Category: Issue 22.1

vernal equinox
the freshly-turned earth
settles into itself

 

relaxing
its hold
snowdrop bud

 

disappearing
into a boy’s warm breath
frost flowers

 

moonless night
an accordion’s swell
bends out of tune

 

star gazing
what we wished for
light years ago

 

mountaintop —
sunlight threads
the prayer rug

making amends
the peace lily
blooms again

family reunion
she slips into her
childhood accent

one of her good days—
in the birdbath
a wrinkle of ice

 

some stories
take all day to tell
red-eyed vireo

 

counting clouds
the nuthatch
caches a seed

afternoon sun
the plum tree’s
perfumed shadow

prayer
without words
spring rain

deluge
the gospel
of unnamed streams

prayer wheel my rhythm falters

recycle bins
all the things
no longer me

 

falling leaves
a chorus of chainsaws
in the mockingbird’s song

 

 

 

 

(Originally published on Nick Virgilio Haiku Association’s

clear-cut pines—
concentric circles
filling the pond

 

my ear
to the earth—
I hear a heart

 

leaves—
reading
their skeletal epitaphs

one year older…
an oak leaf twirls
on a silken thread

 

seed hairs
the whisper of a tree
at dusk

 

less and less to say gossamer

 

 

(tan-renga composed by Jonathan Roman and Dyana Basist)

 

late afternoon
two old friends
chat in silence

 

evening
voices in the marketplace
soften

 

neighborhood squabble
one piñon jay
scatters the lesser finches

 

power outage…
neighbors on the street
in conversation

 

birdcage
we all have a name
for home

 

family photos
hard lines soften
with age

 

first tea
stirring the day
into being

 

dawn chill
the potter returns
to her kiln

 

 

(Honorable Mention, Morioka Award, 2021)

 

evening shift
the dip and rise
of goldfinches

mountain trek
my steps ringed
with birdsong

 

 

 

(Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn 2021)

 

clouded night
a far hound explains
this full moon

wind from the sea
an old dog bares
its teeth

 

all that’s left
in the bait bucket –
a pelican’s breath

grey heron
the depth of the river
in its eyes

 

stepping stones
in the river
the choices we make

 

 

(Under the Basho, November 2019)

 

bus stop…
empty promises
carved in a bench

 

waning moon
those who talk about it
those who don’t

wind keens
through the canyon
ancient voices

 

bitter cold
numbing my mouth
into silence

threat of war

on the other side
of the world

winter rains
arrive
at the oasis

the way fingers
know the keys
starless night

 

crepuscular light
the first puff of pine smoke
enters the hive

lacing the breeze
the sunlight
a spider spins

 

move-in day
everything I own
seen
in a different
light

 

 

(Originally published in GUSTS No. 33, Spring/Summer 2021)

 

fence line the laughter of violets

teenager’s room
dust on the book
of fairy tales

 

autumn dusk
the dog-eared pages
of a second-hand book

 

ocean
joins the sky
welders at work

job search the tide takes another sandbar

outrigger canoe
the first lesson is always
about breath

ebb tide
crabhole after crabhole
sighs

line of daybreak
an evergreen sways
to stillness

 

magnolia allée
the deep shade
of gentility

 

a dream within a dream Juneteenth

father and son
skimming stones
skimming sky

 

he takes with him
the important ones
memory care

watercolour hills
the sunrise bleeds
into blue

 

summer blues fest
long after sunset
cicadas jamming

 

 

cold beach
the playlist
from the next umbrella

 

snapdance of static
on the hairs of my arm
old television set

 

no prognosis
the daily reshuffling
of my destiny

Living with it
in light and in shadow
the garden buddha

green paddy fields
our walk ends
in a cup of sake

rain sun rain…
the welcome mat
steaming

 

going back again
on their promise
summer clouds

heat shimmer
a dog by the roadside
licks a broken tap

 

many layers
in father’s turban —
summer hills

shuttered monastery
the keening
of bell crickets

 

across the strand
the college’s water tower
mushrooms out of mist

 

 

 

(Published in Frogpond, October 2021)

 

midnight the sun moonlighting

 

so effortless…
the pull
of a dead star

 

 

 

(Published on First Literary Review-East, 2021)

 

big sky
a snag on the river
leaving no scar

ashes
on the frog pond
wildfire moon

One fray in the kite’s string summer solitude

the squeak from
new wiper blades
end of summer

 

departing summer
a contrail becomes
the only cloud