HAIKU DIALOGUE – Music Around the World – Loving you with all of my tunes or let’s talk about feelings – commentary

Music Around the World with Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt

Hi guys, it’s me again. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be immersing ourselves in music together. There is a variety of instruments, rhythms and melodies to explore around the globe. Ancient Chinese music is based on a five-tone system and the guqin had an almost religious significance. Waka and later the tanka are basically songs. The mother’s steady heartbeat calms the baby in the womb and can be compared to the rhythm of a drum. Music is the language that everyone can connect with, even without understanding the meaning of the words being sung. It speaks directly to our hearts. I would like to invite everyone to explore the world of music with me in these prompts.

Below is Deborah’s commentary for Loving you with all of my tunes or let’s talk about feelings:

Music: Flowing Water Guqin

dim-lit room . . .
the song he played
for me alone

Keiko Izawa
Japan

Love and music belong together. In Keiko Izawa’s concise, poignant senryu, we experience an intimate scene so intense that the reader cannot help but feel like a third wheel. And yet, the love song is now just a memory. A quiet melancholy lingers, and the question remains: what happened to the lovers?

the DJ starts the slow songs
not the first time
you take my breath away

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

In Tracy Davidson’s poem, on the other hand, we encounter a room full of people. Once again, the DJ has played slow songs that are perfect for getting close to each other. The middle line acts as a pivot line. Here, someone has been dating for quite a while, but the object of their desire has apparently not yet taken the bait. Yet feelings seem to remain constant in the unstable dating environment. This contrast brings the poem alive.

Pride Month
learning how to dance
to my own tune

Sean Murphy
North Beach, MD

The speaker in Sean Murphy’s poem learns to accept himself. This poem is about finding and realizing one’s own truth and practicing self-love. Only when one is at peace with oneself is there a chance for fulfilling love. The contrast between the former self and the new self now in the process of being born gives this poem tension and depth.

au champs-elyseés
taking a stroll down
my wedding aisle

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

There is exactly one word that makes this poem a very interesting and unusual one. The word is ‘stroll.’ Without this word the whole poem would collapse and become an ordinary one. It is clearly a wedding scene, like we have seen hundreds of times on television or in literature, and yet something is different. The person seems unaffected by the solemnity of the scene. They stroll casually down the aisle as if no far-reaching decision awaited them at the end, and we ask ourselves: how seriously does this person take marriage? And do we want to be married to someone like this? Ultimately: how long can such a union last?

after her call
I tune the old radio
to white noise

Sandip Chauhan
USA

This is another poem where the emotional impact depends primarily on linguistic expression. ‘white noise’ stands out because of its rare use in haiku. The confusion and fear, the chaos and turmoil experienced by the lyrical narrator in this haiku are beautifully brought to life by the choice of words from the poet. Every word matters in a haiku. The artist of this haiku has mastered his craft.

last rites
all her lullabies
cloud my eyes

Nisha Raviprasad
India

This haiku is one of many that deal with the theme of lullabies, but it stands out. The first line opens the window and establishes the tone and mood of the haiku, while the second part of the poem is tender and leaves the reader feeling just as wounded as the lyrical narrator. The author effortlessly ensures that the reader and the lyrical narrator become one. Most of us will have this experience at some point; the author merely anticipates it. A masterfully composed, universal haiku.

night shelter
the lullaby of no one’s
little girl

Mirela Brailean
Iasi, Romania

Another masterful haiku that presents an unexpected plot twist and plays with the reader’s emotions. This poem shows how we create our reality with our expectations until something ejects us from our secure bubble and we are confronted with a completely different reality. The word ‘no’ acts as an ejector seat here. We are forced to look and thus become witnesses to a reality that leaves much to be desired. Life does not offer a safe haven for everyone. What should we do, what can we do? And where does our responsibility begin?

searching for you
among the lit windows
Somewhere Out There

Jackie Chou
United States

I believe I see a ghost in this poem. Perhaps this person is still alive, perhaps they are like a hungry ghost. In their eternal search for a home, for warmth, for a family or a lover, this lyrical self is completely lost. There is this longing, this urgent need that cannot be satisfied. Ultimately, we all long for this: for a deep and meaningful connection, for someone to belong to, and for a place we can call home. What makes this haiku so great is that it can be understood empathically by everyone, regardless of the reader’s cultural context. The language of this haiku and the feelings it conveys are also universal, allowing readers around the world to easily identify with this poem.

flowing waters
true zhiyin
harder to lose

John Zheng
Mississippi, USA

This poem describes feelings in a very sensitive and extremely restrained way. It contains a lot of ma, which allows the reader to offer their own interpretation and open up their own space for resonance in order to explore their feelings. The third line provides a surprising twist. Someone has repeatedly suffered the loss of a loved one, but the loss of a ‘true zhiyin’ (the one who knows the melody of your own heart best) is the worst loss of all. In addition, this poem beautifully fulfills the given task. I really enjoyed reading this poem.

winter clouds…
the hills still alive
with our song

Sangita Kalarickal
Minnesota, USA

This poem is a very thoughtful response to the given task. The first line sets the mood and looks back on what has happened. Given the kigo ‘winter clouds,’ we might assume that someone has lost a loved one, but the poem does not stop there. It looks to the future. After such a devastating loss, feelings remain. The hills are alive, as is their song together. So these two lines give us hope and expand the given task into something new. We will suffer losses, but we will remember, persevere, and survive.

Join us next week for our next prompt…

Bios:

Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt lives in Sinzig, Germany, with her husband, two rabbits and numerous books. After her PhD studies in Scandinavian languages and literatures, she works as a freelance author and poet. Her poems have appeared in magazines like Prune Juice, Kingfisher, First Frost, Frogpond, Failed Haiku and Tsuridoro. If she is not outside for a long stroll or to do some birdwatching, she explores Chinese and Japanese novels.

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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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.