Issue 44 Food

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Michele’s Musings

I am enjoying meeting up with so many of you over at the Solitary Daisy BlueSky account! This past month we hosted a pop-up haiku challenge based on the Wolf Moon. We received a number of great haiku and I’m going to talk a bit about one of them here.

am I howling
at the Wolf Moon or Mars
it’s all far away
-	David Brydges

I love this haiku! A clever question using the verb howling – wondering who the recipient of the howls is. Could it be the Wolf Moon, or could it be Mars, which is represented by the wolf in Roman mythology. And in the end, does it even matter because “it’s all far away” – does either celestial being hear, or do they even care. Well done, David!

I can’t believe February is just around the corner! Sally and Frithjof and I have put together another prompt calendar for you to help you celebrate Haiku Month and hopefully write a haiku a day. Let us know how you make out with it! Find the calendar here.

And just a heads up, our 2^nd Annual Haiku Contest will open on March 1^st. Details to follow in our next issue.

Member News

David Brydges has another haiku coming up in Sense and Sensibility.

Please check out Patricia Carragon’s Brooklyn based haiku journal. Tell her the Daisy sent you! Here are a couple of haiku from Patricia:

a leaf’s descent
versus 
the cat’s nonchalance

Christmas madness
the snowman
seeks immunity

--Patricia Carragon
Brooklyn, NY, USA

I don’t know about you, but I’m loving the Haiku Poet Wordsearch mentioned in our last issue. A bio, some haiku, and a puzzle! What more could a word geek ask for? Some of our members who have been featured in the last couple of weeks – Valentina Ranaldi-Adams, Joanna Ashwell, Barbara Anna Gaiardoni, Tony Williams, and Kelly Sargent.

Found on Charlotte Digregorio’s blog is this lovely haiku by Julie Bloss Kelsey:

tugging the dog
just past the fence
meadow violets

Kelly Sargent recently had a selection of haiku published in Rattle. Rattle is a tough lit mag to get into. Big Congrats, Kelly!

I’m sorry I don’t have more news for you. This month I’ve been doing too much talking and not enough reading. Oh! I almost forgot – Sally had two haibun chosen for the Haiku Canada Review’s February Issue, and three senryu for the upcoming edition of Failed Haiku. Michele also has a haiku in the upcoming Haiku Canada Review.

Sally’s Notebook

Before I begin, I want to send out a big THANK YOU to everyone who submitted to the food prompt. There were so many excellent haiku to choose from it was hard to restrict it to just eight.

If your haiku wasn’t chosen for this issue, please do continue to submit. It’s wonderful to see so many different perspectives based on a prompt.

I simply can’t believe we’re almost at the end of the month. 2025 has started out a bit on the rough side. Even as a Canadian the Jan. 6^th confirmation and the Jan. 20^th inauguration of the 47^th President of the United States has coloured many of our days, given we are quite affected by many things that happen south of our border. With that, the pardoning of the Jan. 6 offenders, the threatened TikTok ban (yes, I’m a regular scroller), and the tragedy of the California wildfires, it seems as though I can’t catch my breath.

But catching our breath is what haiku is all about. We catch our breath and when we release it, out comes a haiku.

Last Sunday, I was attending one of the zoom writing groups I belong to. We were given a prompt and six minutes to write. The prompt was “I remember…” and had to be about the sense of taste.

I wrote for a solid six minutes, filling an entire page and then some, regarding every taste I associated with a three-day getaway to Waterton Lakes International Peace Park.

It was the weekend the twin towers fell.

Naturally, such a momentous occasion would be burned into my memory, but to have so many memories based on taste alone was surprising

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s cold. I’m lucky where I live – it could be much worse. But I’m also getting old and feel the cold more deeply than I used to. I don’t spend much time outdoors. But that zoom prompt reminded me our five (or six?) senses are available to be used in our haiku writing, and it doesn’t take long.

Step outdoors. What do you see? Hear? Smell? Is there something you can taste? What can you feel on your skin, on your face? Is there a texture you can run your fingers over?

Take note of all your senses. Your next great haiku might just emerge.

Upcoming Deadlines and Things

The Haiku Foundation deadline for Haiku Dialogue is TODAY! Don’t wait.

Guidelines and submission info for the Palette Poetry Micro Chapbook Prize are behind this link.

The deadline is February 2^nd.

This one is a bit niche, but if you are a poet from Vermont, you should definitely check it out. My thanks to Monica Kakkar for bringing the above two opportunities to my attention.

Here you can find Jacob Salzer’s interview with Maria Tosti.

Here are a few deadlines on my calendar:

For Haiku Canada members only, the deadline for the anthology is Jan. 31^st.

Presence closes on Jan. 31^st, as does Seashores.

Prune Juice opens as of February 1^st.

Don’t forget to register for the Upaya Zen Center Haiku weekend! Registration is by donation.

Check out these informative lessons by Jane Reichhold at her Bare Bones School of Haiku.

This Week’s Prompt

Choose a sense that you don’t normally use in your haiku and then delight us with one or two haiku! Submission guidelines are here.

Love is the poetry of the senses.

― Honore de Balzac

Michele Rule

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.

michelerule.ca/

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Sally Quon( Writer / Poet )

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

featherstonecreative.wordpress.com/

• Ginko Walk at Munson Pond
• Maude Roxby Ginko
• Interview with Michael Dylan Welch