mammogram
squeezing one in
by the end of the month
Kim Klugh, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
sushi bar next to
restaurant’s empty fish tank –
second thoughts
Lee Strong, OFS
Rochester, N. Y.
deep breath in and hold
one Mississippi, two mis…
p
u
c
c
i
h
Veronica Hosking
the Tang Dynasty
our orange-flavored
astronaut dreams
AJ Johnson, Stephens City, VA USA
chin hair…
clearly the greys on my head
not torment enough
Baisali Chatterjee Dutt, Kolkata, India
sun salutation—
a dog sniffs
my downward dog
C.X. Turner, U.K
elderly poodle— hard of sniffing
James Penha, Bali, Indonesia
no pets allowed
but roaches
come rent-free
Patricia Carragon
Brooklyn, NY, USA
spin cycle
back where I began
yesterday
Joanna Ashwell, UK
air b&b
house spider
rules
Helen Buckingham, Somerset, UK
Michele’s Musings
Time Traveling in Barkerville – A Haibun
Two horses pull a stagecoach down the dirt road in front of us. Thanks to a light rain, the dust is minimal but I’m quick to cover my nose and mouth with a handkerchief just in case.
I rearrange my hair into a bun and slip into a dress of floral stamped burlap. How kind of the miller to think of us womenfolk when packaging up the flour. I’m not handy with a needle yet, but my mother is.
Our family is headed to the photographer’s studio downtown, and then off to Chinatown for a special birthday dinner for my father. He works with the Chinese daily at our mine and says they are the hardest working people, much better than the Californians just up to try and strike it rich on their own.
On the way to the photographer’s we stop at the merchantile and I am allowed to pick out a hair ribbon, a very special treat! I tie it carefully in place. I am grateful for the wooden raised walks between buildings as I don’t want to get mud on the hem of my dress. We all wear boots on our feet – the only sensible footwear in a place like this.
As the photographer crouches under the camera cape, my brother pokes me and I begin to laugh. My mother chides me to stand still and wipe that smile off my face. A photograph is a solemn occasion. It will sit on our mantle for many years and there will be no silliness.
old photographs
in the attic
patient reminders
Member News
Hi Everyone,
It’s been a while since our last full issue. So many of your haiku have come across my desk in that time – I can’t even begin to relay all that I’ve found. I would like to congratulate those of you whose work has appeared in the Trout Swirl Longlists, on Charlotte Digregorio’s Blog, and in the September Issue of the Heron’s Nest. Great job!
I’d also like to thank Valentina for sending us this fantastic example of what you can do with haiku. Amazing work, both of you, and incredibly inspiring!
Wood artist A. D. Adams and haiku poet Valentina Ranaldi-Adams combined their
talents to create two unique, dragon-themed items, for Ohio’s Dragon Dream Team.
The Dragon Dream Team is a group of breast cancer survivors who participate in
competitive, dragon boat racing. The items were auctioned off at the group’s
annual fundraising gala.
Sally’s Notebook
Autumn has arrived, or will on Monday, here in the Northern Hemisphere. I love these cooler days and even cooler nights, when all the tourists have gone home and the beaches are empty.
Summer was good, but not very restful. As Michele mentioned in the last issue, my son and I embarked on a round-trip journey to rural Alberta for a family reunion. The good news is thanks to family and friends, we spent a total of $35 on accommodation for the entire week. The bad news is that the car broke down, and we had to fork out almost $500 in car repairs. The entire week was a combination of driving and socializing – not exactly ideal for writing, and as a person who values time of solitude, not exactly relaxing either. But it was good to see family, some of whom I may never see again, and we had a few wildlife sightings along the way.
One of the best parts of the trip was the potluck dinner at the reunion. No one does potluck like farm folk. You never know what might show up on the buffet table. At one point I opened the lid of a crockpot and exclaimed, “Oh! Porcupine meatballs!” My son’s eyes got wide. “What?” he said. I laughed, realizing he thought I meant actual porcupine, and not regular beef meatballs cooked with rice, so they looked like little porcupines.
I made a sesame noodle salad to bring to the feast, collected a couple of recipes, and enjoyed the day. I’ll get into my obsession with food at another time.
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the submissions for the latest prompt. Some of them were just laugh out loud funny! I would like to make a request, though. When you are submitting, please put “submission” in the subject line. Otherwise, your beautifully written haiku might end up in my junk folder along with the dozens of emails from sexy women who can’t wait to meet a man like me. LOL!
And even if you are a regular submitter, please add your location after your name. My memory is just not good enough to keep track.
Thank you for your patience as we took our little break, and I look forward to reading more of your work.
Places to submit
Femku Autumn/Winter Issue. Edited by Rowan Beckett Minor & Kelly Sargent. Open to women, non-binary, & trans-identifying poets only. Submit until September 30th.
Presence Haiku Journal out of Britain is accepting submissions of a number of Japanese short forms until September 30th.
Eucalypt : a tanka journal is a printed journal published in Australia twice a year. Submissions open for the May issue on March 1 and close on March 31; submissions for the November issue open on September 1 and close September 30.
The Wales Haiku Journal is open for submissions until September 30th for their Autumn Issue.
The Seabeck Haiku Retreat is happening this October 23rd to 26th. This is the 18th annual Haiku Northwest retreat and is a great opportunity to learn and meet new haiku writers!
Mark down these dates for upcoming submissions to the San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, Rengay and Haibun, sponsored by the Haiku Poets of Northern California. Deadlines for Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka: October 31, 2025, Rengay: January 31, 2026, Haibun: Deadline May 1, 2026.
Pure Haiku will be opening up for submissions for the month of October. They will announce their theme on October 1st so be sure to check it out. They only accept haiku written in the 5-7-5 syllable pattern.
JAL FOUNDATION biennially organizes the ‘World Children’s Haiku Contest’, and they are happy to announce that the 19th contest is to be held this year. The theme is “Sound”. The Regional Contest (works in local languages) runs from October 1st, 2025 to February 28th, 2026. Applicants must be children under 15 years old as of February 28th, 2026.
Get inspired by this moose mother and child hanging around near a beaver dam near Barkerville, BC, Canada! Send us up to two haiku by October 1st to be considered for our next issue.
This Send one or two haiku to sally_quon@yahoo.com or to Michele at kelownalady@hotmail.com. Find our full submission info here. Don’t forget to tell us where you are writing from!Week’s Prompt
“Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
-Basho
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.
Thank you so much for mentioning Pure Haiku!