spending a year
in my parka pocket
christmas tissues
Margaret Anderson, Vancouver
silver capped pine
the lengthening shadows
of our togetherness
Joanna Ashwell
UK
two weeks to solstice
black branches
against a pigeon sky
Isabella Mori, Vancouver, BC
frozen pine
howling high
on wolf moon night
C. Oulens
India
last blush
delicate tea rose
meets first frost
Belinda Behne
Clinton, CT
icicles form
where the roof leaks
last night’s stars
Nalini Shetty
Mumbai , India
frost crystals
on the hospital window …
what’s half spoken
Chen-ou Liu
Ajax, Ontario, Canada
white
my breath…
and the snow
Pegah Rahmati Nezhad, Tehran, Iran
snowball fight
a stray remains
in the late sky
Gareth Nurden
Newport, Wales
Winter Monoku
rock salt ready to heave at the ICE
James Penha
Bali, Indonesia
bison an ad for winter
Roberta Beach Jacobson
USA
first light snowflakes swirl the juncos
Theresa A. Cancro
Wilmington, Delaware, USA
parasol in a blizzard we are all damaged here
Kimberly A. Horning
St Augustine FL
Michele’s Musings
Hello, friends!
I am heading to a big band concert as we put this issue together, and really looking forward to it! Then in a few weeks, Sally and I are going to see jazz musician Harry Manx, a longtime favourite of both of ours. I’ve been listening to both in preparation for the concerts, and all this music got me thinking about how music can inspire haiku.
Have you ever listened to a piece of music and found images of nature drifting through your mind? Or heard a line of a lyric and had it stick with you?
Two years ago, I was humming along to Paul Simon’s song, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, when an image of cherry blossoms fluttered into my mind. It inspired this haiku:
rainy afternoon
blossom petals stuck to
the soles of her shoes
(Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2024 honorable mention)
Freemusicarchive.com
For our upcoming issue, we want to challenge you to write a haiku or two inspired by music. If you are feeling a bit stuck, I recommend listening to The Four Seasons, a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Or pick a line of lyric from your favourite song and see where it takes you. Please provide the reference back to the piece of music.
Keep on writing!
Member News
Chen-ou Liu had this sequence published by The New Verse News:
pyramid
after pyramid of rubble...
again “ceasefire” strikes
fireball by fireball...
the length
of a Gazan night
smoky twilight
a cry sinks into the sound
of a gunshot
skeletal houses
these layers of silence
upon silence
And…Haiku NorthWest Porad Award Winners: congratulations to Chen-ou Liu (first place)
Found on Charlotte Digregorio’s Blog, this selection of haiku from Roberta Beary
new year sake . . .
the gradual dimming
of your flaws
season of loss
i adopt the color
my mother wore
moving day
the kids pack up
my first marriage
goldenrod
all the lies
he left me
Roberta Beary (USA/Ireland)
And this selection by Julie Bloss Kelsey
one slow blink follows another hush of snow
The Heron’s Nest, Vol. XXV, No. 4, December 2023
evolution—
my son draws a dinosaur
for a girl
The Heron’s Nest, Vol. XX, No. 3, September 2018
Julie Bloss Kelsey (USA)
We received a lovely letter from Laurina Lind of Sackets Harbor, NY, US, to let us know of recent publications her haiku has been accepted in, publications she wouldn’t have known about if not for The Solitary Daisy. Yay! We’re so happy to hear that. Here are a few of Laurinda’s recently published haiku:
From the May issue of Folk Ku:
the way
to slice a lake
windsail
in the night’s voice too
what the creek said
And from the April issue of Under the Basho:
crow
its short study
of us
Thanks so much for sharing your good news with us, Laurinda!
To all our readers, please feel free to share your success. We love good news!
Places to submit
All are welcome to participate in the Haiku Society of America’s 2025 conference, “on the edge”, taking place via Zoom on November 21-23, 2025. The schedule of events and the link to register can be found here, please note that all timings are in Pacific time. As well, please note that attendance is free for HAS members. Those who are not members of the HAS may attend the conference by applying to join the HAS (which includes a $40.00 USD fee) OR by applying for a free conference scholarship.
Scifaikuest is a journal for sci-fi inspired short forms! They have rolling submissions so send something in anytime you have a sci-fi haiku moment. Live long and prosper!
Hedgerow Haiku Journal puts out a delightful seasonal-flavoured print issue every quarter. Submissions for the winter issue are open November 5th through 19th.
Fresh Words Magazine is putting together a “Snowfall and Starlight” Christmas Haiku Anthology. Submission deadline is November 28th. Check out their other calls for short pieces as well!
The Haiku Society of America’s journal, Frogpond, is open for submissions until November 30th. Frogpond will accept a submission of up to eight (8) haiku & senryu. In addition, your submission can include: up to three (3) haibun, up to three (3) rengay or other short sequences (including alternate forms of rengay and split sequences), and one (1) renku.
Bottlerockets is open for submissions until December 15th, but keep in mind they only accept submissions by snail mail so send yours off sooner rather than later!
Check out this new haiku offering by Daisy friend, Petro – Post-ku! Submissions for their January issue are open December 1st to 15th.
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.
This Week’s Prompt
Write a haiku or two inspired by music. Please provide the reference to the piece of music. Submissions close on November 26th.
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!
“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
-Henry Miller
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
