In some versions of the Buddha’s moment of Attainment, as Shakyamuni observed the morning star, Venus, he placed his right hand on the earth, and rejoiced that, “I, along with the earth, am enlightened!” From that moment forward the physical and spiritual realms were joined. The spirit of haiku can be traced back to that moment. For Christians that moment might have been when they first experienced sanctifying Grace. For humanists, it may have been when they experienced clarity with nature, a form of non-duality.

Unseen black vultures,

Make huffing sounds in the pines:

The morning star fades.

Kevin McLaughlin

Veronika Zora Novak resides in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been published in an impressive number of high-quality journals.

lotus pond . . . 

a koi ripples

the universe

autumn chill . . .

a crow’s caw lost

in its shadow

climbing

till only you remain . . .

indigo mist

the nothingness

caught in your web . . .

black widow

Veronika Zora Novak

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RP Verlaine resides in New York City. RP has an MFA from City College and has taught in NYC Public Schools for many years. Verlaine has had several volumes of poetry published and his work has appeared in world renowned journals.

red dawn

the two roosters decide

I have slept enough

bonfire of leaves

the smell of autumn

deepens

laughing mountain

the lone crow's caw

lost in the sky

night sky

flicking an ant

into the full moon

RP Verlaine

Joan García Viltró is a teacher and poet based in Cambrils. His poems often reflect his concern with Nature struggling under human pressure.

the beach constantly

taken, licked up, eaten up

brought back by the sea

the gale washed Shiva’s

face off that rock — now it has

been washed back on there

I keep edging out

of murky shafts of light to

dull, opaque fish stare

Joan García Viltró

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Deborah-Zenha Adams is an award-winning writer and a certified naturalist.

Cresting the mountain

I spy my footprints in dust

rain clouds to the west

Summer morning

mist envelopes the blue heron —

there’s a mystery!

Deborah-Zenha Adams

Hifsa Ashraf has a talent for haiku with a slightly Gothic tone.

midnight stroll

lurking in a bare tree

the lunar corona

Hifsa Ashraf

Paweł Markiewicz, a frequent contributor to this column, has experienced the assimilation of subject and object.

winglets in the rain

— heart of subtle butterflies

needs to become dry

butterflies in flight

tender winglet in the rhythm

of the falling rain

wing of butterflies

the strong epiphany born

from ontology

Paweł Markiewicz

Christina Chin is a Malaysian haikuist. She is First prize winner of the 34th Cherry Blossom Sakura Festival Haiku Contest (2020) and First prize winner in the 8th Setouchi Matsuyama Photo-haiku Contest (2019).

fitted with correction lens

Cassiopeia on a clear

winter sky

frosted brown leaves

meet the cloudless horizon

winter moon

Christina Chin

Marylinn Mihaila of Calgary, Canada, teaches us about darkness.

Lightly existing

Fading into the dark, I

hunger to expire

In love with the night,

yet terrified of the dark

Tonight there’s no stars

Marylinn Mihaila

Max Bindi is an Italian-English translator and a poet/songwriter. He works his magic with photons.

a flash of lightning

fireflies vanish

and reappear.

Max Bindi

Pratik Mitra lives in Konnagar, India. He’s a teacher by profession and a writer by vocation. He writes both in English and in Bengali. He is fond of watching films, reading books, and playing chess.

The languid canal

Under wooden bridge befriends

winter sun and oblivion.

The darkness laughs with

fireflies while creating wonder

In tedious eyes.

The orange sky becomes

The backdrop of silhouetted trees

and the heart’s silence.

Pratik Mitra

Dan Brook teaches Sociology at San Jose State University. He gives us the ideal cherry blossom, the one that both exists and doesn’t exist.

scandalous indeed

a falling cherry blossom

that nobody saw

Dan Brook

Shobha Rao PhD is a retired scientist and poetry writing is her hobby. She has penned many poems including haiku, tanka, and haibun. She is from India and has lived and studied in the USA.

both swirl around phi

the milky way and the DNA

life by design

delicate strands

of saffron in milk

color of love

Shobha Rao