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.