Welcome to the largest collaborative poem on the internet. The United Nations has designated 2019 as the Year of Indigenous Languages. Plan to share one poem or many in the world’s largest collaborative poem! Please add your poem(s) in the Comment box below, ideally at dawn at your location, but any time that you are able. The timeline for this begins at 12:01 A.M. on April 17 on the International Date Line (which is why it seems to have started the day before, for many of us). Your poem(s) can respond to the “seed” poem:
FUJI CONCEALED IN A MIST.* Into a sea of mist whither hath Mt. Fuji sunk?
or to any of the poems posted in the Comment box, or you can even start a new thread. You may participate as often as you like. All we ask is that you respond to the theme at hand.
Enjoy!
[*This poem, included in W. G. Aston’s Grammar of the Japanese Written Language (1877) without ascription, is possibly the first haiku ever written in English — indigenous language indeed! Of course since that time we have come to quite a different understanding of what makes an indigenous language, and how endangered many of them are . . .]
dewdrops…
a bit of my dreams
here and there
spring evening
line after line
when will this ever end?
dusk . . .
the clouds moving
with my worries
World Language Day
the river talking
on the rocks
speaking
in no other language than his own
the neighbourhood madman
taught
to remain wordless—
an elder’s fart
Language Day—
the stuttering teacher called
to give a speech
how easily
three-year olds banter
Dzong-kha, English, Nepali
the silence
after the day’s banter
minivets settle in the canopy
sea breeze…
I breathe in
your accent
.
Sharpening The Green Pencil Haiku Contest 2019
hiraeth . . .
the sound of voices
I miss the most
speech & drama day
naughty students pick
their teachers’ voice
end of term play —
with a halo around his head
Buddha forgets his lines
———————————–
A Hundred Gourds 1:2 (March
2012)
learning to speak
first to hold my tongue
before I speak
Note: Edited version. “I” in L2 of the previous version is changed to “to”.
learning to speak
first I hold my tongue
before I speak
the tourist walk
picking up
small customs
leaves falling on leaves
one language eats up
another
“found in translation”
.
.
.
dying —
body language
left behind in the translation
.
.
.
dying body
of language
behind for translation
.
.
.
language left
the dying body behind
for translation
.
.
.
.
.
.
D&A
all that is
was
he sings of love
our gondelier
the last in his line
many dialects;
Hoi Toider my favorite
blurs in the sea mist
foreign land
learning to pick an accent
I bite my tongue
serengetti-
learning to decipher
an elephants rumble
Web link includes a photo when Karen worked in the Serengeti:
http://reasonablyadjustedtv.com/2016/01/
.
.
This Lion Country
.
Serengeti dryness
the gurgling call
of a cape crow
.
Kilimanjaro
looking for the peak
and then looking higher
.
Gol Mountains Masai
our only common language
wildebeest grunts
.
open plains
giraffes in the last light
the longest shadows
.
night flight––
flamingo call
on the moon
.
trying hard to sleep––
a single gazelle being eaten
on both sides of the tent
.
yellow flowers
to the horizon
this lion country
.
clipped green grass––
jasmine scrambles
over the kopje
.
long after the leopard
I see spots
in the bushes
.
long dry season
the last flower
a baboon snack
.
Karen Hoy
From: This Lion Country sequence (Serengeti) Presence issue 57 March 2017 ISSN 1366-5367
.
note: long dry season ws Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition 2004
.
Africa’s Big Five and Other Wildlife Filmmakers: A Centenary of Wildlife Filming in Kenya, Jean Hartley … Teresa Clare, Marguerite Smits van Oyen, Dave Houghton, Gus Christie, Karen Hoy to name but a few: https://tinyurl.com/KarenHoySerengeti
scattered
all the natives
broken english
canary’s silence –
the miner’s daughter
bends double
Canary Wharf
right-minded people
glued to the train
.
Alan Summers
.
Extinction Rebellion protesters were glued to a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) train at Canary Wharf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47974244
extinction rebellion
three hundred and ten
reasons to change
.
.
Last count.there was 310 arrests around London alone. Sadly the media don’t appear to be reporting the campaign overseas.
Actually at least 400 arrests of people bringing the attention of serious and dangerous harm being created by practices against natural law.
.
There seems to be a worrying bias against all of this bringing alarming practices to the authorities, because so many people in comfy jobs etc… know they are mired in the corruption of it all, and what harm it does to people’s children and grandchildren, as well as the planet.
.
As one young woman said, thirty years of polite non-disruptive protest have been basically ignored or glossed over. So thirty years of inaction is having to be addressed more widely and openly. It’s also a cry for getting back some semblance of real democracy.
.
Fingers crossed.
tiny Tim
how mole hills
become mountains
.
I worked from the last report I’d heard Alan.
It truly is shocking.
.
A friend in the mid eighties approached a local councillor with an idea for individual wind turbines to be mounted on all house rooves. He’d already piloted it and was charging enough power to run his lights.
The councillor became an obstruction. I’ve not spoken to him in 20 years so do not know what came of it.
Sadly history shows that Labour have worked to solve a lot of these issues (Not perfect) but more a cohesive direction than the dog eat dog environment we’ve inherited under the current shower.
mountain rain
the echo when
you say goodbye
Wow!!! 🙂
.
.
.
Early morning rain
the sound between
the sound
.
Alan Summers
Asahi Shimbun (Japan, June, 2013)
Wow!!!😊
.
rain after rain the rhythm I locked myself in
.
Adjei Agyei-Baah
Under The Basho, March 2018
Into the woods
Shrouded in shadows
Shapeshifting
cyclepath
…lost
in translation
——————-
(Failed Haiku, 1.4, April 2016)
out lining the blue
wing-tips battered by
eyes
keen to the ground
cricket song
the jogger crunches
between loose gravel
.
Alan Summers
Haiku Friends vol. 1 ed. Masaharu Hirata (Japan 2003)
Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
what is language?
on the left behind spade
a robin lands again
.
Alan Summers
.
.
Extinction Rebellion
the language of right…
up against a far right
.
Alan Summers
Notre dame
yellow jackets line up
at Macron’s door
Shock- where it was gone
sweepers over spill
a cloud of ash
filters through
Do you see
what I see:
.
.
Quasimodo et Esmeralda
(beauté la bête)
trouver sanctuaire dans le beffroi
.
.
Quasimodo and Esmeralda
(beauty the beast)
finding sanctuary in the belfry
.
.
.
.
.
Do you hear
what I hear
Matin from Notre Dame
.
.
Quasimodo
fait de la musique
de Heavy Metal
.
.
Quasimodo
makes music
from heavy metal
.
.
.
.
.
.
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binary language
an old tin can enters
a new orbit
I’ve been admiring many of your posted haiku here Robert! 🙂
.
I’ll be popping into the BHS haiku conference with Karen, hope to see you there. 🙂
Hi Alan,
Sorry for the delayed reply.
I was not able to commit during the invitation period.
Hence I will have to wait till next year.
Maybe their will be another opportunity, perhaps a summer ginkgo.
Best wishes.
Rob
Hi Rob,
Sorry to hear we won’t see you. Call of the Page might be doing another ginko as Slimbridge was so lovely.
.
Hope to see you around! 🙂
Hi Alan,
Please let me know of the next ginko. We were talking about a weekend away. Where is undecided.
.
Carnation blooms
a bee on the edge
of time
.
🤔
Hi Robert,
.
We have two types of ginko planned.
.
No dates, but we are also planning local ginko events as there’s a meadow 2-3 minutes stroll from our house, and a wood, and a long river walk through a park and into the High Street.
.
Our guest bedroom isn’t ready yet, but the Best Western Angel Hotel appears to give competitive prices against local B&Bs.
.
The Angel Hotel is only five to six minutes stroll from our house. Keep checking our website or if you haven’t, join our newsletter! 🙂
.
warm regards,
Alan
https://www.callofthepage.org/contact/newsletter-sign-up/
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We also love bees!!!
the scent of rain
birdsong stretches
as far as Mars
.
Alan Summers
Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum Selected Haiku Collection (Japan 2017)
Liz Brownlee’s Resource for Poets writing for Children
.
.
old tales
moon-bright leaves
jostle the breeze
.
Alan Summers
Wild Plum 1:1 (Spring & Summer 2015)
Top of the Alan, Michael, and writers! 🙂
a note of spring-
in dappled light
a young song
travels out
Correction: Top of the morning, I meant to write.
Hi Lovette!!!!!!!!:-)
.
Interestingly I filled in the gap where you meant to include ‘morning’ and I think that’s a natural reaction for people to do so. In haiku we write so that we hope readers will fill in gaps too.
.
.
a note of spring-
in dappled light
a young song
travels out
.
Lovette Cartier
.
.
A beautiful verse!!! 🙂
.
The language of the birds, and even if a dawn chorus might include a few bird varieties of cuss words, it still feels wonderful to our ears: If only human cussing did. 😉
this fire
Her breaking heart
made sacred
ashes
Centuries come and go
on mother’s tongue
Notre Dame
with age comes vintage
and palimpsest
.
.
never too old to be
a damsel-in distress
(or in heat) Praise the Lord
.
^^ Joan made me do it – not of Arc; of Hollywood
.
Didn’t know
she was going in for
The Miracle Lift
.
^^ however, that references the three: Notre Dame, Joan of Joy, and Jeanne D’Arc
.
.
.
Michael
.
.
Last Supper
all savor the favor
of the savior
.
The Last Supper was late
night in the garden
– and a salad bar –
all the produce
on ice
.
stigmata –
passion
marks
.
.
.
summer rue–
sparrow eggs fall
as curtain unrolls
still whistling
the blue thrush
its nest destroyed
…………………………………….
…………………………………….
…………………………………….
…………………………………….
………wailing wall…………..
…………………………………….
…………………………………….
Robert, Bravo
I have truly enjoyed your visku (visual haiku poetry) – you’re a natural voice & vision
.
.
” . . if these walls could talk ”
if they can wail
they can talk
.
.
if more talk
then no wailing
and no more wall
.
.
needn’t be built – walls
figurative phantom
political
.
.
.
.
.
Very kind of you to say, Michael.
Pleased that you enjoy my creations.
Anasazi
a ghost wind
through Chaco Canyon
Claire,
.
Love the reference to the ancient people of North America!
.
.
harvest-moon zephyr
wheels over canyon hoodoos
ghost-whistle
.
Galaxy of Verse
Volume 35, #1, pg 79
.
Jan Benson
Jan,
.
Thank you for commenting on my haiku! I can imagine the Anasazi in their pueblos, voices carrying on the winds. Different dialects echoed by later indigenous tribes in the southwest USA.
.
Compliments on your wonderful haiku, and collection!
.
Claire Vogel Camargo
it’s approaching that last hour Good night sweet Prince
.
.
.
sleeping in heavenly peace
the lull without a bye
.
.
.
the lull
without
a bye
.
.
.
spring
repotting our money plant
the crazy world of ants
echo
of that first utterance
returning comet
.
.
the language
of borders…
interpreting walls
.
.
Jan Benson
boundaries
we turn over
a new leaf
piece of Nalanda
next to the world map
unwalling…myself
hey Jan 🙂
awww, space issues when writing about boundaries and borders
.
.
.
piece of Nalanda
next to the World Map
unwilling…myself
aww, typo
.
.
.
piece of Nalanda
next to the world map
unwalling…myself
Hey Pratima!
Back at ya!
.
🙂
.
Use dots, or asterisks where you want a line-space
.
*
Jan
Jan,
.
This is so good! Space to ponder types of walls.
.
Claire Vogel Camargo
late night owls ghosting their reflections
wrapping it up
there’s nothing to talk
about
morning coffee break
avian neighbors’
lively chatter
Hi Lovette Carter & Happy IHPD 2019
.
.
Life the gift
never wrapped up;
not talked about, lived
.
.
.
Michael
.
.
.
Ngunnawal trail –
estimated walking time
twenty thousand years
Kyi -Chu temple*
walking in the footsteps
of bygone pilgrims
————————-
* Oldest temple in Bhutan built in the 7th century.
darn these steps
to Tirumala
rabid cuckoo
temple steps —
a man with a snake
offers to tell my future
*********************
The Heron’s Nest 12:4 December 2010
first glimpse
of Lake Como
our guide
falls silent
Perhaps the first Indigenous Language is the one we need to communicate with our actual self? As an adopted person I sometimes have to reach for a first language I hadn’t fully acquired.
.
.
baby photos
from my birth mother . . .
how do I say hello to me
.
Alan Summers
The Heron’s Nest 14.2)
we greet you
before your arrival
ultrasound
universal Mother command
you’d better
better
be…
a faded photo –
the shy girl I once was
still smiling at me
honey bees
a child stares at
the sound of flowers
lavender harvest humming with bees
Atlas foothills…
bees jostle pickers
for saffron
.
Alan Summers
A Sense of Place: MOUNTAIN – hearing ed KJMunro (August 2018)
the sound dome of bees
how many shades of color
can a human see
.
Alan Summers
Mainichi Shimbun Best of Haiku (Japan 2015)
fairy wasps––
the tension of rain
on rain on rain
.
Alan Summers
final rays . . .
still reason
to hum
Master of the Month, January 2017
NHK World Haiku Masters
on her fingers
the smell of applemint-
two bees collide
.
Alan Summers
Snapshots Four (1998)
to and fro
the ghost child
on a playground swing
Lummox 7 Anthology 2018
Intercity train
the common language
of Haribos
Brilliant!!! 🙂
.
.
inter-city train journey –
a rattling window top
shuts itself
.
Alan Summers
Presence 15 (2001)
slow-moving bus –
all passengers glued
to their phones
slow train
my twin
at every bridge
a heated argument
the length of the quiet car –
in sign language
Cattails, October 2018, pg 52
Some great and wonderful train, and station, and bus haiku here! 🙂
.
.
Inspired by Hitchcock and Munch:
.
.
night train
a window screams
out of an owl
.
Alan Summers
Bones – journal for contemporary haiku no. 14 (November 15th 2017)
old bus route–
the changes that
couldn’t change me
Normandy campsite
the mountain stream
babbles back
Giant’s Causeway
the language
of rocks
the night train
of paper rock scissors
you sleep into me
.
Alan Summers
c.2.2. Anthology of short-verse ed. Brendan Slater & Alan Summers
(Yet To Be Named Free Press 2013)
I once was this stone home for another
.
Alan Summers
Bones – journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
night train lullaby everyone succumbs
the night train passes
along the mountain trail
garlic snores
.
Alan Summers
Azami #51 ed. Ikkoku Santo (Japan 1998)
.
The Spanish night train, full of strangers, and a heck of a lot of garlic from one geezer.
😄😄😄
giants causeway
the language of water
in each crevice
summer language school thwack of bats
sunday afternoon
an essex skipper evades
an expert in the field
.
Alan Summers
Blithe Spirit, December 2011 issue
.
Actually it’s a butterfly (Essex Skipper). 🙂
Sundays, the smell of green grass, cucumber sandwiches with the edges trimmed, and lemonade, and willow and linseed.
🙂 Ah , what a great name, Alan!
I was lucky to go on a Bristol University walk with a passionate natural history expert. Myself and Karen were the only haiku writers, and possibly the only writers/poets, even. But it was like a ginko in other regards.
.
Essex Skipper:
https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?species=lineola
cabinet of curiosities everyone gasps
Hi Marion Clarke & Happy IHPD 2019
.
.
cabinet of curiosities – a group-gasp
.
.
Michael
.
.
.
.
.
Hey, Michael – a good one 🙂
.
Took me awhile to get rolling this year and then it was too late!
.
Marion
dawn mist
finding jewels
In the flower bed
fog or mist
the weight
of words
another exo-planet
Santa Claus renews
his visa
.
Alan Summers
Living in a second haibun
https://www.humankindjournal.org/contrib_alan_summers/issue-14-alan-summers
.
Santa, the ultimate polyglot! 🙂
snow flurries
I revert to
babbling
a murder of crows
vying for that last
word of the day
fifth kind encounter
humans replace crows
as an idiom of murder
.
Alan Summers
Prune Juice : Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga
Scifaiku feature Issue 21: March, 2017 editor: Steve Hodge
crows exonerated at last and so lyrically done
Thank you MIchael! 🙂
.
The actual caretakers of the world, and it’s certainly not humans, are often despised. There was a great radio program on flies the other day, and proving that without flies, humans would die out very quickly, as we create so much ‘raw sewage’ to put it delicately.
.
And the crow family are also trying to keep up with our obsession with garbage too! 🙂
.
I wonder if the actual real caretakers of the planet have a “Cross- indigenous language” so they can work more effectively to slow down the destruction from the humans’ race to both self-destruct and take the planet with them? 😉
how do we say
hello…
for starters
.
Alan Summers
another goodbye
the sounds of mourning
International
Extinction Rebellion
the transfer of language
to slow down greed
.
Alan Summers
Babel
the tearing and tethering
of tongues
(c) Adjei Agyei-Baah
code-switching
the teacher returns home
to his pupils
Babel
how we came to lose
faith
A beautiful allusion Stella. Your first line “Babel” just inspired another poem which I share below:
Babel
the tearing and tethering
of tongues
(c) Adjei Agyei-Baah
Inspired by Stella Pierides’ “Babel” haiku
Thank you, Adjei! And I enjoyed reading your poem, wow!
communication
the first & last attempt
at love
.
Alan Summers
peeled onions
the tears
she leaves behind
as curry is medicine
how do we learn to talk
in just one language
.
Alan Summers
red eyes
on a knife edge
chilli pepper
falling leaves…
one language settles
into another
mix marriage
all the languages
the doll speaks
Nadejda Kostadinova
I love the twist at the end of your poem. Can exhaust the humour in this one. Thanks for sharing Nadejda.
mixed marriage
the certificate
in both languages
sojourner—
losing his tongue
for acceptance
new life
I wonder how they’ll speak
to us now
.
Alan Summers
listening to
Pino Daniele’s melodies…
Naples’ soul
Naples is…
my twenties’
light steps
watching the news
collapsing with the spire of Notre Dame
so many people
gasps
around the world
as the spire falls
above Notre Dame
sound of bells …
immortality of the soul
accordion busker
donates her euros –
Notre Dame
lost souls
in Shadows of Notre dame
a candle flickers
Offering prayers with flowers to the lost river*
mystery manipulates me
lost river: River Saraswati
—
this is in response to the seed poem.
I thank THF for the opportunity to interact with the world participation. It was fun to pen the spontaneous responses to others poems.
‘Good Night All
Big and Small’
northern lights
🙂
aww the spacing prob again.
.
.
offering prayers with flowers to the lost river*
.
.
Entering a stop on each line helps Pratima.
indeed
news the war to end all wars rolling
_____________________________________
(Bones, 5, November 2014)
_____________________________________
world
breaking
NSEW
_____________________________________
(Under the Basho, 2018)
the grasp of fog
her minds eye
what is Mt Fuji
Linda Ludwig
Inverness Florida
into a sea of mist
native language lessons
on dvd
.
kjmunro
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
unknown dialect
the screech of the gramophone
*
basil seeds –
in dialect grandma
calls me “my breath”
the buzz
of paper wasps…
café chatter
—————-
Navajo code talker —
in his words
turquoise
Theresa A. Cancro
First published in Failed Haiku, July 2017, Issue #19
driven off
roads they named –
Hammonasset Indians
Akitsu Quarterly, winter 2019
the mists of time…
every cliché counted
on an abacus
.
Alan Summers
.
NOTE:
The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool that was in use in Europe, China and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the written Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The exact origin of the abacus is still unknown. Wikipedia
water falls
between growing leaves
the pure land
light rain
around the buddha’s feet
a sea of diamonds
new first language…
we leave out politicians
so we can talk
.
Alan Summers
indigenous language of politicians bullshit
Thank goodness that the awful negative politics has done an HC Andersen, and both boys and girls are now shouting out “The Emperor has no clothes”! 🙂
.
Brilliant one line senryu by the way!!! 🙂
.
Politicians have robbed us of our indigenous language(s), as well as the sinister shadows behind global corporate entities.
.
.
Sideswipe, or Shining the Bull
.
We speak you listen don’t you, don’t you, love me, love me, I am only greed and politics helping you help me.
.
sunrise
the gleam of green
being counted
.
.
a pinch of fog
pulling up a seat
by the river
Wonderful!
I love Duomo, the most beautiful monument of my town. Thank you Sonam.
harvest moon –
baby turtle on its way
to the ocean
THF – A sense of place – 2018/07/11
new moon…
tides wash away
our trace
THF – A sense of place – 2018/07/25
driftwood–
she draws
a sad face
.
(The Mainichi, November 9, 2017)
tides …
In my selfie
sunrise
Wild Plum – SPRING & SUMMER 2017
tsunami
roof under
my feet
NHK, Haiku Master, Oct 2018
walking path
blown by the wind
a touch of the sea
Daily Haiga, 18 August 2016
old journal
learning her love language
in baybayin*
*a pre-colonial writing system in the Philippines
reading the Gospels
a few verses at a time
raindrops on branches
*
Credit: https://charlottedigregorio.wordpress.com/
rocky coast –
sound of percussions
tuned by the sea
flower moon …
sand gaper clams in
dinner for two
salty taste
of morning breeze –
a touch of sea
perseids viewing …
stars fall into
the sea
alone
watching the Perseids
prayer beads forgotten
———————————-
Otata 22 October 2017
midsummer dawn …
girl dances barefoot
on the beach
days of practising Japanese
and the vet says in English”:
“You want to spay your cat?”
morning dew –
child follows
sea waves
people starve
only for a cathedral
money speaks
so true.
food bank…
the fundraiser
for its steeple
.
Alan Summers
just giving
a long line
at the perley gates
As these verses will be copied and pasted into a PDF anthology, this is for Jim’s benefit or whoever has that duty. 🙂
.
.
just giving
a long line
at the pearly gates
.
Robert Kingston
sunshine
the smell of wet sand
in my beach bag
queuing for the Duomo
hum of conversation
in so many languages
Wonderful!
I love Duomo, the most beautiful monument of my town. Thank you Sonam.
new year
sea fog surrenders
to sun
the glow
on the calm waters . . .
we once shared hope
in the diaspora
the mother tongue
scattered like stars
our native tongue
suppressed
we swallow our words
back home again
how easily we converse
in our local tongue
tongue-tied
he replies with both hands
over his chest
coin purse
why do I always count
in my native tongue
in pine tree shade
waiting. . .
a poet
what need for words
pale-footed warblers
start a duet
conjugating verbs
across a battlefield
matins moon
.
Alan Summers
Bones – journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
.
.
cobweb moon
a man’s opening lines
fill with mortar
.
Alan Summers
Bones – journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
.
.
we learn to adjust
the clocks of our hands
borrowed moon
.
Alan Summers
Bones – journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
.
.
pussy willow the phial of expired wishes
.
Alan Summers
Bones – journal for contemporary haiku, no. 14 (November 15th 2017)
Feature: The Basic Elements of Haiku by Clayton Beach (May, 2018)
.
Gendai influenced.
an infant wails
in the massing crowd
a dozen damp bras
dmayr, USA
mistfall
the swansongs
of orb spiders
.
Alan Summers
Scope vol. 61 no. 6, July 2015 (Fellowship of Australian Writers, Queensland)
.
.
Toshugu shrine pines
I try to stay as still –
mist and dew
.
Alan Summers
First credit: Hermitage ed. Ion Codrescu (Romania 2005)
Articles: World Haiku Review Japan Article – Vending machines and cicadas (March 2003); Travelogue on World Haiku Festival 2002 Part 1 (Akita International Haiku Network, Japan 2010)
Anthology: We Are All Japan ed. Robert D. Wilson & Sasa Vazic (Karakia Press 2012)
Collection: The In-Between Season (With Words Pamphlet Series 2012)
ancestor altar –
an old plantation shrouded
by mist
robyn brooks, usa
the camp fire burns the misty moon halved by thin cloud
.
Alan Summers
monoku credit: Presence issue 4 (May 1997)
Anthology: Stepping Stones: a way into haiku ed. Martin Lucas (British Haiku Society 2007)
.
.
sky burial
thigh-bone trumpets
in the fog
——————–
Otata 28, April 2018
summer grasses
the Lakota sings
of a white buffalo
.
.
Chad Lee Robinson
.
The Heron’s Nest 6:7, 2004
the shaman’s song
crying to the harvest moon
a black-necked crane
————————–
Asahi November 2012
midsummer twilight
a horned dancer calls
to the moon
Asahi Haikuist Network, 3 August 2018
Indian jasmine
the kokila’s song
of sweet anticipation
kokila = cuckoo
night of the murdered poets
the mamaloshen
silenced
” … And over the evening forest
the bronze moon climbs to its place.
Why has the music stopped?
Why is there such silence?”
——————————————
Osip Mandelstam, Stone #24 from Selected Poems. Trans. 1973 by Clarence Brown and W. S. Merwin.
snow-capped church domes
glimmering in the moonlight…
unearthly silence
***
starlit skies –
coming from nowhere
cello’s voice
***
first words
ever
.
in the cold
before first light
.
stars…
the struggle
green over gray
.
second word
ever
.
danger moon
the rustle
of everything
.
third word
ever
.
respite
whistling dixie
my father long before
budget airline
socked in bay
the Narragansetts dream
in their tribal tongue
Narragansett, Potowomut, Sachuest
tales of indigenous language
still on their tongues
I hear John Keats
my brother’s voice
freed from the urn
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
*
*
a day at the zoo inwrapt with the giant constrictor’s silence
**************** free speech
as long as the wind still
moves through the pines
speech
confined
by sentences
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
silence
confined
by speech
*
*
just so
*
*
🙂
whatever’s going on this was not the plot of the haiku above not that it matters all that much but>>
************************************************
a day at the zoo
inwrapt with the giant
constrictor’s silence
**********************************
free speech
as long as the wind still
moves through the pines
deaf kids sign across the divide
_____________________________________
(BHS Anthology: ‘Sound’, 2014;
‘sanguinella’, Red Moon Press, 2017)
thick note script
[antediluvian + ]
_________________
(Bones, 11, November 2016;
‘sanguinella’, Red Moon Press, 2017)
the Irish
my grandfather never spoke
dawn birdsongs
geansaí
the green jumper Gran knitted
in Irish
rush hour…
the rising mist
hustles too
Oh where be the Nilgiris* …
the mist’s performs
a sleight of hand
*Nilgiris are mountains to the south of India
messing with
my kigo list
climate change
.
.
.
wendy c. bialek AZ, USA
seeing
through rising and falling mist
the first swallow
returning home
a builder’s crane
gives me the finger
*
(Rattle, 47, Spring 2015;
‘sanguinella’, Red Moon Press, 2017)
rainbow colors
we all speak the same
language of love
an old voice
in the spring garden choir –
Indian palm squirrel
rising from the east wing
of the stone cathedral
a wren
*
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
a wren
out of a stone
a cathedral
the phoenix
will rise again
Notre Dame
from pyre
to new spire
Notre Dame re-inspired
*
*
Michael
*
*
graffiti
sharper
by moonlight
*
(The Heron’s Nest, 7.1, March 2005)
*
(‘water on the moon’, Original Plus Press, 2010;
Ditto ‘start of the season’ see below)
moonlighting
the calligrapher’s freelancing
graffiti
.
.
.
wendy c. bialek az, usa
council workers
blocking out
freedom of speech
cherry blossom journey around the earth
world tour
in a week
instagram special
start of the season
the myna bird rehearses
its builder’s whistle
*
(Shamrock, 9, Spring 2009)
……………………………..
……….h…………………..
……….a……………………
cross i ng continents
……….k……………………
……….u……………………
………………………………
cold spring
the warmth
of another voice
Robert, this visku would make for an apt title & cover of a haiku journal
.
.
and prompts me to this monoku –
.
.
haiku transcontinental air lines
.
.
.
hi ku
.
Michael
.
.
.
under a spring moon
Fujisan casts blue shadows
the calls of white owls
still evening air
learning the language
of flowers
daisy
eagerly picking
another
drifting mist
the swinging lantern
slowly disappears
water table-
one more message
for the birds
Intention being cyclic.
stork
baby
blanket
Not to be misconstrued.
Apologies if offended.
mist on far hills
her eyes in shadow
reflect the distance
night of stars . . .
famine stories told
in whispers
finger shuffling –
the windscreen’s
red face
Now for an advert
.
.
.
…………………….N……………………
.
.
E…………..didgeridwoo………..W
.
.
……………………..S…………………..
wind whirling
’round the world –
didgeridwoo
*
*
the wind inside of me is the wind inside of you (and you and you . . )
Michael
*
*
whirligig
along with the world
migrating birds
Heritage Week
Namatjira’s ghost gums
shadow our tent
.
paper wasp vol 14 no. 1, Summer 2008
Mt Fuji wall
laced with veils of mist
and a siren’s song
*
*
*
the mist rises
pulling up with it –
Mt. Fuji from the sea
*
*
*
Michael
*
*
……………….s…………………
…………….a….p………………
………………..I…………………
………………..r…………………
………………..e…………………
………t……….r……….i………..
….f……..e………..f………r…..
a…………………………………e
. ________________________.
Hi Robert kingston & Happy IHPD 2019
*
*
many elements unify the cathedral – and too your haiku poem
*
*
asp / apse
spire / aspire pire(pyre)
^^ bring Language Poetry to the haiku aesthetic
*
*
the typography à la ee cumming – bringing Visual Poetry (Apollinaire calligrammes) to the Haiku – the semblance of the steeple & Gothic cathedral blueprint.
*
*
Your shaped haiku poem speaks of reconstruction after destruction – redemption after the fall –
*
*
and I find that symbolic – a Divine Serendipity – the occurrence here at Holy Week & Triduum
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
the carpenter-sun
pulling all together
manybrokenpieces
*
^^ March 2019 Honorable Mention @ http://international.ua.edu/sakura/
*
*
Michael
*
*
mineral mix
how man be
comes a mountain
very nice
and still the music played
sad day
a race
to save our Lady
a ring of still
hot footing it
from the belfry
hired hands
steam cleaning
the sky
red mist
a stash of cash
misses the void
white
carnations
how
the
truth
flows
out
and still the music played
and still the music played
.
sad day
a race
to save our Lady
.
a ring of still
hot footing it
from the belfry
.
hired hands
steam cleaning
the sky
.
red mist
a stash of cash
misses the void
.
white
carnations
how
the
truth
flows
out
.
and still the music played
heart language
with every stare and glance
of a lover
strange word,
familiar feeling –
shunshu *
—
* “shunshu” – a Japanese kigo which depicts melancholic feeling one sometimes has in spring
/World Haiku Review, vanguard, June 2015/
her way of wishing
love on Valentine’s Day
heart-shaped pee on pad
.
.
.
wendy c. bialek
grandpa’s visit —
their small hands
holding mine
in the hands
of a small boy – an orange
– a grapefruit
*
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
she offers brussel sprouts
but tells her Barbie doll
it’s lettuce
.
.
wendy c. bialek
.
.
failed haiku september 2018 editor Adjei Adyei-Baah
speak in tongues
a higher language
of His love
He art
Sacré
Cœur
*
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
Narragansett, Potowomut, Sachuest
tales of indigenous language
still on their tongues
socked in bay
the Narragansetts dream
in their tribal tongue
the fire
in brazil’s museum
so many tongues burn
undercliff house
women grinding winter corn
croon to their babies
.
— Blithe Spirit, 2017
Maidu basket—
their creation tale woven
in redbud bark glyphs
a gum nut
falls onto snow . . .
no sound
.
Ron C. Moss
out of a hole
the emptiness
within
incommunicado…
not really, it’s the guy
from sys admin
— Haiku in the Workplace, THF Troutswirl, 2017
pixilating
man
becoming
man
on the topic
of political correctness:
kookaburras
.
Failed Haiku Volume2, Issue 21, Sept. 2017
redacted language
my country tis of thee
hidden truths
laundry day
the brown trousers
holding a grudge
smoke plumes
the breath of angels
ply Notre Dame
gannet rookery
I don’t hear the guide
saying ‘shush’
.
— Blithe Spirit #27.2
beside her dais
a gamut of emotions
ASL interpreter
embarrassing smiles
your way to tell me
I Love You
.
world traveler
greetings for Mother’s Day
in many languages
.
dug garden bed
and a few seeds
is that the void?
Love Day —
deciphering the language
of flowers
late summer flowers…
the joy
of a good sneeze
*
(The Heron’s Nest, 11.3, September 2009;
‘water on the moon’, Original Plus Press, 2010)
if you could count
smile as a language…
his, hers and mine
H(e ar)t
*
*
Michael
*
*
all the graffiti
I don’t understand
scribbly gum
teeth marks
the missed connections
on the young girl’s gum
Notre Dame
*
*
*
son clocher
englouti
en flammes
*
*
*
Jeanne d’Arc
*
*
*
her steeple engulfed in flames
*
*
*
Notre Dame
*
*
*
*
*
*
ribbit
ibid.
______
(Bones, 13, July 2017;
‘sanguinella’, Red Moon Press, 2017)
the erect stance
of a spear-thrower
kanguru
.
— Marietta McGregor
Chattahoochee –
the curve of a fishing rod
sinks back into the mist
–Tzetzka Ilieva
(HSA SE Region 2013 Anthology)
*Chattahoochee (river) – from Creek, means “Flowered Stones”, chatto = stone + hoche = flowered or marked
in a foreign land
in a language
I don’t understand
our Babel –
interpreters wanted …
urgently
(Failed Haiku #19)
first poem –
not in a language
mother speaks
(Asahi Shimbun, 2012)
flagellant’s path —
an antidote to the road
to perdition?
picking up
the local language…
souvenir haggle
.
Billy Antonio
Laoac, Philippines
enunciation
my lips to the world
as interlocutor
.
Alan Summers
a plum
firmly held
in the rich kid’s mouth
.
.
broken English
crossing from east to west
the jubilee line
in broken English
my uncle’s
card tricks
Modern Haiku, 48.1 (2017)
mountain waterfall the power in my father’s voice
her ceaseless chatter –
at last we draw near
the rapids
.
paper wasp, vol. 16, no. 3, Winter 2010
.
Hi Barbara Kaufmann & Happy IHPD 2019,
*
and with a powerful monoku – the right form for this one
*
and now I need to spontaneously share a Hopkinesque response like this –
mountain waterfall the power in Our Father’s voice (calling us home)
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
worm hole
finding one language
to enter
.
.
do aliens speak morse
.
.
space dust another term for static
.
.
Earth day
another piece of junk
cluttering the moon
strangers in orbit
reflecting on the flotsam
behind us. ahead.
*
(Mslexia, 5, Spring-Summer 2000)
Mt. Fuji
we stay another day
for the curtain to lift
Fuji San wears
the same look for months
screen saver
spring cleaning
my sneeze…mountains
of dust b l o w a w a y
wendy c. bialek
we bargain
by hand signals
the price of travel
.
.
practicing my deepest bow
for my daughter-in-law’s
mother’s visit
.
.
on a warm evening
I spread my fan
mistaken signal
.
.
warning
from the chittering squirrel
hawk shadow
.
.
nose to nose
with my new grandson
his eyes answer
.
.
rain, lluvia or pluie
it falls just as softly
in April
.
.
lost
one death at a time
another language
Peggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama, USA
lost
one death at a time
another language
*
Peggy Hale Bilbro
*
what I couldn’t say
first anemone
in the spring rain
Otata, January 25, 2018
gentle wave
of the sea anemone
time recedes
A Viking speaks through the Sun
Solar Language
.
.
November: Slaughter or Butcher Month
.
.
Gormánuður
the thoughts
of food
.
.
Ýlir
the Yule month
is language
.
.
Yule month
Odin gives us small gifts
.
.
Yule month
the children fill socks
with hay
.
.
Mörsugur
winter solstice falls early
for my own long night
.
.
Þorri winter month
we choose rotten shark
with brennivín liquor
.
.
fifth winter month
.
.
the Gói blót
we “first love” in words
not yet formed
.
.
April (6th Winter month):
.
.
Einmánuður
the sixth winter month
for the boys in snow
.
.
Note:
The moon was important to Vikings but the sun was the central role. The year was mostly dark
and cold in Scandinavia. The sun brought light and life. When the sun is high we work land to eat and live through “the long night.”
street people
between migrant and immigrant
empty bottles
Views of Original Language from a Fish-God
Alan Summers
.
.
hummingbird
I pull its colors
to create my own state
.
Publication credits: see haiku here (haiga #531, Japan 2011); haijinx IV:1 (2011)
Collection: Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
Anthology credit: The Humours of Haiku ed. David Cobb ISBN 978-0-9565725-4-7 (Iron Press 2012)
.
.
Pharmakós the name you scratch inside
.
Publication credits: Monostich, a blog for 1-line ku (Wednesday, 25 May 2011)
Article: The G-force of Blue | Touching Base with Gendai haiku (LAKEVIEW International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1, No.1 February 2013
Collection: Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
.
.
convolvulus
a word on my tongue
and the bumblebee
.
Publication credits: Blithe Spirit vol.14 no. 4 (2004); see haiku here ed. Kuniharu Shimizu (Japan 2011); haijinx volume IV, issue 1 (2011)
Collection: Does Fish-God Know (YTBN 2012)
.
.
Blood Moon
my Rhesus positive rising
.
Publication Credits: Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
.
.
giallo this restricted area my birthplace
.
Publication credits: Bones – a journal for contemporary haiku Issue 0.1 2012 reissued 2013; Collection: Does Fish-God Know (Yet To Be Named Free Press 2012)
.
.
end of matins
I decode into genomes
into petals
.
Publication credits: Bones – a journal for contemporary haiku Issue 0.1 2012 reissued 2013
Collection: Does Fish-God Know (Yet To Be Named Free Press 2012)
.
.
place of fire
this part of the Novel
becomes my navel
.
Publication credits:
Blithe Spirit, December 2011 issue
Collection: Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
.
.
beads of sweat
I lose myself in
the copulation of flies
.
Publication credits: Blithe Spirit (Vol 22 No. 3 2012) [Autumn 2012]
Anthology credits: Sea Bandits ed Aubrie Cox (2012); With Cherries on Top 31 Flavors from NaHaiWriMo (Press Here Sammamish, Washington 2012) ISBN 978-1-878798-34-3
Collection: Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Free Press 2012)
.
.
Alan Summers
Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
https://www.amazon.com/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=does+fish-god+know&qid=1555453810&s=books&sr=1-3
.
.
Note: sex, stars, and DNA by pre-humans and non-humans is an Indigenous Language in its own right, I believe.
buzz words
a raven’s remark
cuts through
.
Modeworte
einschneidend die Bemerkung
eines Rabens
.
– Chrysanthemum # 22, October 2017
Armed Forces Day
a dark joke passes
among the amputees
.
Tag der Streitkrafte
ein gemeiner Witz macht die Runde
unter den Amputierten
.
(Chrysanthemum, 15, April 2014)
open market
we taste the sound
of other languages
.
Debbie Strange
The Mamba, Issue 4, 2017
.
talking drums every song we know by heart
.
Debbie Strange
Hedgerow Poems, Issue 121, 2017
.
Happy International Haiku Poetry Day from Canada!
Hi Debbie, & Happy IHPD 2019
Debbie Strange
from Canada
never a stranger to me
responding by sharing a variation on yours:
open market
we sample the taste
of other tongues
Michael in Birmingham, AL his native heartland way down south
Debbie
.
OH!
.
To find someone who speaks DRUM!
.
gentle palm-press
numbing the harshness
on a tone drum
Human/Kind Journal
Issue 1.4, April 2019
(Haibun-Emma and Ursa)
.
Jan Benson
DRUM me more!
.
handheld drum
a syncopation
on the down beat
.
Human/Kind Journal
Inaugural Issue, January 2019
(Haibun-Izzi Is)
.
Jan Benson
all that remains
of the lost tribe’s story –
scratches and scars
Published in “AFRIKU” (Red Moon Press, 2016)
water song…
each pebble lends
a note
Shamrock Haiku Journal, No. 39
jaltarang
a thirsty puppy
laps up “RE”
—
jaltarang: musical instrument that uses water in bowls to produce the notes of music
RE: Sa Re Ga Ma are the Do Re Mi of Indian music
Harmattan fires
the forest crackles
in tongues
Africa Haiku Network Harmattan Haiku Series, Haiga #15, 23/12/16
bushfire moon
the calligraphy
of charred trees
.
Simply Haiku vol. 4 no.1,)Spring (USA) 2006
crackling fire sound of gargoyles
.
Billy Antonio
Laoac, Philippines
after the fight
we converse
through our kids
Failed Haiku Journal, May Issue 2017
he draws the curtain words between us
.
Moongarlic #1 November 2013)
something he says
the bite inside my lip
wendy c. bialek az, usa
nothing
…just nothing…
empty spaces
all that remains
of the lost tribe’s story –
scratches and scar
Published in “AFRIKU” (Red Moon Press, 2016)
👍 lovely and poignant
dingo call by dingo call the terrain takes shape
.
– The Heron’s Nest Volume XV, Number3: September 2013.
multi-racial uni
my African accent
calls for repetition
(c) Adjei Agyei-Baah
asphodels our ancestors many-tongued
.
Frogpond 36.1 March 2013
in the colors
of the forest murmuring
wind
petrified forest
the long vowels
of my bones
.
Otata, July 31st 2016
tangled roots—
the moo-ving will
of a cow
indian ocean…
I query my identity
yet again
—
Chrysanthemum # 18, Oct 2015
Pitjantjatjara –
stories by the fire
told under stars
.
.
Pitjantjatjara: People of the western and central desert regions and one of over 250 language groups in australia around the time of colonial invasion.
shut up behind words the other war
.
( version in Presence,/i> #45, 2011)
silent
Earth
Breathless
silence before
everything blooms…
mushroom clouds
stirring the pot
a magpie starts
the kerfuffle
— Akitsu Quarterly, Fall 2017
kerfuffle
a cuckoo’s song
lost in space
first light in the magpie’s language silver
.
Modern Haiku 44.1, 2013 MH 44.1, Winter/Spring 2013
a silver river storm through turrets of moonlight
whoooohoooohoooooooooo
lapis lazuli ~
the dusky hue
of a crow’s flight
— Akitsu Quarterly Fall 2017
at the waters edge
a string of martins
in rhythm and blues
Nice!
Thank you Peggy!
church archways
whispering with swallows—
spring vespers
cattails, Spring, 2017
haijin
stutters by the pond
egrets departing
wendy c. bialek az, usa
Today is also our wedding anniversary (parallel haiku – I hope it formats properly)
*
ia manuia
in silence
le aso fa’amanatu
the roots of language
o le fa’aipo’ipoga
that bind us
each even numbered line should be tripled indented and italicised.
This is lovely Hansha.
no small talk between you crows
(Otata 24, December 2017)
what does it know
the crow
on the wind-torn prayer flag
through bullet points
clipped raven wings
in the tower keep
sigwan awan —
breathing in
lake’s first breath
…
*In Abenaki (first-language of New Hampshire) sigwan = spring & awan = fog*
nebes weskata —
honking geese sound the retreat
of lake ice
…
*In Abenaki (first-language of New Hampshire) nebes = lake & weskata = thaw*
accented English –
Italian patient
and the Indian doctor
auscultation —
hesitating a bit
between heartbeats
out of the mist
a buzzard rises
and keeps on rising
————————————-
Otata 29. May, 2018, haibun, “Singing the Landscape”
mother’s native tongue
words locked away
in my childhood memory
*one of the languages still spoken in a pocket of the northern area out of 170+ languages in a country of 7,641 islands
unlocking memories
father’s voice
on an old tape
In her fingers
the sign of her love
with a kiss
lines in the sand
a cast of hermit crabs
shuffling homes
the languages
we learned as children…
moss-covered stump
.
Daily Haiku Cycle 20
languages yet
to be discovered
exoplanets
foreshore erosion –
just a few patches
of our first language left
.
(Highly Commended. Results of comp. in FreeXpression vol XX11 issue 5, May 2015)
leaves changing a language i can’t fully grasp
.
tinywords 11.3
withered brambles
a robin sings
to the winter sun
.
Presence 61
the caws
around the waterhole
tropical mayhem
a crow
by any other name…
deep winter
.
Frogpond 40.2
deep winter?
sweat on the brow
cools a something…
standing rock
adjusting their cadence
hoof beats
the cadence
of dust rising higher
stampede in the gorge
Nilgiris the colours of my bruise
–Nilgiris are the blue mountains, to the the south, of India they look bluish at dusk.
her broken face . . .
the iridescent blue
of ripened plums
————————–
Under the Basho Spring/Summer 2014
nameless till i look them up
marbled white
on greater knapweed
brezimni dokler jih ne poiščem
travniški lisar
na glavincu
cave paintings
the twinkling stars
covered in dust
Eufemia Griffo Italy
constellations
my consternation
in morse
.
Alan Summers
https://astroengine.com/2009/01/21/morse-code-messaging-with-the-stars/
applause in morse
the epiphany
of a standing ovation
women’s handprints
in ancient caves
the language of touch
border control
seeing my Bhutanese passport
he speaks s l o w l y
biopsy results
my aunt with no English
understands cancer
end of Uffizi tour
“grazie mille” not enough
for what I feel
Venice nightfall
the silence
after the last vaporetto
————————-
Otata 19 (July 2017)
the resilience
of Pavarotti floating
across the river
tenement washing lines
in the afternoon breeze
brawling, lovemaking noises
————————————
otata 3 (March 2016)
Petticoat lane-
the canary’s raspy tweet
out of it’s cage
silent crickets
in their little cages
Forbidden City
Spring dusk, the blackbirds echo
Spring dusk, the blackbirds echo…
Oops delete repetition please.
an echo
of the swear word …
oooops !
I thought repeated words
intentional…don’t delete
the echo
government reform
the silver duct tape
on a child’s mouth
sunless morning
and yet …
sunflowers in Auschwitz
—————————-
Mainichi Daily News Haiku in English Dec. 18, 2014
sunflowers bend their heads
only the passing train
survives camp
Paris to Milan train
the baby cries
in every language
.
Karen Hoy
First publication:
Blithe Spirit Vol. 19 No.4 (December 2009)
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Anthology credits:
Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales ed. Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones and Lynne Rees
(Gomer Press 2011)
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naad anunaad: an anthology of contemporary international haiku
ed. Shloka Shankar, Sanjuktaa Asopa, Kala Ramesh (Vishwakarma Publications, 2016)
Love the images in this one Karen.
sound of the waterfall
flows from his flute —
the street musician
———————————–
“Portrait of a Lady” [haibun], A Hundred
Gourds 2:4 (September 2013)
Seine boat cruise —
the steward asks in French
what translation we need
——————————
cattails Premier Issue January 2014
where the lammergeir calls
prayer flags wear
the hue of silence
—————————–
Failed Haiku Volume 2, Issue 18 2017, haiga to own photograph
quake-destroyed shrine
a raven on the stone Tara
questioning the dusk
—————————-
A Hundred Gourds 5:2 March 2016
rape seed field
a butterfly
in native yellow
all the saffron in sudden crocuses
toga party
the slip of perfume
on the goddesses neck
ancestral shrine
the woman uncombed
turns the prayer wheel
———————————-
Otata 30 June 2018, haibun, “Veiled Admission (notes on dying)”
as if in echo
of buried drums . . .
the sound of woodpeckers
——————————-
Otata 31, July 2018, haibun, “What does the sacred past hold?”
your silence
more deafening than cymbals
echoing in the ravine
——————————-
Failed Haiku Failed Haiku Volume 2, Issue 20 2017, haiga to a photograph by Pem
C. Gyamtsho
Kazimierz dream –
a woman stands in the doorway
her mouth full of pins
—————————
Failed Haiku Volume 2, Issue 19 2017 haiga to own photograph
waterfall of lichen
deep in the mountain forest
a musk deer calls
——————————–
Genjuan 2015 Grand Prix Winning Haibun, “Mining Memories”
Reading Genji
I want to smell the incense
he prepares for Fujitsubo
——————————-
Otata 32 August 2018
pressing the silence
of an ancient grief
frozen lip of waterfall
——————————-
Otata 28, April 2018, haibun, “They came to conquer . . . “
all day fog
the white-bellied heron’s cry
almost fierce
_____________________
cattails April 2019
winter fog
the way your accent reveals
new panoramas
(bottle rockets #33, August 2015)
fog lifts
briefly the promise
of distant lands
familiebijeenkomst—
ABN komt niet verder
dan de voordeur
family gathering—
Standard Dutch doesn’t make it
past the front door
Dutch and English versions
By Corine Timmer
I am not sure why it’s all attached. Here is the original Dutch haiku again. The Netherlands knows and recognizes many dialects. My parents grew up in an area in Holland where they speak Betuws, a South Guelderish dialect which falls under the umbrella of Low Frankish languages. ABN stands for Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (Standard Dutch).
familiebijeenkomst—
ABN komt niet verder
dan de voordeur
Corine Timmer 2019
familiebijeenkomst—
ABN komt niet verder
dan de voordeur
.
.
family gathering—
Standard Dutch doesn’t make it
past the front door
.
Dutch and English versions
By Corine Timmer (2019)
.
.
The Netherlands knows and recognizes many dialects. My parents grew up in an area in Holland where they speak Betuws, a South Guelderish dialect which falls under the umbrella of Low Frankish languages. ABN stands for Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (Standard Dutch).
Thanks, Alan.
It’s a real pain, but I put a single dot (period, fullstop, endstop symbol) in between to space out certain lines.
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I have seen some people who know how to use HTML code for this blog, and I’m envious as I don’t know how to do it myself. 🙂
fog-bound shrine
the sound of dung-kar **
comes and goes
**********
** conch
********
Otata 38 February 2019
a fog of incense
chokes my prayer
into wisps
mid-summer rite
incense of mist smoking
in the blue pine grove
FUJI CONCEALED IN A MIST.*
Into a sea of mist whither hath Mt. Fuji sunk?
*********
response to seed poem:
***********
in the smoke
glowing briefly
the spire falls
*********
So very poignant for today. Thank you.
no man’s land …
the wild wind scattering
seeds of distrust
the spin doctor’s dilemma of which language to avoid truth
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Alan Summers
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the spin doctor’s dilemma of skipping autochthonous truths
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Alan Summers
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Spin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(propaganda)
heat wave
poplar fluff
rises and falls
Docklands
the mist develops
a horn
Isle of Dogs
rumours of rhyming slang
kept secret
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Alan Summers
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Isle of Dogs history:
https://isleofdogslife.wordpress.com/tag/cockney/
perleys delight
holding strands
of the poor man’s tongue
Pearly Kings & Queens
c=o=m=m=u=n=i=c=a=t=i=n=g
the sheen of perspiration
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Alan Summers
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NOTE:
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L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E (magazine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%3DA%3DN%3DG%3DU%3DA%3DG%3DE_(magazine)
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearly_Kings_and_Queens
Nice!
As these verses will be copied and pasted into a PDF anthology, this is for Jim’s benefit or whoever has that duty. 🙂
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pearly’s delight
holding strands
of the poor man’s tongue
.
Robert Kingston
do atoms speak?
the Paschal moon
over Notre Dame
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Alan Summers
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The Paschal moon appears on April 19th
Notre Dame
a flame feathered bird
out of the bank
different utopia
Quasimodo’s private moon
over Notre Dame
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Alan Summers
Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=does+fish-god+know&qid=1555453543&s=gateway&sr=8-1
kwĭkˈsĭlˌvər: I’ve a need for the next biblical cubit
.
Alan Summers
Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
the flames of
eight hundred years of prayers
Phoenix
reaping
what we all sow –
discord
wild tulips
like my parents
they are non-existent
lost again
among tangled trees
I wake up to the alarm
withheld plums
the choir
reaches higher
London borders –
the west end boy loses
the L in water
a nightingale sings
Shakespeare in Klingon…
old and new origins
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Alan Summers
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Note:
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Recently we’ve learnt that Turkish immigrants built Stonehenge in England, so we are all inter-connected despite an apparent difference in our immediate and general languages.
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re: Shakespeare in Klingon
https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/shakespeare-klingon/
deep mist –
surprised, we all point
“Fujisan”!
gone
in the fog
the rope bridge to the shrine
family tree
seeing our features
in distant lands
on the old oak’s stump
sawdust and countless rings –
my family tree
*
( Basho Festival Contest, 2013)
discarded
as if it were nothing
O’
knot rings
in the clutches of birds
an endless story
is my nose
American
or Irish?
is my Inglish
near native enough
Yoda?
morning mist
from a light standard
raven speaks
dawn chorus
broadcasting
seeds of light
*
(Shamrock, 21, Spring, 2012)
Joining the dawn chorus
full-throated lilies
sunrise
a lotus blooms
piano piano *
*piano piano in Italian for slowly
Bashō in Silesian
I ask Uncle Google
what he means
😊
border dispute
“I’m English” she trills
Welsh as daffodils
*
(for my Tallowyn Godmother)
Xxx
🙂 Helen . . . yep 🙂 same with my maternal grandmother (the family had to move from Wales to Liverpool for work, then she came to Australia by herself when she was 18.
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And then there was the other lot.
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the ancestors
mutter their grievances . . .
whiskey moon
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3Lights Journal #1, Jan. 2010
Thanks Lorin! Love the ku…..I can taste the bitterness of that whiskey moon. X
welsh mist–
signposts thick
with consonants
*
(for my Swansea Mum)
Xxx
(Modern Haiku, 42.1, Winter-Spring, 2011)
boomerang carving
elders recalls words
to teach the young
the oracle’s song
so many words
we don’t use anymore
deep roots…
retelling grandma’s tales
in Pangasinan*
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Billy Antonio
Laoac, Philippines
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*Pangasinan (Salitan Pangasinan) is one of the major languages of the Philippines.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/newsinfo.inquirer.net/1061225/pangasinan-as-language-on-brink-of-extinction/amp
Navajo song
reaching to the sky
an old prayer
Eufemia Griffo Italy
deserted beach …
a lone woman singing
in her native tongue
Natalia Kuznetsova, Russia
deserted beach
the ocean
sings her own song
Eufemia,
So often, native imagery and expression of “nature values” are lost on editors.
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Thank you for this haiku!
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bone moon
the ululations
of mothers
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Wild Voices Spring 2017
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Jan Benson
glacial tongue
too fast
to catch
quiet witterings
the art of yes or no
in secret ways
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Alan Summers
the urge
to speak his mother’s tongue
tangled vines
.
Billy Antonio
Laoac, Philippines
the urge
to remain silent
… spilling beans
father/son talk…
filling the gaps
with silence
.
Billy Antonio
Laoac, Philippines
ancient language
on the terrace
peacock feathers
off the terrace
peacock in panther maw
ROAR!!!!
Etruscan runes
the forgotten words
of ancestors
Eufemia Griffo Italy
returning to Sorrento –
my Italian immigrant
dialect
lusting for avakai
as I eat gelato
we are what we eat?
avakai – mango pickle
Eufemia,
Again, I love the runes KU.
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zipper web
decoding the runes
of spiders
.
Blithe Spirit 47.3
Summer 2017
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Jan Benson
Tor Woods
the morning after…
a Babel of birdsong
hangover
the morning after
the banshees of traffic
I duck
Into a foxglove . . .
her language
pale gold foxglove heads
open to speckled violet throats . .
what hidden code is this?
paintings of trees
on old pine walls
quiet music
*
Published in Four Hundred and Two Snails, Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology 2018, edited by Nicholas M. Sola.
this for fun… and just because 🙂
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soaring buzzard—
what do you see *
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*we don’t know what the bird sees but what the viewer will see mostly depends on where they live:
in Europe it’s a bird of prey
in America it’s a vulture
elsewhere???
*old turkey buzzard
flying high flying high *
Russian lyrics
* Mackenna’s Gold
sunrise
the first time he speaks his own
language in public
Romanian breakfast
a conversation in
local flavours
tasting my Welsh
in a lava breakfast . . .
the dew falling
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Alan Summers
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Note:
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“the dew falling” from Under Milk Wood:
http://oedipa.tripod.com/thomas.html
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Lava or Laverbread is a fantastic Welsh core “crop” food of seaweed containing vitamin B12, iron, iodine etc . . . initially for hard-working miners, and also people recovering from ill-health. A great breakfast! 🙂
‘ab kya kahe’
romain lettuce
in dal tadka
🙁
ab kya kahe = what is to be said,…but actually translates into – Dear Gawd
To climb Mt. Fuji
10,000 yen admission
No poet discount
rolling potica
my mother’s hands
now mine
zvijam potico
mamine roke
zdaj moje
loved for years
and now I know your name
blue chicory
*
Credit: https://charlottedigregorio.wordpress.com/.
old recipe book
we’re guessing
the ingredients
stara kuharica
ugibamo
sestavine
bee keeper
I learn
to hum
revived language –
a Cornish valley bright
with wild violets
Lizard Point
the lowing cow
answers the foghorn
Land’s End
I see my voice
in the sea
.
Alan Summers
https://www.visitcornwall.com/places/lands-end
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I’ve been fortunate to run haiku workshops from Land’s End (and elsewhere in Cornwall); and other parts of the South of England and all the way up to Aberdeen, Scotland, so far. 🙂
white noise
waves thrash the cliffs
at the Crown Mines
(A Sense of Place, Troutswirl Blog, The Haiku Foundation, 18 July 2018, The Shore – hearing)
banyan tree-
searching my
family seed
a bit of his heart…
so many ways to show
endearments
hyena cub cull
the alpha female’s calls
echo against the hill
.
Karen Hoy
British Haiku Sosciety 2016 Members’ Anthology “Beginnings”
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Gol Mountains Maasai –
our only common language
wildebeest grunts
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Karen Hoy
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True story: Each Maasai warrior had a different dialect or language, but everyone knew gnu (Wildebeests) grunts including this author so fluid communication was able to be made. The Gol Mountains are part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, Africa
a panther
at my favourite restaurant
…butter chicken
*true story
forgotten valleys
Switzerland’s
fourth language
birth mother visit a cabbie talks of spring equinoxes
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Alan Summers
proletaria – politics philosophy phenomena (April 2019) ed. Elancharan Gunasekaran
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eye of the song a blackbird touching the void
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Alan Summers
Winning haiku, The British Haiku Society Awards 2018/19 (Haiku Section) judge: Scott Mason
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fainter stars the bluebells shake out a morning
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Alan Summers
Sonic Boom, Issue Thirteen 2018 ed. Shloka Shankar
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Note: Even flora and fauna have their own Indigenous Languages.
Hello Alan Summers,
Your poem is so lovely. Your “Note” especially, yes, here’s to the language of flora and fauna:
fainter stars the bluebells shake out a morning
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Alan Summers
Sonic Boom, Issue Thirteen 2018 ed. Shloka Shankar
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Note: Even flora and fauna have their own Indigenous Languages
Hi Vicki Miko,
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That’s very kind of you.
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This is how I felt in my local woods (Wiltshire UK) just 3 minutes stroll from my house:
https://www.familiesonline.co.uk/local/wiltshire/in-the-know/bluebells-near-you-in-wiltshire
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Those bluebells spoke to that little boy, and to the boy that is still me too. 🙂
Ohh, nice! I know the feeling! I speak to my flora fauna friends often 🙂
a heart carved
on the cherry tree
when do they cry
Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Vicki!
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the snow-spinning wind
I dream of only big trees
in my prison yard
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Alan Summers
Runner Up, The IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award 2015
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)
Ohh, nice! I know the feeling! I speak to my flora fauna friends often 🙂
Thank you so much, Alan, your comment makes me happy 😊
The ”indigenous language” yes!
Cleve Backster, ”The Secret Life of Plants”
and
Ecologist Suzanne Simard on ”A world of infinite, biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate, and allow the forest to behave as if it’s a
single organism.”
between valleys
they greet each other
in whistles
train whistle
a blackbird hops
along its notes
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Alan Summers
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First publication: Presence #47 (2012)
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Anthology credit: naad anunaad: an anthology of contemporary international haiku ed. Shloka Shankar, Sanjuktaa Asopa, Kala Ramesh (India, 2016)
farmer’s toil —
his hands where
his heart speaks
twisted tongue…
is it hard to speak
the language of love
evening bus
two English teens
French kissing
(Prune Juice 22, July 2017)
Hi Olivier Schopfer, & Happy IHPD 2019
*
*
Olivier, I am sharing a couple your continental haiku prompted me to:
*
lovers face to face
a Brit & Japanese
engaged in French
*
*
a French kiss
the Universal tongue
of passion
*
*
Hi Michael. I enjoyed your two poems. Happy IHPD 2019 too!
better
than language
a kiss
cloudshifting
the robin’s song
between sobs
.
Alan Summers
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From “Paper Tears”
Narrow Road: Flash Fiction – Poetry – Haibun
Volume 2, August 2017 ed. Rohini Gupta; Raamesh Gowri Raghavan; Paresh Tiwari
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Note: Not all Indigenous Languages are human alone.
far from home
the rustle of willow leaves
speaks my language
(Issa’s Untidy Hut : Wednesday Haiku #198, January 14, 2015)
(Naad Anunaad : an Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku, 2016, edited by Kala Ramesh, Sanjuktaa Asopa & Shloka Shankar)
(Charlotte Digregorio’s Daily Haiku : July 18, 2017)
spoken al dente…
the hands of a deaf poet
make me see
.
Alan Summers
safety instructions
we all turn a deaf ear
to the crew’s sign language
(Failed Haiku, A Journal of English Senryu, Volume 2, Issue 14, February 2017)
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first language languishing under the stars
.
Alan Summers
a scops owl –
looking for the ring
of King Solomon
universal
this semaphore
of arms
turning point-
the opening and closing
of the sparrows beak
teanga dhúchasach –
she Googles ‘indigenous language’
in Gaelic
Indigenus indigenous indigenised implicitly indie
rolling mist –
no end or beginning
to the path
small garden
on the open book
a handful of seeds
jinny jo seeds blown on the wind
a seed
inside the peach stone
the secret you hide from me
(Mainichi Haiku Contest 2015, International Section, honorable mention)
farmer’s pride-
sowing the seed
of his dreams
farmer’s dreams
sewing the seeds
into the pride
planting the
seed of patience
in my life
weighed down
by a water drop
the sapling
mist–
shades of nikko firs
not nikko firs
rainy season
in the bride’s bouquet
a seed sprouts
Credit: commendation, The Second International Haiku Conference, Cracow, May, 2015
suspense
the flight
of the bride’s bouquet
Ooops, please remove my haiku,I misunderstood the subject.
centuries lost
our world laments
the toppling spire
Notre Dame
her steeple engulfed in flames
Joan of Arc
Notre Dame
son clocher
englouti
en flammes
Jeanne d’Arc
Michael
Happy IHPD
Thank you for your comment above.
Seeing your posts here at first light this morning and above, coupled with other related posts on the wall served to inspire.
The news reveals that donations for the rebuilding of this magnificent structure has exceeded 750,000,000 euros.
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wren
out of a stone
a cathedral
Christopher Wren, an English architect was instrumental in the creation of 52 churches following the great fire of London.circa1666.
rising from the east wing
of the stone cathedral
a wren
*
*
*
Michael
*
*
*
snapshot
this day captured
in words