As our membership continues to grow and connections on THE DAILY HAIKU are strengthened this month two of our members who met virtually on TDH met in person Jenny Shepherd and Vivian Eliades. I so enjoyed seeing the photographs from their afternoon tea get-together and hope that more of us will be able to meet in the real world.
1
I am changing our two weekly round-ups to a monthly catch up. More to get your teeth into. So enjoy revisiting the last month’s themes again, showcase your favourite haiku from this time, write new, reveal our bonus themes and share with friends not on social media.
Daily Themes:
LOST
PATTERN
HIDE
TURF
LONGING
SCHOOL DAYS
DISTANCE
SELF
SAUCE
SUDDENLY
SAFE
WISTFUL
TAP
RUN
HIGH/LOW
AMBITION
BOOK BEGINNINGS
YESTERDAY
COAST
PHOTOGRAPH
SADNESS
MAPS
LISTEN
LAKE
ART
TOUCH
LIGHT
SOUND
WEATHER
GARDEN
TODAY
PASSING
NEEDLE
HERE
GATE
PRAYER
ALWAYS
Bonus Themes:
Truth
Lies
Weekly Themes:
MEMORIES
YELLOW
WIND CHIMES
HOPE
Impromptu Theme:
OLYMPICS
Season Words:
#23 Butterfly
#24 Summer
#25 Mosquito
#26 LEAVES
SLOW RENGA
ONCE UPON A TIME
or
SUNLIGHT ON WATER
or
KETTLE ON THE STOVE
or
BREEZE SKIMMING THE GRASS
or
AFTERWARDS
or
LOST IN THE FOREST
or
FROM WHERE I STAND
Musical Prompt
Photo Prompt
For our Photo Prompt#7 we asked the previous week’s choice Hla Yin Mon to choose the next prompt. She chose this powerful photo from Jennifer Gurney of her grandmother’s 104 year old hands, this is why
“I see the old and wrinkled hands but with so many years of experience and wisdom touching that of a younger person as a gift handing over such valuable moral weath for the next generation…especially in these times of advanced technology and old people passing due to the pandemic, such qualities may some how loose their value much faster.”
For Photo Prompt#8 John Lanyon chose another Jennifer Gurney photo and said “I like the contrast between the man-made structure and the profusion of dandelion clocks. It reminds me of the wire fence surrounding Greenham common where the women anti-Cruise Missile protesters wove flowers into the chain link fencing. It also makes me think of Shakespeare’s song “Fear the Sun no more” from Cymbeline where Shakespeare descibes dandelion clocks as “chimney sweepers” – a Warwickshire dialect name. There’s a gap in the fence promising escape. Fences are not going to stop us.”
Thank you to Arthur Chappell for suggesting this new thread. Do keep adding images to the post in Announcements.
Haiga
Thank you for your vibrant and imaginative contributions in response to a request for photographs for this haiga relating to our theme of SUMMER. There were so many amazing photographs these are our second selections for another haiga.
Do respond to the wonderful photographs featured here. Write haiku inspired by what you see, thinking beyond the literal representations, by either choosing a stand-alone haiku or making a new image with a haiku written over it.
Thank you for the photographs featured here to
I would like to thank Sébastien Revon & Marion Clarke who have been instrumental in guiding this thread.
3 Comments on “Conversation 105: THE DAILY HAIKU Themes 31 July – 27 August 2021”
Some of my own favourites from this period:
clouds
always a different riff
can you hear it
always
separated by our loss
tied by grief
here
everywhere becomes
another edge
early morning mist
leaves its ghostly print
laced into gorse
today
will be the day
I forget to be me
to sit here again
in the garden you tended
and left too soon
(I was asked where I would place the “kireji” here and responded maybe after tended but also after left)
a first leaf falls
I wish for more summers
and an open road
after a
near death experience
new life
from each cast
from the faint sigh of the float
dreams of a catch
my touch
on this mountain path
invisible
a painted field
makes a summer last in her
front room forever
found in your old desk
every handmade card
I ever made you
beneath the surface
I watch the other life
I thought I led
This haiku was inspired by a poetry film I made with director Andrew Gillman https://thepoetryfilms.com/film/
where sky and lake meet
balancing between themselves
father and son
another haiku inspired by a poetry film I made with Andrew Gillman International Waters https://thepoetryfilms.com/film-3/
an old love letter
between the creases
secret whispers
I am leaving crumbs
for you to find your way
to heal my sadness
will it be enough
if I say I’m sad
for words to matter
closing the curtains
I leave a little light there
in case you come back
these days
I wear more clothes
for my photographs
our youngest leaving
he can’t wait – we wave him off
bookends of safety
untitled
this day falls away
from memory
coming and going
and we have been here before
through he kissing gate
unfound this morning
in someone’s spare room
remnants of self
beachcombing
each low tide
a magic trick
Do rivers recall
on meeting sea who they were
and where they’ve been?
thrum of wind
through summer meadow grass
aeolian breath
in the attic
my old violin
just sleeping
Mainly Male Treatments
In the beginning before I could run or jump my dad taught me how to read. A traveling salesman tapped at the door and said “I know your kids sick. I’ve got just the thing. Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopedias. Cost less than you think and gives you back more than you could ask for” or so this story goes.
Knock rat a tat tat
My reply cough yellow phlegm
Dad will sort it out
I’m still a bookish fellow. Though I write in them more than read them. I put penmanship down to a grandad incident. I get my politics from records that a man composed and training that another man gave. The influence of men is not always negative. Neither is it always destructive.
Sit me down with books
Introduce me to letters
Like the day before
Eric is another. Completely strange. Completely weird. A one off. No one like him. But a joy to listen to. Mellifluous tones covering his zany interests and the expressions. Well, the expressions…. even when not original they always sound like he invented them or that they belong to him. Another wordsmith.
Speak slow speak clearly
In languages invented
By a creative
Two couples faced each other across the doorway to an old mansion. The lady of the house claims embarrassment. She was not expecting guests and has appointments. The visitors poo poo their understanding. They knew they hadn’t been invited and it was no trouble even if they had made cake. The master told them to take it home and bring it back another day. They exchanged phone numbers. He was organised, efficient. Called himself a student of life.
More than photographs
A film of crumbling buildings
Old relationships
Walking the famous heath in weather uncertain about its disposition like April we noted the absence of people. Was it the time of day, climatic conditions, or the beginning or end of pandemic.
Yesterday. No men
As me and wife went walking
They’ve gone back to work
Another case where the title changed mid and end flow. It has its usefulness though. It made me think most of my responses to The Daily Facebook. They arrive on DAO without a textual explanation at the beginning so why not revisit when ready for blog publication and stick it on at the end. A slight innovation.
This week I’ve mainly focused on men I knew, I know and one who I am getting to know. Fine fellows each and everyone though doubtless not without fault (I could even say that about myself). Yet this week the male dominated Taliban scour Afghanistan scaring the west has it does so and a member of Incel (Involuntary Celibrants – did he know wanking disqualifies you from membership) took it upon himself to kill five in Plymouth. Come on men we can do better than this and I can tell better jokes. In the meantime here’s one of the better men….
It’s Colin Hambrook
Disposition mostly good
A fine example
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and haiku Richard, so enjoyable. Particularly fond of ‘More than photographs..’