Featured Poet – George Swede
glaring like a snake
in the grass the snake
in the grass
sandcastle my carefully constructed self
in the howling wind
under the full moon
the snowman, headless
sunrise
i forget my side
of the argument
Summer night:
in my eyes starlight
hundreds of years old
George Swede published his first poem in 1969 and turned mainly to haiku in 1975. He co-founded Haiku Canada in 1977 and then held the following positions: Honorary Curator, American Haiku Archives, 2008-09; editor of Frogpond, 2008-12; member, editorial team, Red Moon Anthology of English-language Haiku, 2001- 07. He has published 43 collections of poetry, with 24 solely haiku and related forms—the latest being The Way A Poem Emerges: A Haiku Trinity & Beyond, 2022. His work has been translated into 23 languages.
poet’s circle —
just reading
her Spanish name
– Owen Bullock
moon stitch
skin on skin
a single skein
– Joanna Ashwell
in the naked light
of a winter moon
old love
– Tony Williams
the mouth-feel
of a seasoned lover
tawny port
– Barrie Levine
curve in the canyon …
cave swallows enter
my shadow
– Theresa A. Cancro
overcast
choosing the wrong night
for stargazing
– Chris Langer
leaf
an insect I don’t know
sizing me up
– Dipankar Dasgupta
a bird weaving its nest —
the wry smile
of a homeless
– Ram Chandran
late night party —
the old dog sniffs
my face
– Neena Singh
my turn
to make a wish
dried well
– Arvinder Kaur
always a rebel his mismatched socks
– Mona Bedi
coffee estate —
the lingering aftertaste of
that conversation
– Amoolya Kamalnath
Big Ben
the way he thinks his time is
more important than mine
– Sharon Martina
tongue tied
she gulps
her gossip
– Lakshmi Iyer
i slip
on a wet leaf …
end of summer
– Meera Rehm
singing bowl
if only I could voice
my thoughts
– Mona Bedi
allowed
to be sad ~
autumn rain
– Andrea Cecon
drizzling her quiet purpose
– Richa Sharma
winter day …
another cup of tea
for one
– Deborah Karl-Brandt
learning to listen … branches in winter
– Kathryn Liebowitz
all the things
I didn’t bargain for
wildflowers
– Ruchita Madhok
last entry
in the agenda
chemo
– Daniel Birnbaum
contemplating
my death poem …
a blackbird’s song
– Meera Rehm
lake ripples
I read her obituary again
and again
– Jennifer Hambrick
class reunion
we start by counting
us
– Mona Iordan
oval moon —
i make hamburger
in a different shape
– Keiko Izawa
full
or gibbous —
still moonlight
– Brad Bennett
morning sun
within my grasp
warm tea
– C.X. Turner
deep winter
the lean of uncle’s barn
on a rusting rake
– Paula Sears
blank wall
the urge to scribble
no matter what
– Mona Iordan
one hand
on the wheel
California dreamin’
– Antoinette Cheung
pan-fried smelts …
the flask still warm
from his pocket
– Kristen Lindquist
overgrown fence
taking a huge hit
of jasmine
– Nathanael Tico
three pints in
all her flaws
forgotten
– Roberta Beary
mountain hike
chasing the high
of a good haiku
– Bryan Rickert
an old pond
ripples come
ripples go
– Meera Rehm
fern spores
life hides so much
from me
– Minal Sarosh
never hearing
the end of it
death poem
– John Hawkhead
autumn wreath
he climbs each step
with all his years
– Debbie Olson
some things
never change
horseshoe crabs
– Jeff Hoagland
day moon
mother tells me
she is well
– Nika
snowflakes —
the nuns’ laughters
beyond the wall
– Nazarena Rampini
beach cusps
mom’s apron scalloped
with lace
– Debbie Strange
identity crisis …
immigrant
or emigrant
– Maya Daneva
tomatoes ripening
on the window sill …
his wife’s old tales
– Adele Evershed
chicken farm dreams
dead Russian conscripts
shaping the snow
– William Cullen Jr.
ink-filled brush
he paints
cloud songs
– Angela Terry
swans on the lake
straightening her outfit
the old ballerina
– Mirela Brăilean
Brâncuși’s Bird
my headlights hold
a goldfinch
– Joshua St. Claire
last train …
vagrant singer’s snore
his last song
– Srini
hula dancer
a butterfly lands
on her hibiscus
– Eavonka Ettinger
uptown gallery —
an ant wanders
the porcelain vessels
– Owen Bullock
karaoke night
singing a duet song
alone
– Alvin B. Cruz
all-day snow
your absence
deepens
– Marilyn Ashbaugh
travelers
shoulder to shoulder
all alone
– Walter Coddington
nursing home karaoke
mother’s old love song
wanders somewhere
– Keiko Izawa
early pond ice
a maple leaf
skates alone
– Paula Sears
hiccups
their on-off affair
resurrected
– Mike Gallagher
desert fringe
sifting his words
for truth
– Evan Vandermeer
a kiss on the neck …
the winter sun does
what you should’ve
– Vandana Parashar
snow after snow
how pristine the colour
of your lies
– Ravi Kiran
slicing up
his credit cards —
evening birdsong
– Ruth Holzer
New York City
removes its last pay phone booth —
Superman flummoxed
– Neal Whitmann
water shortage …
marble cherubs
stop peeing
– petro c. k.
flea market
getting a steal
on a sunburn
– Nathanael Tico
first time in church
a toddler worships
the pipe organ
– Cynthia Anderson
the weight
of my shadow
uphill jog
– Elancharan Gunasekaran
long delay
a man curses
the F train
– Jay Friedenberg
big discount
on the shelves for sale
an empty space
– Samo Kreutz
languid stream
a leaf and I
exchange the lead
– Frank Hooven
new shoes
running at the speed of
red
– Pat Davis
the Rio Grande
trickles down
to a misnomer
– Caroline Giles Banks
milkweed pods
bursting
to travel
– Jo Balistreri
holding its own
amid the wolf pines
glacial erratic
– Kristen Lindquist
winter field
front and back of border
now borderless
– Christopher Calvin
Chaco Canyon campout
the constellations
lost in the crowd
– Frank Higgins
river rocks …
the ripples of stories
father once told
– Stephenie Story
stumps in the tree farm Christmas snow
– Rick Tarquinio
midday sun
the hackberry emperor
hides its shadow
– Jeff Hoagland
ebb tide
translating my poem
into my mother tongue
– Alvin B. Cruz
poetry collection …
his path marked
with sticky notes
– Laurie D. Morrissey
Bishop’s retreat
lingering in
Li Po
– Dan Schwerin
online translator
the foreign poem
turns risqué
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
text
and subtext
autumn wind
– Carolyn Hall
tidal wave —
again this surge
of grief
– C.F. Tash
chest pain what I don’t know hurting me
– Cynthia Anderson
steady corrosion
my father’s old saw
still cuts deeply
– John Hawkhead
remembering
while holding hands
that broken wrist
– Patricia Hawkhead
river roar …
the emptiness
inside
– Manoj Sharma
hunter’s moon …
the click-clack-click-clack
of my keyboard
– Chen-ou Liu
hitching a ride —
holy statues on the dash
won’t protect me
– Ruth Holzer
lunar eclipse the side of you in shadow
– Roberta Beary
lost to the fog …
another year’s
worth of wishes
– Kerry J Heckman
new moon the computer turns itself on
– P. H. Fischer
plunging
into the swimming hole —
spring becomes summer
– Lee Hudspeth
Veterans Day
dad’s a celebrity
among strangers
– Peter Newton
effervescent joy — his denture cleaner
– Jan Stretch
sisterhood
after the sit-in …
x¹⁰
– Stephanie Newbern
condemned apartment block
demolition workers
put back the sky
– Mark Miller
summer wind …
my jump bigger
than the grasshopper’s
– Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta
daylight in the closet
boxes of pictures with
a 1000 pieces
– Gary Hotham
autumn evening …
a dragon changes color
on the temple roof
– Kanchan Chatterjee
awake at dawn —
grasping the mystery
yohaku no bi
– Cristina Povero
shorter days
the fading pulse
of fireflies
– Bryan Rickert
steeping tea
the bitter orange
of wildfires
– Antoinette Cheung
between the snow
wild violets
and the melt
– Mark Forrester
afternoon gossip …
the crack
of betel nuts
– R. Suresh babu
Halloween night
the cries of Canada geese
in the evening mist
– Françoise Maurice
dry leaves —
between hisses of wind
the last goodbye
– Maria Tosti
passing the pool hall
the click
of nuns’ rosaries
– Pat Davis
roaring surf —
the sound of water
striking water
– Janice Doppler
person
to person
cherry blossoms
– Gary Hotham
sturdy vine
on the aging oak
our union
– Laurie Wilcox-Meyer
celestial navigation
the young couple lost
in each other
– Susan Yavaniski
foreign travellers
all the words we don’t
need to say
– Lori Kiefer
a kiss
in a crowded place
just you and I
– Tony Williams
holiday lefse
dangling on the wood stick …
grandma’s hands
– Jim Krotzman
hormone therapy
the pumpkin seed
slips through my fingers
– Carmela Marino
winter twilight
the last dregs of
a catch-up lunch
– Ella Aboutboul
sour green apples
on the table
peeling gossip
– Christine Eales
against the current
she teaches her daughter
about salmon
– Lorraine A Padden
more light
on the king penguin huddle —
winter moon
– Lorin Ford
homeless tents in the park the wind rattles through withered leaves
– Mark Miller
blustery day
fallen leaves
chase each other
– Christa Pandey
icy morning
refusing
the panhandler’s gaze
– John Pappas
snow day …
scattered erasers filled
with chalk dust
– Theresa A. Cancro
this beggar
not expecting anything to change …
New Year’s Eve
– Maya Daneva
family reunion
my daughter learns
to pick lice
– R. Suresh babu
sick room window
the scarlet gold oak
all I can hold in
– William Cullen Jr.
social distancing
makes no difference
for my family
– Barbara A. Taylor
the mountains of the moon
my road trip days
behind me
– Peter Newton
too much information peonies
– Carolyn Hall
the other side
of a walled garden
birdsong
– Susan Yavaniski
quiet morning
the way rain softens
yesterday
– Jennifer Hambrick
simple gifts
the first light
of fireflies
– Ryland Shengzhi Li
desert willow
a charm of hummingbirds
draws us near
– Kevin Valentine
dipping sun
over the tea garden
a gentle silence
– Pravat Kumar Padhy
Haiga – Kevin Valentine
