HAIKU DIALOGUE – Energy of Motion – Movement in Stillness – 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 Movement in Stillness:

reference frame
my feet still
on earth

Rachel Greve
Wisconsin, USA

 

stone columns
her strength
to endure

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

Moebius strip—
the wisteria branch
on the railing

nastro di Moebius-
il ramo del glicine
sulla ringhiera

Angiola Inglese
Italia

 

telescope  catching    light      years        in          the            dark

Margaret Anderson
Vancouver, BC

 

still life
a fruit fly
digs in

thomas david
United Kingdom

 

oak stump—
a ladybug follows
the spiral

Orense Nicod
Paris, France

 

meditation
the slow pan
of window light

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

long exposure—
at the end of the tunnel
another tunnel

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

roof leak
another half-moon
in my photograph

Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA

 

light reflections
in the white lily pond
colorful sunset

Tsanka Shishkova
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

stripes of
slanted sunlight
forest trail

Christa Pandey
Austin, TX, USA

 

salt print…
the picture
of patience

Laurie Greer
Washington, DC

 

fast moving creek
still on the muddy bank
the great blue heron

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington

 

ripples of water
in the brimming birdbath—
spring breeze

Anne Curran
Hamilton

 

fusillade
the anger contained
in black and white

David Cox
Torquay, UK

 

diving board
the person behind me
tapping their foot

Sean Murphy
MD, USA

 

worm’s eye view –
a gopuram surges
into the sky

(gopuram: temple tower)

Vaishnavi Ramaswamy
Chennai, India

 

uttarayanam—
a garland of sounds
in the sanctorum

R. Suresh Babu
India

 

eyes gaze
straight into the camera
stone angel

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Huntsville, AL

 

air still ringing
after the last echo…
adhan from a mosque

Fatma Zohra Habis
Algeria

 

just the two of us —
sunset purple quivers
on snow-covered dunes

Goda Virginija Bendoraitienė
Lithuania

 

ancient temple –
a corridor in time
to the throne of God

Stoianka Boianova
Bulgaria

 

light and dark
in the temple corridor
an old prayer

Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
India

 

each step a dance
of light and shadow
tunnel vision

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

pillar shadows
the halted procession
marching in place

Sandip Chauhan
USA

 

sunset
between its pillars:
a bridge too far

Charles Harper
Yokohama

 

cherry blossoms
my baby’s movements
while sleeping

Boryana Boteva
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

a swell of hills
rolls towards the coast
oil on canvas

Ewan Rourke
South Australia

 

pushing through darkness a candelabra of dawn

Shloka Shankar
India

 

antique store
viewing the world
through a rifle’s barrel

Robert Kingston
Chelmsford, UK

 

the cemetery
illuminated by light
dancing dust motes

Vladislav Hristov
Bulgaria

 

drifting haar
road markings disappear
into forever

John Hawkhead
UK

 

a whole world
on the other side of the glass
parallel mirrors

Jenny Shepherd
London, United Kingdom

 

winter walk
the sunset stretches
from window to window

Daniela Misso
Italy

 

autophony
in the quiet passageway
my intrusive thoughts

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

 

family album—
the falling leaves hide
our faces

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

 

my shattered reflection
in the rippling pond
schizophrenia

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera, California

 

shifting shadows—
breaking the stillness
a flickering flame

Paul Callus
Ħal Safi, Malta

 

sandtower—
collapsing shadow
of a dream

Federico C. Peralta
Bulacan, Philippines

 

leading lines
to snowdrops and back
train tracks

Hynek Koziol
Czech Republic

 

a melody
to move mountains
Tibetan flute

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

inviting
a few shadows to creep in
open window

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, IA, USA

 

lakes shallows
the great egret’s shadow
lengthens

Marilyn Humbert
Sydney, Australia

 

piano class
between the notes
the sound of my breath

Nisha Raviprasad
India

 

depth of field
seeing you in the photos
you clicked

Ravi Kiran
India

 

still pond a heron’s shadow

Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India

 

old photo—
bringing back your smile
an AI video

Ana Drobot
Romania

 

these words
still unsorted
leaf pile

C.R. Harper
United States

 

shutter speed
the time it takes to freeze
his first smile

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

temple ruins
echoes of a sculptor
chiseling…

Sumitra Kumar
Chennai, India

 

still hall
a band of light
reaching first

Nalini Shetty
Mumbai, India

 

pilgrimage . . .
following a wing-tipped falcon
out of the world

Lori Kiefer
London, UK

 

leaves in the wind –
in the old family album
time stands still

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

 

sea of sepia . . .
peering through a peephole
year’s first sun

Monica Kakkar
India and United States of America

 

across generations
your sepia eyes
still pierce mine

Jennifer Gurney
US

 

sun glow
rippling on Corinthian columns
afternoon shadows

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

still life
my womb becomes
an echo chamber

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson Arizona USA

 

frozen lake
wilful circling
of the bald eagle

Sangita Kalarickal
USA

 

how the snapshot
dams Amoskeag Falls
the frozen sluice

Ron Scully
United States

 

clouds so still
in the distance
thunder

wanda amos
Australia

 

on the temple corridor
two frangipani blossoms…
morning sunrays

K Ramesh
Chennai, India

 

aerial photo
ripples of Loktak follow
the boatman

(Loktak is a freshwater lake in Northeast India.)

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, 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.