black tea bubbles
the part of me
that stays afloat
~
Kelly Sargent is a poet, editor, and devoted tea drinker residing in Vermont. Though she writes about autumn foliage and fallen acorns, she most enjoys penning poems that reflect the multiple facets of being human. She is an assistant editor for #FemkuMag and served last year as a co-judge for the HSA Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest. The author of a haiku/senryu collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), she writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.
sin eaters . . .
what the crows hold
inside
~
Randy Brooks is Professor of English Emeritus at Millikin University, where he teaches a haiku course. Randy and Shirley Brooks are publishers of Brooks Books and co-editors of Mayfly haiku magazine. His most recent publication is HAIKU DECK, which features 52 haiku, one each for 52 cards. See the web page: https://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/Brooks-HaikuDeck.html.
The Geometry of Craters
The sky above,
has begun to stutter . . .
as if the stars
are trying to remember
how to fall.
Night used to be
a quiet witness.
Now it is a ledger
where someone keeps
writing the same equation:
metal + distance
= absence.
Missiles arrive
like unsigned letters
from a future
that has already decided
what will be missing.
Buildings open their ribs
to the wind.
The streets breathe dust
like an old library
where every book
is titled
before.
Somewhere
a child asks why thunder
has learned to aim.
Somewhere
a soldier watches the horizon
the way a man watches
a door
that will never open again.
The desert does not care
which flag burns.
It only records
the geometry of craters
the way a graveyard records
names
that no longer answer.
And history . . .
that patient astronomer . . .
is already charting
another constellation
made entirely
of smoke.
~
Scott Burton is a writer and artist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, whose work is rooted in raw honesty, emotional survival, and the haunting beauty of what lingers long after love or loss. A dreamer by nature and a romantic to a fault, his poetry spans decades and carries the weight of lived experience. Thousands of pieces that speak what couldn't be said out loud. His writing walks the tightrope between ruin and reverence, reaching into themes of longing, emotional vulnerability, missed chances, and the ache of memory. He writes in free verse, often in a stream-of-consciousness style, allowing the poem to breathe and break as a heart does—unpolished, unguarded, and always reaching.
Scott is the author of Forever Is Tomorrow, a deeply personal collection revisited in a newly expanded edition, and the currently releasing ten-volume Chaos series, which chronicles the emotional anatomy of being human. His work isn't interested in perfection—it's about truth, even when that truth hurts. His ongoing creative identity also lives under the moniker ks.bleeds.ink, where art and vulnerability continue to meet on the page. His writing remains a kind of devotion—to love, to memory, to all that lingers after the moment has passed but refuses to let go.
Website: ScottBurtonAuthor.com
Facebook: facebook.com/ksbleedsink
Instagram: instagram.com/ks.bleeds.ink
Amazon: amazon.com/author/ks.bleeds.ink
philospher seminal research shelved
~
Lorraine A Padden is a former classical ballet dancer and widely published haiku and short forms poet. A Touchstone Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee, Lorraine also served as a Fellow at confluence haiku, a new journal centered on experimentation and inclusion of diverse voices in English-language haiku. Lorraine is an active member of Zen Peacemakers, a global social action and justice organization, and she has been a featured presenter at Upaya Zen Center's popular Way of Haiku gatherings.
Jackpot
The supermoon orbits,
grazes a cliff,
and punctures, spilling gold.
~
A best-selling author, Nolcha's poetry books are available on Amazon and Dancing Girl Press. Nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize multiple times. Editor of Chewers by Masticadores and LatinosUSA.
~
Zach Lance creates imaginary friends and new worlds in the post-modern kindergarten style. Painting these worlds with his new friends enables Zach to escape time.
Zach's latest work is currently on view, alongside that of Kevin Calhoun, in the Welborn Gallery at the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center, located in North Carolina's Wine Region, through April 24th.
samadhi
demigod devotees
dance with stars
~
Laila Brahmbhatt is a devoted workaholic who can be found either working wholeheartedly or writing poems with equal passion. Some days, she honestly can't decide whether she loves poetry more because it brings her closest to being a Sufi herself. Her ancestors are from Kashmir, and she feels a profound pull toward Sufi practices as she lovingly traces her ancestral roots.
~
Jack Hernon was born on a farm in Southern Wisconsin. He had a pony that he once got to ride to school.
mirror of honey starts the healing
~
Sarah Mahina Calvello lives in San Francisco and writes mostly haiku. She loves nature and is addicted to coffee. https://heyyouhaiku.blogspot.com/?m=1
The Stars Hesitate
The fence learned a new language
before we did.
It stopped being metal
and started being a throat . . .
tightened, trained,
clearing itself every time
a shadow tried to pass through.
They say the land remembers us,
but lately it flinches.
Every footprint is treated
like a confession.
Every horizon
comes with paperwork.
Men in borrowed authority
pace the dust
as if God drew straight lines
and asked them to guard the margins.
As if the wind
needs permission.
As if hunger
has a passport.
A lesson is repeated until it sticks:
some tones trigger pursuit,
some silences are read as proof,
and mercy is never part
of the curriculum.
Somewhere, a mother folds night
around her child
and calls it shelter.
Somewhere, a river practices forgetting
how many names it's swallowed.
Somewhere, a wall pretends
it's a solution
instead of a mirror.
What's left behind is documentation.
A folded square of permission.
A box already marked
by an unblinking eye
hovering where prayer
loses its grammar.
It used to feel like forward.
Now it's rationed,
counted in gestures,
kept by men
who inherited the sky
and can't hear
what suffocates beneath it.
Even the stars hesitate now,
unsure which side of the sky
they're allowed to fall on.
Even the desert is tired
of being asked
to choose.
And still . . .
roots keep doing what lines can't.
They move quietly.
They split stone.
They pass through
what insists on staying whole,
without asking,
and call it life.
~
Scott Burton is a writer and artist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, whose work is rooted in raw honesty, emotional survival, and the haunting beauty of what lingers long after love or loss. A dreamer by nature and a romantic to a fault, his poetry spans decades and carries the weight of lived experience. Thousands of pieces that speak what couldn't be said out loud. His writing walks the tightrope between ruin and reverence, reaching into themes of longing, emotional vulnerability, missed chances, and the ache of memory. He writes in free verse, often in a stream-of-consciousness style, allowing the poem to breathe and break as a heart does—unpolished, unguarded, and always reaching.
Scott is the author of Forever Is Tomorrow, a deeply personal collection revisited in a newly expanded edition, and the currently releasing ten-volume Chaos series, which chronicles the emotional anatomy of being human. His work isn't interested in perfection—it's about truth, even when the truth hurts. His ongoing creative identity also lives under the moniker ks.bleeds.ink, where art and vulnerability continue to meet on the page. His writing remains a kind of devotion—to love, to memory, to all that lingers after the moment has passed but refuses to let go.
Website: ScottBurtonAuthor.com
Facebook: facebook.com/ksbleedsink
Instagram: instagram.com/ks.bleeds.ink
Amazon: amazon.com/author/ks.bleeds.ink
pollen light . . .
what the bee bestows
on mankind
~
Shloka Shankar is a disabled poet, editor, and visual artist from Bangalore, India. A Best of the Net nominee and widely published haiku poet, Shloka is the Founding Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. She is the author of the haiku collections The Field of Why and within our somehows, and co-author of the haiga anthology, living in the pause. Website: www.shlokashankar.com | Instagram: @shloks23
god being symbol concept missing puzzle piece
~
David McKee is a haiku poet and retired psychotherapist living in Madison, WI. David's haiku have been published in various journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Acorn, Kingfisher, Bones, Presence, and password. His work has been anthologized in The Red Moon Anthology, Haiku 2021, Haiku 2022, Haiku 2023, Haiku 2024, the Whiptail 2023 Anthology, and the Haiku 21.2 Anthology. He was also invited to join a group of 17 haiku poets in sharing large selections of their haiku in the New Resonance series published by Red Moon Press. He is an oblate of Holy Wisdom Monastery and serves as lead shepherd for the oblate formation program. He is also a member of The Stray Dog Sangha, a small Zen Buddhist group in Madison.
dandelion crown
dreamcatching
weeds and wishes
~
Kelly Sargent is a poet, editor, and devoted tea drinker residing in Vermont. Though she writes about autumn foliage and fallen acorns, she most enjoys penning poems that reflect the multiple facets of being human. She is an assistant editor for #FemkuMag and served last year as co-judge for the HSA Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest. The author of a haiku/senryu collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), she writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.
~
Pawel Markiewicz was born in 1983 in Siemiatycze in Poland. He is a poet who lives in Bielsk Podlaski and writes tender poems, haiku and long poems.
rooted
in ancient wisdom
dendrolatry
~
Roberta Beach Jacobson is an Iowa-based writer in love with words—flash fiction, poetry, song lyrics, puzzles, and stand-up comedy. Her two poetry journals are smols and Five Fleas Itchy Poetry.
midnight—
the moth's dust
on my palm
~
Jacek Margolak is a Catholic residing in Kielce, Poland. A polygraph by profession, he has been passionate about short forms of Japanese poetry for nearly twenty years, sometimes combining them with prose. His haiku regularly appear in leading international journals dedicated to haiku and other forms of Japanese poetry. Jacek Margolak's haiku poems have been recognized in numerous competitions in Poland and Japan.
disrupting that from whence it came /ásÊÉȘ|(Ç)n(t)s/
~
Shloka Shankar is a disabled poet, editor, and visual artist from Bangalore, India. A Best of the Net nominee and widely published haiku poet, Shloka is the Founding Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. She is the author of the haiku collections The Field of Why and within our somehows, and co-author of the haiga anthology, living in the pause. Website: www.shlokashankar.com | Instagram: @shloks23
beatgold flaking
around Christ's hair
california poppy
~
Lucas Weissenborn is a researcher, musician, and poet based in Norway. His haiku and senryƫ have appeared in various journals, including Science. He was also once unintentionally appointed an expert on squirrels by a university in Russia.
embracing as if it belongs amarabel
~
Arvinder Kaur believes in a superpower that lives within each one of us, whose presence she feels in all forms of creation. She has released four collections of haiku and is working on her fifth one. Totally in love with her mother tongue, she also has three translated works to her credit. Her haiku/senryu often appear in major international journals. A retired educationist, she lives in Chandigarh with her family.
bound
she hops to a slaughterhouse . . .
the sacred cow
~
Kala Ramesh, a renowned pioneer of haikai literature in India, was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize in 2019 for her book, Beyond the Horizon Beyond. Founder of Triveni Haikai India, and haikuKATHA Journal, Kala conceptualised and curated Triveni Utsav 2025, the ninth festival she has organised since 2006. HAIKUcharades: imaging haiku through dance and music and haibunSLAM are her contributions to the haikai world. Her book of tanka, tanka prose and tanka doha, the forest I know, was published by HarperCollins India in July 2021. Kala co-edited amber i pause, Triveni Volunteer Dhanyavaad Anthology, published by Hawakal. From 2024 Kala has initiated Triveni on Wheels, where she organises Triveni members' haikai reading in various cities, literary festivals and organisations.
so distant the old ways
~
Roberta Beach Jacobson is an Iowa-based writer in love with words—flash fiction, poetry, song lyrics, puzzles, and stand-up comedy. Her two poetry journals are smols and Five Fleas Itchy Poetry.
along midnight's seam a crow's misfired caw
~
Vidya Premkumar is a poet, visual artist, entrepreneur, and educator known for her three poetry collections: Musing while Living, Living in an Indian Laputa, and The Silent Project, as well as a chapbook frame story. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals, including CHO, Failed Haiku, and #FemkuMag. She lives in Kerala, India.
civil twilight
the whispers
of witness trees
~
Kelly Sargent is a poet, editor, and devoted tea drinker residing in Vermont. Though she writes about autumn foliage and fallen acorns, she most enjoys penning poems that reflect the multiple facets of being human. She is an assistant editor for #FemkuMag and served last year as a co-judge for the HSA Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest. The author of a haiku/senryu collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), she writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.
twilight the omen of a crow
~
Sarah Mahina Calvello lives in San Francisco and writes mostly haiku. She loves nature and is addicted to coffee.
https://heyyouhaiku.blogspot.com/?m=1
half unfolding pages of prayer
~
Tazeen Fatma is a talkative introvert who believes in writing with a purpose. She likes to pen verses and stories with honest emotions. She has been blessed with acceptances from renowned journals worldwide.
dark moon
smearing her athame
with menstrual blood
~
Alvaro Carrasquel Gomez is a Venezuelan senryƫ poet, cursed poet, occasional haiku poet, outlaw poet, and a modern beat poet, but he is also a splatterpunkian short-story writer and a macabre poet (as "Vampirlibido"). He is one of the Shadow Pond Journal Issue VI Touchstone Award nominees by Katherine E. Winnick.
Apricity
An apricot seed that had sprouted in my compost last summer has been growing in a pot. In the fall, when it had lost its leaves and gone dormant, I couldn't tell if it was part of normal process or if it was struggling.
Before the last snowstorm and the predicted subzero temps, I had moved it indoors. Yesterday I noticed that it had begun leafing out in new green. The summer that had always been inside it was suddenly springing forth. Maybe because of apricity or maybe because it needed to show me that it was still alive.
Watching the Venerable Monks arrive in Ashland, VA yesterday and how they were greeted by the crowds every step of the way—with smiles, laughter, tears of happiness and good cheer—has made me see what their most important work had been. It is showing us what's real and vital in a world currently controlled by falsities and violence. Yes, we need to hold both realities in order to get through this, but there is something to be said for the smiles and the kindness which are still there and had not gone anywhere. The same as summer always exists, somewhere, even in the depth of winter. The Monks are allowing us to rest in the knowing.
you give it shelter
and each winter branch will sprout
invincible green
~
Mariya Gusev co-edits Haiku Pause, a formal haiku newsletter on Substack, and will be teaching haiku at Orange: coffee. art. music., a Yin Hoo Foundation for the Arts initiative, this coming March. Her work has won awards and appears in local and international publications, most recently in The Sciku Project, #FemkuMag, Wales Haiku Journal, Trash Panda, Asahi Haikuist Network, LEAF, Failed Haiku, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Her daily haiku practice serves as both witnessing and prayer.
https://orangecoffeeartmusic.com/residencies/
nameless season—
the nuances of wabi-sabi
too esoteric for me
~
Goran Gatalica was born in Virovitica, Croatia, in 1982 and currently resides in Zagreb, Croatia. He finished both physics and chemistry degrees from the University of Zagreb and proceeded directly to a PhD program after graduation. He has published poetry, haiku, and prose in literary journals and anthologies. Gatalica has received many honors for his poetry and haiku, including Award Dragutin TadijanoviÄ, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts for the poetry book Kazmolom (2017), the honor "Haiku Master of the Month" (Rikugien Gardens and Biei, NHK WORLD TV, Japan, 2016 and 2017), the Basho-an Award (Japan, 2018, 2019 and 2023), Karatnogahara Monogatari Award on 4th Star Haiku Contest (2023, Katano, Japan) and John Bird Dreaming Award on 3rd John Bird Dreaming Award Contest for Haiku (Australia, 2025). He is a member of the Croatian Writers' Association.
love or the lack of it wet with night
~
Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, "I Am," was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019, and her second chapbook, "Alone, I Am Not," was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022. She won 2025 HIGH/COO Chapbook Award, and her third chapbook was published by Brooks Books. She is a Lord Shiva devotee but believes in goodness of thoughts, words and deeds rather than following elaborate rituals to appease God. She likes to spend time with nature and herself.
Valentine's Day hearts
at the Family Dollar
a dime a dozen
~
Mariya Gusev co-edits Haiku Pause, a formal haiku newsletter on Substack and will be teaching haiku at Orange: coffee. art. music., a Yin Hoo Foundation for the Arts initiative this coming March. Her work has won awards and appears in local and international publications, most recently The Sciku Project, #FemkuMag, Wales Haiku Journal, Trash Panda, Asahi Haikuist Network, LEAF, Failed Haiku, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Her daily haiku practice serves as both witnessing and prayer.
https://orangecoffeeartmusic.com/residencies
she holds my hand
so tight—
I can feel her heart
the phantom
who knows
mine is broken
~
Sharon Ferrante is a Scottish Witch, who practices magick daily. She's also been seen, now and then, writing some poetry.
strands of hair
pulling down on roots
winter trees
~
A lover of all things deep and dark, Vishal Prabhu is forever walking over the edge of a forest.
five senses
answer to one brain
the sixth is me
tethered to the moon
dancing
~
Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work for our dying civilization.
Pickle Ball
So, I've been reading some emails, you may know the ones, and mayhap I owe my aunt an apology. Let me explain, and please bear with me as this all gets rather peculiar—as of late, isn't that just par for the course though? Now this aunt is not technically that, rather my father's cousin, his paternal aunt's daughter on his dad's side, the branch who reputedly fled Sweden precisely around the time following the March Unrest when antisemitic riots were occurring all across Stockholm, converted from Judaism (these are purely inferences extrapolated from family lore and exhaustive ancestry research, thus far not formally verified, Berg surnames are prevalent in Scandinavian and Yiddish both languages being Germanic in character) and settled in Hastings, Minnesota where they established a popular dairy, the remnants of which exist in some fashions still today. Now none of that is precisely here or anywhere, but besides my grandfather who beyond becoming a renowned folk bard went on to enthusiastically bomb the fascists to kingdom come during the second world war their issue included a daughter. She married a notoriously unfriendly gent who was not a particularly involved parent to my aunt (let's stick with the nomenclature for convenience as I always have) after having sired her, but his parent, my aunt's grandfather was a different story altogether, caring, attentive and ambitious, charming, industrious and gregarious by her description, he did everything he could to improve himself and their family's station in life, which in his day (no less than ours I imagine) amounted to devoting a vast amount of time and energy to his pursuit of masonry.
That is not purely rumor or legend either, for among the heirlooms she imparted to me in her last year before ascending as some describe it (I'm more familiar with Rosicrucianism, both traditions often overlapping and bearing a great many parallels, most germanely a monotheistic conception of the universe—the final revelation of those oft-cited mysteries of Eleusis—and a belief in reincarnation, meticulously reconciled with the gospels of Christianity in fascinating ways) were some highly enviable accessories including a fifty-year California member pin and a matching blue tie clip denoting Master status (blue for the mother lodge of all freemasonry, where neophytes are initiated and educated, a process which at minimum fourteen American presidents including Washington and FDR completed, LBJ notably not having mettle to reach any further than the first degree) both emblazoned with iconic square, compass, a G representing the aforementioned presiding higher power, allegedly also denoting geometry, gnosis or knowledge, and the Grand Architect. A lifetime membership card confirmed that title, exemplified as 'perfect ashlar' having elevated two levels up from rough beginnings over the course of a lifetime, there being no higher to go if other rites may be pursued, and an elected Grand officer (a brand ambassador of sorts who assists in public outreach and charitable activities) officiates over a grouping of lodges, a Worshipful one managing individual bodies.
But I digress. Returning to the injustice I appear to have committed against my aunt, let me cite a series of unrelated facts or minutiae and see if you also observe a similar pattern emerging. My aunt always described the secret society galas and get-togethers her grandfather hosted or attended which she was often adjacent to as being riveting affairs, peopled with prominent judges, politicos, businessmen, educators, technologists, high-ranking service members, luminaries of influence in the culture and industries of arts and letters. Later in life she would become a renowned psychiatrist and minister to violent offenders in the prison system. This made her a great many enemies and was a truly hazardous occupation and anxiety-inducing career as she was always getting threatened by inmates and believed on at least one occasion her car was tampered with in a failed plot to cause her demise. Among my aunt's incredible war stories being briefly involved in the internal investigation of Dahmer's suspicious death at her facility (she removed herself posthaste from the inquiry, fearing retaliation for any findings documented, being clearly a job in which staff had been involved with and liable for permitting or committing) was a memorable highlight, also working during captivity of that infamous serial killer the television series Black Bird was based around, and a relatable shrink character depicted may genuinely have borrowed from her experiences when screenwriters or the source material's author crafted the composite persona.
Additionally, early in her education (either for an assignment, or perhaps even as formal thesis) she meticulously investigated the government UFO analysis Project Blue Book, which she long regretted, attributing fears for her safety and recurring observations of what she described and interpreted as the 'crowd stalking' phenomenon. Our family and her peers always assumed she was a little batty, eccentric, touched, whatever the ameliorative euphemistic terms her day used to describe neurodivergence or mood disorders. Given a proclivity for drama, coupled with outlandish stories of her ex-husband being a murderer and made man, reports of what sounded like hallucinations, a carefully executed schedule of malingering to satisfy addictions to pain medication, she was by most considered a hypochondriac and blend (psychotic episodes and subsequent commitments being well-documented) of paranoid and disorganized schizophrenic. Which brings us to the salient part of this story, and those abominable missives' details. Okay, the Unabomber, she frequently with a kind of mischievous pride would regale us with the assertion that she had met that Ted Kaczynski, and that he'd reminded her of my other (actual) uncle Chuck, my dad's brother, who certainly has born more than a passing wildman physical resemblance to over the years, and today I learned he should not necessarily take that as anything but a compliment. You see, it just so happens that at least two of his targets were pederast associates deeply connected to and in personal contact with Epstein, one of whom was researching the health benefits and potential values of cannibalism, conducting primitive research through study and experimentation on worms. This reminded me of those stories, and also how whenever they came up I never could get her to provide the specifics of how and why she came into contact with such an unusual and notorious personage. I believe the vague brush-off explanation was that they met through something to do with her education. (That other deviant was a professor at Yale, incidentally.) Now, let's start putting all this together.
If you observe appearances in myths and culture (say, War and Peace, the Dark and White Lodges, bookhouse boys and owl of Twin Peaks—more on the latter Moloch later, but not too much I promise, also can be located several stories tall in oft-parodied Bohemian Grove, where oligarchs dress up in robes and pick who will win the next election, or Superbowl, or the New Mexico Powerball lottery: spoiler send 100 million to the Epstein trust, it helps when the state governor is a longtime buddy and professed predator client, or are paying for the private school and college tuitions of the first family of your unincorporated territory) one will frequently hear cited a struggle between two competing fraternal ideologies and their subscribers in a dialectic of sorts, good and evil yins and yangs personified in the organizations of Freemasonry and the Illuminati respectively. So you have Epstein lunatics being hunted by a self-styled agent of justice (not a pretend provocateur shooting hard drives or staging campaign theatrics), quite tellingly never described as such by our wholly compromised and deceptive corporate state media, and my Masonic heir aunt somehow is proximate. You also have symptoms, behaviors, responses which one hears a lot about getting observed and evinced by those involved in cults, where memories are suppressed intentionally through mind control the likes of which have been perfected and deployed formally in public and private sectors and are frequently observed in, reported by abused and brainwashed survivors. Jeffrey and his ilk were very interested in that part of the grooming and cleanup process, too. It's also been a popular topic at the global economic forum and in the vestiges of Nazi experimentation their scientists' imported philosophies and practices to the states which continued, expanded and thrived under the largess of MK Ultra.
We also have an empowered, capable mind and mandated reporter with knowledge of (then heavily concealed and contained, now shockingly transparent and discussed openly on Senate floors and televised hearing, indeed not unlike discounting and gaslighting regularly divulged and reported incidences of prevalent ritual abuse so long scoffed at as Satanic Panic, also worth noting recent revealing of the clever minds behind claiming traumatic memories recovered during hypnosis being invented through suggestion have been exposed as Epstein associated convicted degenerates trying to discredit and introduce shadows of doubt) unidentified anomalous crafts and associated remains, on an institutional murder or governmentally ordered hit, taking out a serial killer who may have been a liability (the unique skillset and class's involvement in compromising blackmail schemes is demonstrably crucial throughout the history, from Gacy's being an asset working with the government through the Jaycees in different capacities to entrap or dispose, Crowley doing something very similar to honey pot, expose and control elites, and let's not forget that farm in Indiana where over ten thousand humans' unidentified remains were acknowledged to have resided yet receives zero coverage in the headlines, all the way back to the Pope staging and well-documenting infractions of an orgy to hold over and compel participants in that mythic chestnut banquet), also someone of deteriorated health reliant on medication (so those messages, describing weaponizing the diseases like Parkinson's and Lewy Body—was just watching a video of Ventura ranting to reporters about building seven's collapse being reported long before it occurred by a BBC correspondent right in front of the structure—also suggesting Epstein may have been involved in the genesis of COVID, Bill Gates was exploring depopulating large segments of the planet) furthermore addiction being the most prominent, first and very effective strategy operatives use to disrupt movements and individuals, but if my aunt really was a person privy to shocking information and a loose end regarding secrets, all her accusations about being followed and psychological tortures, warfare which are not the slightest far-fetched then, you should read what they do to prisoners in custody during conflicts, highly reminiscent to the island crowd's horrid sadist activities, continuing no less disgustingly at black sites under administrations of the sham left elected who keep funding genocide abroad and supporting, thanking and empowering gestapo at home.
So, yeah, the one silver lining to this year's cloud of baby intestines and rain of stem cell rich young blood is a better, more holistic understanding of my family, figures who'd long been interchanged when painted as villain and victim (does that Malcolm X quote come to your mind, too? again curious what all Chris Dorner was aware of, and other martyrs), and also a realization that the bought puppet media, deceptive search engines and shifty a.i., scrubbed internet archives and hacked Wikipedia are willfully lying to us through every channel each day. Most recently Gemini is picking up where Snopes left off debunking true things with strawmen rephrasing or saying they are false because a clear cut smoking gun is still unavailable. Like so many, it's a joy to see my aunt vindicated, just as all the noble researchers and sleuths following satanic pedo breadcrumbs unearthed troves of facts and examples of trafficking code speak and receipts for rented kids, (Anthony Weiner's laptop, which reportedly those who viewed *committed suicide* wink wink shorty thereafter, the FBI report lists as belonging to "PRODUCERS OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY", again explain to me any context in which a sane Hillary would then send the following language in an email: "I will be sacrificing a chicken in the backyard to Moloch . . ."
The Context: The comment was not about a genuine ritualistic sacrifice but was a satirical or sarcastic way of expressing hope for a positive outcome to a difficult political situation.
Oh, silly me, that totally makes logical sense, thank you for clearing everything up so convincingly, and to do so taking the time away from your valuable droning of civilians!) the media flippantly ignored and dismissed, only to be definitely established this week at long horrifying last.
So I beg of you, friends, please listen when that family member, pal or colleague is aware of some ongoing disgrace with politicians or celebrities or craptains of industry, say that horrifying snuff films involving august bigwigs performing heinous acts have been circulating the dark web, Mamdani is tied to Epstein and endorsing genocides, Rothschilds by their own admissions supported Hitler in their Holocaust and apparently these days are hunting dark-skinned humans . . . (all in those emails, along with allegations of trump committing infanticide, elsewhere the most disturbing accounts of what happened to the island poodles and how our president got that colostomy bag), naked people are escaping from Buckingham Palace, there are giant pyramids in the far north, they've intentionally used crises in Haiti and Ukraine and collapsing Soviet Union to procure children for trafficking, these insane and unbelievable apparent truths are there for you to verify on the fourth Reich's .gov website as we speak, and if you can stand reading graphic accounts of minors being strangled to death by recognizable television personalities, a lot of goy bombs, and that actual cannibalism the affluent are so gaga about, you'll find more insight into everything you couldn't prove or didn't know and everyone (The Dali Lama? Hugh Jackman? Christopher Nolan? Val Kilmer? Noam Chomsky? Deepak Chopra? The black-eyed, red-shoed Pope/s? Stephen 'child molester' Hawking? Bill 'tried to slip wife antibiotics since he gave her an abuse-contracted STD' Gates?) you should never have trusted than in anything else I've encountered in all my life . . . The totality is formally alleged in government documents and testimony, protecting attackers and exposing victims, charging or punishing no one. But you can know and act accordingly, and also grasp the people sucking up all the airtime complaining about scripted distractions while in the same breath defending their supposed liberal enabler chums and bacchanal co-conspirators are every bit as complicit or actively participating in these nightmares. If you wonder why justice is so blind a supreme court justice is in those records accused of abusing a toddler. These patterns couldn't go deeper and be more systemic or insidious, I implore you all to acquaint yourself with their gist before it's too late.
~
Jerome Berglund has had a lifelong interest in angels, demons, hoodoo, voodoo, saints, sinners, spiritual ritual, occult practices, and supernatural phenomenon. His lineage includes victims of the Salem witch hunts. Many haiku, haiga and haibun he's written have been exhibited or are forthcoming online and in print, most recently in bottle rockets, Frogpond, and Presence. His first full-length collections of poetry were released by Setu, Meat for Tea, MĆtus AudÄx Press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.
kufiya hanging
from the border fence—
the swarm of crows
~
Fueled by a healthy dose of caffeine, Hifsa Ashraf from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, has been writing poetry since her teenage years. She is the author of six individual and four collaborative micropoetry collections. Lately, she enjoys cawing while tracing the contours of shadows.
morning mantra
softening the shell
of the seed
~
Kelly Sargent is a poet, editor, and devoted tea drinker residing in Vermont. Though she writes about autumn foliage and fallen acorns, she most enjoys penning poems that reflect the multiple facets of being human. She is an assistant editor for #FemkuMag and served this year as co-judge for the HSA Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest. The author of a haiku/senryu collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), she writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.
they say
no man is an island . . .
I've drifted ashore
one too many times
to know the difference
~
Shloka Shankar is a disabled poet, editor, and visual artist from Bangalore, India. A Best of the Net nominee and widely published poet, Shloka is the Founding Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. She is the author of the haiku collections The Field of Why and within our somehows, and co-author of the haiga anthology, living in the pause. Website: www.shlokashankar.com | Instagram: @shloks23
the manifest
the mountain
the beyond
~
Dr. Charles Trumbull is retired from research, writing, editorial, and publishing positions at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Encyclopedia Britannica. He is past president of the Haiku Society of America and retired editor of Modern Haiku. His chapbook Between the Chimes was published in 2011, and A Five-Balloon Morning, a book of New Mexico haiku, appeared in June 2013, and A History of Modern Haiku came out in 2019. These days he divides his time between his Haiku Database and Haikupedia, the online encyclopedia of haiku.
after party after the end of nature
~
David McKee is a haiku poet and retired psychotherapist living in Madison, WI. David's haiku have been published in various journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Acorn, Kingfisher, Bones, Presence, and password. His work has been anthologized in The Red Moon Anthology, Haiku 2021, Haiku 2022, Haiku 2023, Haiku 2024, the Whiptail 2023 Anthology, and the Haiku 21.2 Anthology. He was also invited to join a group of 17 haiku poets in sharing large selections of their haiku in the New Resonance series published by Red Moon Press. He is an oblate of Holy Wisdom Monastery and serves as lead shepherd for the oblate formation program. He is also a member of The Stray Dog Sangha, a small Zen Buddhist group in Madison.
bones in the roots
of a wind-felled tree
birth mother
~
Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.
on waking up
the Buddha nature falls away . . .
I am all me
~
Kala Ramesh, a renowned pioneer of haikai literature in India, was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize in 2019 for her book, Beyond the Horizon Beyond. Founder of Triveni Haikai India and haikuKATHA Journal, Kala conceptualised and curated Triveni Utsav 2025, the ninth festival she has organised since 2006. HAIKUcharades: imaging haiku through dance and music, and haibunSLAM are her contributions to the haikai world. Her book of tanka, tanka prose and tanka doha 'the forest i know' was published by HarperCollins India in July 2021. Kala co-edited amber i pause, Triveni Volunteer Dhanyavaad Anthology, published by Hawakal. From 2024 Kala has initiated Triveni on Wheels, where she organises Triveni members' haikai reading in various cities, literary festivals and organisations.
hunger moon
dirt on the latch
of the graveyard gate
~
Chad Lee Robinson has been writing haiku and related poetry for more than twenty years. He is the author of four haiku collections, most recently The White Buffalo (Backbone Press, 2023). Much of his haiku is about the prairie, but he also enjoys writing horrorku and Halloween-related haiku and senryu, which have appeared in a wide variety of haiku journals, including horror senryu journal, Haikuniverse and Otoroshi Journal. He lives in Pierre, South Dakota.
deep winter
keeping a step ahead
departing crows
~
A lover of all things deep and dark, Vishal Prabhu is forever walking over the edge of a forest.
Arvinder Kaur believes in a superpower that lives within each one of us, whose presence she feels in all forms of creation. She has released four collections of haiku and is working on her fifth one. Totally in love with her mother tongue, she also has three translated works to her credit. Her haiku/senryu often appear in major international journals. A retired educationist, she lives in Chandigarh, India with her family.
the self blurs
in pink tea
on tazkiyah's path
~
Laila is a devoted workaholic who can be found either working wholeheartedly or writing poems with equal passion. Some days, she honestly can't decide whether she loves poetry more because it brings her closest to being a Sufi herself. Her ancestors are from Kashmir, and she feels a profound pull toward Sufi practices as she lovingly traces her ancestral roots.
autocorrect dream green lighting my grief
~
Vidya Premkumar is a poet, visual artist, entrepreneur, and educator known for her three poetry collections: Musing while Living, Living in an Indian Laputa, and The Silent Project, as well as a chapbook frame story. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals, including CHO, Failed Haiku, and #FemkuMag. She lives in Kerala, India.
wondering if this is
as good as it gets—
winter cherries
~
Kelly Sargent is a poet, editor, and devoted tea drinker residing in Vermont. Though she writes about autumn foliage and fallen acorns, she most enjoys penning poems that reflect the multiple facets of being human. She is an assistant editor for #FemkuMag and served last year as co-judge for the HSA Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest. The author of a haiku/senryu collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), she writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.
restless night
not the hero
in his own dream
~
Dr. Charles Trumbull is retired from research, writing, editorial, and publishing positions at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Encyclopedia Britannica. He is past president of the Haiku Society of America and retired editor of Modern Haiku. His chapbook Between the Chimes was published in 2011, and A Five-Balloon Morning, a book of New Mexico haiku, appeared in June 2013, and A History of Modern Haiku came out in 2019. These days he divides his time between his Haiku Database and Haikupedia, the online encyclopedia of haiku.
her chakras
caressed in amber hues
of amethyst
~
Goran Gatalica was born in Virovitica, Croatia, in 1982 and currently resides in Zagreb, Croatia. He finished both physics and chemistry degrees from the University of Zagreb and proceeded directly to a PhD program after graduation. He has published poetry, haiku, and prose in literary journals and anthologies. Gatalica has received many honors for his poetry and haiku, including Award Dragutin TadijanoviÄ, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts for the poetry book Kozmolom (2017), the honor "Haiku Master of the Month" (Rikugien Gardens and Biei, NHK WORLD TV, Japan 2016 and 2017), the Basho-an Award (Japan, 2018, 2019 and 2023), Karatnogahara Monogatari Award on 4th Star Haiku Contest (2023, Katano, Japan) and John Bird Dreaming Award on 3rd John Bird Dreaming Award Contest for Haiku (Australia, 2025). He is a member of the Croatian Writers' Association.
upturned crescent of an offering
~
Sarah Mahina Calvello lives in San Francisco and writes mostly haiku. She loves nature and is addicted to coffee. https://heyyouhaiku.blogspot.com/?m=1
breaks the moon the pride of metal
~
Partha Sarkar, a Bengali graduate, born in West Bengal, 1967, writes poems to protest against human's oddities and its cruelties to nature.
among the flowers
a unicorn rests
in its cage
for 30 silver coins
you'd sell out anyone
~
Kimberly Kuchar often writes while her pet cockatiel is relaxing on her shoulder. In 2025, she was a Rhysling Award Finalist and was in the Dwarf Stars Anthology. She also had a haiku displayed in Washington, DC, in the Golden Haiku Poetry Competition and received an Honorable Mention in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitational. Kimberly lives near Austin with her husband and son (when he's home from college).
phantom neurons haunted by an unlived life
~
David McKee is a haiku poet and retired psychotherapist living in Madison, WI. David's haiku have been published in various journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Acorn, Kingfisher, Bones, Presence, and password. His work has been anthologized in The Red Moon Anthology, Haiku 2021, Haiku 2022, Haiku 2023, Haiku 2024, the Whiptail 2023 Anthology, and the Haiku 21.2 Anthology. He was also invited to join a group of 17 haiku poets in sharing large selections of their haiku in the New Resonance series published by Red Moon Press. He is an oblate of Holy Wisdom Monastery and serves as lead shepherd for the oblate formation program. He is also a member of The Stray Dog Sangha, a small Zen Buddhist group in Madison.
Breast Feeding
with my bones
beat your drum
while dancing with joy
entwine them in the hair
of your children's children
as the dearest of amulets
toss them to the ground
to divine our future
blend them with yours
into a fine fine soup
to feed those after
with stories
of who we are
~
Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.
I fail
to force open a bud . . .
daybreak magic
~
Kala Ramesh, a renowned pioneer of haikai literature in India, was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize in 2019 for her book, Beyond the Horizon Beyond. Founder of Triveni Haikai India and haikuKATHA Journal, Kala conceptualised and curated Triveni Utsav 2025, the ninth festival she has organized since 2006. HAIKUcharades: imaging haiku through dance and music and haibunSLAM are her contributions to the haikai world. Her book of tanka, tanka prose and tanka doha 'the forest i know' was published by HarperCollins India in July 2021. Kala co-edited amber i pause, Triveni Volunteer Dhanyavaad Anthology, published by Hawakal. From 2024 Kala has initiated Triveni on Wheels, where she organises Triveni members' haikai reading in various cities, literary festivals and organisations.
i raised to the power of euthanasia
~
Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, "I Am," was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook, "Alone, I Am Not," was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022. She won the 2025 HIGH/COO Chapbook Award, and her third chapbook was published by Brooks Books. She is a Lord Shiva devotee but believes in goodness of thoughts, words and deeds rather than following elaborate rituals to appease God. She likes to spend time with nature and herself.
broken daydream
a phase shift
in my reality
~
Dr. Charles Trumbull is retired from research, writing, editorial, and publishing positions at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Encyclopedia Britannica. He is past president of the Haiku Society of America and retired editor of Modern Haiku. His chapbook Between the Chimes was published in 2011, and A Five-Balloon Morning, a book of New Mexico haiku, appeared in June 2013, and A History of Modern Haiku came out in 2019. These days he divides his time between his Haiku Database and Haikupedia, the online encyclopedia of haiku.
calling to us
in ancient languages
distant stars
~
Roberta Beach Jacobson is an American writer in love with words—flash fiction, poetry, song lyrics, puzzles, and stand-up comedy. Her two poetry journals are smols and Five Fleas Itchy Poetry. Roberta's latest book is Demitasse Fiction: One-Minute Reads for Busy People (Alien Buddha, 2023).
a draft stirs the last
of the sage ash
sparseness of winter
~
Sarah Mahina Calvello lives in San Francisco and writes mostly haiku. She loves nature and is addicted to coffee. https://heyyouhaiku.blogspot.com/?m=1
1, 2, 3
steps inside
the fairy ring;
I'll take my chances
in another realm
~
Kimberly Kuchar often writes while her pet cockatiel is relaxing on her shoulder. In 2025, she was a Rhysling Award Finalist and was in the Dwarf Stars Anthology. She also had a haiku displayed in Washington, DC, in the Golden Haiku Poetry Competition and received an Honorable Mention in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitational. Kimberly lives near Austin with her husband and son (when he's home from college).
grandson's palm—
the blue marble
warmer
~
Neena Singh is a Touchstone-shortlisted haiku poet from Chandigarh, India and an editor for The Wise Owl, Triveni & Rhyvers. Author of three poetry books, she has won numerous awards. Neena runs a non-profit for underprivileged children and also spreads awareness about haiku in the educational and professional fora of the city.
patronus spell
my name ending with an i
instead of a why
~
Kelly Sargent is a poet, editor, and devoted tea drinker residing in Vermont. Though she writes about autumn foliage and fallen acorns, she most enjoys penning poems that reflect the multiple facets of being human. She is an assistant editor for #FemkuMag and served last year as a co-judge for the HSA Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest. The author of a haiku/senryu collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), she writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.
returning swans
this endless wait
for new wings
~
Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.
Aishwarya is a research scholar, poet, and visual artist from India. Her work engages cinema and culture through close observation and experience. Shaped by engagements with spiritual inquiry and social realities, her practice moves creative writing. She is the author of four books and co-author of several others with work published in established literary journals. Attentive to sound, rhythm, and the textures of found language, she continues to work at the meeting point of thought and form.
two black apples
eyes behind a white veil
caught by a priest
~
Laila Brahmbhatt is a devoted workaholic who can be found either working wholeheartedly or writing poems with equal passion. Some days she honestly can't decide whether she loves poetry more because it brings her closest to being a Sufi herself. Her ancestors are from Kashmir, and she feels a profound pull toward Sufi practices as she lovingly traces her ancestral roots.
feeling it
in the marrow
wolf moon
~
Sarah Mahina Calvello lives in San Francisco and writes mostly haiku. She loves nature and is addicted to coffee. https://heyyouhaiku.blogspot.com/?m=1
in my cough three crows at dawn
~
Chad Lee Robinson has been writing haiku and related poetry for more than twenty years. He is the author of four haiku collections, most recently The White Buffalo (Backbone Press, 2023). Much of his haiku is about the prairie, but he also enjoys writing horrorku and Halloween-related haiku and senryu, which have appeared in a wide variety of haiku journals, including horror senryu journal, Haikuniverse and Otoroshi Journal. He lives in Pierre, South Dakota.
trumpet solo
I'm more experienced
at working with demons
~
Jerome Berglund has had a lifelong interest in angels, demons, hoodoo, voodoo, saints, sinners, spiritual ritual, occult practices, and supernatural phenomena. His lineage includes victims of the Salem witch hunts. Many haiku, haiga and haibun he's written have been exhibited or are forthcoming online and in print, most recently in bottle rockets, Frogpond, and Presence. His first full-length collections of poetry were released by Setu, Meat for Tea, MĆtus AudÄx Press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.
lotus in my palm
opening up
to my divinity
~
Kelly Sargent is a poet, editor, and devoted tea drinker residing in Vermont. Though she writes about autumn foliage and fallen acorns, she most enjoys penning poems that reflect the multiple facets of being human. She is an assistant editor for #FemkuMag and served last year as a co-judge for the HSA Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest. The author of a haiku/senryu collection entitled Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), she writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.
~
Shloka Shankar is a disabled poet, editor, and visual artist from Bangalore, India. A Best of the Net nominee and widely published haiku poet, Shloka is the Founding Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. She is the author of the haiku collections The Field of Why and within our somehows, and co-author of the haiga anthology, living in the pause. Website: www.shlokashankar.com│Instagram: @shloks23
courtyard tulsi
someone's forgotten mantra
in every leaf
~
Sandip Chauhan, PhD, is a poet based in Northern Virginia, USA, where she works as a national bank regulator for the federal government. Her poetry encompasses haiku, haibun, and tanka, drawing on classical traditions while embracing a contemporary sensibility. She has edited three haiku anthologies and is the author of Sprouting Grass, a collection of haiku. Her work has appeared in various online journals. She writes in both English and her mother tongue, Punjabi.
North Star
yule log
my wandering paths
through a year
The smoldering log glows as twilight fades to a chorus of howls under the stars. Grandma says the wood brings luck and protections from wolves and fires and dark, cold winds seeping through my window panes.
a dreamworld
fills with fur and teeth
her yule log
lighting the exit sign
to a new storyline
~
Colleen M. Farrelly is a mathematician and haibun poet who's been exploring the universe through mathematics and physics since childhood. She's an amalgam of mystic Jewish/Catholic traditions and mathematician-philosophers like Blaise Pascal, with a deep appreciation for meditation and what she learned about public health and spiritual health from South African village shamans in the mid-2000s.
waking from a dream
without a center
misty crescent moon
~
Dr. Charles Trumbull is retired from research, writing, editorial, and publishing positions at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Encyclopedia Britannica. He is past president of the Haiku Society of America and retired editor of Modern Haiku. His chapbook Between the Chimes was published in 2011, and A Five-Balloon Morning, a book of New Mexico haiku, appeared in June 2013, and A History of Modern Haiku came out in 2019. These days he divides his time between his Haiku Database and Haikupedia, the online encyclopedia of haiku.
Yuletide carols
from door to door:
hoof prints
~
Chad Lee Robinson has been writing haiku and related poetry for more than twenty years. He is the author of four haiku collections, most recently The White Buffalo (Backbone Press, 2023). Much of his haiku is about the prairie, but he also enjoys writing horrorku and Halloween-related haiku and senryu, which have appeared in a wide variety of haiku journals, including horror senryu journal, Haikuniverse and Otoroshi Journal. He lives in Pierre, South Dakota.
almost Christmas
a beady-eyed clown
stitched up by nuns
~
Randy Brooks is Professor of English Emeritus at Milliken University, where he teaches a haiku course. Randy and Shirley Brooks are publishers of Brooks Books and co-editors of Mayfly haiku magazine. His most recent books include Walking the Fence: Selected Tanka and The Art of Reading and Writing Haiku.
Two Persephones
I have a statue of Persephone that a friend had gifted me
She is a Black Madonna really, and sits in her little box
Cushioned by dried flowers, some of which might still be alive
Like the sedum that my friend had mailed me as padding for another gift
Which I planted in a pot, next to a tree of unknown origin which we think might be a plum
Leafing out each spring in a surprised fountain of hopeful green
But then folding each fall, still without knowing its own name.
My Persephone, placeless, as my altar already holds
A likeness of her from Pompeii, when she was encased in skin and walked in the fields gathering flowers, wild herbs, into the fold of her dress
The cornucopia horn, which was painted in after, balanced in the crook of her left arm
Her feet bare, not yet knowing ash
And how the flowers fold under its weight
And how if you speak into the void, it eventually answers.
~
Mariya Gusev co-edits Haiku Pause, a formal haiku newsletter on Substack. Her work has won awards and appears regularly in local and international publications, most recently in The Sciku Project, FemkuMag, Wales Haiku Journal, Asahi Haikuist Network, LEAF, Failed Haiku, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Her daily haiku practice serves as both witnessing and prayer.
in hours leading up to their release winter stars
~
Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, "I Am," was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook, "Alone, I Am Not," was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022. She won the 2025 HIGH/COO Chapbook Award and her third chapbook was published by Brooks Books. She is a Lord Shiva devotee, but believes in goodness of thoughts, words and deeds rather than following elaborate rituals to appease God. She likes to spend time with nature and herself.
~
Shloka Shankar is a disabled poet, editor, and visual artist from Bangalore, India. She is the Founding Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press, and the author of the recent haiku collection within our somehows. Each day reminds her to let go of control and embrace the wilderness that is her body.
faculty Christmas party
whose baby is she
carrying now?
~
Randy Brooks is Professor of English Emeritus at Millikin University, where he teaches a haiku course. Randy and Shirley Brooks are publishers of Brooks Books and co-editors of Mayfly haiku magazine. His most recent books include Walking the Fence: Selected Tanka and The Art of Reading and Writing Haiku.
a mask argues with the face beneath
~
Vijay Prasad is a poet from Patna, India. By profession he is an MCA. J. Krishnamurti is his spiritual strength. His haiku move through philosophy, linguistics, psychology, etc. He draws from the Japanese haiku masters to modern haiku writers and also thinkers such as Sartre, Beckett, Deleuze, Chomsky, Rilke, Jung, Turgenev, Bohm, Heisenberg and many others. His haiku explore the porous borders of language, perception, and being.
breakthrough
the stars alive invisible disasters
in the sun on nights like these i feel
a gnostic agency // strange angel whisks me
through the spruces' wombed interstices
my mental frame a portal manuscript
my birth caul // angel rides the thermals like
a condor tells me Jesus has a twin
named Thomas as i nibble nipple piercings
tingle mountains zigzag backbone of
my past life ossified hot rain my tears
of shame at sponging off the lesser angels
dangling like a Calder mobile shadow
darkening the grassland river trees
the fingerpainted sea a pasteboard mask this world
we break through to a freer realm
~
Thomas Zimmerman (he/him/his) teaches English and directs the Writing Center at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. His poems have appeared recently in Cold Signal, TrashLight Press, and Trouvaille Review. His latest poetry book is My Night to Cook (Cyberwit, 2024).
Ethereal
Winter's crack shatters
empty mouthfuls;
lips cleave chest,
damp, cold light
sewn yesterday
placing constellations,
charting magnetic sunlight
as clouds become forest.
Storm speaks, recovers latitude
recovers names
defied through mesosphere,
through time, through
slipping fingers
against naked stars:
celestial me.
~
Loralee Clark has two chapbooks forthcoming: A Harmony in the Key of Trees: A Healing Myth (Dancing Girl Press, 2025) and Neolithic Imaginings: Mythical Explorations of the Unknown (Kelsay Press, 2026). Her first chapbook is Solemnity Rites (Prolific Pulse Press, 2025) and her second is Delighting in "To Be": Poems for Writers (Bottlecap Press, 2025). Clark has been nominated for two 2026 Pushcart Prizes. She resides in Virginia; her website is sites.google.com/view/loraleeclark. Her Substack, which focuses on the process of creativity, is nosuchthingasfailure.substack.com.
guests gone home
now for some pillow talk
with the dead
~
Randy Brooks is Professor of English Emeritus at Millikin University, where he teaches a haiku course. Randy and Shirley Brooks are publishers of Brooks Books and co-editors of Mayfly haiku magazine. His most recent books include Walking the Fence: Selected Tanka and The Art of Reading and Writing Haiku.
Eyes
If eyes are the window
to the soul,
my soul is filled with autumn.
~
A best-selling author, Nolcha's poetry books are available on Amazon and Dancing Girl Press. Nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize multiple times. Editor of Chewers by Masticadores and LatinosUSA.
be good tonight
the moon is watching
from on high
both a slice of light
and a mother
~
Jackie Chou is a writer from Southern California who has two collections of poetry, The Sorceress and Finding My Heart in Love and Loss, published by cyberwit. Her poem "Formosa" was a finalist in the Stephen A DiBiase Poetry Prize. She has recent work in The Ekphrastic Review and Synchronized Chaos.
finally pain-free . . .
her first time
in dragon form
~
Julie Bloss Kelsey is the author of three poetry collections (mainly haiku and tanka) and writes a column for new haiku poets at The Haiku Foundation. One of her treasured memories is of encountering an angel when she was very young. She believes we have to store up the smallest of good in the world (butterflies, haiku, children's laughter) to offset the heaping (and easier to see) dumps of bad. Julie is fond of semicolons, parentheses, exclamation points, and the Oxford comma.
L'Orangerie light
lilypads swirl around
my dream space
~
Kala Ramesh, a renowned pioneer of haikai literature in India, was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize in 2019 for her book, Beyond the Horizon Beyond. Founder of Triveni Haikai India and haikuKATHA Journal, Kala conceptualised and curated Triveni Utsav 2025, the ninth festival she has organised since 2006. HAIKUcharades: imaging haiku through dance and music, and haibunSLAM are her contributions to the haikai world. Her book of tanka, tanka prose and tanka doha 'the forest i know' was published by HarperCollins India in July 2021. Kala co-edited amber i pause, Triveni Volunteer Dhanyavaad Anthology, published by Hawakal. From 2024 Kala has initiated Triveni on Wheels, where she organises Triveni members' haikai reading in various cities, literary festivals and organisations.
