HAIKU DIALOGUE – Energy of Motion – Stillness in Movement – long list

Energy of Motion with Guest Editor Vidya Shankar

Photography is poetry in a different dimension. Just as a poet captures emotional vibration in time and space within the framework of words, so does a photographer through the frame of their lens, thereby freezing it for eternity. There is a certain meditative aspect to this capturing. It exudes the energy of stillness, but also of motion. Photographs, like poems, or any other art forms, move through time and space, through the years because of this stillness. Thereby lies the paradox that we can explore through our poems.

Below is Vidya’s selection of poems on the topic Stillness in Movement:

plunge pool
cirrus clouds afloat
on the waters edge

Joanna Ashwell
UK

 

the fading whistle
of her last train home . . .
autumn dusk

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

1/500 s —
a dancer’s
feet take wings

Vaishnavi Ramaswamy
India

 

electric storm –
a lightening flash, darkness
and then again

Anne Curran
Hamilton, New Zealand

 

35 mm — the space
in which time stops before
everything happens

Curt Linderman
Seattle

 

in a blur of
rushing water—
the focussed heron

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

 

getting frosty
that first drop that couldn’t let
go of the icicle

Urszula Marciniak
Poland

 

bedbound nights
the slow drip of water
in the attic tank

John Hawkhead
UK

 

searching the sky
where stars aligned
the world on hold

Patricia Hawkhead
England

 

pausing a hummingbird
in flight
–fast shutter speed

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

motion blur
only your eyes
remain

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

doctor’s waiting room
the wall clock
on geologic time

Lee Hudspeth
United States

 

treetop balloon
the shutter speed
of your eyes

Shloka Shankar
India

 

everlasting wisdom…
tabby cat
on the car hood

Luciana Moretto
Italy

 

between flowers
the hummingbird
stopping time

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

summer doldrums
tree shadows and me
slumped on the sidewalk

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

car horn—
the sleeping dog
cocks one ear

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

the blowing up
of each other’s bubbles
siblings’ day out

Lakshmi Iyer
India

 

cold concrete
just lying there
after the fall

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

time stands still…
the unfinished canvas
of Penelope

si ferma il tempo…
la tela incompiuta
di Penelope

Angiola Inglese
Italia

 

clenched fist
the gap between
arthritic fingers

Marilyn Humbert
Sydney, Australia

 

ice fishing
a tug on the line breaks
his solitude

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

locking eyes
across the ward
arrhythmic heart

Miera Rao
Bay Area, California

 

Mt. Pulag
rainwater in a monkey cup
quench my thirst

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

last breath
I remember
his first touch

Susan Farner
USA

 

waiting for the music to play magnolia buds

Eva Limbach
Germany

 

dancer’s last pose—
the echo of her step
still breathing

Fatma Zohra Habis
Algeria

 

an eagle shaped vacuum overexposure

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigah India

 

grey clouds
in the motionless sky
department meeting

Marie Derley
Ath, Belgium

 

broken tape–
the marathoner’s endless
second

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

snapped mid-throw
that one time in gym class
I didn’t drop the ball

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

snowflakes
suspended in mid-air . . .
his smile

fiocchi di neve
sospesi a mezz’aria . . .
il suo sorriso

Daniela Misso
Italy

 

in the river’s spate
the moorhen aims for her nest
static struggle

Bob Clark
London, UK

 

skidding on ice
along the curb the oaks
all a blur

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

family portrait
all of us breaking
the fourth wall

thomas david
United Kingdom

 

a splash of water
after the cremation heat
the sleeping stray sleeps

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

 

moment of calm
in front of the camera –
illusion

Refika Dedić
Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

hesitantly
clinging to a buttercup
the last dewdrop

Paul Callus
Ħal Safi, Malta

 

framing the falling leaf in no man’s land

Daya Bhat
India

 

still going nowhere
a bend
in the river

Mike Fainzilber
Tel Aviv, Israel

 

freshwater lake —
a one-legged heron
balancing the breeze

Sathya Venkatesh
Coimbatore, India

 

the pause in the koel’s song gunshot winds

Nitu Yumnam
UAE

 

freeze frame
a drop of water
on the icicle’s end

Herb Tate
Jersey, UK

 

mountain brook stones –
if all would pass
in the same way

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

 

shifting gears: the weight of clouds

Melissa Dennison
UK

 

a sharp breath
before the dawn chorus
willow warbler

Lori Kiefer
U.K.

 

still waters
the shadow dance
of a dragonfly

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

riding on
the swiftness of tides
a couple of ducks

Bruce H Feingold
Berkeley CA USA

 

sealed honeycomb
so many captured moments
in a single summer

Ivan Georgiev
Germany

 

shared umbrella
the pause before
we step apart

C.X. Turner
United Kingdom

 

between the jump
and the fall—
medal dreams

Elizabeth Shack
Illinois

 

overflow pipe
a crow alights to taste
water

Sumitra Kumar
India

 

blowing air
through a straw
the fullness of bubbles

Geetha Ravichandran
India

 

caught on camera —
trying to read the stories
in those eyes

Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
India

Join us next week for Vidya’s commentary on additional poems…

Bios:

Guest Editor Vidya Shankar, Associate Editor for haikuKATHA journal, and author of two poetry books, is a writing coach, freelance copy editor, and an English Language teacher from Chennai, India. A widely published poet, her work has appeared in prestigious collections such as the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English and the Poetry Marathon anthologies, and her haiku longlisted for the Touchstone 2024 awards. Featured in a unique coffee table book on 50 inspiring women of Chennai, Vidya loves singing, dancing, and making art. She finds meaning to her life through yoga.

Facebook: Vidya Shankar
Instagram: @vidya.shankar.author

Assistant Editor Lafcadio, a former teacher, now works from home writing, editing and proofreading study guides for nursing textbooks. She lives in Tennessee. She has written poetry for a long time but a couple of years ago fell in love with Japanese micropoetry and hasn’t looked back. Lafcadio has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. She writes under the nom de plume of Lafcadio because nom de plume is so fun to say. You can read her poems on Twitter (X) @lafcadiopoetry or BlueSky @lafcadiobsky.

Assistant Editor Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. She lives in New York City and enjoys reading and writing haiku.

Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She served as Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada for ten years, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.

Portrait by Laurel Parry

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Photo Credits:

Banner Photo & Prompt Photo credit:  Shankar Ramakrishnan

Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week.