A bamboo grove conveys a sense of dignity and spirituality. Bamboo, a member of the grass family, is characterized by its hollow stems. In a metaphorical sense, these hollow stems represent the non-dual nature of all phenomena. The empty stems are an insight into the primordial ground that is the inter-being that motivates those who write haiku and senryū. That emptiness traces back to the instant before the Big Bang, when all matter, energy, gravity, and time were one entity confined in an infinitely small singularity. No difference between subject and object existed.

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The sound of the wind,

Hollow stems clack together —

The black bamboo grove.

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Kevin McLaughlin

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Purbasha Roy is a writer from Jharkand, India. Purbasha evokes a mood that stirs the imagination of a subtle reader.

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Cows graze

Greeness of fields

Crows cackle near

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(Ah, the greenness of the fields!)

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Heron’s nest

Cradles silence

Winter tapestry

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(A profound silence, complete stillness,)

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Red daisies

Bloom in the garden

Red dawn of sun

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Purbasha Roy

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David Kehe is a former Peace Corp volunteer. He draws inspiration from living on the Pacific Northwest and from 40 years of teaching ESL. He is keenly aware of nature’s natural processes of growth and decay.

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wind-scattered seeds

siblings

grown apart

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forest floor

pews

of fallen logs

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David Kehe

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A recent University of Texas graduate, S Denny resides in San Angelo, Texas. His most recent poem appeared in Voices de la Luna.

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glass-green bottle flies

buzzing ’round the scavenge mark

a silken sunshine

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thunder-thumped cloud

bleeds a life-blood transparent

b‘low a daisy grows

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(Superior juxtaposition of the thunder-thumped cloud and . . . a daisy.)

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S Denny

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Robert Beveridge makes noise and writes poetry in Akron, Ohio.

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adamant

the stone wall stares out

at the storm

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Robert Beveridge

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DJ Tyrer produces Atlantean Publishing and edits View From Atlantis and the 5-7-5 Haiku Journal.

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A fleshy cocoon

Caterpillar held within

No butterfly flight

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First published in Poetry Cornwall.

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Bees twitch, pollen seek

Treasure in dewy flower

Summer sun’s caress

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First published in Migrating Minds.

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Dark clouds blur the sun

Crack of thunder shatters still

Startled birds take flight

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First published on Duane’s PoeTree.

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DJ Tyrer

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Leland Woodson, originally from Michigan, moved to Canada, became a Registered Psychologist, and joined the department of psychology at a regional college.

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Coastal raindrops fall

Plip, plop What’s that I see,

Ah, my Winter Jasmine

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(A wonderful combination of sound and color.)

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Moon, old companion

Slightly growing larger now

Night and love are done

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Mountain wind whistling,

New white snow on drooping trees

Button this old coat

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Leland Woodson

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Ram Chandran of India is a corporate lawyer and a poet. Every haikuist will feel a bit of joy at his conch shell.

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songs of the sea

inside

the conch shell

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train whistle —

a cuckoo

flies from the bough

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Ram Chandran

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Harris Coverley of the United Kingdom illustrates the difference between Western poetry and the pure, objective nature of Haiku.

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the road stays silent

the trees wait against the wind

the owl calls for sleep

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unknown birds clucking

the moon a handleless spoon

the zenith of spring

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Harris Coverley

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Kelly Sargent is a widely published modern haiku and senryū poet, often inspired by the four distinct seasons in picturesque Vermont.

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a mourning dove’s coo

pausing

to remember

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(Her dove’s cooing will long reverberate.)

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morning dewdrops

mourning

the moon

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Kelly Sargent

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George Held from New York is an 11-time Pushcart nominee and has published many haiku. He catches “life as it flows.”

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In the yard

a rabbit nibbles the grass —

a deer sports antlers

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Downy woodpecker

pecks holes in the pergola —

tongue laps up larvae

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Lammergeier soars

scoping hillside marmots

a mountain goat climbs

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Kashmir sheepdogs,

giant and fierce, guard the flock —

repel wolves, bear

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Snow leopard stays

undercover by day,

hunts by night

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(A sacred animal with all its auspiciousness.)

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George Held

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Emily Jo Scalzo holds an MFA in fiction and is currently an assistant teaching professor at Ball State University in Indiana.

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insomnia

centipede on my ceiling

its ghost haunting me

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forty-foot crater

a scar on the landscape

from the falling sky

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Emily Jo Scalzo