Featured Poet – Chen-ou Liu
a white lie
to cover another
early snowfall
light of dawn
a tai chi master
pushes the silence
AA meeting
the stony silence
after I used to be …
my wife’s kiss
on the yellow post-it
paper anniversary
im-mi-grant . . .
the way English tastes
on my tongue
Chen-ou Liu is currently the editor and translator of NeverEnding Story (neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com), and the author of two award-winning books, Following the Moon to the Maple Land (First Prize, 2011 Haiku Pix Chapbook Contest) and A Life in Transition and Translation (Honorable Mention, 2014 Turtle Light Press Biennial Haiku Chapbook Competition). His tanka and haiku have been honored with many awards.
in bed with Rumi
a twirl of red
in the tulip vase
– Kathryn Liebowitz
the intimacy
of shadow …
fallen plums
– Timothy Daly
a blank page
silence makes itself
welcome
– Gary Hotham
this cast …
a stone’s skip
into sunset
– Laurie Wilcox-Meyer
hell-flower
the ghost of you
still in my hollow
– Rowan Beckett
regardless
of her passing
white-crowned sparrow
– Dylan Stover
winter cirrus
an old friendship
evaporates
– Deborah Bowman
longer by
another year
Mother’s Day
– Laurie D. Morrissey
nostalgia …
one raindrop slides
into the next
– Edward Cody Huddleston
without you today …
I patch the hole
in your sweater
– Susan Yavaniski
my iPhone
in dark mode …
Gaza sunset
– Archie Carlos
piano lessons
the long shadow
of her ruler
– Stephenie Story
solitary willow —
the homeless
sharing twilight
– Mariangela Canzi
pillow talk
a touch-me-not
in the dark
– John Zheng
floating songs …
all over the sea
night fishing
– Ram Chandran
a thistle —
me
after the pink slip
– Ram Chandran
doing the dishes
father washes away
one more defeat
– Srini
mid-February …
in the rose garden he dwells
on all the pricks
– David Cox
penny carnival
knowing I’ve become
a consolation prize
– Bryan Rickert
fall into winter
his cane leaning
on his walker
– Brad Bennett
cloven tracks in snowpack —
six more weeks
of sin
– Scott Mason
little brown mushrooms
she recounts
her dating history
– Joshua St. Claire
firefly squid —
all night ripples pulsing
electric blue
– Ruth Holzer
flickering ovation
who installed
The Clapper
– Susan Burch
rattlesnake
in the mezcal …
summer fever
– Seth Friedman
another’s name
from your lips
spring snow squall
– Kelly Sargent
no one
to speak their names …
lichened stones
– Kathryn Liebowitz
the spoken and unspoken
between my wife and me
pink blossom rain
– Chen-ou Liu
a frog’s shadow
crosses the pond
silence
– Richard L. Matta
strands of a web —
the secret
she let go
– Jacob D. Salzer
retirement home
dancing in the sunlight
the dust motes
– Gordon Brown
virus outbreak
the hospital fountain
fills with coins
– Chen-ou Liu
Day of the Dead
a gravedigger toasting
to life
– Alvaro Carrasquel Gomez
new job —
the sky behind
the forest
– C.X. Turner
cherry blossoms
the argument’s
sudden death
– Roberta Beary
confusing
my own motion
with the universe’s
– John Paul Caponigro
fractal creek
an algorithm
of sun and shadow
– Kevin Browne
cycle logically
– Nathanael Tico
they pronoun —
each and everyone’s
multitudes
– Stephen J. DeGuire
pruning away the deadwood
she applies the 30% rule
to her life
– Leslie Umans
heated discussion
the effectiveness
of click consonants
– Corine Timmer
forest walk
our conversation
overtaken by crickets
– Vandana Parashar
snow again
the argument continues
into our anniversary
– Joshua Gage
spring woods
the birds having me
for an intervention
– Tomislav Sjekloća
his proposal
under the blossoms
cherry bomb
– Roland Packer
Worm Moon
my healing
in a few verses
– Carmela Marino
Tu Fu —
the differently-abled
near the Great Wall
– Pravat Kumar Padhy
meadow grass
the needle-thin waist
of a wasp
– Jay Friedenberg
stunned bird
the weight of a heartbeat
in my hand
– Kathryn Liebowitz
a peach-scented candle
can’t disguise it —
hospice care
– Julie Bloss Kelsey
red mittens
the crafty way
she flips me off
– Shawn Blair
moonlight
tripping over
the bedpan
– petro c. k
spoiler alert
the skull
on his jacket
– Scott Mason
senior gossip
the many people
named somebody
– Pat Davis
brain fog
even without it
bougen… villa?
– Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta
late evening
the unhurried clip-clops
of a carriage horse
– Frank Hooven
gravestone
the family album
inscribed
– Mike Gallagher
shutting out
the 21st century
antique garden gate
– Roberta Beach Jacobson
spring begins
old enough to ride the carousel
bench
– Bill Cooper
meet the parents
her father’s stash
of communion wine
– Tom Zille
misty morning …
the blurred flowers
of Monet’s garden
– Marilyn Humbert
winter sunrise
a sparrow’s shadow
on the feeder’s shadow
– Brad Bennett
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa
slanting sunlight strikes
a black-eyed Susan
– Joshua St. Claire
old diary
the ink and my life
fading
– Al Williams
flowers in her hair
a park bench
for her bedding
– Mike Fainzilber
lucky penny —
life gives me
a heads up
– Nicola Schaum
spring at last
curled up in a garden chair
a tiny snail
– Henk van der Werff
afternoon sun
we decide on
the hammock
– Govind Joshi
pulling a cold one
from the springhouse
red salamander
– Jeff Hoagland
new haircut —
a spring breeze caresses
my neck
– Ben Oliver
on our walk
your arm repeatedly brushes mine
budding trees
– Joseph P. Wechselberger
no regrets
whatsoever —
wildflowers
– Jharna Sanyal
after-dinner kiss
I’m not even sure
what a solstice is
– Tom Zille
his soft hand
cupping my breast
snow-capped peak
– Rowan Beckett
waiting for you
to make the first step —
apple tree in bud
– Marie Derley
testing the water
the weight
of starlight
– Angela Terry
Kansas grain elevator
her horizon
not mine
– Randy Brooks
canopy of maple
an understory
of longing
– Deborah Bowman
coming out —
grandpa tells about his summer
with Ricardo
– Alexander Groth
love triangle …
the many strands
of a spider’s web
– Kevin Valentine
open crocus
I find my
missing sock
– Shawn Blair
the urge
to buy a wooden bread plate …
march sunlight
– Keiko Izawa
a maid
turns down the bed
winter dusk
– Susan Yavaniski
pothole puddle
a raindrop encircles
the gull’s eye
– Chuck Brickley
cutworm tracks
crisscrossing the beetroot —
sound of a train
– Albert Schlaht
undusted board
two pennies
in place of pawns
– Frank Hooven
seashells
our own way of
keeping time
– Jamie Wimberly
formerly found
on café tables
open newspapers
– Laurie D. Morrissey
summertime
in the rearview mirror
an old beach sticker
– Rick Jackofsky
old film
that spring I had
dresses like those
– Marie Derley
almost dry lake
the mating season
long gone
– Neena Singh
graveyard passage
— blue tits flit
from yew to yew
– a p hywel
rocks
centuries before the battle
Gettysburg
– Gary Hotham
winter solstice
her mourning begins
and ends earlier
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
old age home
the scent
of withering leaves
– Padmini Krishnan
tilting the color wheel
this way and that
the spring breeze
– Angela Terry
bluets blooming
among the four-leaf clovers
— St. Patrick’s Day
– Nancy Brady
lunar new year
red lanterns burn
against night
– Almila Dükel
under a jetty
under the moon
moon jellies
– Marietta McGregor
dawnlight …
I open the window
to a blooming cherry
– David He
doomscrolling —
red sky
at morning
– Curt Pawlisch
Yahweh versus Allah self-mutilation
– Jerome Berglund
after the siren
silence of a rattle
in the rubble
– Meera Rehm
checking into the hotel
checking for fire escapes
checking for bomb shelters
– Nancy Orr
broken nest
another report
with a trigger warning
– Ben Oliver
Christmas Eve
no beds available
on the psych ward
– Steve Black
rusted dog tag
when MIA
becomes KIA
– Jay Friedenberg
Earth Day —
the missing leg
of a crow
– Manoj Sharma
nearly dawn …
an eastern grey spread out
across the roadway
– Jo McInerney
Mermaid’s Purse
wrecked on the rocks
no witnesses
– Ron Scully
interstate motel
the flop flop flop
of a passing flat
– Bryan Rickert
Valentine’s Day
a middle-aged man’s
styling dilemma
– Manoj Sharma
not for lunch today egg drop(ped) soup
– Susan Burch
weight and hair
not losing
what I want
– Ravi Kiran
adju
sting
to fit
airp
lane
bath
room
– petro c. k
cicada’s cry
everyone else keeps
mowing the lawn
– Maya Daneva
self-care
an orange poppy closes
for the night
– Marilyn Ashbaugh
deer rub …
we agree
to disagree
– Theresa A. Cancro
reeds
soughing in the wind
summer swim
– Owen Bullock
mother’s day
a fox entwines
my twilight
– Roberta Beary
owl pellets the punctuation within
– Debbie Strange
not as timid
as I would prefer
coyote’s stare
– Cynthia Anderson
rook’s eye
the deepening shadow
of regret
– Joanna Ashwell
horseshoe crab
on horseshoe crab
a public display of affection
– Rick Jackofsky
labyrinth path the crow in me
– Julie Schwerin
river dawn
a currawong sings away
darkness
– Louise Hopewell
warblers
from branch to branch
prayer flags
– Vishal Prabhu
vernal equinox
a loon’s skitter
bisects the moon
– Eric Sundquist
canyon bridge
the bob and sway
of water ouzels
– Debbie Strange
each songbird
a different name
for daybreak
– Jeff Hoagland
daybreak
the moon still hanging
around
– Mona Iordan
filming
a Kodak moment …
Mt. Fuji
– Roberta Beach Jacobson
scaling bream …
stars swirl into
the night river
– Marietta McGregor
spring breeze
the droppings of a dove on
freshly washed pants
– Deborah Karl-Brandt
syncopated pings …
the sparkle of moonlit snow
in the sugarbush
– Julie Schwerin
picture hook
on the newly painted wall
— the waiting
– Annie Bachini
family get-together
at the appeal of Star Wars
my sister wonders
– Nathanael Tico
escaping the reptile house Brownie squeals
– Scott Mason
shaking off
her jitters —
jitterbug
– Mary McCormack
podcast —
milkweed seeds
on the air
– Curt Pawlisch
doll’s house
my ex-stepdaughter
in another house
– Marcellin Dallaire-Beaumont
marriage …
a larger bowl
for the goldfish
– Richa Sharma
hide-and-seek
unable to find
my inner child
– Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
photo album
a lifetime
of pretending
– Pat Davis
divorce court
the couple splits
the children
– Barrie Levine
snow moon
my birthday
a cake with no candles
– Tony Williams
leaf glow
the first hour
of the road trip
– Seth Friedman
new country —
cooking pasta
with refugees
– Mariangela Canzi
youth service
the hiss of the coffee maker
all through prayer
– Tom Zille
dim porch light
I learn to see
with one eye
– Padmini Krishnan
waiting for daffodils
how many
more years?
– Nancy Orr
hydrangea on the turn
a young woman asks
if I can reverse it
– Annie Bachini
8 & 0 balloons deflate
resetting
the snooze alarm
– Caroline Giles Banks
travel journal
a sift through the sands
of old summers
– Gavin Austin
vanishing cream
scraped from the jar
mother’s day
– Jo McInerney
Mai Tai morning
sipping sunlight
beachside
– Bonnie J Scherer
compliment approaching the length of a sail needle
– Bill Cooper
beach front property
beach front
beach
– Mark Forrester
silver anniversary still biking in tandem
– Scott Wiggerman
last day of the honeymoon …
our sandcastle
weathers the tides
– Charlotte Digregorio
Art Collage by Shloka Shankar, Haiku by Ganesh R.
