Issue 83 – Haiga

Michele’s Musings

Hello friends!

I have a friend who is going through a big change in her life right now. She mentioned to me that she is suddenly finding feathers when walking so she is picking them up with no real plan to do anything with them except enjoy them.

This made me wonder if the feathers were appearing to her in some kind of revelation about the direction her life was taking. Certainly in many cultures feathers have deep spiritual significance.

But then I wondered if she was just paying more attention to her surroundings. Also a possibility.

Or maybe it was simply that late summer/early autumn is peak molting season for most birds.

I went onto the Internet to see what I could find out about feathers in Japan. Interestingly, feathers don’t usually feature as season words. They do show up in haiku but in relation to specific birds.

For example:

a feather’s weight —
yet it brings to earth
the hawk’s high flight

~Matsuo Bashõ

The one season word I found that actually uses a feather is a modern one based on the Japanese version of the United Way, known as Akai Hane (Red Feather). They have held an annual charity drive for more than 50 years every October. When you make a donation, you receive a tiny red feather with a bit of adhesive that you can stick on your coat. Don’t worry, the red feathers don’t come from wild birds, but rather are dyed chicken feathers. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a haiku using Akai Hane.

Whatever the reason for feathers showing up in my friend’s life, this will become the prompt for this issue. Be sure to use feathers in addition to a season word.

Keep on writing!

Member News

You’ve been busy! Congrats to all!

Joanna Ashwell has recently been published for the first time in NOON – journal of short poetry, Bougainvillea Journal and Frogpond.

Merilee Johnson shares the following:

Nominated by Instant Noodles for Best of the Net:

she walks train, selling candy
child strapped on back
wish I could babysit

Published in smols on 10/15/2026:

yellow warbler in calendar habitat

Published in Mayari Literature Vol. IV, Issue 1: Elemental
Oct. 2026:

Remove white bread from wrapper.
Add sliced ham.
Homemade sandwich. Voilà!

torrents of rain
flooding subway stairs
nature as fare dodger

female ancestor’s rage
emerges from heirloom dresser
straight toward me=

Selected for publication by Mayari Literature for 2026 holiday issue (“Hallowed Hearth”):

skating on Crane’s pond
“race you to the rock!”
cocoa and cold noses

Rebecca Upjohn’s recent successes include three haiku in the recent Fresh Words Haiku Anthology: The City in Three Lines: An Urban Haiku Anthology, and two haiku in Haiku Girl Summer.

And finally, Alan Summers shares the following gold with us:

always where war rages wildflowers

Publication credit: Smols September 2026 ed. Roberta Beach

a slip into a wildflower almanac

Publication credit: Blithe Spirit 36.3 (August 2026 issue) ed. Iliyana Stoyanova

Thank you for taking the time to share your news with us.  Keep writing. Keep submitting. And keep telling us how you’re doing.

Sally’s Notebook

The first thing I’d like to say is thank you for all the well wishes. Unexpected surgery can really mess up your life plans. I ended up having to miss our writer’s retreat but Michele was there to represent.

I’d also like to thank those of you who sent in your first published haiku. They were a delight to read and many of them were so good it made me think, “Well, no wonder this was published.”

But whether your first published haiku is something you are proud of or something that makes you wince to look back on, the important thing is this: you were published, and because you were published, you continued to write, submit, learn, and grow. You learned gratitude, and how to live in the moment. Is there any other writing practice that brings you this close to yourself and the world around you?

I congratulate all of you who hold the courage to send your work out in the world. You are all stars. Here is a lovely selection of what you shared.

light from a dim sky
the sun fits through branches
as if it lives there

Laurinda Lind
brass bell (now on hiatus, Ithaca, NY, USA), January 2017

bent over
endless dishes
moonlight at the bottom

Buffy Shutt
https://www.waleshaikujournal.com/spring-2021

encroaching
my conscience -
neighbour's grapes

Paul Callus

– Malta –

Wild Plum Haiku Journal Issue 3:2 (Fall / Winter 2017)

water cupped palms 
cool sky splashes 
my sun-burnt face

C. Oulens, India
Folk-ku, Issue 5: Water, June 2025

night stroll lilacs guide me home

Kim Klugh, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Frogpond Journal — issue 44.3 Autumn 2021

a thousand myriad birds
write a song
on wire

Alan Summers
Publication credit: Brussels Sprout xi:2  ed. Francine Porad (May 1994, vol xi:2)

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. 

Hawkeye Haiku Contest opens for submissions of traditional (5-7-5) haiku on the theme of “home” on November 2nd. There are lots of categories so see which one you fall into. Deadline to submit is November 13th. 

Wales Haiku Journal is open for submissions November 1st until 15th for their winter issue. 

Wee Sparrow Haiku Nook is open for submissions from the 1st to 15th of November (and all the other months!).  

Modern Haiku is accepting 5 to 15 haiku/senryu and/or one haibun. Deadline is November 15th. 

Quail Eggs Tanka Journal out of the UK is open November 1st for their December issue. Send up to ten tanka by November 30th. 

Haiku Shack Magazine is open for all kinds of short-form poetry, with a limit of 100 words. Deadline to submit is November 30th but they only accept 50 pieces for enter as early as you can. The theme for this issue is “night.” 

O2 Haiku is a new Literary Magazine focusing on haiku and short form poetry. Edited in the Pacific Northwest, by husband/wife duo Kevin Irigoyen Penatello and Samantha Pardo Irigoyen.  Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. 

The British Haiku Society Awards is comprised of three categories: Haiku, Tanka and Haibun. The Competition is currently open and accepting entries from all over the world from both members and non-members of the society. Deadline is January 31st, 2027. 

Keep a close eye on the Call of the Page for an upcoming announcement for their first ever monoku awards!  

This Week’s Prompt

This issue’s prompt is “feather”. We want the word feather included in the haiku, but in addition to a season word! Be super creative! Deadline to submit is November 8th.

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!

“Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life.
To live poetry is better than to write it.”

― Basho

Michele Rule

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.

michelerule.ca/

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Sally Quon( Writer / Poet )

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

featherstonecreative.wordpress.com/

• Ginko Walk at Munson Pond
• Maude Roxby Ginko
• Interview with Michael Dylan Welch