Featured Poet – Michael Dylan Welch
mindful
of nothing
neon buddha
leaving home …
winter sky
in my daughter’s eyes
Valentine’s Day —
she reminds me
to fasten my seatbelt
morning chill …
the bag of marbles
shifts on the shelf
warm winter evening —
the chairs askew
after the poetry reading
Michael Dylan Welch has been investigating haiku since 1976. He cofounded Haiku North America in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996. He founded the Tanka Society of America in 2000 and National Haiku Writing Month in 2010. He has directed the Seabeck Haiku Getaway since 2008, served two terms as poet laureate for Redmond, Washington, and is president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword. One of his translations from the Japanese appeared on the back of 150 million US postage stamps, and he was also keynote speaker for an annual Haiku International Association conference in Tokyo. His haiku, tanka, longer poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies, and in 76 books he’s edited or written. Michael documents his writing life at Graceguts.
spring breeze
the soft language
of leaves
– Mona Bedi
earl grey …
a whisper of fog
in the osprey’s wings
– Paula Sears
twilight cicadas …
the old birch murmurs
yesterday’s tales
– Madhuri Pillai
knowing the words
to the hymns
gray tree frogs
– Jeff Hoagland
a firefly
vanishes into twilight
what I didn’t say
– Neena Singh
playing softly
on the bassinet
spring breeze
– Scott Mason
paperwhite —
morning lights
an empty cup
– Lorraine A Padden
bonsai trees
growing old gracefully
with grandpa
– Stephanie Zepherelli
zinnias
each bending the sky
their own way
– Jamie Wimberly
skipping stones —
a piece of puddle sky
drying in my pocket
– Julie Schwerin
rows of white clouds
in formation …
Memorial Day
– Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
sharecropper cabin
reading the news
from the wallpaper
– Frank Higgins
embracing grief …
a lone crow
on a bamboo branch
– Alvin B. Cruz
the shallow roots
of chickasaw plums
unmarked graves
– Eric Sundquist
Veterans Day
the last war
not the last
– Ruth Holzer
pink lemonade
the sweet satisfaction
of summer romance
– Katie Montagna
laughter erupts
from the Tarzan rope
volcanic lake
– Louise Hopewell
(red)
tilting
the
sunset
(balloon)
– Roberta Beary
lemonade break …
the laughing gull’s shadow
crosses home plate
– Janice Doppler
cannonball!
he jumps into
my heart
– Amber Winter
greeting the stranger
a buttonhole
without the button
– Susan Yavaniski
blind date
our wordless agreement
to stay out of touch
– David McKee
hoping to
catch her eye
strawberry moon
– John Pappas
she
talks
in ellipses …
– Ram Chandran
twirling our pasta
your silence entangled
with mine
– Alvin B. Cruz
gleaming brass
a sax solo the length
of my whiskey
– j rap
cowboy barfly
talking shit at
the Cattleman’s Saloon
– Michael Henry Lee
sapsuckered —
bullet holes
in a stop sign
– Dylan Stover
full moon
a jackaroo shadows
the cattle herd
– Marilyn Humbert
steady rain
the drunks pissing in the alley
almost in tune
– Steve Black
mother’s garden
a loveliness of ladybugs
among the roses
– Stephenie Story
bog asphodel
edging the stream
skylark song
– Hannah Mahoney
a double rainbow
circles our church
pride parade
– John S Green
lark
happy to share its name
with the meadow
– Peter Newton
kurrajong blossoms
a red dragonfly skims
limestone cascades
– Louise Hopewell
a misstep …
the forgiving
moss
– Shawn Blair
forgetting where
I slapped you —
post-it note
– susan burch
bell bottoms
let the past
be the past
– Christa Pandey
wine and roses
the color
of her bruises
– Rick Jackofsky
visiting priest
a mosquito enters
the confessional
– Marilyn Ashbaugh
roadside crow
she picks apart
my every word
– Bryan Rickert
cirrus sky
an oriole strips a stem
for nest straw
– Brad Bennett
invasIve speCiEs
– Chad Lee Robinson
slithering grass
a creature moves
with the wind
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
midday heat
an ant clambers through
cactus needles
– Lev Hart
anatomy class
the écorché eyeballing us
with naked eyes
– Mona Iordan
to think that I saw it
on Mulberry Street
mulberries
– Michael Dylan Welch
how our universe
keeps expanding …
rock paper scissors lizard Spock
– susan burch
strip poker
his flush
seeing her pair
– Jon Petruschke
dark matter
move along now
there’s nothing to see
– Scott Mason
still no news …
climbing the walls
desert gecko
– Sara Tropper
orchid’s frayed edges …
her years of war
live in me
– Kala Ramesh
temple queue
I skip
my turn with God
– Nalini Shetty
grinding war
he declines more pepper
on his pasta
– Archie G. Carlos
Gaza rubble
a lone palm
sweeps the clouds
– Dru Philippou
stopping long enough
to hold up their phones —
world heritage site
– Laurie D. Morrissey
swollen river
the weight of what
i can’t tell
– Meera Rehm
long train journey
captured chess pieces
rattling
– Steve Mason
inching closer
to the fire
reformed smoker
– Al Williams
cracked eggshell
I slip back
into her decision
– Ganesh R.
pink smoke
in the Apache plume
my neighbor’s burn pile
– Janet Ruth
past war beach
a child jumps over
gentle waves
– Annie Bachini
little league softball
the bases loaded
with summer
– Sharon Martina
a salty scent
lingers on the floaties
my grandpa’s hug
– Daniela Misso
picture book
a thousand words
on every page
– thomas david
summer evening
the child in me
still beachcombing
– Vaishnavi Ramaswamy
autumn shadow —
in the unnoticed spot
her hairpin
– Keiko Izawa
stars twinkle
in your dark curls
midnight drizzle
– Arvinder Kaur
black moon rising
the light
chasing the light
– Mike Fainzilber
curtain crinkle —
in hospice he whispers
to the first star
– Richard L. Matta
low tide
the moon follows
in my footsteps
– Joanne van Helvoort
weighing the same
my shadow
and the mountain’s
– Gordon Brown
alone with her ashes indigo dusk
– Ann Sullivan
bonsai garden
this must be a country
for old men
– AJ Johnson
Kansas cemetery wind …
rewinding to
buffalo wallow
– Randy Brooks
October twilight
walking away from
my shadow
– Kathryn Liebowitz
museum depot
a fly follows the fold
of a marble toga
– Tom Zille
not among
the winning lotto numbers:
45, 47
– Chad Lee Robinson
border checkpost
the wind
not stopping
– Srini
cool morning
this swivel chair squeaks
as it turns
– Lenard D. Moore
shipped oars
the circle-dance
of loons
– Debbie Strange
stormy weather
a smack of jellyfish
washes ashore
– Sondra J. Byrnes
”Should’ve been removed”
confirms the doctor —
that trickle of sweat
– Maurizio Brancaleoni
dark out —
holding the doorknob
longer
– Gary Hotham
mountain climb
on the horizon
a bone density scan
– Jenny Fraser
wind gusts
the pale underbellies
of maple leaves
– Nancy Orr
recycle bin
counting down the days
in beer cans
– Al Williams
facebook suggestion
a happy birthday wish
to a dead friend
– Mykel Board
the origami crane
bleeding from
my paper cut
– Leon Tefft
alone
with death
the outline of his figure
– Joseph Chiang
crème brûlée …
cracking
the puddle’s thin ice
– Kathryn P. Haydon
his old tattoos fading a well-worn autobiography
– Lee Hudspeth
leaning fences …
no one to visit
her patch of ground
– Jo McInerney
entering darkness
the outstretched hand
of my dying father
– Jennifer Sutherland
the ofrenda brims
with marigold blooms
Día de los Muertos
– Audrey Quinn
birthday morning mother reaching the age of light
– Richa Sharma
around the coffin
our broken promise
to wear bright colours
– Tom Zille
wild roses
the tanned arms
of a delivery woman
– Keiko Izawa
old cave
plunking water
repeats itself
– Gareth Nurden
so many
river stars
a merchant’s tide
– Joanna Ashwell
woodland floor
the carpet patterned
with cowslips
– Debbie Strange
ricing moon
a folksong circles
around every bale
– Padma Thampatty
freedom’s just
another word …
deep woods
– Michael Dylan Welch
summer beach …
the silence
of dragonflies
– Angela Terry
subway busker
the undertone
in his songs
– Adrian Bouter
wintry chill
the last leaf spins
in our silence
– Gavin Austin
night ballad
shifting the capo
to the autumn rain
– Keiko Izawa
holding hands
on the hill streets
up & down marriage
– Laurinda Lind
prenup
her wedding bouquet
Forget-Me-Nots
– Wonja Brucker
scented lily
I have always known
what you’ll never say
– Ravi Kiran
long stem roses
the snap of secateurs
in our argument
– Patricia Hawkhead
early marriage days
I borrow my husband’s
opinions
– Vandana Parashar
social cocooning
the almost nothingness
of a strand of silk
– Sue Courtney
rootlock …
scrubbing the blood
out of my pubic hair
– Rowan Beckett Minor
new photograph —
everyone looks
at their own face
– Jimmy Pappas
spare time
the things
I don’t get done
– Betsy Hearne
nearly asleep
another earworm song
begins
– Tim Dwyer
family argument
the sudden flare
of sausage fat
– Ben Oliver
my grandparents’ album —
all these faces
I don’t know
– Nicholas Gentile
continental drift
our family moving apart
without noticing
– John Hawkhead
midsummer
the basil saucer
on its second marriage
– Dan Schwerin
family reunion
the ocean is colored
Facebook blue
– Gordon Brown
leaving the movie theater
I step back in
to this role
– Nathanael Tico
how I’ve changed
drying a summer dress
in autumn wind
– Sharon Ferrante
collectibles
toys will be toys
until they’re not
– John H. Dromey
climate change
too many layers
in the kimono
– Christa Pandey
her farewell promise
a starling murmuration
shape-shifting
– Chen-ou Liu
prolonged dry spell
the pond recedes
root by root
– Erica Ison
heat wave …
stirring up the sky
windjammers
– Monica Kakkar
still brook —
the white oak
slips off its skin
– Dennis Owen Frohlich
another rainless night
crates of Coke bottles
rattle on a dolly
– Kristen Lindquist
are they also longing
for the coolness they make?
the red pines
– Joshua St. Claire
the salty brine
of a day’s catch —
fish tales
– Bonnie J Scherer
kite competition —
untangling the stories
of the day
– Nicoletta Ignatti
marginalia
rewilding
the meadow
– Kathryn Liebowitz
sickle moon
around the campfire
ghost stories
– Jamie Wimberly
as he drinks
the tales get taller
ventriloquist’s dummy
– M. R. Pelletier
asking forgiveness
another blown save
in the church league
– Dan Schwerin
in Italy
even the pigeons
seem Italian
– David Green
choosing the sushi roll
for its name alone —
the poet
– Mary McCormack
between lips and fingers
the stringiness
of mozzarella
– Thomas Landgraf
candlelight
smiling in a pumpkin
the ghost with a paper bag
– Robert Witmer
zen garden stone —
the neighbor’s dog
makes an offering
– Lisa Espenmiller
how many days
left for me to bloom?
cherry blossoms
– Kanchan Chatterjee
never sure
which end is up
swirling snow
– Cynthia Anderson
meditation class
she whispers
freedom
– Pat Davis
crossing the bridge
the rock she throws
gone in a ripple
– Suzanne Leaf-Brock
rainy day
yoga students do
sun salutations
– Rituparna Maji
under the marquee
a crowd of moviegoers
watching the rain
– Barrie Levine
urban renewal
laying pipe big enough
to sleep in
– Bob Stewart
escaping the space
between skyscrapers
my child’s balloon
– Bryan Rickert
public housing
a basketball hoop
without a net
– Agnes Eva Savich
evening drizzle city lights drag the strip
– C. K. Crawford
summer morning
the hotel’s lawn chairs full
of sunshine
– Joseph P. Wechselberger
sunbathing …
washing the clouds
from my thinking
– Kelly Sargent
still summer,
but a leaf turns to brown —
Kīlauea lava flow
– Richard West
Haiga – Ella Aboutboul
