Anyone not yet an Icebox contributor, who wishes to submit an English haiku, haiqua, senryu, tanka, or (short) haibun or renga, can do so by offering it as a comment on this page. Just type it into the reply box below and click ‘submit’. An editor might later decide to move it onto the top page.
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white butterfly
on a dandelion –
praying hands
midnight owl enters
and exits a wide wheatfield –
silent dogiri
monkshood
in the grass
blue sky
a poppy
on the table
his empty chair
sandpipers
on the beach
ebb tide
Extendki, in due course I’d like to publish your haiku (inadvertently posted to Joanna’s too-long stream) to the next “Icebox inbox” posting on our top page, but with revision, if I may? A free-form haiku rather than 5-7-5 would result, though:
midnight owl enters,
exits a wide wheatfield –
silent pause
It’s good, I think? Unfortunately ‘dogiri’ is not a common expression in Japanese and certainly not in English. It won’t do. If you would prefer another word, kindly let me know.
May I credit it to ‘Sheila Thomas’ or do you prefer just ‘extendki’?
Thanks for your input!
Joanna, I have taken ‘a poppy’ (posted erroneously as a comment on your earlier posting here) for Icebox inbox 45. Next time you submit, please do so as a fresh comment on the new Submissions page, rather than as a comment on a previous submission. Another point: you can submit more than one haiku per comment, as others do. Such things make it easier for the eds. Thanks.
sound of church bells
as the train whistles by —
wind, wind
low sun —
my shadow imprinted
on the grass
two planes flash
in the night sky —
two fish swimming
traffic jam —
on my windscreen
rain shimmers
late in bed
thinking …
unable to let go
at the well
between letting the stone go
and splash
Thanks for these, Diarmuid. “at the well” chosen for Icebox inbox 40.
Gerald we published that one in Persimmon recently, so maybe another would be best? I also have sone submissions by email from a few others, but am too busy until at least Sunday to difg them out and send them. Hang on a mo… By the way, this is a page and not a post, so it may not come under the 100 days limitation thing. Try a comment on a post more than 100 days old, too. Thanks.
The auditory sense of the whistling train, church bells, and wind, wind felt very evocative. Haiku that employs more senses than only the visual, I find very interesting, and enjoy using that, myself.
Thanks for your comments.
Sunset…
The red chest sanitario of the loicas
in the snow
Among the cherries
the sounds from the santuario…
Some petals fall inglés
Autumn dusk
The flight of geese
reflectad in the river
The smell of honeysuckles…
The night lights up
with the first lightning bolts
doksuri brewing a dark monsoon
where pregnant frogs gather in the rain
pneumonia oozes from flooded fields
I like the idea of the contrast between the sense images in this poem (specifically, honeysuckle/lightning bolts). If you submit this poem to the Experimental Space page, perhaps additional comments will be offered.
Thanks a lot for reading and comment my Haiku ,Gerald. It is an honour.Sorry for the mistake in
Sunset…
The red chest of the loicas
In the snow.
( sanitario doesn’t go)
Thanks Gerald for your comment.I do appreciate it.I don’t know how to submit to Experimental Space
Hi Julia, you can find the Experimental page in the orange list at the top right corner of Icebox’s front page.
It’s listed as:
Experimental Space – English Haiku Poems 響き合いF, Kyoto
This page is for haiku you want someone to comment on.
Belatedly, I decided to use the last (minus ‘the’ in last line, if you don’t object) in our summer 18 Inbox. The third ‘the’ made the rhythm awkward. Thank you
Perfecto, Tito. No problem. On the contrary, grateful
a hare’s moon
the few embers
that linger
Alan Summers
owl hoots
the night shifts
with mice
naming snow-
between the violet
and the green
mackerel sky
each bird twice
as busy
fledgling moon
the bedroom ledge
where stars slip
by Alan Summers
:-)
rough stones
polishing the table
till she sees his face
Hello, I was visiting in Kyoto recently and so thrilled to find your book Persimmon and the lovely haiku inside. And very happy to find this haiku society! I am a Taiwanese American poet living in the US. I have been writing haiku for a little while now, and here are a few I’d like to submit. Thanks for your consideration…
Fat snowflakes fill
the air. The city begins to
disappear, slowly.
On a shallow stream
a yellow leaf floating past
old dreams grow quiet
Water bug larger
than my cheek—do you wish to
join my morning wash?
A thousand and one
golden Buddhas, a face for
each woman’s sorrow *
Alive with birdsong
a glittering cave of leaves
Buson, rest easy
A lonely thatched hut
two poets shared—one leaving,
one staying behind.
Old pains a heart can’t
forgive—and yet here is the
ocean, here it is.
Pear blossom petals
scatter the pathway—before
us, and behind us.
Oh, tiny frog!—you
dodged my careless footsteps
in the rainy night.
Here is loneliness—
a dark sky of stars, each one
bearing its own light.
A sorrowful heart
watches a ranunculus
bloom, day after day.
The scent of jasmine
floats along the dark road—a
languid day ending.
Wandering at night
I see my father’s face in
an old cobblestone.
The indigo sky
darkens—old friends drink the last
of winter’s plum wine.
Just a little rain
dropping, dropping on my head
brings me some sadness.
Thanks for the submissions, Maria. It is good that our small vermilion book of verse, Persimmon, reached a kindred spirit.
I took verses 6 and 13 for the Icebox inbox posting on the top page. See there. Thank you.
* At Sanjusangen-do temple, there are 1001 golden statues of Buddha, lined up in a way in which each one is visible, even the farthest ones back. Each face is slightly different. They say that there is a face that each visitor is looking for. I’ve noticed that all the Buddha and statues I’ve seen on the trip are male.
interesting gender transference between the two images in poem #4.
I like the idea of lightness, or simplicity in poem #1. “Fat” and “slowly” might be too much / too heavy?
misery sings
plankton shoes
old compass
turkey spittoon
rainbow solstice
volcano pyre
hungry wasps
lost crooked boot
pink Geraniums
Hope this isnt too long for haibun in the submissions..
Offerings
The trolls at Fowlmere live under the bridges, sometimes under the boardwalks that meander through the marshy reed beds. They live in the damp, dark, shady places, loathing the sunlight and will eat you if you don’t answer their questions correctly or give them the gifts that they ask for. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to appease them in order to cross their bridges to safety. They ask us what our favourite colours are ( which we have rehearsed well beforehand ) sometimes they ask for leaves or berries, sticks, songs, poems or numbers. They are as fickle as the wind and the rain.
dragonflys
circling the gunnera
two feet wide
At the old watercress beds the pump galoops water and our dresses are wet to the knees. The trolls won’t eat the spicy bitter watercress but we like it with our apples and crackers. The chalkbed stream water is so clear and transparent that Ophelia floats by on luminous weeds as we throw blackberries on her and the silky, seed expanded heads of reeds.
dried up reed beds
from the hide
Florence blows shut
the windows
We are becoming familiar with the different families of trolls. Some are nicer than others, can even be experienced as kind, as we try to understand their natures. Still, we are left alone to climb trees and make dens.
from the bridge
half a yellow leaf
floats by
Thank you for this nice evocation of childhood, Nicole. I have used it in our ‘inbox – 43’. I made a few editorial tweaks, mainly to avoid repetition, but if there are any to which you object just tell me as a reply to this. I can always take away your reply as soon as I’ve made any further changes. It’s charming and very British, although trolls are somehow Scandinavian. I wonder where your childhood was spent – Hampshire? Please enter a haibun or two in next year’s Genjuan Contest – details here https://hailhaiku.wordpress.com/genjuan/
Hi Tito,
Thank you for moving my haibun to inbox. Editorial tweaks fine and welcome.
I spent my childhood in the mountains of the Peak District, so consider myself an exile! Fowlmere is an RSPB wetland bird reserve near to Cambridge UK, where I and my 4 year old granddaughter create the memories of our future. Those pesky trolls followed the migratory paths of Scandanavian birds, so useful for them to have so many dank wet boardwalks and bridges to hide under! Usually we have to outwit them to cross the bridge but I think next time we should take the upper hand and ask them for their immigration papers…
Will look into the Genjuan Contest thank you.
Hello Nicole, Loved this exploration – with your grandchild,
I take it? Probably any immigration papers trolls have would be wet and smelly, no?
Indian Summer
tailgate parties retake
Red Skin’s stadium
ornamental iron
overshadowed in blooming
wisteria
Grand mother
falling
whilst looking at a blind man
I see her frailty
hand outstretched
from cotton mill to butchers shop
I drink from grandma’s cup
The Golden Shot
staying at grandma’s
I eat a sugar coated orange
Senyru I think?
Thankyou
ornamental iron
for the benefit
of ivy
‘between letting the stone go/ and the splash’ (diarmuidfitzgerald)
I particularly like this haiku at the well – probably it is a short time between drop and splash, yet that liminal space/ time seems infinite…and then the splash
decision the glorious crab leaf
Japan rent
buffalo curtain
feather cocktail
scullery mafia
kaleidoscope compass
topiary dowry
centenary walk the sheep rune habit
happiness dowry falcon the loss
binocular drown the rattle coast
workshop the prune salt dribble
camp rollercoaster the boat narcotic
power elevator ballroom the pain
loss sanitation the flood shrapnel
tomb the sacrament deer hollow
fumigate cage the signature octopus
franchise dustbin
ambulance homework
football carpet
power flood
bullet mosque
casual lift
tambourine the old knight chickrn
red currant jelly
sheets from the spoon
summer days
Joanna,
Thanks for submitting this haiku. In order to post it in our next inbox posting, I wish to make it ‘redcurrant’ (one word) and amend ‘sheets’ to ‘shoots’ (because it’s slippery). Would that be alright?
Hi Tito, It’s fine with me to have ‘redcurrant’ as one word, and to use
‘shoots’ instead of ‘sheets’. “Sheets’ is actually the correct word for when a fruit jelly is done, it ‘sheets’ from the spoon. But, as I said,
it’s okay to use ‘shoots’ as I understand what you mean. Many thanks for the input, Joanna
Hello Gill-san, It was nice to meet you in Ueno after so many years.
I couldn’t stay on for a chat after the reading session so let me submit my haiku composed on the performance of that night.
jingling cry for peace
a poet’s soul flickers
the spring lights
I’ll visit this page from time to time and hope to get poetic stimulation.
in haiku friendship, Mami Orihara
Hi, Masumi. Although I’m not quite clear of your meaning, I like your submission and decided to include this haiku in the Icebox inbox posting at the top page. Thanks, and also for that helpful review of Inupiat Lessons! Please stay in touch by posting here again or drop in on one of our events (advertised on our Events page).
night train
losing all track of
ratiocination
Please submit haiku as fresh new comments (up to 8 of your haiku in one comment is OK) but NOT as replies to existing comments! Thanks for your cooperation.