Featured Poet – Mona Bedi
unfinished poem
the jagged edge
of a fingernail
afternoon rain
i fold my son’s laughter
into paper boats
wind blown leaves
a past lover
pops up on my gram
pencil shavings
the familiar scent
of childhood
autumn wind
for a moment my son
is a stranger
Mona Bedi is a medical doctor staying in Delhi with her husband, two children and a dog. An avid reader and nature lover, she initially wrote free verse poetry but later became enamoured of the Japanese form for its close observation and poetic expression. Her haiku, haibun and haiga have been widely published, have appeared in numerous anthologies, and have won several awards.
winter stillness …
a strand of tinsel
in the tilted pine
– Michael Dylan Welch
pressed sakura
a daydream lingers
into dusk
– Joanna Ashwell
starry night
the simple answer
to how many
– Pat Davis
ending our afternoon
all the directions a butterfly
finds
– Gary Hotham
ice dawn
a road salting truck
spins new stars
– John Hawkhead
fingerspelling his name
one last time …
dandelion breeze
– Kelly Sargent
roll call —
a night watchman
counts the stars
– thomas david
loneliness —
snow on the log boom
adrift in the river
– Michael Dylan Welch
stardust —
one slow, final pass
by his weathered porch
– Nicholas Gentile
blinded by mist,
the sound of ocean waves
leads me home
– Charles Rossiter
surrounding me
on the haircutter’s floor
gray matter
– Scott Mason
classical radio
the rhapsody first heard
on Bugs Bunny
– Tim Dwyer
temporarily
they leave the cemetery —
funeral mourners
– Fatma Zohra Habis
that gap
in the bookshelf —
borrowed lives
– Sondra J. Byrnes
outside the church
the winter dusk
nondenominational
– John Pappas
gangly girls
when did they become
afraid of bugs
– Laurie D. Morrissey
performance review
crossing and recrossing
my legs
– Vandana Parashar
silent rebellion —
the conductor’s daughter
without a ticket
– Denisa Hanšutová
wind-whipped willows
the lash
of papa’s belt
– Bonnie J Scherer
nothing to wear —
all my dresses
sit in a pile of mistakes
– Saba Zahoor
checkered past
the blank squares
on my calendar
– Cynthia Anderson
running the risk of an
artificial sweetener
Valentine’s Day
– Michael Henry Lee
whiskey
in my red solo cup
bonfire smoke
– Rowan Beckett Minor
faded keyboard
I can’t find
the ESCAPE key
– Ian Willey
circle of salt
ex-boyfriend can’t
get back in
– Randy Brooks
spindrift
last year’s
wish list
– Marilyn Ashbaugh
daylight moon
contrails carry
the sunset east
– Erica Ison
finger drifts
starlings move
from farm to farm
– Kathryn P. Haydon
coffee to go
clouds leaving the sky
free
– Gary Hotham
breaking wave
blown back spray
catches a rainbow
– Noreen Ash Mackay
alternate history
a wren singing
above the cellar hole
– Kristen Lindquist
married forever the bathroom door locked
– Roberta Beary
banshee wail —
a bone-dry dipstick
raised to the moon
– Scott Mason
40 years’ marriage
the same tv show
in separate rooms
– Lev Hart
last laugh
autumn ash
among evergreens
– Deborah Bowman
desert rose
the impossibility
of us both
– Ravi Kiran
planetarium date
our small talk
even smaller
– Millicent Bee
final petal
i should’ve started
with ‘she loves me not…’
– Gordon Brown
molding leaves —
the path she took
I don’t take
– Lucas Weissenborn
teacup dregs
the depth
of our estrangement
– Shrehya Taneja
all that remains
of their togetherness
campfire stones
– Al Williams
I answer him
with another question —
cypress spurge
– Daniela Misso
dry stone wall
the way our edges
fit together
– Janet Ruth
making a promise
with fingers crossed …
cold prairie wind
– Stephen Toft
a postcard
with no message
boot prints in the snow
– Shawn Blair
the high slit
on the first juror’s skirt
voir dire
– Joseph P. Wechselberger
laying blame
where it belongs
fart bug
– Jeff Hoagland
Christmas goose
my brother-in-law mistakes
my behind for my sister’s
– Amber Winter
happy hour
the forbidden taste
of Granny’s cherry liqueur
– Boryana Boteva
phone sex
the connection keeps cutting
in and out
– Michael Henry Lee
bones
in the slow cooker
a new year
– Susan Yavaniski
beach day
keeping time by shadows
on the dunes
– Kerry J Heckman
new love
she leaves her past
on the salon floor
– Gavin Austin
measured
in pots of coffee
our snowy day
– Bryan Rickert
snow bones
last year’s books
left unread
– Alvin B. Cruz
falling
with snowflakes
dusk
– Roberta Beach Jacobson
the space
between diagnoses
dandelion sprouts
– Edward Cody Huddleston
broken oak
all the arms
that used to hold me
– Anne Fox
potter’s field
my turn to bring
flowers
– Pat Davis
rearranging
the faded bouquet
winter afternoon
– Ruth Holzer
ear training
a summer breeze
plays the longleaf pine
– Ollie Surber
aura farming
a red cardinal
in the selfie
– petro c. k.
planets unaligned —
dreaming about
other possibilities
– Dennis Owen Frohlich
roadside daisies
another year to try
my free will
– Bhawana Rathore
in recovery —
the fragrant flowers
of spring
– Kevin Valentine
red silk —
assigning gender
to a chatbot
– Marianne Paul
the little boy asks
where dad is
night story
– Mona Iordan
catch and release …
the games we play
with freedom
– Angela Terry
that one claw
that no longer retracts
crescent moon
– Jennifer Sutherland
night light
just the merest flicker
of worry
– Herb Tate
waiting
for the next available agent
cloud dragon
– Ben Oliver
winter crocus
that talk i never had
with myself
– Doug Belleville
the nice guy next door
now walks with a swagger
open carry
– Margaret Tau
the nightmare
I can almost remember
ghost apples
– Rowan Beckett Minor
petty skirmish
we sidestep
the rattlesnake grass
– Carolyn Hall
cowboy boots
outnumbering heels —
Saturday rodeo
– Mary McCormack
Easter ham
my uncle’s jokes
lay an egg
– Gary Gillund
turkey trot
working off weight
the day after
– Scott Wiggerman
hot time
in the old town
new Mexican restaurant
– Wilda Morris
maybe you’ve heard of me nillionaire
– susan burch
skim ice
the tattered sheen
of broken promises
– Kathryn Liebowitz
morning birdsong
a Townsend’s Solitaire
in in the mix
– Helen Ogden
babbling stream
the therapist sharpens
her blackwing
– Stephanie Newbern
fence post
realizing the lesser side
of me
– Jamie Wimberly
canyon echo
fine-tuning
my melancholy
– Lee Hudspeth
forgetting when mum
began to forget
hoarfrost
– Ann Sullivan
snow flurries —
sifting flour
for the crumble
– Rob Scott
mother’s cough
suffused with winter light
the mustard field
– Shiva Bhusal
“the girls”
all in our 80s
summer’s end
– Carolyn Hall
buttery fingers
my mother clinging on
to family Christmas
– Timothy Daly
in the corner
of his magnum opus
red crayon initials
– Scott Mason
catching a glance
of his left hand —
widow’s peek
– Sarah Lawhorne
an old book of haiku
I sneeze
the dust off
– Randy Brooks
winking
at those wrinkles in the mirror
frost on a dandelion
– Robert Witmer
mums the word
yellow petals
on the table
– Jay Friedenberg
stage one
a rose petal
floats to the ground
– Sue Courtney
leaving the ward —
my father’s slippers
in a plastic bag
– Ally Sparham
a winter
when nothing grows …
chemotherapy
– Tony Williams
planet nine
waiting to discover
his huntington’s result
– Adele Evershed
every time it snows snow angels
– Kila Lim
more questions
than answers
closed casket
– Roberta Beary
light rail
a butterfly
leaves the station
– Peter Jastermsky
funeral dress —
the lingering warmth
of hugs
– Hifsa Ashraf
equinox
fresh clover
lights up the bardo
– Lorraine A Padden
open casket
rising to correct
the eulogy
– Mike Fainzilber
night market
the aura of goods
under twinkle lights
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
snow day …
flurries
of emails
– Michael Lamb
skimming stones …
the ripple effect
of youth
– Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
snowflakes on cheeks … stolen kisses
– Pegah Rahmati Nezhad
katashigure —
the train carrying
seasonal workers
– Keiko Izawa
the vee
of an osprey’s wings …
peace talks
– Debbie Strange
rounding a corner
the scent of lily
before the lily
– Maxianne Berger
cease-fire
the kites are back
in the sky
– Nazarena Rampini
measuring the width
of the sunset sky
migrating geese
– Mona Bedi
dried sunflowers
in War and Peace —
the unchangeable world
– Mariangela Canzi
ousted from office …
a drawerful of pens
that don’t work
– Julie Schwerin
inch by inch
through the long tunnel
three deep breaths
– Johnnie Johnson Hafernik
year of the fire horse
watching the steam rise
from a pile of manure
– Rick Jackofsky
deployed again —
the toy soldier’s parachute
ripped to shreds
– Seth Friedman
ER
all the ins and outs
of waiting
– Bob Stewart
sunny farmer’s market
she’s dazzled by
the cauliflower
– Nathanael Tico
he offers grace
for her nine pill marriage
the year begins
– Dan Schwerin
family gathering
one missing key
in the old piano
– Neha Singh Soni
ruby anniversary
the cool heft
on my finger
– Keiko Izawa
wedding night
undressing in the shadow
of the cross
– Steve Black
distant bombs
in my hands
the Three Wise Men
– Carmela Marino
river baptism
a barefoot boy downstream
catches crawdads
– Frank Higgins
deep winter
the faded colours
of prayer flags
– Joanne van Helvoort
Three Kings Day —
among the violets
a worn-out shoe
– Federico C. Peralta
war siren
even the sparrows
fall silent
– Neena Singh
winter solstice
the length of dad’s shadow
on the scan
– Archie G. Carlos
hospice twilight
the girl braids her doll’s hair
just like before
– Chen-ou Liu
fading light
the long stretch
of seventh-inning shadows
– Jay Friedenberg
starry night
another empty room
at the hospice
– Alvin B. Cruz
morning fog a shadow of crow
– Nancy Orr
spring cleaning
I still have plenty of time
until summer
– Marie Derley
New Year’s Eve
my aunt counts down
her age spots
– Archie G. Carlos
sending snail mail
while i still can
this lonelier planet
– Robyn Cairns
my son
now twice my age
Beach Boys vinyls
– Joshua St. Claire
fallen apples
another year ends
pecked to the core
– Thomas Powell
sharp cedar scent
opening a new box
of #2 pencils
– Eric Sundquist
all these flat stones
at the ridge top
no lake in sight
– Agnes Eva Savich
blue sky
the arborist walks up
the tree
– Brad Bennett
above air-raid shelters
snow is falling
just snow
– Alexander Groth
city park birding
my adversaries armed
with leaf blowers
– Tomislav Sjekloća
reunion
the campus sculpture
of a mobius strip
– Bill Cooper
thumb fight
a teen wriggles out
from under his dad
– Barrie Levine
jazz club
the spotlight on
cigarette smoke
– Bryan Rickert
tailor’s chalk
hesitating
at the seam
– Nalini Shetty
setting sun
doing another squat
in the series
– Eugeniusz Zacharski
Agnes Eva Savich, Senryū – Melanie Alberts, Art
