Featured Poet – Jennifer Hambrick
an old hymn
hanging in the air
summer moon
frozen earth
the poems i didn’t read
to her
raking
again and again
the same conversation
frost field
a quiet walk through
the Milky Way
Monday morning coffee
adding cream and sugar
to my attitude
Jennifer Hambrick is a six-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of In the High Weeds, winner of the Stevens Prize; Joyride (Red Moon Press), winner of the Marianne Bluger Book Award; and Unscathed (NightBallet Press). Hambrick’s poems appear in The Columbia Review, The American Journal of Poetry, American Life in Poetry (featured by Ted Kooser), A New Resonance 13, and elsewhere. A frequent recipient of poetry commissions, Hambrick won the Haiku Society of America’s Haibun Award, the Martin Lucas Haiku Award, the Sheila-Na-Gig Poetry Prize, and other awards. You can check out her website: JenniferHambrick.com.
moonlight
through a dreamcatcher
sfumato
– Robert Witmer
she answers
the unasked question
first stars
– Ravi Kiran
perhaps
in another life …
Matsushima
– Lorin Ford
the head-tilt
in her shy smile …
crescent moon
– Neena Singh
chiaroscuro
a beautiful face
half-veiled
– John Zheng
moonset
behind the ridge
a constellation I cannot name
– B. L. Bruce
imbibing
the silver ripples
on swifts’ wings
– Mike Gallagher
moonless night
the silent forest
fills with foxfire
– Stephenie Story
summer shower
the sidewalks
full of sunset
– Ruth Holzer
starry sky
a stretch of road
without traffic signs
– Carmela Marino
wriggling fish
my reputation
on the line
– Susan Burch
just one fake snow flake
outside the mall store
spring is coming
– Miriam Sagan
social season —
gathering at the lake house
stinkbugs
– Shelli Jankowski-Smith
the many songs
of a mockingbird
yew to yew to yew
– Brad Bennett
church camp
our homemade ouija board
under the bunk
– Kerry J Heckman
hangetsu —
retracing
my dark side
– Cristina Povero
crows gather on the steps
frame by frame
the film in my head
– Annie Bachini
a friend’s
sudden death
deep crease of the night
– Carolyn Hall
a bird’s shadow flutters
across the pulled shade
war stories
– Joseph P. Wechselberger
no moon night —
the owl’s hoot
completes the darkness
– Ram Chandran
escaping the name
I was born into
day moon
– Elisa Theriana
her long gaze
at The Birth of Venus …
a teenaged niqābi
– Chen-ou Liu
wolf whistles
wishing they
were wolves
– Patricia Hawkhead
arranged marriage
mother’s long list
of compromises
– Vandana Parashar
scars on my wrist
the man who begged me
to call him uncle
– Roberta Beary
every year
on the moon
year of the rabbit
– Srini
corn maze
he tries to describe
a curveball
– Margaret Tau
crocus
deciding on
a lovelier name
– Pat Davis
no worries
autocorrected
now worries
– Nathanael Tico
– Shelli Jankowski-Smith
her first period
she gathers a bouquet
of fallen leaves
– David Kāwika Eyre
Birkenstocks and socks
waiting for spring
to step up
– Sharon Martina
summer walk
the feel of light rain
on my toes
– Annie Bachini
seasonal change spring onions in my pho
– Roberta Beach Jacobson
from my hammock
I rename the weeds
wildflowers
– Millicent Bee
bamboo shoots —
my niece’s son
knows how to flatter
– Keiko Izawa
evening mist
the vaseline sheen
of her new tattoo
– John Pappas
sidewalk cafe
people watching people
people-watching
– Millicent Bee
front man
for the band —
the pitch of his smile
– Angela Terry
someone watching
out for me …
black-eyed Susans
– Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
mating squirrels
my usual park bench
taken
– Bryan Rickert
downsized
a sudden interest
in ants
– Mike White
Ansel Adams exhibit
the nonstop clicks
of cellphone cameras
– Nathanael Tico
online
undertakers
doomscrolling
– John Hawkhead
foreign languages uni
in the yard a jay
speaking buzzard
– Tomislav Sjekloća
the mountain
makes it presence felt …
taku winds
– Debbie Strange
shooting star —
my child asks
where God came from
– Michael Dylan Welch
gentle rain
what I need
to believe
– Laurie D. Morrissey
lame grasshopper
my failed leap
of faith
– Cynthia Anderson
tenebrae
the choir breathes
as one
– Erica Ison
from circle
to circle
skipping stone
– Jeff Hoagland
another hole
full of sky
potter’s field
– Lorraine A Padden
wind bells
the twists and turns
of a winding lane
– Manoj Sharma
Ganges sunset —
a sadhu dips himself
in his reflection
– Daipayan Nair
lingerers
daylight replacing
daylight
– Gary Hotham
Daybreak
the blue
of a robin’s egg
– Jeff Hoagland
city in bud
kids doing flips
on a mattress
– Shawn Blair
rose garden
as if a bee
the photographer
– Keiko Izawa
the lightness
of childhood mornings …
yellow butterflies
– Daniela Misso
bluebell wood
a raven’s call ends
with a key change
– Thomas Powell
gulls mobbing a crow —
when all you do
is tell the truth
– Tony Williams
pesticide –
a child lays butterflies
back on flowers
– Lavana Kray
scent of rain —
a fresh swastika scrawled
on the bunker wall
– Carolyn Hall
human rights rally —
a beggar picks food
from the dustbin
– Debarati Sen
subway station …
twin tunnels beneath
the junkie’s hood
– Scott Mason
hard rind
on our remaining cheese
winter moon
– Mark Forrester
weed flower
no one asks the name
of a beggar child
– Meera Rehm
floating in a puddle
face up —
my face
– Tony Williams
gnarled oak
her hands clasped
between her knees
– Marilyn Fleming
head back
to kill the coffee —
crescent moon
– Craig Kittner
off the grid …
the river and I
find the way
– Pat Davis
returning
to the scene
day moon
– Scott Mason
drifting clouds
border crossing
– Barrie Levine
glacier rocks
walking the river
of yesterdays
– Joanna Ashwell
summer rain
the size and shape
of torn sandals
– Engin Gülez
outdoor wedding
two puddles
become one
– Edward Cody Huddleston
after the rain
trees and sky
between cobblestones
– Emil Karla
our kiss goodbye
Venus and Jupiter
closer now
– Michelle V. Alkerton
ficus and i waiting room
– Scott Mason
ancient ground —
a church built over a church
built over a church
– Laurie D. Morrissey
pond ripples
we slowly grow
apart
– Bryan Rickert
leaky faucet
the steady drip
of our silence
– John Hawkhead
railroad tracks —
married but not
to each other
– Ravi Kiran
without you this morning …
a blue heron
on one leg
– Susan Yavaniski
our differing views
storks
that no longer migrate
– Polona Oblak
blue notes
the syncopated rhythm
of a lie
– Patricia Hawkhead
one legged seagull
finding balance
without you
– Richard L. Matta
cobblestone rain
he says he’s not
not over it
– Roberta Beary
reader’s digest condensed version … friendzoned
– Stephanie Newbern
precipice
the letter I
in infidelity
– Christine Eales
broken shell
the arrival of
a brief letter
– Richa Sharma
alone
yet not alone …
The Scream and I
– Chen-ou Liu
onion skins —
one by one the divorce papers
to sign
– Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă
despite
his clean slate
P(X = 0)
– Stephanie Newbern
pruning back
the deadwood
lie after lie
– Alexandria Barbera
city lights …
the stars
they will never be
– Lee Hudspeth
suncatchers
the porch screen studded
with raindrops
– Debbie Strange
songbirds
the morning sun
now an evening sun
– Thomas Powell
fading light
on the public piano
a chipped black key
– Antoinette Cheung
Beginner’s mind …
returning to the cushion
everyday
– M.R. Pelletier
boys arguing
about the rules of make-believe
Verdun
– Joshua St. Claire
scud clouds
a monarch dodges
an oriole’s beak
– Richard L. Matta
stop sign —
the “unjust war” sticker
been there forever
– John Pappas
dead of winter
the many eyes
of the potato
– Brad Bennett
war news on tv
she moves her flag pin
to the other lapel
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
after
the eulogy
yesterday’s fresh cut flowers
– Gary Hotham
wanderlust
a backpack brimming
with stories
– Ganesh R.
the bits and pieces
of my life —
what puzzles me
– Bonnie J Scherer
forest trail
the pitch and scale
of wood thrush song
– Debbie Olson
rabbit hole a child no more
– Cynthia Anderson
remaining wildflowers —
baby a few days
overdue
– Rob Scott
funeral
forgotten for a while
the rain
– Daniel Birnbaum
headstone repair
the brother-in-law
I never met
– AJ Anwar
in the mist
a lone phoebe calls —
the woman before my wife
– Curt Pawlisch
end of the road
comes suddenly …
wildflowers
– Jerome Berglund
nursing home
expressing his views
with a box of crayons
– Joseph P. Wechselberger
divorce court
all the attention
on apostrophes
– John Pappas
empty boxes …
she finds a bird skull
in her sister’s effects
– Kristen Lindquist
soccer kids
wait their turn —
grazing Canada geese
– Richard Tice
a breath of brown polish
in each step
grandfather’s dress shoes
– Barrie Levine
all my complaining —
silhouettes of flax flowers
against a pink sky
– Owen Bullock
counting desperately
haiku in a notebook
the rain comes back
– Andrew Terrell
running
into a childhood friend …
winter violets
– Meera Rehm
squirrel nest …
she opens her mum’s
time capsule
– Samo Kreutz
sitting
in despair
tree stumps
– Rupa Anand
wildfire haze —
flag up
on the rural mailbox
– Michael Dylan Welch
lingering a moment
over the open grave
flower moon
– Deborah A. Bennett
light pollution
wishing upon
a firefly
– Edward Cody Huddleston
festival cancelled bare dandelions in mud
– Anthony Lusardi
fire season …
the red planet
now ours
– Angela Terry
city stars
a soprano reaches
her high notes
– Susan Yavaniski
first to offer
condolences
mourning doves
– Sharon Martina
dead of night —
from the tree top
a blackbird song
– Mariangela Canzi
Temblor Range
a ripple of birdsong
across the plain
– Helen Ogden
Haiga – Ella Aboutboul
