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.