Kasugai Garden Haiku
shaded shrine —
resisting the urge
to peek inside
Peggy Anderson, BC
balmy breeze . . .
garden in a garden
grandma’s sari
Monica Kakkar, USA/India
quelling the chaos–
the quietude
of a garden
Kim Klugh, Lancaster, PA
no wind
the leaf bends
anyway
Nalini Shetty
Mumbai, India
Stone lantern—
maple leaves drift
with the dead
Michael Harrington, Colorado, USA
koi pond
listening for the splash
of Basho’s frog
Valentina Ranaldi-Adams, Fairlawn, Ohio
Shinto shrine –
a stone lantern guides
the poet’s pen
Paul Callus (Malta)
in the stillness
of the pond
poems rising
Joanna Ashwell, UK
willow shade
the wings of a damselfly
still opening
C.X. Turner,
Warwickshire, U.K.
weeping willow
I too whisper her name
in the wind
Sandra St-Laurent
Whitehorse (Yukon)
Michele’s Musings
Hello haiku friends!
It’s been a time of celebration here with Father’s Day, our youngest child’s birthday and university graduation celebration, as well as Frithjof and my anniversary! And now, at least here in Canada, we move right into an extra long weekend for Canada Day!
Canada Day is a bit of a tenuous celebration for us. While we absolutely love this country, we also recognize its colonial beginnings and the irreparable harm that was done by settlers and the government to the Indigenous people that have been here since time immemorial. We believe in Truth and Reconciliation as active verbs, not just words.
As a partial step towards recognizing this, we fly a special flag for Canada Day.
The Canadian Native Flag was designed by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Curtis Wilson. His design for the flag is meant to represent First Nations in Canada to the public. We hope this Indigenous Peoples flag brings a better understanding of the First Nations of Canada and a vision for a unified Canada that still revels in its diversity and history rooted by the Indigenous Peoples and First Nations Tribes.
Happy Canada Day!
Member News
Troutswirl has posted the long list for “Creation of the Birds,” including haiku from Valentina Ranaldi Adams, Barbara Anna Gaiardoni, Tracy Davidson, Boryana Boteva, Eavonka Ettinger, Lakshman Bulusu, Kelly Sargent, Melissa Dennison, Nancy Brady, Paul Callus, C.X. Turner, Biswajit Mishra, Madeleine Kavanagh, and C.K. Turner.
And if you thought THAT list was long, the list for those of you with haiku published on Haiku Girl Summer is so long I gave up trying to keep track! But please know that we read, and appreciate your haiku.
Found on Charlotte Digregorio’s Blog:
the days fly past with military precision
kjmunro (Canada)
bottle rockets, #34, 2016
New Year's Day
unmasking the old year
with the new one
Patricia Carragon (USA)
Failed Haiku, #108, February 2025
pearl skies
for a moment long ago
mayfly
Jerome Berglund (USA)
Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn Issue, 2024
at the barre
the graceful arms
of a spiral galaxy
Julie Bloss Kelsey (USA)
rattle.com, #49, Fall 2015
and this selection from Kimberly Kuchar:
one last push his cry remakes the world
The Poetry Pea Journal, 4:24, August 2024
the feel of his heartbeat . . .
rocking him a little longer
Haiku Dialogue, Nov. 9, 2022
The Haiku Foundation
cloud animals
reshaping the sky
for my son
Kimberly Kuchar (USA)
Prune Juice, Issue #40, August 2023
Carla Schwartz had three senryu on May: 1 in Sense and Sensibility, https://sensesensibilityhaikujournal.wordpress.com/2025/04/26/sense-sensibility-may-2025/
and two in Jackdaw Press: https://online.fliphtml5.com/nnzao/kbtn/#p=30
Making their debut in The Heron’s Nest, are Kimberly Kuchar,
spring thaw
the bright notes
of sparrow song
Kimberly Kuchar
The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXVII, Number 2: June 2025
https://www.theheronsnest.com/June2025/haiku-p10.html
and Evonka Ettinger.
longer matches
for the pilot light
first frost
Eavonka Ettinger
The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXVII, Number 2: June 2025
https://www.theheronsnest.com/June2025/haiku-p7.html
Kimberly has been busy with work appearing in North of Oxford, The Russell Streur Nature Poetry Anthology I, June 2025, and Autumn Moon Haiku Journal, Volume 8:2, Spring/Summer 2025.
Our congratulations to Tracy Davidson, Julie Bloss Kelsey, and Nitu Yumnam for having their work accepted in the Poetry Pea Flashku Contest!
We’d also like to acknowledge this wonderful tanka sent to us by Tiny Words, written by Chen-ou Liu
bus stop twilight ...
I inhale every puff
of a stranger's cigarette,
the favorite brand
of my deceased father
Chen-ou Liu, Ajax, ON
From Rattle Poetry we enjoy this selection of haiku from Kelly Sargent:
finding
his hidden magazines—
paper cut
her first name
the same as mine
blood moon
island sound waves of silence between us
frost on the leaves—
the weighted blanket
of fire and ice
the lyrebird’s cry
shedding yesterday
from my eye
making peace
an extra lemon slice
in the iced tea
braiding the silver
into the blue
day stars
—from Rattle #87, Spring 2025
and this haibun from Michael Dylan Welch:
Visiting his mailbox was a daily ritual, just around the corner from his bungalow. Sometimes he’d forget his key and trudge back home, but to combat any annoyance, he reminded himself that forgetting meant more walking for his daily step quota. Not that he was all that health-conscious, but he knew, like everyone else, that getting in his steps was good for him. Today he remembered his key. As he turned it in the lock he played another ritual in his mind. Bad mail or good mail? Just bills, and advertisements destined for the recycling bin, or maybe a letter from a friend? The days were fortunately a mix, with enough good mail that he was right often enough, and sometimes it was a good mail day even when he predicted bad. Today, though, his mailbox was empty. He wondered for a moment, like he did on other days like this, if the mail might not have been delivered yet, but since the day’s winter light was already waning, he concluded that yes, today no one loved him, not even his mortgage or sewer companies. He walked slowly home, the key back in his pocket, adding more steps as clouds began to darken the afternoon. How was he to know that he would never check his mail ever again?
tenth anniversary—
an unknown bird
trilling in the arbor
—from Rattle #87, Spring 2025
Tribute to the Haibun
Please feel free to send us your haiku news so we can join the celebration!
Places To Submit
Prune Juice is seeking submissions of original, previously unpublished English Senryu which showcase the vast expanse of the human condition from around the world. Deadline to submit is June 30th.
Wales Haiku Journal is open from June 1st until June 30th. Works that embody the nature tradition of haiku are particularly keenly sought.
Yavanika Press is currently reading for chapbooks. They are looking for collections of minis (poems under 10 lines), Japanese short-forms, short prose/hybrids/haibun, or mixed-genre. Submissions are due by June 30th.
Leaf Journal for The Daily Haiku has opened submissions for their seventh issue. Deadline is July 1st.
Triveni Haikai Review is open from June 1st to July 1st. There is no theme and they will accept two haiku or senryu.
Submissions for The Short of It open on July 1st and run until December 31st. All kinds of very short poetry and prose are accepted including haiku.
tsuri-dōrō – a small journal of haiku and senryu is open for submissions from July 1st to July 10th.
Drifting Sands Journal of the Haiku Foundation is open for submissions from July 1st to 15th.
Frogpond Journal will be open to submissions for the month of July. They will accept up to eight haiku or senryu. In addition, your submission can include: up to three haibun, up to three rengay or other short sequences (including alternate forms of rengay and split sequences), and one renku.
Seashores Haiku Journal out of Ireland is accepting up to eight haiku for their November issue. Eight haiku is a lot so I’m giving you lots of time to work on it. Deadline is July 31st.
The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition is on now. All submissions must be in the traditional form of 5-7-5. Submit up to three haiku by August 15th at 6 pm Eastern time.
What is the haiku moment? What is an “aha” moment? Here is an excellent essay on moments in haiku by Julie Bloss Kelsey, featured on the Haiku Foundation.
Are you involved with a haiku or other short Japanese form journal? Be sure to let us know when your submission dates are so we can share them here.
This Week’s Prompt
Write as a haiku about a festival, celebration or other special event! Can be happy or sad. Send no more than two haiku by July 9 to kelownalady@hotmail.com or sally_quon@yahoo.com. Full instructions for submissions are available here.
“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.”
-Larry L. King
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.
