a lot from your Window adventures!

    Reply

  11. Aha!
    .
    .
    her closed eyes –
    I whisper for a tomato juice
    from the window seat
    .
    John Green
    .
    .
    Is this who runs a fine workshop where Gary Evans attends?
    .
    I can so relate to the verse, even if it’s nothing to do with the baddest hangover since the last one. 😉
    .
    When I celebrated New Year’s Eve onwards for a straight three months (we did sleep at least six hours, and not booze every second) I’d start the day out with a pint of soda water (not sickly sweet stuff, the whisky n’ soda sans whisky) and a lot of angostura bitter.
    .
    But I have gone the tomato route, and the Army route on occasion.
    .
    .
    warm regards,
    Alan

    Reply

    • Hello Alan,

      Yes, Seren Fargo and I co-host the Bellingham Haiku Group, of which Gary Evans attends. Gary and I will car pool to the NW Haiku Annual conference in June.
      .

      It’s funny you should comment on my haiku as I just yesterday watched your 15 minute
      “Alan’s Haiku Journey” on YouTube. Then your TEDx presentation popped up so I had to watch that as well!
      .
      I like to get a little extra vitamin C in me when flying to keep away the nastys . . .
      .
      Cheers,
      John

      Reply

  12. Congratulations to all these excellent haiku poets! Thanks for including one of my window seat haiku. I too love the one you commented on by Roberta Beary. A window seat reading nook is so special. The haiku by John Green, Vessislava Savova and Susan Rogers were also favorites of mine.

    Reply

  13. Congratulations to all and thank you for selecting one of mine, Kathy. I adore the poem by Roberta Beary.

    bay window
    hydrangeas bloom
    between chapters

    Roberta Beary

    Reply

  15. Thanks KJ for including mine – I particularly liked Jennifer Hambrick’s and Madhuri Pillai’s.

    Reply

  16. Another great set of themed verses from everyone!
    .
    I’d forgotten I’ve done so many in the past, but it isn’t surprising that we include windows, as we look out so often whether at home; work; bar or cafe; shop windows (inside and out) etc…
    .
    .

    window-rattling moon I stay up and turn blue
    .
    Alan Summers
    Publication Credits: From the haiku sequence “Perilune” pub. Blithe Spirit 23.2. 2013
    .
    .
    An unusual one:
    .
    night train
    
a window screams
    out of an owl
    .
    Alan Summers
    Bones – journal for contemporary haiku no. 14
November 15th 2017
    .
    .
    And an extra from the haibun called “The Beat is Back”
    .
    .
    He left to walk over to Bickford’s Cafeteria, on the middle block of West 42nd
    Street; this is where Kerouac believes the greatest stage on Times Square
    resides, he thought.
    .
    In the window seat is a man bent around a chipped mug
    containing thick dark syrup, he has typical eighteen hour shadow, around
    his eyes, that matches the tone of his unshaven jaw line.
    .
    someone kicks
    a fridge full of things
    shut again
    .
    “Mind if I join yer?”
    .
    The window man looks up, nods, sinks back into his syrup drink, but also
    starts scratching his insect T-shirt.
    .
    .
    Alan Summers
    Blithe Spirit 25.4 (November 2015)
    http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/the-beat-is-back-haibun-prose-and-haiku.html
    .
    .
    And a very early one, who hasn’t seen cats dominate window seats during the Summer. 🙂
    .
    .
    open window
    the cat dozes
    half in half out
    .
    Alan Summers
    Presence issue 3 (1996)
    .
    .

    Reply

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