Featured Poet – Christopher Patchel
slant light …
to each leaf
its own fall
midlife
my car radio
on scan
a path of leaves
our conversation
turns wordless
monkey mind
failing to prove
I’m not a robot
a shadow
and its butterfly
fall equinox
Christopher Patchel is a graphic designer who’s haikai poetry has appeared in leading journals, contests, and anthologies since 2000. His collection, Turn Turn, was a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award finalist. From 2016 to 2018 he served as editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America, and he also created the cover art for Frogpond from 2012 to 2018.
dark sky preserve
less light
to see more
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
collecting my thoughts
water streams
over the weir
– Erica Ison
Saturn’s rings
holding on to
what I know
– Lori Kiefer
brainstorming …
the slow drip
of the faucet
– Christopher Patchel
the end
of a thought
dandelion fluff
– Mircea Moldovan
night frost
the unopened bell
of a snowdrop
– Erica Ison
meditation hall
breath by breath
the moon
– Ellen Kom
misty night
on her usual corner
halo effect
– Lorraine A Padden
starry night —
milk
in my baby’s breath
– R. Suresh babu
deepening stars
a blueprint
for solitude
– Kathryn Liebowitz
spring air
fills with pollen
midday tryst
– Nika
arching to your touch
the toothpaste tube,
too
– Clare Martin
ripe strawberries —
that detailed description
of his girlfriend
– Samo Kreutz
tinder the most beautiful parts of me
– Kelly Moyer
the parts of a flower
that are female
jack-in-the-pulpit
– Kristen Lindquist
cooing from
the dovecote
maternity ward
– Farah Ali
country road
the scent of honeysuckle
hitches a ride
– Millicent Bee
sunny day
an old friend arrives
out of the blue
– Barbara A. Taylor
vendor’s stall
tie-dyed scarves dance
in the breeze
– Roberta Beach Jacobson
hometown —
the morning light looks brighter
in mom’s kitchen
– Kanchan Chatterjee
spring thunder —
how “yes” changes
everything
– Angela Terry
also bent beneath
the weight of its flowering
snowdrops
– Joshua St. Claire
inoperable …
soap ends scattered
by the bathroom sink
– Antoinette Cheung
lump of clay
this effort to shape
the thing between us
– Ravi Kiran
loneliness a book falls from the shelf
– Mircea Moldovan
cold wind …
she finds a new soft spot
for lashing out
– Deborah Karl-Brandt
stinkweed
all the I’m sorrys
I’m not sorry for
– Bryan Rickert
dental floss —
i clear out the taste
of our last conversation
– Mona Bedi
danse macabre
butterflies visit
the hemlock plant
– Farah Ali
freeze warning
placing Dear John
back on hold
– Stephanie Newbern
strawberry jam —
grandma’s recipe
through word of mouth
– Vincenzo Adamo
life sentence
my son asks me to babysit
his Tamagotchi
– Joshua St. Claire
school uniform protest
boys support the girls wearing
very short skirts
– Annie Bachini
the child’s first visit
to a sushi café —
stick chops
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
dog days
an afternoon popsicle
blues my lips
– Joshua Gage
by Lennon
you mean Lenin …
missing my red pen
– Mike White
away from all
I’ve ever known
fallen camellia
– Deborah P Kolodji
a stolen shell
in my hand —
the exile’s blues
– Mariangela Canzi
last season’s fallen leaves
a long way from news
of the world
– Gary Hotham
The Ukraine war —
the hawthorn white
arabesques
– Ornella Vallino
kookaburra
all the things I wish
I could laugh away
– Ravi Kiran
winter solitude
isn’t grief
hard enough
– Vandana Parashar
no moon night —
all that hasn’t happened
in my life
– Ram Chandran
his old toolbox
no way to fix
all that’s broken
– Deborah P Kolodji
s.a.d.
the night watchman asks
what day it is
– Steve Black
morning stretch
philodendron leaves
reaching for the sun
– Michelle V. Alkerton
snow moon
painting a new room
eggshell white
– Shawn Blair
their little tiff
blows over
spring breeze
– Joan Chaput
first star
catching the firefly
between flickers
– Edward Cody Huddleston
garden Buddha
covered in pollens
still smiling
– Millicent Bee
she turns away
the scent of rain
without rain
– Robert Witmer
first date
after the silent movie
more silence
– Alvin B. Cruz
end of the affair
a koi circles
the moon
– P. H. Fischer
star ellipsis
everything we don’t say
after goodbye
– Edward Cody Huddleston
raindrop pearls —
she packs away
her measured words
– Amoolya Kamalnath
new home
cardamom husks slip away
between my fingertips
– Antoinette Cheung
at dusk
caught in swirling leaves
my old uncle shuffles home
– Charlotte Digregorio
aerial view
the diamond mine tailings pond
almost beautiful
– Caroline Giles Banks
talking to his widow
her door half open
and half closed
– Tony Williams
underpass
adjusting my step to resist
the busker’s rhythm
– Tom Zille
wooden bowl
what tree rings remain
among oak lettuce
– Anthony Lusardi
breadcrumbs
each sparrow
has a name
– Marilyn Ashbaugh
pregnant with spring …
the garden
delivers
– Bonnie J Scherer
last night’s rice
he decides between me
and the starling
– Richa Sharma
grazing rabbit
the four leaf clover
same as three
– petro c. k.
almost all
the mayfly has …
another day
– Srini
corpse pose …
a bluebird beyond
the skylight
– Shawn Blair
his death poem unfinished Paxlovid
– Susan Burch
an old book
with a broken spine
the hero dies
– Mike Gallagher
his last request
ejected from the pub again
ashes in the wind
– Mike Fainzilber
the shadow
of the flickering lamp
old age
– Devoshruti Mandal
winter rose —
hair again
around my face
– Carmela Marino
touch up paint
an old part
of the century
– Gary Hotham
five o’clock
the shadow in the mirror
white as snow
– Michael Henry Lee
light years …
charitably the stars
tender lights
– Pravat Kumar Padhy
crazy quilt
the serendipity
of you and I
– Susan Yavaniski
a butterfly
in a greenhouse
first kiss
– Robert Witmer
a couple walks
hand-in-hand …
the way red hollyhocks sway
– Neena Singh
hint of sandalwood
I find another shade of blue
in his eyes
– Wai Mei Wong
full moon
cars bumper to bumper
on love lane
– Steve Black
on the same old roads
with no companion —
traveler’s moon
– Ruth Holzer
binary stars …
around and around
go mother and daughter
– Tony Williams
new year’s day
i reheat
the leftovers
– Polona Oblak
migrating starlings —
all the saris
I don’t wear
– Rupa Anand
a spiral walk to nowhere social media
– Devoshruti Mandal
public bathroom
a phone number promises
salvation
– Ramund Ro
weeks without rain
a dung beetle’s ball
veering right
– paul m.
daybreak —
the empty
milk jug
– Sally Quon
one last ball
through the hoop
sundown
– Susan Yavaniski
cold church
a child lip-syncs
the carols
– Mona Bedi
men’s store —
thoughtful poses from those
without heads
– Scott Mason
wordplay
drawing an S E and X
in the scrabble game
– Michael Henry Lee
farmers market armful
his perfect
biceps rose
– Lorraine A Padden
valentine’s day
trying to understand
the bank’s cupidity
– John Pappas
crone
craning her neck
orthopedic shoes
– Kimberly A Horning
autumn inkcap
we all write
our own obituaries
– Ben Oliver
vaccine booster
renewing my bus pass
another three years
– Michelle V. Alkerton
year’s end
my spirit animal
a tardigrade
– Christopher Patchel
new moon
closing
the coffin
– Dustin Marley Hackfeld
she asks
if i´m writing again …
cocooned butterfly
– Deborah Karl-Brandt
horizon line the renunciate’s widening road
– Kelly Moyer
learning
to believe in myself
first crocus
– Meera Rehm
pre-spring rose
the new recruit’s
modest makeup
– Keiko Izawa
modeling clay
I re-shape
myself
– Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
wishing well
can’t think
of anything
– Annie Bachini
solving for
A = 1/2bh …
squatters
– Stephanie Newbern
mayflies
hatching
a plan
– Jeff Hoagland
68 percent full
an astronomer describes
the moon
– Laurie D. Morrissey
water snake
I used to know
all the ins and outs
– Randy Brooks
sleep-deprived
miscounting
the stars
– Alvin B. Cruz
myopia
all the birds become
crows
– John Pappas
old family platter
some kintsugi
worn off
– Keiko Izawa
slow thaw
the dark of molehills
through snow
– Thomas Powell
vertigo
in the stair well
leaf fall
– Cameron Morse
entitlement generation
after sitting in its own poop
the dog gets a treat
– Nathanael Tico
delirium
a crow’s incessant
squawking
– Veronika Zora Novak
downsizing
losing an inch to
osteoporosis
– Sharon Martina
migraine
a woodpecker
ruffling my feathers
– Tomislav Sjekloća
umbrellas
getting closer to each other …
belated city bus
– Maya Daneva
mists enfold
the hunter’s moon …
lovers’ whisper
– David He
chiromancy
a patch of cooling skin
where her palm lay
– John Hawkhead
April rain —
flooding the forest
warbler song
– Janice Doppler
wolf moon
my gaze follows
a peacock’s cry
– Neena Singh
park concert
on the far side
the evening blues bluer
– Margarita Drozdoff
‘your stitches will dissolve’ sea foam sways over the sand
– Clare Martin
skijoring
the day passes by
in a blur
– Debbie Strange
the mountain
with streaks of snow
secret marriage
– Maria Concetta Conti
flash floods —
on the satellite map
my town invisible
– Sreenath
chocolate treat —
slowly melting
my old grudge
– Cristina Povero
the war overseas —
blowing into
the water wings
– Mike White
cigar smell lingers
on grandpa’s bony hand
slant of moonlight
– Chen-ou Liu
Classic rock —
baby boomers stuck
in old grooves
– M. R. Pelletier
chicken pox
the fever angel
watches over me
– Kerry J Heckman
sunlit playground
a raven chooses
the sky
– Jeff Hoagland
lifting fog …
a yellow finch
returns to river’s edge
– Paula Sears
jinking comes
with the territory
city squirrel
– Scott Mason
above the ballpark
a swallow sails unmindful
of the score below
– Dennis Myers
first star the woodcock’s arc over the field
– Kristen Lindquist
Haiga – John Hawkhead
