A Haiga 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 Lucas Weissenborn

 

St. Francis statue—
a stray dog curls
before a pile of blankets

~

Lucas Weissenborn is a researcher, musician, and poet based in Norway. His haiku and senryū have appeared in various journals, including Science. He was also once unintentionally appointed an expert on squirrels by a university in Russia.

A Cherita by Shloka Shankar

 

Mary Oliver writes:
joy is not made to be a crumb

but it always

starts with a crumb,
Hanseling and Greteling
into the unknown

~

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

"Dreamscape 7 or Duke the Pony" by Jack Hernon

 

~

Jack Hernon was born on a farm in Southern Wisconsin. He had a pony that he once got to ride to school.

An Esoteriku by Patrick Sweeney

 

gusting
the boy savior of hats
and important papers

An Esoteriku by Kala Ramesh

 

a

river

dives

into

the

midnight

mountain

raga

~

Kala Ramesh, a renowned pioneer of haikai literature in India, was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore 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.

An Esoteriku by Vandana Parashar

 

no word for it is sanskar* to taste

*sanskar is a Hindi word which means moral values, upbringing, culture, and ethics instilled in a person.

~

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 Sharon Ferrante

 

my answer . . .
a thrush in the wood
plays his flute

~

Sharon Ferrante is a Scottish Witch, who practices magick daily. She's also been seen, now and then, writing some poetry.

An Esoteriku by Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

forest journey sensing the right-hand path

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Christine Forbes

 

tarot cards, runes
all signs point
to you

~

Christine Forbes is a NJ-based poet and librarian who loves cats and is always hunting for what hides at the edge of the ordinary.

"Buffalo Springfield" by Jerome Berglund

 

Buffalo Springfield

. . . hey, didn't stonecutters in Illinois once say something regarding that quintessential mistrust which presents itself when people begin digging in 'them thar hills' for alchemical gold, or jimmy hoffa, or that ubiquitous organ of ra, horus, Providence?

dull care

once you start seeing this stuff

you can't stop

Perhaps, I'm thinking of a late night host with a picture of Roosevelt on his guitar strap, a bust of Teddy in his office, who interviewed scholars (including Ken Burns) about that storied Rushmore mountie and his enjoyment of national parks and the great outdoors?

crown of victory

every july pack

a picnic basket

I believe one of my classmates from Reality Ends Here used to work on his monologue team. Then again, maybe it was instead that top idea man in the writer's room for a popular cartoon show, irish-catholic, scion of their high king? Seem to recall this being around the time of his hosting several white house correspondents' dinners?

meet the flintstones

. . . now that I think of it wasn't he

six foot four?

I only mention because there was something which gave me pause about a for sale sign which just sprouted up on my block for a realty company called WayMaker, no connection surely to the tao, or Tommy Johnson and signing names in blood, or orisha ritual staple oil for opening roads. But the more one stares at that W, composed of two overlapping arches, the more a person apprised cannot help noticing its resemblance to the combination of a certain square and compass, a similar pairing inverted being so recognizable as the Golden Arch (which takes after another one in Palmyra which represents the gate to the temple of Bel) beneath which so many of us purchase our grade f patties. Also seen extending out from the diagonal intersecting Federal Triangle in the street plan for Washington D.C.—much like spiritual geometry discernible from the Japanese practice of Onmyōdō and their grid system in proximity to Kyoto's Seimei Shrine, the star fort of Hokkaido, the Shinsekai district of Osaka modeled after Paris where Gustave Eiffel and Nikola Tesla so famously collaborated. But my concern is they've been digging out a new driveway and sidewalks, and laying fresh concrete all week. <_<

two in the front

the truth is out there

and in there

~

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 David McKee

 

equinox again with his lecture on equality

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Isabella Mori

 

i listen to the scales grow new moon in pisces

~

Isabella Mori writes pretty much everything that's not nailed down:  Fiction (a 15th century monk whose best friend is a comfrey plant), nonfiction ("All the way from the eocene on Highway 400"), and poetry (lots of haiku!). Their great love is hybrid work, like in their latest book Believe Me, which combines poetry, stories, interviews and research. They run Canada's most unusual poetry prize, Muriel's Journey, which has as an "entry fee" that poets document their volunteer work. Isabella calls themselves a Christian-Buddhist Pagan and has a special relationship with Hekate.

An Esoteriku by Alvaro Carrasquel Gomez

dark moon beginning her shadow work

~

Alvaro Carrasquel Gomez is a Venezuelan senryū 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.

An Esoteriku by Kelly Sargent

 

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.

An Esoteriku by Randy Brooks

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" by Scott Burton

 

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

An Esoteriku by Lorraine A Padden

 

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" by Nolcha Fox

 

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.

"Protecting My Medicine Stick" by Zach Lance

 

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Laila Brahmbhatt

 

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.

"Barbed Wire" by Jack Hernon

 

~

Jack Hernon was born on a farm in Southern Wisconsin. He had a pony that he once got to ride to school.

An Esoteriku by Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

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" by Scott Burton

 

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  

An Esoteriku by Shloka Shankar

 

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

An Esoteriku by Patrick Sweeney

 

checkers
(with pick-ups for not jumping)
my bucktoothed life

An Esoteriku by David McKee

 

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.

An Esoteriku by Kelly Sargent

 

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.

An Esoteriku by Martina Matijević

crow caw
her death
denounced

~

Martina Matijević is a poet from Croatia whose work has appeared in Tsuri-doro, Under the Basho, Modern Haiku, Kokako, and other journals. She is currently exploring spiritual traditions and studying astrology, with a particular interest in birth charts.

"The Contemplative Flower of Violet" by Pawel Markiewicz

 

~

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.

An Esoteriku by Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

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.