Featured Poet – Kristen Lindquist
green blackberries …
explaining again
our right to choose
only a shadow
of her former self
dark side of the moon
cabin fever
air bubbles rise
beneath pond ice
baggage carousel
not as fun
as it sounds
glacial erratic
of all the places
we could be
Kristen Lindquist writes her haiku amid the natural beauty of Midcoast Maine. Her book Island placed second in the 2023 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards; her chapbooks It Always Comes Back (haiku) and What We Tell Each Other (haibun) were winners of the Snapshot Press eChapbook Award in 2020 and 2023, respectively. She currently serves as the Haiku Society of America’s Regional Coordinator for New England and as co-editor for Autumn Moon Haiku Journal.
Beltane
untangling wind chimes
by the back door
– Steve Mason
country church
the old piano slightly
out of tune
– Lee Hudspeth
sound of glass bangles
… the bronze dancing girl
of Mohenjo-daro
– Kala Ramesh
praying mantis
my hands part
the rose bush
– Shawn Blair
Sufi hymn —
dripping from the roof
raindrops
– Hifsa Ashraf
the calf roper
comes out swinging
spring revival
– Chad Lee Robinson
the
orange
un
furl
ing
o
n
e
l
o
n
g
p
e
e
l
– kei andersen
screen-free day
scrolling through
my thoughts
– thomas david
strands on the dune
a crow begins
her first nest
– Zach Street
glair spills
between my fingers …
burnt sienna sunset
– Thomas Landgraf
wild yarrow field
faint stars
above the highway
– Jo McInerney
grandma’s rocking chair
just a short way
across the holler
– Randy Brooks
finding the word
for a daydream
poppied
– Joanna Ashwell
tufted armchair …
grandad rests comfortably
on a memory
– Barrie Levine
moon jar
you, filling me
with quietude
– Anne Elise Burgevin
talking in circles
our wine glasses
leave stains
– Bob Stewart
stormy weather
blood on the thorns
of the apology
– Roberta Beary
a flash
without the bang
firefly
– Jeff Hoagland
pounding heat
the powwow drummer pauses
to draw a breath
– Chad Lee Robinson
tears for what
concentric rings
of an onion
– Meera Rehm
meadow wedding —
a meat goat makes eyes
at the flower girls
– Dave Russo
frayed denim
the white thighs
of the first warm day
– kei andersen
what you did
in the dark
evening primrose
– Rowan Beckett Minor
dawn embrace
the slow swell
of birdsong
– Susan Yavaniski
her bikini top
washed away
whitecaps
– Jon Petruschke
polling station
the first drops
of a distant storm
– Ben Oliver
a signh of the times
– susan burch
building a fence
around the roses
executive order
– Lorraine A Padden
binned jazz—what a wonderful world in pieces
– C. K. Crawford
old arguments
over park statues
ivy winds
– Jake Dennis
a clutch of balloons
losing lift
the drift in small talk
– Bonnie J Scherer
empty swing
beneath the campus oak …
spring break
– Michael Lamb
bending time
the scent of hay
in a barn’s carcass
– Debbie Strange
the passing of an hour
marked by the rings
around a beer glass
– Johnny Moran
looking to create
a longer pause
low-ceiling clouds
– Deborah Burke Henderson
was your last bloom
your last bloom —
backroom orchid
– Julie Schwerin
morning after
my face
before i was born
– Scott Mason
one blossom
from a tree of thousands
april breeze
– Sarah Lawhorne
chrysalis
waiting
for a new me
– Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
summer blooms
the little
I know
– M. R. Pelletier
black-on-black Pueblo pot
two crows harass
a raven
– Janet Ruth
firefly flashes …
the scent of skunk
darkens the yard
– Janice Doppler
deep winter —
the missing arm
of Orion the Hunter
– Hifsa Ashraf
final ascent —
a raven’s wings
fold into dusk
– Neena Singh
shadowed roadside
the eyelids
of a dead crow
– Keiko Izawa
dawn river
parting the hush
with our paddles
– Rupa Anand
rocks
we’ll never see smaller
the Maine coast
– Gary Hotham
first sunrise
in a drop of dew …
this floating life
– Chen-ou Liu
sculpture garden
the slowly swiveling head
of a doe
– Scott Mason
night river —
full moon
glides towards the sea
– Ram Chandran
ripples in time
I count the growth rings
in the old stump
– Richard West
my last uncle
gone
my childhood with him
– Marie Derley
weathered bookcase —
leafing through the pages
of my youth
– Nicoletta Ignatti
sundown —
my father struggles
with my name
– Nicholas Gentile
resting here …
an old river
dribbled down to its stones
– Tony Williams
neighborhood watch
Black-eyed Susans bloom
in my neighbor’s yard
– Wonja Brucker
old stone bridge
afraid to cross over
into my past
– Patricia Hawkhead
before and after
the blackout siren
cicadas
– Arvinder Kaur
beggar
the please
in his eyes
– Joseph P. Wechselberger
at dusk —
riding tandem
with his shadow
– Sarah Mirabile-Blacker
the crunch
of unemployment
carrot sticks
– Marilyn Humbert
pulling survivors
from the burning hospital
a not-so-smart bomb
– John Hawkhead
poppies
nodding in a field of wheat
endless war
– Ruth Holzer
war wounds
a broken clock
without hands
– John Zheng
drifting
dandelion seeds
mass lay-offs
– Archie G. Carlos
March madness
what do we call
the rest of the year
– susan burch
autumn evening
how have i survived
my foolishness
– Lev Hart
glass globe
a child asks why the man
likes making smudges
– Richard L. Matta
spilled cola
bees and I
buzzing
– Nalini Shetty
chaos gardening
the latest thing
I’ve always done
– Laurie D. Morrissey
sparrow in the apse
the pastor captures it
in the sermon
– Frank Higgins
snowmelt along the path to forgiveness
– John Hawkhead
Joseph’s coat
swelling in shades
of April
– Scott Wiggerman
full moon —
the hobo gazes
at his silver coin
– Eugeniusz Zacharski
a duct tape cross
mending the greenhouse
easter lilies
– David Green
swamp water
they might
be giants
– Jeff Hoagland
incoming tide
a child averts
her dinosaurs’ extinction
– Kristen Lindquist
at the zoo
schoolboys ape
the gorillas
– Charlotte Digregorio
evolution:
my niece hesitates to eat
her dino-shaped nuggets
– Anthony Lusardi
all good things
must come to a beginning
wildflower seeds
– Edward Cody Huddleston
horseshoe sparks
the business of men
after dark
– Chad Lee Robinson
feminicide
evening falls
on the crow’s hole
– Carmela Marino
monsoon
red velvet mites
flood the desert
– Deborah Bowman
anniversary
a houseplant constrained
by its pot
– Patricia Hawkhead
police call
cherry blossoms trampled
into the ground
– Deborah Karl-Brandt
strawberry moon
he says I’m too vanilla
for his taste
– Vandana Parashar
dry riverbed
you said it would
last forever
– Ravi Kiran
not what she said
but the way she said it
lunar terminator
– Joshua St. Claire
to unspeak
those words
high tide
– Audrey Quinn
nothing new
to say
sparrow song
– Kimberly Kuchar
waves
changing places
we talk
– Robert Witmer
a palmist
reads my love line
rainbow’s end
– Alvin B. Cruz
sea glass along the way
your way
my way
– John Stevenson
wearing days
a tattered heart
on my sleeve
– Joseph Chiang
body language …
the way she rolls
her R’s
– Timothy Daly
Monday blues
the music plays
with her moods
– Christine Wenk-Harrison
1970s tune
getting fixed
into a cortical groove
– Jay Friedenberg
bossa nova
commuters shimmy past
the busker
– Steve Mason
brain scan
the melody hidden
in heavy metal
– Eric Sundquist
with two seashells
we listen to the ocean
in stereo
– John H. Dromey
earmarking
earmarking
for a poem
– Nathanael Tico
eyes mid-distant
the reader pondering
THE END
– Mike Gallagher
hidden library
the secret life
of banned books
– Pat Davis
grandmother
at her crossword
yellowing leaves
– Agnes Eva Savich
only one poem
on the whole walk
winter sun
– Brad Bennett
frozen waterfall
waiting for the return
of the oncologist
– Adele Evershed
patiently searching
for half-price fruit
gnarled hands
– Stephanie Zepherelli
closet wardrobe
he marks a favorite suit
use this one
– Richard L. Matta
old piano tuner
he leans in closer
to my voice
– Marianne Paul
another year older my rolling stops
– Christopher Patchel
putting on
weight
my shadow
– John Stevenson
estate sale
a half-off book
on longevity
– Nathanael Tico
biology textbook
that one page
all the kids turn to
– Gordon Brown
on the ATM line
waiting for a withdrawal
mosquito
– Maria Tosti
taking
the shorter route —
cheatgrass
– Jay Friedenberg
daisies
in a field of winter wheat —
nothing to prove
– Jenny Ward Angyal
croaking bullfrogs
the familiar rhythms
of barroom banter
– John Pappas
loosening shadows
I shrug off
another scan
– Gavin Austin
at the cotton candy stand
counting my coins
the neighborhood’s beggar
– Maya Daneva
paddling
amid all the stars
a beaver’s tail slap
– Nancy Orr
spring twigs
my daughter learns
to sign the alphabet
– Kelly Sargent
4th of July
the carousel ponies
with stars in their eyes
– MJ Mello
evening stillness
a small insect’s wing
lands on my arm
– a p hywel
a flush of violets
in the understory
a doe and her fawn
– Jo Balistreri
blowing
dandelion seeds —
duck, duck, goose
– C. Jean Downer
leaving home
to see the world
dandelion fluff
– Gregory Longenecker
passport check:
officer asks the rinpoche
if he is certified
– Shiva Bhusal
safari
a camel uses my car
to scratch an itch
– Gareth Nurden
tourist souvenirs
the last sound
of fallen leaves
– Gary Hotham
faint hum of home
on the immigrant’s tongue
nursery rhyme
– Jharna Sanyal
heat lightning —
near the tip of a pine
an empty nest
– Paula Sears
awake
too early
misplaced moon
– Barbara Feehrer
the thin font
in my friend’s letter …
april snow
– Keiko Izawa
day drinking
this life on the edge
of cornfields
– Bryan Rickert
a hair
has found a way
onto my tongue
– Annie Bachini
camellia hedge
the gap between my
intentions and actions
– Madhuri Pillai
scissors
what stays what drops away
decision
– Mary Oishi
the weight
of the world on her shoulders
cherry blossoms
– Roberta Beach Jacobson
wind storm …
the parts of me
I let blow away
– Angela Terry
between choice
and consequence
a short spring
– Ravi Kiran
part-time parent
the to and fro
of playground swings
– Jennifer Sutherland
first dandelion
suddenly an urge
for a little granddaughter
– Suzanne Leaf-Brock
hoping kids hold
the marriage together
mac ‘n cheese
– Cynthia Gallaher
tea with great-aunt
our identical layers
of cucumber slices
– Antoinette Cheung
day at the spa …
mother and daughter
cleansing old wounds
– Stephenie Story
cicada heat
a greasy alternator
bending the weeds
– Mark Forrester
story arc
gran’s cigarette ash
holding steady
– Marilyn Ashbaugh
ouzo at sunset
the sour oranges starting
to look pretty good
– sheenholt
second-hand smoke
the stained fingers
of the car salesman
– Al Williams
too sweaty
to even cuddle
strawberry moon
– Joshua Gage
jade necklace
the creek frozen
in a loop
– Kathryn P. Haydon
mateless
the mallard takes
a liking to me
– Bryan Rickert
trade winds
the car mechanic
now a milkman
– Govind Joshi
nightfall …
under the sausage tree
a bloat of hippos
– Corine Timmer
art gallery
people staring at
an empty wall
– Tuyet Van Do
Haiga – Marianne Paul
