Flicker Takes Flight
late winter
the first faint flutter
in her womb
Kim Klugh
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
bird song –
the child looks up
from her lessons
Shaun Jex
Oklahoma
four wings
folded
unfolded
John Chmura
Manchester, NJ
the steady beat
of his lonely love song
me too, bird, me too
Tracy Davidson
UK
northern flicker
the weave of plumage
dances in sky
Joanna Ashwell, UK
asperitas sky
the speckled breast
of a northern flicker
Joshua St. Claire
late morning—
a flash of yellow
paints the sky.
Cendrine Marrouat
flight of fancy …
watching the world
from a butterfly’s wing
Ellen J. Craft
Seattle, WA
Michele’s Musings
I can’t believe it has been a year since the first Solitary Daisy Haiku Contest! Sally and I are so happy to be doing this again. Big thanks to Sourdough Guide for sponsoring the cash prizes!
You will notice just a few changes to the submission guidelines for this year’s contest. The biggest one is we are only taking two haiku per person. Please don’t send any more than that – we won’t read them!
We would love it if you would help us spread the word about the contest, especially on Facebook and Instagram where we don’t have an account. You can also share this graphic (click on it to save)! Looking forward to all of your submissions!
Member News
Congratulations to the following poets whose haiku were long-listed in the Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue:
Eavonka Ettinger
Tony Williams
Biswajit Mishra
Kelly Sargent
Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Eavonka Ettinger will have both a haiku and a haibun in the Red Moon Anthology, in addition to the release of her book Variations on the Planets, co-authored with Mark Gilbert. Go girl!
Speaking of books, Isabella Mori has a book due to be released next month. Believe Me focuses on mental health and addiction.
Debbie Strange and Nancy Brady were both featured in The Haiku Poet Word Search.
Jerome Berglund had this haiku appear in the Asahi Haikuist Network.
meet george jetson…
narcan in the
little free library
Jessica Allyson sent this email to Haiku Canada and I would like to share it here.
A new haiku anthology, Where the Mountains Were, has been released with all proceeds going to help the Western North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene. I’m one of a number of haikuists who have contributed their work for this good cause.
All proceeds will go to helping those affected by Helene. The charity the editors have chosen is The Foundation for Lake Lure/Chimney Rock Area Businesses, which is a non-profit organization run by locals in the Chimney Rock/Lake Lure, North Carolina area and formed in November 2024 specifically to help those affected by Helene. This way, the donation will go straight into helping rebuild the community.
You can order Where the Mountains Were here. Please help spread the word.
Thanks,
Jessica Allyson
Ottawa, Canada
Found on Charlotte Digregorio’s Blog, this haiku from Kimberly Kuchar which first appeared in Haiku Girl Summer:
sea glass
motherhood softens
my edge
Tony Williams had these haiku featured on Cityscapes – Street Pigeon
in the city—
feeling grateful
for my shoes
tossed salad
a street pigeon
picking it apart
city busker
a chorus of crocuses
steals his pitch
And our very own Michele Rule had a haiku accepted by Poem in a Bottle. We will post the haiku as soon as we are permitted.
Sally’s Notebook
The Canadian flag turned sixty years old the other day. On this auspicious anniversary, our leaders, both past and present, encouraged us to fly our flags proudly. It gave me a glimmer of hope.
You see, a few years ago, our flag was co-opted by a group of people with extreme political views, and suddenly, displaying the flag meant you were one of them, a group many of us did not want to be identified with. Some of us, like Michele, found a way around this. She obtained a flag designed by an Indigenous artist. Still obviously Canadian, but different enough not to be confused with our standard flag.
That glimmer of hope turned into a reality on Thursday night, when Canada defeated the US hockey team. My son and I were having dinner when both of our phones pinged with the news, and even though neither of us are huge fans of the game, we cheered and high-fived each other across the dinner table. No disrespect to the American team. It’s my understanding the game was hard fought on both sides and was some of the best hockey ever seen. But for many Canadians, this was more than just a game. This was a statement.
Canada will not go down without a fight.
The world is a troubled place. My heart goes out to my American friends who find themselves embroiled in a political landscape, both uncertain and terrifying, over which they have no control. There are forces at work in our own country that would like to see us travel the same path, and we need to be vigilant to ensure that doesn’t happen.
So, what does any of this have to do with haiku, you might ask? The answer is nothing – and everything.
Anne Frank said, “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”
As haiku poets, it is our job to see beauty in simplicity. We observe and record. Most importantly, we share. And when we share, we learn we are more alike than different. The flowers blooming in my country might be different from the flowers blooming in your country, but that they will bloom is a universal truth. Haiku builds community – hands and minds reaching out across vast chasms to understand and connect. I’m not naïve enough to believe the world is all about blooming flowers, but our haiku gives us the opportunity to capture an image that, when shown to the world, builds our capacity for empathy, makes us softer and kinder, brings us together.
It doesn’t matter what our political differences might be. What’s important is we realize we all have a hand in shaping the future, and sometimes, a fragment and a phrase have the power to change the world.
Places to Submit
Dewdrop publishes a weekly haiku among other things. They use the platform Submittable for submissions, so you will need to make a free account there if you don’t have one. They are accepting haiku on a winter theme until end February, then switch to a spring theme.
Kingfisher is open for submissions until February 28th. They say they are looking to publish the full spectrum of haiku/senryu, from the traditional to the experimental.
Tricycle does a monthly haiku challenge. This magazine only accepts haiku written in the 5-7-5 pattern. Their monthly deadline is the last day of the month and February’s season word is “blanket.”
tsuri-dōrō will be accepting submissions for their May/June 2025 Issue #27 from March 1st through March 10th.
Zen Peacemakers will be accepting haiku on the theme of Spring Equinox (winter turning to spring) up until February 25th.
The Australian Haiku Society is proud to announce the 3rd running of the John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku. This award is a biannual international haiku competition open to poets from all over the world. Closes on March 1st.
Haiku Canada Betty Drevniok Award closes on February 28th. The winners will be announced at the Haiku Canada Weekend in May.
Teen Ink Haiku Contest is open for youth aged 13 to 19. Submit by March 7th.
The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational opens on March 1st! Sharpen up your cherry blossom pencil and get ready to submit from no matter where you live.
Love this video with Paul Conneally teaching children how to write haiku!
This Week’s Prompt
For our next issue’s prompt, please send us a haiku or two about something that is unique to your town or country! Let’s all learn about each other and grow our empathy. Don’t forget to tell us where you are writing from!
Please see our submission guidelines!
“The author of haiku should be absent, and only the haiku present.”
-Anne Bancroft
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
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.
