Winter
rivers of ice the crack of my bones
– dan smith, Chardon, OH
frozen berries –
the bird’s beak
leaves a scar
` – C.X. Turner, Birmingham, UK
turning down
the noise
first snow
-Kimberly Kuchar, Austin, TX
mull at the market . . .
worse than the withering wind
the rising prices
– Monica Kakkar, USA/India
tree frog
tucked away in a hollow
long night moon
– Madeleine Kavanagh, CA
mulled wine
the distant land
where my children sleep
– Emil Karla, France
cold morning
under a blanket
of new snow
– Kim Klugh, Lancaster, PA
cold night –
in the fireplace
the smell of birch
– Paul Callus, Malta
Michele’s Musings
Hello everyone! I can’t believe this will be our last issue of the year! Sally and I will be taking a mindful pause until January 11, 2025, spending time reflecting, enjoying family, and quite likely writing haiku. We wish the same for you!
Do we have any Swifties in our membership? It’s been all over the news and social media as the indomitable Ms Swift finished off her Eras tour with three shows in Vancouver last weekend. I learned something new – Fortnight is not only the name of a Swift song, but also an old English term, fēowertyne niht, meaning fourteen nights. Exactly the normal frequency of our newsletters!! I challenge you all to work the word fortnight into one of your haiku 🙂
Just a reminder, we are still looking for someone to join our volunteer team over here at Solitary Daisy to help with social media!
Happy Holidays to you all and see you in the new year!
Member News
In our last issue, I mentioned David Brydges had a haiku coming up in Sense and Sensibility. This link will take you to the December Issue, but here is David’s haiku:
El Niño winter
cat thinks it’s spring
seasonal disorder
David Brydges, Cobalt, Ontario, Canada
But also, the editor of Sense and Sensibility sent me the following information:
Submissions open December 1 for the Sense and Sensibility Haiku January 2025 issue. Submissions close on December 22, 2024. This issue is for January 1, 2025.
For poets published in the December issue, please allow at least 2 months to submit again.
*The prompt for January: “Brrrr! Baby, it’s cold outside!.” Think of mittens, dipping temperatures, no heat, icy streets, snowstorms, and other things associated with January’s weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
Please submit your work via this Google Form below:
https://forms.gle/Ddhj9g2giAdLEMzi6
Guidelines
1. Please submit 3–5 haiku for “Brrr! Baby, it’s cold outside!”
2. Submissions open on December 1, 2024.
3. Submissions close on December 22, 2024.
4. Publication date: January 1, 2025.
5. I welcome haiku/senryu of 1–3 lines, traditional and not traditional, as well as experimental forms.
6. Please follow the prompt, “Brrrr! Baby, it’s cold outside!” Think of mittens, dipping temperatures, no heat, icy streets, snowstorms, and other things associated with January’s weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
7. I will not tolerate HATE POEMS against another person’s race, creed, faith, gender, or sexual preference. No sexist words or too much usage of extreme language.
8. Have fun with the prompt (s). Let your imagination write your words!
Important information
1. Publication is the first of the following month.
2. Once published, please allow 2 months to submit again.
3. You will be notified if your haiku is accepted. I do not send out rejection letters.
4. Selected poems to appear on my WordPress, Substack, Twitter, and Bluesky accounts.
Congratulations to the following poets whose work was selected for the longlist on The Haiku Foundation – Dreams, Day and Night.
Eavonka Ettinger
Nitu Yumnam
Tracy Davidson
Tony Williams
Kelly Sargent
Kimberly Horning
Paul Callus
Lakshman Balusu
Monica Kakkar
CX Turner
Madeleine Kavanagh
Reprinted on Charlotte Digregorio’s Blog since our last issue:
picnic table
a party of gobblers
slinks by
by Jerome Berglund (USA)
Haiku in English, The Mainichi, April 27, 2024
window to window . . .
symphony of wind flowers
silvers the birches
by Monica Kakkar (India/USA)
Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 23/24 Issue, February 02, 2024
And on Café Haiku’s Cityscapes:
Haiku by Ruth Holzer, USA
in an abandoned warehouse house sparrows
finding my way
through the narrow streets
Western Wall
behind the Museum of Civilization blankets and boxes
Congratulations to Kelly Sargent whose recently published book was nominated for the Vermont Book Awards!
Congrats to Kelly, along with Nitu Yumnam, and CX Turner for having haiku nominated for the Touchstone Awards and Red Moon Anthology.
Speaking of awards and such, nominations for Touchstone Awards and the Red Moon Anthology from Femku Mag include Tracy Davidson, Debbie Strange, Eavonka Ettinger, Julie Bloss Kelsey, and CX Turner.
What an amazingly talented group you are!
Sally’s Notebook
Michele and I had so much fun choosing haiku for our advent calendar and sending it out to our friends and Daisy family. Those of you who sent little notes to us, I want you to know how much joy that brought us.
You may have noticed the photo at the top of the newsletter isn’t the same one I used for the prompt – except it is! That is, it’s the same exact location one year later. Such an awesome day out hunting for Christmas Trees.
I did write about our day on my blog at Featherstone-Creative but it doesn’t include any haiku. That doesn’t mean none were written! Here’s one from Michele:
sparrows
the gurgle of the stream
through broken ice
and one from me:
bald eagle…
from the tips of his wings
flakes of gold
Happy Holidays to all, and we will see you in the New Year!
Deadlines and Fun Stuff
A Message From The Heron’s Nest
| READERS’ CHOICES AWARDS We care what you think about the poems we publish. Each year, after the December issue of The Heron’s Nest is released, you (the reader) are invited to pick a total of 10 haiku from those that we offered in the March, June, September, and December issues of that year as your “Readers’ Choices” . . . those that stuck in your mind or were special for you. We hope that you will participate once again in this process. Here’s how it works: 1) Revisit the 2024 issues of The Heron’s Nest. 2) List your ten favorite poems, numbered 1(for most favorite) through 10; with first line, name of poet, issue in which the poem appeared (March, June, September, or December 2024). Example: 1. first line of poem / Jane Author / September 2. different first line / John Author / June … 10. a first line / Jo Author / March Please do not vote for your own poems. Should you feel inspired to write comments about any or all of your selections, we would love to see those and may include some of them in our annual print edition. We would also welcome any comments about your experience of making your selections. 3) At any time between now and January 15, 2025, send your listing to John Stevenson, Managing Editor, at ithacan@earthlink.net 4) Check our web pages on February 14, 2025 for a report on the top poems selected by you and other readers of The Heron’s Nest! |
Here is the latest interview by Jacob Salzar, this time with haiku poet Kat Lehmann.
Our thanks to Monica Kakkar for giving us a head’s up to these two contests.
The Embassy of Japan in Senegal
Not From This Planet on Instagram
The deadline for submitting to The Haiku Canada Review is December 31.
The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press Haiku Nook is open for submissions from Jan. 1 – 15
The Enchanted Garden’s latest issue is available online. Don’t forget to click on their submissions calendar to find upcoming themes.
A new opportunity out of Australia – Wild Whispers Poetry Magazine will open for submissions from Dec. 14/24 – Feb. 14/24
This Week’s Prompt
Did you know that the New Year is its own season in haiku? So, naturally, we want your first haiku of the New Year to be New Year haiku. The good news is, if you look up a saijiki, you will find many, many words or phrases to choose from.
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.”
― Matsuo Bashō
Michele Rule is a disabled writer from Kelowna BC. She is especially interested in the topics of chronic illness, relationships and nature. Michele is published in the Asahi Shimbun Haikuist, Pine Cone Review, the Enchanted Garden, Five Minute Lit, Shadow Pond, WordCityLit, and the anthologies F*ck the Patriarchy, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and To Live Here, among others. She is an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets and Haiku Canada. Michele has been awarded honourable mention twice for the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational and also for the Haiku Northwest Porad Award. Her first chapbook is Around the World in Fifteen Haiku. Michele lives in a beautiful garden surrounded by people who love her just the way she is.
Sally Quon is a disabled poet and photographer living in the Okanagan Valley of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. She is an associate member of The League of Canadian Poets and a member of Haiku Canada. Her work has been published in numerous journals including The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, First Frost, and Time Haiku. She is currently working on her first book of haiku, haibun, and haiga, tentatively titled, “My Valley, My Home.”
Featherstone Creative
Dear Ms. Rule and Ms. Quon,
Greetings for International Creativity Month! I wish you and participating poets peace and happiness in the new year!
I am delighted to be published in Issue 42. My haiku includes the following:
All winter season word, kigo 季語: withering wind, kogarashi 木枯らし, 木枯, 凩 *This is one of the first really cold winds, when the last leaves are swept from the trees. Literally it means “tree-witherer”. It is the cold and strong wind, which withers leaves and blows them off the trees. However, it seems that the emphasis is more on the strength of the wind than on its coldness.
Seasonless topic, muki 無季: market, fair, ichi 市 いち
The World Kigo Database by Dr. Gabi Greve, Daruma Museum, Japan, is my primary almanac (saijiki) for kigo and muki, footnotes about kigo, and for translation of kigo and muki into English.
Thank you for your consideration. Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Monica Kakkar (she/her/hers)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicakakkar/
Dear Ms. Quon and Ms. Rule,
Thank you for sharing the contests and my haiku selection for the long list on The Haiku Foundation – Dreams, Day and Night.
I appreciate your reprinting my haiku published in Wales Haiku Journal Winter 23/24.
It includes the following:
Early winter season word, kigo 季語: wind flowers, kazahana 風花 *The soft fluttering snowflakes are sometimes called wind flowers.
Seasonless topic, muki 無季:
— window, mado 窓
— birch tree (esp. the Japanese white birch, Betula platyphylla var. japonica), kabanoki 樺の木 (かばのき)
The World Kigo Database by Dr. Gabi Greve, Daruma Museum, Japan, is my primary almanac (saijiki) for kigo and muki, footnotes about kigo, and for translation of kigo and muki into English.
Thank you for your consideration. Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Monica Kakkar
https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicakakkar/