WALES HAIKU JOURNAL
WINTER 2021
the bird we know
by its thud on the feeder. . .
lifting mist
Kristen Lindquist
clouds pass
only the rattle of
late season corn
Erin Castaldi
wisps of fog
my breath
adding your name
Kristen Lang
a saguaro’s shadow
reaches across the dry wash …
evening cool
paul m.
morning stillness
what’s left of the mist
shines in the pines
Ben Gaa
deer paths
a portion of each day
braided
Jonathan Humphrey
farm dog’s howl
reimagined
in the summer wind
Kelli Lage
inky river
a platypus somersaults
under stars
Lorraine Haig
creek thinning
to a trickle
spindly daisies
Laurie Greer
sip of tea
with a thumbscent of celery
rising fog
Bill Cooper
amid September's falling leaves
. . . kingbird fluttering up
to catch flies
Wally Swist
conger eel thrashing in the creel this hunger
Lew Watts
tablelands
nothing left to catch
the wind
Debbie Strange
cherry petal rain
the mobile morgue departs
the hospital
Kevin Valentine
gathering crows
the berried smile
of the snowman
Mike White
winter bulrushes
an alligator drags its tail
into the pond
paul m.
urban twilight
a fox cry tips over
into the dark
Richard Tindall
summer orchard
tufts of foal down
in the barbed wire
Michael Baeyens
sand where the stray lay . . .
this handful of hermit crabs
huddles together
Kyle Sullivan
masked fishmonger
mirrored
in every maw
Helen Buckingham
rain-soaked ground
a worm emerges from
dad's grave
John J. Dunphy
in for the winter
a snail down
the aloe folds
Bryan Rickert
sage in rain
tombs sit out
river floods
Richard Manly Heiman
sunset shadows pool behind the dunes
Bob Lucky
coregated rust
the old silo’s
leftward lean
Erin Castaldi
bedside radio
we switch off
another war
John Rowlands
old yearnings...
pink blossoms frame
a distant sky
Jay Friedenberg
first sun
night rain lighting up
in the stringybark
Kristen Lang
Saigyō’s poems...
a slow rain fills
the wagon ruts
Randall Herman
sleet clings
to a tractor’s gear stick
idle herds
Jonathan Humphrey
grey woods
a heron lengthens
a charred stump
Michael Baeyens
burial trees
how long
before they hollow
Helen Buckingham
autumn frost
in its upper reaches
the robin's song
Richard Tindall
my father’s wake...
a movement of branches
under the snow
Goran Gatalica
tomcat’s howl
at the edge of sleep
hunter’s moon
Lorraine Haig
marsh cattails
splashing ducks
release the mist
Brad Bennett
distant shots
over the border
blood moon
David He
crematorium
the bone white of
styrofoam cups
Bryan Rickert
Advent Sunday
down the lanes the ticking sound
of leafdrop
Amanda Bell
knitting a cap…
my grandsons chuckling
by the casement
D. V. Rozic
first snow fieldfare strip the haws
Clive Bennett
skipping stone the pressure
Mike White
subway echo –
the one-man band
counts himself in
Richard Tindall
freeing myself
from myself
a mountain breath
Jenny Fraser
slowing train . . .
a gleam of moonlight
on the reeds
Hemapriya Chellappan
quiet park
a bubble shuffles along
the stream of rain
Owen Bullock
morning coolness—
drops of dew sparkling over
a freshly hayed meadow
Wally Swist
sleepless night
the shrike's call
to nothing
Aaron Barry
winter solstice
a left-out teacloth
crackles with rime
Marietta McGregor
in every direction
mountain poppies
spill last night's rain
Carol Raisfeld
autumn trail
among the shadows
a former life
Terrie Jacks
twilight sky
migrants in single file
through the farm gate
Chen-ou Liu
penumbral eclipse
the shades of light
on a moth’s wing
Laurie Greer
empty highway
coyotes crossing
their old trail
Cynthia Anderson
fumbling with the lid
of my yoghurt pot
Mam's tremors
John Rowlands
plump orange
spurts out
last spring's rain
Rolf W. Jacobson
where once a field
offered a shortcut
megachurch
Mike White
frozen rail-tracks
a stallion pumps
wisps of mist
Pitamber Kaushik
camp fire my piece of the stars
Agnes Eva Savich
visiting mom's gravesite –
another three-count
from my flask
Dan Salontai
border stones
loosened into heaps ghost meadow
Barrie Levine
shortest day
a swan pair eases
along a melt channel
Hannah Mahoney
depression
birds checking
the empty feeder
David Oates
colorless summer
a passing shadow of a butterfly
behind the shutters
Alvin Cruz
Taking out the trash—
A cat asleep
On the warm hood of my car
Jacob Hess
summer dawn
the cuckoo returns
muezzin's call
Gurpreet Dutt
father’s fist—
a tarantula crawls
across the gravel road.
Sarah Jones
crisscrossing
the slow bend of a whale
gull shadows
Bill Cooper
tide water
laps the marshy Inlet
of tern nests
Erin Castaldi
winter china town
the couple shares a hot bun
in its steam
Keiko Izawa
rainy nights
baby sow bugs crawl
up the bannister
Bruce H. Feingold
old village pond
the smell of moss
in the washed clothes
Lakshmi Iyer
breaking the dam
one tadpole
now two
Jeffrey Ferrara
dewdrop
the world
housebound
Deborah P Kolodji
tumbling leaves
catch the sun
new death stats
Ben Oliver
muffled by the greenery
of trees in gray dawn light . . .
the June rain
Wally Swist
the way a cloud
b e c o m e s n o t h i n g—
still water
Laurie D. Morrissey
dog day heat
a turtle slips
into the river’s meander
LeRoy Gorman
neighborhood willow
the blackbird pecks out
summer larvae
Radostina Dragostinova
rainstorm
overthinking myself
to sleep
Tomislav Sjekloća
an old farmer
tweezes off a tick
dog days
Anna Cates
peace bell
in grandma's eyes
a glimmering prayer
Richa Sharma
wind to come
with cold fingers
i pull the last beetroot
Tony Williams
bearded eucalypt
the shadows within
wrinkled bark
Marilyn Humbert
low sun
a deer-print puddle
freezing over
Hannah Mahoney
snow falling
inside and outside
the prison wall
Larry Gates
lingering cough
clumps of plum petals
speckle the mud
R. J. Swanson
mother's last breath the silence after moonrise
Meg Arnot
insomnia
an alley dog barks
at its echo
Chen-ou Liu
december moon
what we know
about loneliness
Eufemia Griffo
snowbound
the scent of Kahlua
fills each kiss
Ed Markowski
at day's end the moon waxing eloquent
Kala Ramesh
Christmas eve
kids throwing snowballs
at a stray
Tomislav Sjekloća
city sunset
the shoeblack blackens
one last pair
Keiko Izawa
the stillness
of a heron's nest
winter moon
Agus Maulana Sunjaya
grazing in the rough
the horse wears
a crown of burrs
David Gale
moon
imperceptibly
dawn
David Käwika Eyre
February meadow
a sparrow fills
the distance
Roberta Beach Jacobson
laundry day
rainbow-bubbles burst
on the washing stone
Srinivas S
reading obituaries
the bird's imprint
on the pane
Ben Oliver
a nuthatch
upside down at the feeder
end of year
Marilyn Ashbaugh
spring burial
only the small child notices
geese overhead
Larry Gates
my hair cut
and gray beard trimmed—
the day lengthens
Lenard D. Moore
evening sun
I follow my shadow
into the bar
Joanne van Helvoort
covid fatigue –
from the garden the sound
of mating cats
Manoj Sharma
near winter
the snail retreats
into itself
Mona Iordan
between
my world and yours
a gravestone
Maria Concetta Conti
lone white hibiscus
aglow in the morning sun
— still windchimes
B.A. France
filling in the blanks fresh snow
Denise Fontaine-Pincince
granny's crooning
awakens the baby
winter sunshine
Neena Singh
my hair grey
wingbeats
of a pigeon
Guliz Mutlu
Buddha's smile
up and down on his back
rows of ants
Mirela Brăilean
folding
into the marsh
grouse wings
Joanna Ashwell
coins
thrown at wishes
the fountain drains
Robert Witmer
ice on the windscreen
sliding off to the highway
once the sun hits it
Laurinda Lind
before dawn…
a new songbird joins
the chorus
Earl Livings
festive evening
recalling
your other side
Nadejda Kostadinova
tiny moon bridge
down feather floats an inch
over the ripples
Kath Abela Wilson
falling snow
how wrinkled
my hands are
Réka Nyitrai
the television perpetually on autumn deepens
Antonietta Losito
just as we are
upon soft grass
among wildflowers
ayaz daryl nielsen
this year
I need more layers
in the winter wind
David Watts
shadows tremble
to the tune of quakes
starry night
Suraj Nanu
cusp of winter my lover’s pull
Lori A Minor
snow smell
from the northern wind…
my son’s smile
Daniela Misso
disembodied. . .
I awaken to crows
in the fog
Jeanne Cook
rain season
mud rising through our toes
on the farm path
Tunde Adesokan
burbling stream
in the valley
the tinkle of sheep bells
Mike Moule
roadside puddle...
water striders float
on passing clouds
Adjei Agyei-Baah
wetlands stretching wide the wingspan of a goshawk
Marisa Fazio
lockdown
her dancing shoes
gather dust
Nika
outside the window
a derecho blows
the world sideways
Gary Hittmeyer
pacing the path –
rows of apple trees
my offspring might see
Helen May Williams
an empty porch
frost and moonlight
in the old spider web
Bo Jaroszek
full blown sail
a sloop turns
into the sun
Tom Staudt
I trace blue
bulges on my hand –
winter’s nip
Neera Kashyap
lightbulb
in my room
harbours dust
Charlie Ulyatt
clear night
inhaling
the stars
S.M. Kozubek
preschool playground
baby swings stilled
by caution tape
John O’Connor
dawn
slow pull
into yellow
Lisa Espenmiller
waving fronds –
amongst the bracken
antlers
Dorothy Burrows
heat haze…
mirage on a hot highway
always far away
Rob McKinnon
Siamese cat
filling the landscape
of my arms
Meik Blöttenberger
behind zoo bars
polar bears spellbound ...
first snow falling
Natalia Kuznetsova
moss covered stones
how time
changes time
Nisha Raviprasad
forest rain...
slug on a mushroom stem
carries on
Matt Olechnowicz
winter wind –
the smell
of homemade bread
Julia Guzmán
november
days become translucent
on the page
Elodie Barnes
I guess Dad's
spilled his wine again
fuchsia sunset
Maxianne Berger
drizzle on rails
stretching into distance
my train draws in
Carl Walsh
an ice fisher's
hole in the lake
hunched eagle
Nola Obee
first rain . . .
the dust–ladened blue roof
gaining its colour
Oluwasegun Oluseyi Adesina
pumpkin seed –
the desire to be
a mother again
Carmela Marino
riverbank willow
the whistle and plop
of a kingfisher
Robert Davey
the sunrise bleeds
horizons...
a burst capillary
John Newson
winged seeds
pecking at the snow
a lone crow
Marta Chocilowska
incense stick
another winter day
is gone
Oscar Luparia
waves of frost
roll across the garden
steel magnolias
Bisshie
The echo of the cold
White snowflakes
on the holly
Antonella Seidita
pieces of the evening,
moths entering
through the open window
Michael Battisto
lifting fog
a black swan pushes
from the shallows
Gavin Austin
brushing webs
off the bike spokes
scent of lilac
Tom Bierovic