Wet kisses
my umbrella
turned inside out
Mary Lee, Oakland, CA
gully washer--
overnight a flood
of mushrooms
Kim Klugh, Lancaster, PA
rain after dark
one field becoming
another
C.X. Turner, Warwickshire, U.K.
cloudy
with patchy drizzle ...
first blind date
Chen-ou Liu, Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Arabian winds
a raindrop so slight
blooms an oasis
Sheikha A. , Dubai, United Arab Emirates
your memory --
a splash of rain
breaks the silence
Melissa Dennison, UK
scooping rain
from the barrel —
cottage retreat
Lisa C Reynolds, Durham Region, Ontario
a long inhale
the green returning
in every raindrop
Joanna Ashwell, UK
desert downpour
my white sneakers
painted red
Louise Hopewell, Australia
maple leaf
in the veins a bead
of dark sky
Alicia Samson, Sweden via South Africa
petrichor...
a cloud captive
in the garden table glass
Steliana Cristina Voicu, Romania
rain subsides
in the beggar's bowl
the Milky Way
Govind Paliath (India)
scotch mist
. . . which truth
is this
Jerome Berglund, New Orleans Louisiana USA
conversational rain the slick repartee of an umbrella stand
Alan Summers, Chippenham, Wiltshire UK
Michele’s Musings
Hello friends!
Thank you so much to those of you who have submitted haiku for the winter advent calendar! We are enjoying them so much. There is still time to submit as the deadline is October 31st. Please send one winter-themed haiku to kelownalady@hotmail.com.
Just a quick note that there will be no October 3rd issue as Sally and I are away at a writing retreat that week and just won’t have time to put an issue together! But we will be back on October 17th, in time for some Halloween spookiness.
Enjoy the slide into fall, or spring if you are in the southern hemisphere!
Keep on writing 🙂
Member News
My apologies; I have not been a regular here, and as such I am a bit late in sharing this news that my first book, “nothing matters”, a book of haiku and micro poems, was released in May; “nothing matters” is priced at cost and is now available on Amazon at the link below.
https://mybook.to/NothingMatters
Biswajit Mishra, Calgary, Canada
Sally’s Notebook
They say no news is good news, but whoever “they” are, they’re wrong. We only had one submission for our Member News space this week. We know you are out there getting published because we see your names.
Toot your horn! Tell us your proudest haiku achievements.
I was thinking about how I got started in haiku. Michele and I discovered our shared interest in haiku almost simultaneously. Michele had written haiku for a long time years earlier, but had never submitted anywhere. We began writing together and submitting wherever possible.
Crickets.
Thais went on for a while. And then one day, it finally happened. I had a haiku accepted and the seal was broken. Michele followed not long afterwards, and from there, it was full speed ahead. Looking back at my first attempts at haiku are cringe-worthy at best. We learned and grew over time, especially with the generous support of Michael Dylan Welch, and his fabulous website https://www.graceguts.com/.
But this has me curious. What was your seal-breaking moment? What was the first haiku you had published?
Please send it to me, along with the publishing credits, of course. Michele and I will choose a selection of them to reprint here in the Daisy.
Just For Fun
Sally and Michele are still collecting season words from across Canada! We are especially interested in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, and the Prairies. We are excited to have a collab going with a Northern Canadian group for words from that region. All contributors will be credited in the book. Please mark your email “season words” and send to kelownalady@hotmail.com.
Registration for the Seabeck Haiku Getaway is now open! If you have never traveled to the west coast of Washington this is your chance to enjoy a unique and beautiful countryside and meet some awesome haiku poets!
The Pakistan Japan Cultural Association is holding its first International English Haiku Contest! Send a maximum of one haiku and/or one senryu by September 30th.
#FemkuMag is open for submissions for their autumn/winter issue, edited by Kelly Sargent & Rowan Beckett Minor. Open to women, non-binary, & trans-identifying poets only. Submissions close on September 30th.
The 2026 Trailblazer Contest will focus on zuihitsu. Almost anything goes. Any format. Any medium that can be shared in a PDF (including via links). Think multimedia. Think about the way of the brush. Submission window runs September 1st to 30th.
The Haiku Shack Anthology is a new series curated and edited by Cendrine Marrouat and Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky. Each volume will contain a maximum of 50 haiku selected from contributors living around the world. Submissions for the upcoming issue must be in by September 30th.
The 2026 Best Haiku search is underway! The contest is sponsored and judged by Haiku Crush. There is an entry fee, but there are also significant cash prizes. Send four haiku by October 14th.
Cornflower Magazine will open for submissions on October 1st until October 31st. This is a delightful new magazine and issues one and two are available to read for free on their website.
The Solitary Daisy Winter Haiku call is now open. Please send one winter themed haiku by October 31st. We will choose 25 haiku for use in an electronic advent calendar that will be shared with everyone. Please put “winter haiku” in the subject line and send to kelownalady@hotmail.com. Don’t forget your name and country!
This Week’s Prompt
Write us a haiku or two about Halloween! What does that look like for you? Have any Halloween traditions, or memories of childhood tricks or treats? If you don’t celebrate Halloween, please send us haiku about bats or cats. Deadline for submissions is October 11th.
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!
“Pleasure lies in being, not becoming.”
― Thomas Aquinas
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.
Dear Michele,
Thank you so much for published my poem in The Solitary Daisy no 81, it was such a joy! I also enjoy reading the other authors haiku!
Best wishes to you and Sally!
Warm regards from Romania,
Steliana