An ubiquitous image—the image of the star. A
guide in the night sky—the name we give to
outstanding people who entertain us on the stage, on tv, or in
the film industry. STAR!
In March 26 haiku
poets sent 144 haiku from 9 countries including: Australia,
Canada, India, Israel, Poland, Romania, Trinidad / Tobago,
Taiwan, and the United States.
In these haiku it is
apparent that the star is a dominant image in the life of human
beings—the stars are everywhere,
every day. For some people the star symbolizes the
beginning and the end of life:
meteor shower—
the first kicks of
my unborn child
# 85. Jon Davey, UK
a new star
through the hospice window
she smiles in her sleep
# 09. Karina Klesko, US
In the busy life of
human activity we sometimes loose sight of the stars, but look
what happens when best laid plans of man go awry:
power outage
thousands of stars light
the sudden dark
# 35. Catherine J.S. Lee, US
So! What
better to do than look to the skies—
stars sparkling
in the summer night—
a magic wand
# 118. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
street children
on their rubbish heap—
counting the stars
# 38. Keith A. Simmonds
star viewing
the spark spark
of a neighbor's lighter
# 135. Josh Wikoff, UK
The humor of "a
neighbor's lighter" resembling the twinkle of a distant star
returns us to human activity as does Ed Baker's ironic use of
pun in this senryu:
some star
mooning me
just so
# 68. Ed Baker, US
Occasionally, the
starry sky provides a spectacular light show:
lunar eclipse—
the stars
brighten
# 29. Peter Pache, US
And. . .
the Leonids
we share a piece
of dried fig
# 130. Josh Wikoff, UK
Or:
ah! a falling
star
The Milky Way Galaxy
loses just one
# 65. Betty Kaplan, US
Owl song—
a falling star
over my town
# 42. Vasile Moldovan, RO
But not everyone has
had the chance to "go and catch a falling star"!
shooting stars
... fifty points
if I see one?
# 126. Ella Wagemakers, NL
To some people the
stars are a symbol of their faith—a connection to a higher
power or being guiding humans who take the time to notice:
hope rekindled—
burning through the clouds
a fiery star
# 147. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
cold starlight
some flakes of wax
from the menorah
# 133. Josh Wikoff, UK
He makes the
stars glow
to illumine our journey...
glorious blessings
# 111. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
three wise men
following a star...
light of the world
# 87. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
Occasionally, the
stars, the seas, and humans come together and experience a
moment of awesome beauty:
flickering
starlight—
the silence before a wave
pummels the shore
# 81. Jon Davey, UK
faint starlight
hum of the wind
in the rigging
# 128. Josh Wikoff, UK
moonlight sail
glittering Orion
leads us home
# 43. Catherine J.S. Lee, US
Throughout history,
humans have named the objects they see in the sky: The Great
Milky Way, Orion, The Big and Little Dipper, The North Star . .
.
new landscape—
searching the sky for
the Southern Cross
# 39. Catherine J.S. Lee, US
The importance of
stars as an image in human activities should never be
underestimated:
ocean view
two lovers
and the milky way
# 75. John Stone, US
young lovers—
looking for the stars
in each other's eyes
# 32. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
Wind-torn clouds—
the moon and a star play
hide and seek with me.
# 83. Zhanna P. Rader
in Winter and in
Spring—from dusk to dawn—
winter night—
an owls's wing brushes
the milky way
# 77. Jon Davey, UK
reflected stars
in a glaze of ice
birch saplings bend
# 15. Catherine J. S. Lee, US
Pond mirror—
the stars lay near
a water lily
# 31. Magdalena Dale, RO
stargazers
the scent of jasmine
after the storm
# 107. semi
violet sky
one last look
at the morning star
# 59. John Stone, US
. . . then comes the
dawn—the
stars vanish from sight, their view obscured by the brightest
star of all—the sun. And so, this
symphony of the spheres continues, day and night in patient but
precise rotation, a cosmos spinning in a giant spiral through
the vast, endless, blackness of space . . .
these haiku—
the brightest new stars
in the sky
John Daleiden
