A Durga Puja Ku by Vandana Parashar

bijoya dashami how long the way back is

Bijoya Dashami marks the culmination of Durga Puja and the goddess's departure from her maternal home. In Bengali tradition, her return to Kailash brings an undertone of farewell and separation. The festival is celebratory, but it also carries sadness at her leaving.

The phrase can be read in two ways:  How long is Durga's journey home, or how long must her devotees wait for her return?

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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 Patricia Hawkhead

shadow memories
of a dark woodland
childhood fairytales

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Patricia Hawkhead's writing has been published in many poetry magazines around the world with most of her writing informed by the natural world, particularly her small magical garden.

A Tanka by Reid Hepworth

a pair
of blinded sphinx
share a moment
atop the grave marker
things I can't unsee

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Reid Hepworth shares her secrets with the trees, plots her storylines with the birds and is known to covet pebbles and sea glass. She finds magic in the smallest, most ordinary things. Her poetry, influenced by her interaction with the natural world and the human condition, has been published internationally. Reid has released two books of poetry.

An Esoteriku by M. R. Pelletier

chanting through the beads
the stations
of Earth's orbit

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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.

A Durga Puja Ku by Vandana Parashar

after the summer
that lasted too long
the scent of shiuli

The shiuli (shiuli/parijat, Nyctanthes arbor-tristis) is strongly associated with autumn in Bengal and with the arrival of Durga Puja. Its delicate fragrance can evoke the festival before the celebrations themselves begin. The flower carries a sense of anticipation, nostalgia and seasonal renewal.

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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.

"Parallel World" by Cynthia Anderson

Parallel World

This is a land of forests and lakes and narrow, winding roads with few cars or people. So it's pure chance to encounter an industrious dwarf driving a giant tree forward at a pace barely above a crawl. He gladly stops to show off the mechanism inside the hollow trunk—an assemblage of gears and levers. I ask, Where's your windshield? There isn't one. A jerry-rigged system of rear-view mirrors lets him see where he's been. Moving forward requires driving by feel. The tree, alive and well, is happy to be on the move after occupying one spot for millennia.

half-lifted eyelid
a line of clouds across
the dawn sky

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Cynthia Anderson loves exploring the relationship between dreams and reality. She has published 14 poetry books, most recently a collection of haiku and senryū titled Heartwood (Cholla Needles, 2026). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Best of the Net, and the Touchstone Awards. Cynthia is co-editor of A Bird Black as the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens. She has lived in California for over 40 years. www.cynthiaandersonpoet.com

"A Recipe to Clear" by Joy Hallinan

A Recipe to Clear

one cup kosher salt
three sprigs rosemary
rind slivers of a fresh lemon

Choose a sunny day. Begin by deep cleaning your space. Place aside anything no longer serving you. Open wide the windows. Walk clockwise around the room with a bell or chime or crystal glass tapping softly with a knife. Let the sound echo. Mix the salt, rosemary, and lemon. Place a pinch in each corner saying a blessing. Display the remainder in a porcelain bowl or in grandmother's teacup to absorb the negative. Play music and dance. Remember to toss out the old salt during a full moon and begin fresh again.

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Joy grew up writing poetry in secret password girls-only treehouses. An ardent herb gardener, hedge witch, and maker of extracts and tinctures, Joy practices folk traditions handed down from her great-grandmother. She is also a longtime student of space clearing and feng shui following Karen Kingston and other international practitioners.

Short-Form Poetry by Patrick Sweeney

Last I heard, he was rescuing worms from puddles in Pittsburgh

A Shahai by Stephanie Zepherelli

 

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Stephanie Zepherelli, a former dance professor, is a longtime student and teacher of Iyengar yoga, ballet, and contemporary dance; a student of Zen master Robert Aitken; and a reluctant clairvoyant descended from Romanian Gypsies. She was introduced to short-form poetry via Triveni Haikai India. Stephanie lives on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, with her tribe of Madagascar geckos.

An Esoteriku by Oscar Luparia

BLACK HOLES only my cat looks at ease

~

Born in 1956 in Vercelli, Italy, Oscar Luparia is a trade unionist. Haiku, mountains and photography are his main passions. After approaching the classical Japanese poetry about twenty years ago, he has written seven haiku/haibun collections so far (available on the internet for free—https://archive.org/details/@oscar_luparia). His poetry has been published internationally.

An Esoteriku by Hifsa Ashraf

dunes after dunes of war debris no oasis

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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.

A Haiga by John Hawkhead

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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 Roberta Beach Jacobson

providing my potions
which doctor

~

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

"Midnight Writer" by Michael Lee Johnson

Midnight Writer

Put it in writing—circle the poem,
and wrap chords around midnight's throat.
I spin in my night robe,
a midnight dancer, nude in the hush,
I slip across shadows,
in the silver-lit kitchen,
bare as a confessional booth.
Welcome to low IQ theater.
Pour Monarch Gut Rot Vodka in my veins.
Sing a lowbrow hillbilly melody to the dark.
All aboard memory's night train through Indiana cornfields.
Distant foxhounds nestle through memory's fields.
Cornfields, Night Train wine uncorked in the gloom.
Now discontinued, I tumble from the shelf—
Once a high school dropout, a basketball star,
track runner in the dark—
I drift under low-wattage dreams,
lost in late-nighttime monologues.
Curtains fall—low IQ theater.
Writing poems all night until dawn.

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Published in 47 countries, Michael Lee Johnson is an accomplished poet with eight Pushcart Prizes and eight Best of the Net nominations. He has created 445 poetry videos on YouTube. He is the editor-in-chief of three poetry anthologies, all of which are available on Amazon, and has authored several poetry books and chapbooks. Michael has administered and created 6 Facebook poetry groups. His latest book, Lost Leaves: Short Poems of Nature & Love, co-authored with Irma Kurti, is available here:  https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Leaves-Short-Poems-Nature/dp/9353538386/ref. He is a member of the Illinois State Poetry Society (http://www.illinoispoets.org/) and Poets & Writers (https://www.pw.org/).

An Esoteriku by Anne Fox

wild coltsfoot
an embryonic vision
quickens the dream

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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 Bruce H. Feingold

and god said let there be light   Monet's pond

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Bruce H. Feingold lives in the San Francisco Bay area and is a retired psychologist. His haiku have been published world-wide and have won numerous awards. Author of six collections, including everything with an asterisk (Red Moon Press, 2022), an HSA Merit Book Award recipient, Bruce recently released a boy who lived one day. In the author's note he wrote, "I am more aware than ever of the fundamental value of one's unique haiku voice and authenticity and becoming who you are as a poet and human being . . . the practice of composing has become a truly amazing, mysterious grounding, and joyful way of being." Bruce is on the Board of Directors of The Haiku Foundation, chairs The Touchstone Awards and is the Vice-President of the Haiku Poets of Northern California. Bruce's haiku may be found on Instagram (haikubruce) and at haikubruce.com. 

An Esoteriku by Vidya Premkumar

dysthymia wet laundry across a low-voltage sky

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Vidya Premkumar from India is an educator, poet, writer, digital librarian, graphic designer and visual artist. Her works reflect her multidisciplinary interests in life, society and nature.

A Tanka by Jackie Chou

fallen leaves
curled around
the edges
there is only so much
the dead can do

~

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 Arvinder Kaur

after father
something of the milky way
in your bouquet

~

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 Maria Tosti

the wind's phone—
your silent answers echo
inside me

~

Maria Tosti is an Italian poet, author, artist and also a photographer for passion.

She made her literary debut in 2014 with a multilingual book of poetry spanning various genres, including her first short poems written in the Japanese style. She has several publications of her literary and artistic works around the world.

She loves angels and everything that represents divine light.

On this journey between earth and heaven, she is always in search of beauty; she loves to linger over details and read between the nuances of existence.

An Esoteriku by Peter Jastermsky

wind phone
her familiar voice
dust to dust

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A New England native, Peter Jastermsky lives among the Joshua trees in the high desert of Southern California. His 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.