An Esoteriku by Vandana Parashar

pill moon
another night
out of my body

~

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.

Short-Form Poetry by Patrick Sweeney

turning lane, a coffee cup for loose change,
and the distinctive hand salute of a Marine

A Personal Essay by Kim Underwood

The other day I met my friends Bob and Kelly at Pulliam's—the renowned restaurant on Old Walkertown Road that has been serving hot dogs and barbecue since 1910.

The next day—in the course of continuing to have fun talking about hot dogs with Kelly—I mentioned that I had participated in two hot dog eating contests over the years. The first one had been at the city recreation center supervised by Art Blevins, a man renowned for inspiring young people and treating them with respect.

I like to say that Art had such a remarkable balance in the Bank of Good Will that people were happy to do whatever he asked them to do. When Art invited professional basketball players and TV anchor Cameron Kent to participate in the annual basketball tournament at the recreation center, they said "yes".

At the time of the hot dog eating contest in the late 1980s, I was writing for the Winston-Salem Journal. Art invited me to be their sole adult competitor in a contest in which the rest of the participants would be young people at the center.

On the day of the tournament, as the time for the competition approached, Art plunked down a mysterious closed white box in front of me. It contained special hot dogs he had fixed just for me, he said. More available if I needed them. When the bell rang for the competition to begin, I opened the box to discover that, while all the young people would be eating regular-sized hot dogs, mine were all footlongs.

Knowing that Art had ensured that, when he announced the winner, there was no way it was going to be me, I had to smile. Nonetheless, I forged ahead. I am sorry to say that I no longer remember how many footlongs I swallowed.

I can say that, along with the winner, I received a trophy. The boy who won thought my trophy was more impressive than his and asked if I would trade him. One of my regrets in life is that I told him "no" because my trophy had my name on it. If I had it to do over, I would definitely give it to him.

I can also say that my friend John Downey—who no longer remembers how many I ate either—told me that he could have most certainly done better. Back and forth between us led to deciding to have our own competition with regular-size hot dogs.

Our friends Kelli and Liz decided to join and, with the help of a couple of friends who agreed to be in charge of ensuring that we had all the hot dogs we needed, we were set.

The first few dogs went down quickly and easily. It wasn't long, though, before the process slowed down. By six or seven dogs each, Kelli and Liz were done.

John and I kept at it, though. In my memory, I am soon in a super slow-motion world where each bite takes forever. My eyes are locked on watching John eat and there is no way that I am going to let him have the satisfaction of lording it over me as the contest winner.

Eventually, with 11 hot dogs behind us and halfway through the 12th dog, both of us reach the point at which it is not possible to take another bite.

We reluctantly declare a tie.

These days, after finishing two hot dogs at Dairi-O, along with sweet-potato fries and endless refills of soda, it's hard to imagine I once lived in a universe in which I ate more than 11 hot dogs.

What's not hard to remember is how amazing Art Blevins was.

It has been my good fortune to meet many people such as Art who have a gift for bringing love into the world.

~

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Kim grew up in North Carolina and West Virginia. After he took a leave of absence from college, he spent his 20s in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco.

After he moved back to Winston-Salem. N.C., he spent 25 years as a reporter and columnist for the Winston-Salem Journal and another 10 years writing for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. During those years, he met many remarkable people.

Along the way, Kim wrote and his wife, Garnet, illustrated two picture books—His Dogness Finds a Blue Heart and The Wonderful World of Sparkle Girl and Doobins. Since retiring he has written Cat & Wren, a chapter book for young people he hopes will be published one day.

"Substrates" by Peter Jastermsky

Substrates

Describe the room in which one day you'll forget to wake up. How many steps did you leave behind? Can you make the describable unrecognizable? Are songs of extinct people still audible? When your call drops is there a bucket it falls into? A tree topples in the forest and we never make a sound.

~

A New England native, Peter Jastermsky lives among the Joshua trees in the high desert of Southern California. He is the author of twelve books of haiku-based work. Peter is a word alchemist. He resides in that magical space between reader and poem. To learn more, please go to peterjastermsky.com.

An Esoteriku by Jerome Berglund

fall schedule mystery school

~

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, Mōtus Audāx Press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available from Fevers of the Mind.

An Esoteriku by Randy Brooks

handsewn voodoo doll
his crotch holds all
the pins

~

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 card.

An Esoteriku by Adrian Bouter

night sky stars lie for the world

~

Adrian Bouter is a poet. For more details, see HAIKUPEDIA.

His first collection of ku in English, DEW OF LIGHT, was released in autumn 2024 (Red Moon Press).

He wishes everyone the very best—🙂

An Esoteriku by Kirsten Elliot

the philosopher's stone(d)

~

Born on Lammas and married on Samhain, Kirsten Cliff Elliot is interested in Jungian dream interpretation and the collective unconscious. She has been writing and publishing short-form poetry for almost two decades. Her latest haikai collection, A Body of Work:  Poems on Aging and Chronic Illness, is out soon from Cuttlefish Books.

An Esoteriku by Biswajit Mishra

insomnia the fifth corner of the room

~

Biswajit Mishra from Calgary, Canada, is looking to find in verses what he might have missed in his 35-year-long career in different industries. He hopes to keep on learning the ways to unlearn.

An Esoteriku by Vandana Parashar

without an alibi the shooting star when he died

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Arvinder Kaur

coffin lid closing the turquoise of your eyes

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Daya Bhat

trapping the meteors
of an untouched galaxy
wedding ring

~

Daya Bhat lives in Bangalore, India. To her, writing poetry is a never-ending quest to find the person she is at the core. She has contributed free verse and short-form poetry to journals and publications in addition to publishing two books. Painting and digital art are other ways her thoughts find expression.

An Esoteriku by Roberta Beach Jacobson

we think alike coven wisdom

~

Roberta Beach Jacobson is an itchy poet living in the flyover state of Iowa. She writes verses perched on barn roofs or in trees.

Short-Form Poetry by Patrick Sweeney

he's auditioning in the big hotel elevator mirror
for the part of the loneliest man in the world

An Esoteriku by Ravi Kiran

summer's end of mango season

~

Ravi is a late-blooming haiku poet with a penchant for minimalism. His haiku have won awards and been featured in leading journals. He is the editor of Leaf haiku journal.

"Waiting for My Friend to Come Home" by Nolcha Fox

Waiting for My Friend to Come Home

A red silk scarf that flies above my head,
the wind will take him who knows where.
He is the rain, a sudden summer storm,
that cleans the dust from all the leaves,
and just as quickly disappears.
I cannot paddle in the stream
of words that flow beneath his pen.
I run aground, the words a dream
that vanishes into the sunrise sky.
When I give up all hope that he
will come back home,
he is the moon that shines
in the darkened hours.

~

Nolcha Fox's poems have been curated in print and online journals. A best-selling author, her 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 Latinos USA.

Website: https://writingaddiction2.wordpress.com/ and https://nolchafox2.wixsite.com/nolcha-s-written-wor/blog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nolcha.fox/

An Esoteriku by Rowan Beckett Minor

called to the grave
of a woman I don't know
fresh carnations

~

Rowan Beckett Minor (they/them) is a disabled Melungeon poet and hoodoo practitioner from Prince, WV, who currently resides in Cleveland, OH. They have been featured in:  Mayfly, A New Resonance 12, as a confluence journal Fellow (2024-2025), as a presenter for Haiku North America (2019, 2021), and co-judge for the HSA Brady Senryu Contest (2022). Rowan is honored to have served as HSA Midwest Regional Coordinator in 2024.

An Esoteriku by Anne Fox

star spell
again this wish
to be human

~

Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.

An Esoteriku by Adrian Bouter

sunflowers  each their own shine

~

Adrian Bouter is a poet. For more details see HAIKUPEDIA. His first collection of ku in English, DEW OF LIGHT, was released in autumn 2024 (Red Moon Press). He wishes everyone the very best — 🙂

An Esoteriku by M. R. Pelletier

a boulder forks
the waters—hands
together in mudra

~

M. R. Pelletier lives in Kansas, but his haiku poetry travels the world. He has published in multiple journals including Bamboo Hut, Five Fleas, Wales Haiku Journal, Mad Swirl and Failed Haiku among others.

An Esoteriku by Jared Frank

telephone pole crow caul for the quiet child

~

Jared Frank writes poetry somewhere in Washington State. Most of his audience are wild animals and little rocks with drawn-on faces, but on occasion he shows his material to humans, too. He generally leans towards various combinations of existentialism and mysticism in his spiritual practice. https://lnk.bio/JaredFrank

An Esoteriku by Kelly Sargent

dust in the sunbeams
the signs
I did not see

~

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. Her latest haiku/senryu collection is entitled The Honeybee's Waggle (Cuttlefish Books, 2026). She writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.

An Esoteriku by Randy Brooks

not in Kansas anymore
just keep clicking
those red shoes

~

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 card.

An Esoteriku by Jerome Berglund

altar ego

~

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, Mōtus Audāx press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.

An Esoteriku by Sarah Mahina Calvello

between pine cones twilight descends

~

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

Tanka Art by Debbie Strange

 

~

Debbie Strange is a chronically ill short-form poet and artist who believes in the healing magic of word paintings.

An Esoteriku by Vishal Prabhu

death poems
walking over a lake
and back

~

A lover of all things deep and dark, Vishal Prabhu is forever walking over the edge of a forest.

An Esoteriku by Ravi Kiran

p-a-t-r-i-a-r-c-h-?

~

Ravi is a late-blooming haiku poet with a penchant for minimalism. His haiku have won awards and been featured in leading journals. He is the editor of Leaf haiku journal.

An Esoteriku by Biswajit Mishra

but after an undivided donut chewing guilt

~

Biswajit Mishra from Calgary, Canada, is looking to find in verses what he might have missed in his 35-year-long career in different industries. He hopes to keep on learning the ways to unlearn.

An Esoteriku by Vandana Parashar

outside blind conformity the places where it rains

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Rowan Beckett Minor

snake shed
steeping in jojoba
the full moon

~

Rowan Beckett Minor (they/them) is a disabled Melungeon poet and hoodoo practitioner from Prince, WV, who currently resides in Cleveland, OH. They have been featured in:  Mayfly, A New Resonance 12, as a confluence journal Fellow (2024-2025), as a presenter for Haiku North America (2019, 2021), and co-judge for the HSA Brady Senryu Contest (2022). Rowan is honored to have served as HSA Midwest Regional Coordinator in 2024.

An Esoteriku by Princes Rose Manuel

going home
riding
paper planes

~

Princes Rose grew up watching the moon and stars until the moon became plenty and the stars began to hide. Her vision might be blurry, but she still has the pictures in her mind. Pictures that keep her writing.

An Esoteriku by Roberta Beach Jacobson

meditating until magick rises within me

~

Roberta Beach Jacobson is an itchy poet living in the flyover state of Iowa. She writes verses perched on barn roofs or in trees.

An Esoteriku by Patrick Sweeney

nothing was ever said
about the brown blood in the marrow
of the Sunday hambone

An Esoteriku by Adrian Bouter

moving door handle . . .

a universe opens to
another universe

~

Adrian Bouter is a poet. For more details see HAIKUPEDIA. His first collection of ku in English, DEW OF LIGHT, was released in autumn 2024 (Red Moon Press). He wishes everyone the very best—😊

An Esoteriku by Jared Frank

downriver

                                                 a holy man
                                      sings
                the current                                    home

~

Jared Frank writes poetry somewhere in Washington State. Most of his audience are wild animals and little rocks with drawn-on faces, but on occasion he shows his material to humans, too. He generally leans towards various combinations of existentialism and mysticism in his spiritual practice. https://lnk.bio/JaredFrank

An Esoteriku by Gordon Brown

mississippi wind
the god i trick myself
into believing

~

Gordon Brown grew up in the deserts of Syria and now lives in the deserts of Nevada. Since arriving in the New World, his work has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Weird Horror Magazine, Hunger Mountain Review, and elsewhere. His horror haiku chapbook, Skin Crawls, is forthcoming from Cuttlefish Books. He spends his time writing feverishly and looking after his cats, of which he has none.

"Life Goes Like This" by Stephen Philip Druce

Life Goes Like This

The ketchup won't
come out of bottle,

ten shakes,

fifty slaps,

one hundred expletives—

before the entire
contents shoot out.

~

Stephen Philip Druce is a poet from Shrewsbury in the UK. He is published in the UK, the USA, Ireland, Hungary, India and South Africa. Stephen has also written for BBC Radio 4 Extra and London theatre plays.

An Esoteriku by Jerome Berglund

no adept
but
a neophyte

~

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, Mōtus Audāx Press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.

An Esoteriku by Thomas L. Vaultonburg

comet—
the mountain
looking up

~

Thomas L. Vaultonburg lives in Rockford, Illinois. His haiku have appeared in Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest, Presence, Acorn, Mayfly, and other journals. He is the author of Vanished Roads and co-founder of Wolf Twin Books.

An Esoteriku by Vishal Prabhu

Tathagata
a stream follows
the first thaw

~

A lover of all things deep and dark, Vishal Prabhu is forever walking over the edge of a forest.

An Esoteriku by Sarah Mahina Calvello

a sky stricken with stars puts me in my place

~

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

An Esoteriku by Rowan Beckett Minor

smoke rising
from bundled rosemary
mid-summer heat

~

Rowan Beckett Minor (they/them) is a disabled Melungeon poet and hoodoo practitioner from Prince, WV, who currently resides in Cleveland, OH. They have been featured in:  Mayfly, A New Resonance 12, as a confluence journal Fellow (2024-2025), as a presenter for Haiku North America (2019, 2021), and co-judge for the HSA Brady Senryu Contest (2022). Rowan is honored to have served as HSA Midwest Regional Coordinator in 2024.

An Esoteriku by Tom Bierovic

lingering incense—
the last bell
a cricket's chirp

~

Tom Bierovic is a devoted writer of haiku, senryu, and tanka poetry. When not reading or writing, he enjoys playing backgammon, playing Native American flutes and Irish whistles, and drumming on bongos and djembe. Tom and his wife Laurie make their home in DeLand, Florida.

An Esoteriku by Patrick Sweeney

this close to Johnny Cash
when my brother Franky gave away
his turtle soup recipe

An Esoteriku by Randy Brooks

tonight's new moon
the bullfrog's
one note samba

~

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 card. See the web page https://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/Brooks-HaikuDeck.html 

A Visual Poem by Laszlo Aranyi

 

~

Laszlo Aranyi (Frater Azmon) poet, visual poet, anarchist, occultist from Hungary. Earlier books:  (szellem)válaszok, A Nap és Holderők egyensúlya, Kiterített rókabőr. His poems in English have appeared in over a hundred journals. His new books are:  Delirium & . . . The Seven Haiku (published by DEAD MAN'S PRESS INK, ALBANY, NY 2023), Sacred anarchy! Poems and Visual Poems (Nut Hole Publishing 2024), The Temple of Confrontation (DunapArt Publishing, Hungary, 2026), Lady Buddha (O:JA&L / aRt journal, Montana, USA, 2026). He has been nominated several times for international awards. Known spiritualist mediums, art and explores the relationship between magic.

"Confession" by Colleen M. Farrelly

Confession

I believe in the father-
less, the motherless, the sons
now raised by ghouls and ghosts—

the ones who shun cloaked ghosts
and rap about their father
issues—and the ones whose sons

escape the jails and drugs, sons
who study—and write white ghosts
they know from present fathers . . .

shriving pew the Father's godson a bedsheet ghost

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Sarah Mahina Calvello

amidst the ruins I begin

~

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

A Visual Poem by Laszlo Aranyi

 

~

Laszlo Aranyi (Frater Azmon) poet, visual poet, anarchist, occultist from Hungary. Earlier books:  (szellem)válaszok, A Nap és Holderők egyensúlya, Kiterített rókabőr. His poems in English have appeared in over a hundred journals. His new books are:  Delirium & . . . The Seven Haiku (published by DEAD MAN'S PRESS INK ALBANY, NY 2023), Sacred Anarchy! Poems and Visual Poems (Nut Hole Publishing 2024), The Temple of Confrontation (DunapArt Publishing, Hungary, 2026), Lady Buddha (O:JA&L / aRt journal, Montana, USA, 2026). He has been nominated several times for international awards. Known spiritualist mediums, art and explores the relationship between magic.

"In Flood" by Joanna Ashwell

In Flood

Everywhere, becoming a rap for every move. The limbs, the frame, the fingers drumming without a cue. These chords within, tangling each thought. The river, a lake, the sea, a pond; even a puddle. The refraction of rain.

out of slumber
shaking me free
a eulogy in cloud

~

Joanna Ashwell is a poet and spiritual healer. Her recent collections of poetry published include Love's Scriptures, Moonset Song and Book Patronus. She loves crystals, angels and dragons. She searches for the joy in life and loves to empower others to do the same.

"Young and Smart" by Stephen Philip Druce

Young and Smart

Oh to be
young and smart,

like a
migrating baby
bird, our triumphs
will fade like
ocean waves that
dry out on
the rocks—

our blunders will
etch like fossils.

~

Stephen Philip Druce is a poet from Shrewsbury in the UK. He is published in the UK, the USA, Ireland, Hungary, India and South Africa. Stephen has also written for BBC Radio 4 Extra and London theatre plays.

An Esoteriku by M. R. Pelletier

recurring nightmare
waking to the certainty
I am being dreamed

~

M. R. Pelletier lives in Kansas, but his haiku poetry travels the world. He has published in multiple journals including Bamboo Hut, Five Fleas, Wales Haiku Journal, Mad Swirl and Failed Haiku among others.

An Esoteriku by Kelly Sargent

mountain stream
this body that once
was mine

~

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. Her latest haiku/senryu collection is entitled The Honeybee's Waggle (Cuttlefish Books, 2026). She writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.

An Esoteriku by Robert Moyer

look what
you made me do
shattered Buddha

~

Robert Moyer, known by those close to him as Curly, lives in Winston Salem, where he dotes on his beautiful, talented wife and spends time wondering about the pattern of French fries he observed on the Venice Beach pier in 1995.

An Esoteriku by Thomas L. Vaultonburg

build only what
the moss will claim
as kin

~

Thomas L. Vaultonburg lives in Rockford, Illinois. His haiku have appeared in Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest, Presence, Acorn, Mayfly, and other journals. He is the author of Vanished Roads and co-founder of Wolf Twin Books.

An Esoteriku by Arvinder Kaur

pillion ride
her fingers spell
another man's name

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Hifsa Ashraf

funeral day—
holding my grief
the swollen tissue

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Vishal Prabhu

on the dot—
a muezzin's breath precedes
the call to prayer

~

A lover of all things deep and dark, Vishal Prabhu is forever walking over the edge of a forest.

An Esoteriku by Ravi Kiran

waiting
for it to fall
forbidden fruit

~

Ravi is a late-blooming haiku poet with a penchant for minimalism. His haiku have won awards and have been featured in leading publications. He is the editor of Leaf haiku journal.

A Tanka by Jackie Chou

looking out
my balcony
I sigh
about all my time
spent as Rapunzel

~

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.

 

An Esoteriku by Patrick Sweeney

Jazz through the airbase fence
the red shoe of Terayama's fictional self

An Esoteriku by Tim Chamberlain

lost in thought—
the snake becomes
its own ouroboros

~

Tim Chamberlain is a haiku poet, originally from London, UK, now living in Tokyo, Japan. A devotee of Matsuo Bashō, Tim loves to escape the urban and reconnect with the rural, exploring the natural world, as well as visiting shrines, temples, and formal gardens in Japan and overseas. He is also the author of a haiku blog, Shinobazu Pond 俳句.

A Haiga by John Hawkhead

 

~

John Hawkhead has been writing short-form poetry for over 30 years, publishing three books of haiku & senryu in that time. He lives in the South West of England.

An Esoteriku by Anne Fox

dark arts
gathering rainfall
into words

~

Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.

An Esoteriku by Jerome Berglund

the illuminati
stay hydrated . . .
are you?!

~

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, Mōtus Audāx Press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.

An Esoteriku by Kelly Sargent

sap slash
resisting the urge
to cover every wound

~

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. Her latest haiku/senryu collection is entitled The Honeybee's Waggle (Cuttlefish Books, 2026). She writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.

"Dream of Spring" by Joy Hallinan

Dream of Spring

The ritual begins with a splash of ice cold water. Dusting on a white powder with a gilded brush. Carefully drawing again the outline of lips ruby red. A black kohl pencil fills sparse brows. A smear of the queen's royal jelly seeps into the faint beginnings of sinking cheeks. A smile. Then, the slow stir of collagen into her black coffee.

gazing into a mirror
reflects back the green witch
hazel saplings
surrounded by bent trees
with grey-haired moss

~

Born in the 60's flower child era, Joy spent many happy unsupervised hours roaming the woods. Her haiku, tanka, haibun, and tanka prose can be found in journals internationally. Sometimes her haiku may also surprise you on a street corner sign or in a botanical garden. Winner of the 2026 Ecopoetry Award, Fiiloli Gardens, and Finalist Washington, D.C. Golden Haiku Competition.

An Esoteriku by Arvinder Kaur

the times we die in this life   soulstice

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Rowan Beckett Minor

first day of summer
cat whiskers
in the conjure oil

~

Rowan Beckett Minor (they/them) is a disabled Melungeon poet and hoodoo practitioner from Prince, WV, who currently resides in Cleveland, OH. They have been featured in:  Mayfly, A New Resonance 12, as a confluence journal Fellow (2024-2025), as a presenter for Haiku North America (2019, 2021), and co-judge for the HSA Brady Senryu Contest (2022). Rowan is honored to have served as HSA Midwest Regional Coordinator in 2024.

An Esoteriku by Kelly Sauvage Moyer

fucking
with my nihilism
another errant sunbeam

~

Kelly Sauvage Moyer is a dreamer with plenty of blessings (and scars) to show for it. She is the Founding Editor of Circle of Salt.

An Esoteriku by David McKee

morning star a metaphor the darkness remembered

~

David McKee is a haiku poet and retired psychotherapist living in Santa Fe, NM. His haiku have been published in various journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Acorn, Kingfisher, Bones, Presence, and password. His work also has been anthologized in The Red Moon Anthology, Haiku 2021, Haiku 2022, Haiku 2023, Haiku 2024, the Whiptail 2023 Anthology, the Haiku 21.2 Anthology, and Red Moon Press's New Resonance series. He is an oblate of Holy Wisdom Monastery and a member of The Stray Dog Zen sangha.

An Esoteriku by Vandana Parashar

tracing the provenance rain becomes a lake

~

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.

"The Castaway Bottle" by Paula Rodriguez

The Castaway Bottle

The cards told me that my mother should take care of her brittle bones, the fiddle bones in her head, her knees, the little bones in her pointing fingers. Then I saw the Viking ship, lying at the bottom of a fjord, the tamed hills surrounding it plagued with withered blades and apple trees. Its frame strong, like mussels waiting to be awakened by the tide. And thus did I discover where my brother was, for no one would tell me. The day Grandmother stopped breathing, we placed a garnet rosary around her neck, like she wanted. Then, my mother appeared with her leg in a cast and fought my aunts and uncles with her crutches because my brother was not there to protect her.

sleeping at the root
of eternal salvation—
the waves

An Esoteriku by Hifsa Ashraf

black rain
the eulogy
of another war

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Patrick Sweeney

during the sing-along, a wound I didn't know I had

An Esoteriku by M. R. Pelletier

the hum
of my fridge
temple bell

~

M. R. Pelletier lives in Kansas, but his haiku poetry travels the world. He has published in multiple journals, including Bamboo Hut, Five Fleas, Wales Haiku Journal, Mad Swirl and Failed Haiku among others.

An Esoteriku by Anne Fox

flesh deep
beneath glass slippers
scars

~

Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.

"Mother's Helper" by Colleen M. Farrelly

Mother's Helper

First, I grab a loam bag. Then, I grab a trowel. Sweat pours out of me in the afternoon sun as I weave between the rosemary and mugwort, noting weeds and aphids. I dump the leftovers beside unfilled potters and grab a lemonade.

compost heap—
our black cat adds a mouse

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Edward Cody Huddleston

résumé gap
the time spent traveling
between dimensions

An Esoteriku by Mark Valentine

no need to invoke
the gods of chaos
they invite themselves

~

Mark Valentine is interested in bungalow visionaries, bedsit occultists, back-street brooders, bus station café poets, top floor troubadours, chip shop radicals, quayside soothsayers, semi-detached flying-saucerists, reading-room ruminators, rucksack ley-hunters, apocalypticks in creepered villas, terraced house neo-kabbalists, tower block zaum-niks, seekers of zodiacs, cliff-edge samphire-gatherers, and allied trades.

An Esoteriku by Sangita Kalarickal

disco dance of the maple storm lit sky

~

Dr. Sangita Kalarickal writes to keep sane in a mad world. She's also the author of two books and the EIC of Drifting Sands Haibun Journal.

An Esoteriku by Patrick Sweeney

a tray of orange nasturtiums . . .
knees touching
the whole ride home

An Esoteriku by Gareth Nurden

patio fire
poking the cremated remains
of sundown

~

Gareth Nurden is a haikuist from Newport, Wales and has had several hundred pieces of his work appear in twenty countries worldwide in journals, anthologies, e-zines and blogs.

An Esoteriku by Sarah Mahina Calvello

days of peaches fleeting and simple

~

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

An Esoteriku by unc

shadows
within shadows
genealogy

~

unc lives in Pennsylvania, and he is drawn to the magic of short haiku. He can often be sighted in coffee shops, used bookstores, and daydreaming in the woods.

An Esoteriku by Kelly Sargent

dream walker
the tightrope between me
and my self

~

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. Her latest haiku/senryu collection is entitled The Honeybee's Waggle (Cuttlefish Books, 2026). She writes because when a reader gives a little nod or slight smile, she no longer bears the weight of living, alone.

An Esoteriku by M. R. Pelletier

rope bridge
the narrow stream
of being

~

M. R. Pelletier lives in Kansas, but his haiku poetry travels the world. He has published in multiple journals, including Bamboo Hut, Five Fleas, Wales Haiku Journal, Mad Swirl and Failed Haiku among others.

An Esoteriku by Vandana Parashar

gusts of freezing rain she speaks in my silence

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Hifsa Ashraf

distant shooting
ellipses of starlings
scattered in the sky

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Arvinder Kaur

the soundtrack of my solitude: wind chimes

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Anne Fox

rusted rainbow
the monochrome
of pain

~

Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.

An Esoteriku by John Hawkhead

natural magic
enraptured by a charm
of goldfinches

~

John Hawkhead has been writing short-form poetry for over 30 years, publishing three books of haiku & senryu in that time. He lives in the South West of England.

"Zip" by Nolcha Fox

Zip

The mural on the building at 3rd and Main appeared that morning from nowhere. The whole town gathered, gawking at the seascape.

"All those fish!" Mayor Abaddon said. "Look how the sunlight sparkles off their scales!"

Marleen, town librarian, pointed at the bottom of the mural. "Why is there a zipper there?"

"Why don't you find out, my dear?" The mayor lit a cigar with his thumb.

She yanked the zipper down. Zip!

Whoosh! The ocean cascaded out, drowning everyone.

Everyone except Abaddon, hovering on leathery wings, eyes glinting red. "People. So gullible." He flew away to the next town.

~

Nolcha Fox's poems have been curated in print and online journals. A best-selling author, her 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.

Website:  https://writingaddiction2.wordpress.com/ and https://nolchafox2.wixsite.com/nolcha-s-written-word/blog

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/nolcha.fox/

An Esoteriku by Colleen M. Farrelly

Giant's Causeway
a sea spray rainbow covers
the fairy tree

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Sarah Mahina Calvello

a cup of coffee with the mountains primal screaming

~

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

"Of the Sea" by Colleen M. Farrelly

Of the Sea

Moonlight shimmers on the beach as we race towards his Naval base. Sand dollars dot the surf line, relics of the Paleocene. At children's church, they symbolized the Resurrection. Here, it's still. Just memories and our buddy's ghost whispering from the waves.

paddle out

an empty surfboard
and floating leis

as a final set
passes through
Memorial Day dawn

~

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.

"Magpies on the Chimney" by Ma Yongbo

Magpies on the Chimney

At the top of the red-brick square chimney on the roof,
a few magpies form a circle, motionless for a long time.
The color of the snow on the roof hasn't changed yet,
on the wooden face of the house, only gray wrinkles remain.
The desolate yard, the wind without nerves,
hangs on the fence like withered yellow vines.

No smoke has risen from the chimney yet,
the magpies' gray full dress are still new,
they resemble boys from a neighboring village
arriving early for the ball,
winter's frozen clouds and smog inextricably intertwined.
the red sun's cruise ship
slowly sinking in the afternoon woods.

The magpies squat on the chimney, looking down,
the pitch-black chimney like a deep well,
leading to a quiet room.
There is no sharp scent of burning pine branches,
no light, perhaps the owner isn't home,
the magpies and I know nothing.
Perhaps they are mourning a companion,
who jumped down and never made a sound.

Far away, the cooking smoke has never risen,
those few lonely little houses
seem like we've never been there.

~

Ma Yongbo was born in 1964, Ph.D., representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry, and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. He is the founder of polyphonic writing and objectified poetics. He has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986, including 9 poetry collections. He focused on translating and teaching Anglo-American poetry and prose including the work of Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Amy Lowell, Williams, Ashbery and Rosanna Warren. He published a complete translation of Moby Dick, which has sold over 600,000 copies. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. The Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) is comprised of 1178 poems, celebrating 40 years of writing poetry.

"Hoops with Heads" by Jerome Berglund

Hoops with Heads

Play ball. Ball park. Take me out to the ball game. Ball is in your court. Wanna be a baller, shot caller. Lucille Ball. Balenciaga. Cabal. Symbol. Bawling me out. Cotton ball. Ball and chain. Wrecking ball. Ballot. Ballast. Ballad. Hyperbole. Dodge ball. Mothball. Ball gag. Ballcock. Ballroom. Masquerade ball. Black and White Ball. Disco ball. Bali Hai. Eight ball. Meat Ball. Red Bull. High ball. Bolster. Speed ball. Ballistic missile. Metabolism. Golf ball. Matzah ball. Canon ball. Ball drop. Ball boy. Medicine ball. A baby bawls. Fireball. Black ball.

high house
a whole
new ball game

~

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, Mōtus Audāx Press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.

An Esoteriku by Anne Fox

 

first butterfly
for a moment I forget
about death

~

Anne Fox, considered a witch-child from birth, is an off-planet soul doing psychopomp work behind the scenes for our dying civilization.