Thursday, November 16, 2023

haikuNetra ISSUE 1.3

 





Editor's Note


The streak of good and thoughtful haiku continues in the third issue of haikuNetra. This issue, like its predecessors, has witnessed submissions from a wide range of voices. It was a joy reading each and every submission, engaging in healthy and enlightening discussions with the contributors. haikuNetra takes immense pride in announcing its list of nominees for the Touchstone Award from Issue 1.1 and Issue 1.2, the templates of which have been shared on different social media handles. It's good to see many young haikuists (below 15 years) being open to receiving constructive feedback and showing the interest to submit to different journals in spite of repeated rejections. It only goes to ascertain the future of Haikai Literature being in safe hands. 

– Daipayan Nair, Editor 










haikuManthan - The Commentary



Rebecca Drouilhet understands that a kigo is worth a thousand words:

autumn dusk...
one child left spinning
on the merry-go-round

In a different haiku, “autumn dusk” might evoke such traditional connotations as stillness, peacefulness, or silence. The same kigo conjures a different set of associations, however, in the context of “one child left spinning / on the merry-go-round.” This disquieting image suggests traditional autumnal themes like loneliness, sadness, worries, abandonment and emptiness. Why does the child stay when everyone else has gone? Where are her caregivers? How does she feel about being alone? Is something wrong with this picture? Autumn has yet other associations, including the unknown, the unseen, and belief in spirits. Circuses, children and autumn are familiar themes for horror and the supernatural. Perhaps the little girl’s story has layers beyond layers. As a kigo, “autumn dusk” elaborates the child’s story through an array of potential meanings. Each reader inevitably sees the story in a unique way. Rebecca gives us the space to complete the creative process that she began.

Bakhtiyar Amini is similarly adept with kigo, though his use is very different:

waning moon
am I
a loser?

“waning moon’ is another autumnal kigo, similarly evoking emptiness, loneliness, and --- above all --- worry. Even as the poet shares his concern with the moon, however, he comes to terms with it. Through the kigo, the poet’s question is set against the endless cycle of seasons. The question shrinks in significance.

Or does it become more significant, when it is no longer merely personal, but part of the great cycle? Does the question become extrapersonal, asked one way or another in every place and time?

Between them, Rebecca and Bakhtiyar give us a master class on kigo’s potential to evoke layers of feeling and meaning.


– Lev Hart, Co-Editor 









haikuRatna - Editor's Pick




rural road
one skater unzips
the dotted line

              Debbie Strange




fall migration it all went south

                     Cynthia Anderson




choosing
my gravesite —
cemetery wind

             Mona Bedi




what I never
want to hear
bombardier

            Kathabela Wilson




closed casket
the questions I should
have asked

             John Pappas




sudden rain
how easily I slip
into melancholy

             Bryan Rickert




sunflower stalks...
a farmer in a tractor 
tows a tank

              Myron Lysenko




if sunrise
made a sound...
singing bowl

              Tony Williams




my heirloom veil
                             longer
than our marriage

               Barrie Levine




river mouth
her mother tongue
flows freely

               C.X. Turner




winter night...
eating the rice harvested
in our backyard

                 K. Ramesh




first sign of spring mom's cherry blossom obi

                                Michael Smeer (Mikō)









haikuPrakash - The Enlightenment





moonless night
the winding path
of a glow-worm

             Marilyn Ward





funeral eulogy —
my lover was also
a good wife

            Antonio Mangiameli





airbnb
by the sea
hara-kiri

          Kimberly A. Horning





hillwalkers
how many footsteps
make a track

          Debbie Strange





dancing naked...
the infinity
of my freedom

          Jovana Dragojlovic





backyard trees
the eastern sky
no longer mine

         Lakshmi Iyer





fallen arches
this pressing weight
of the world

           Bonnie J Scherer





psychopomp
a cabbage white leads me
deeper into the meadow

            Joshua St. Claire





once full of life...
the old
newspapers

            Daniel Birnbaum





old oak tree
we all complete
our journey

            Sandip Chauhan





morning breeze
a pot marigold glowing
on the footpath

             Tuyet Van Do





wheeled walker
the slow steps 
to recovery

             Hassane Zemmouri





as a bamboo bends...
his ego soars
like a fly

            Genevieve S. Aguinaldo





tidelines
outgrowing the home
on my back

             Cynthia Anderson





heat shimmer—
there is more to me
than my pain

             Mona Bedi





fallen leaves . . . so much loss and birdsong

               Timothy Daly





rusted knocker
grandma just knew
who was there

              Minal Sarosh





summer grasses my tears

               Kathabela Wilson





poem or prayer
the reddening leaves
of maples

               John Pappas





rainbow 
the bullet flies through
a rainbow

             Myron Lysenko





harvest moon
a hut lantern lights up
the pond

              Sue Wood





a water droplet
stable in the middle
of a lotus leaf

              Radhika De Silva





fiddleheads
behind the shed
the song he never finished

               Kelly Sargent





electric chair
the condemned man's tears
sizzling

              John J. Dunphy





empty distances 
mapping the interior
of a broken home

            John Hawkhead





morning fog
a haiku
nowhere in sight

             Rupa Anand





opening the door
to gatherings of leaves
a little less alone

            Tony Williams





my chinky eyes
seeing the world
same as yours

            Kalyanee Arandhara





our shared inheritance spring sunrise

              Srini





incoming 
cold front
... bombs

            Jan Stretch





breezy woodland
I listen
to a sea of bluebells

           Chen-ou Liu





nothing added
or taken away -
starry night

            Alvin B. Cruz





fading photo
as young to me now
as he was then

             Pris Campbell





the Buddha's face —
a puddle 
before the rain

             Mark Gilbert





autumn crocus
too late
for returns

            Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo





anaesthesia
grandpa mumbles
the broken lyrics

              Zerine Wahid





getting the drop on me rain

               Susan Burch





wooded walk
I almost forget
my to-do list

               Colette Kern





losing the stream
losing myself . . .
at the estuary

               Suraj Nanu





where have the leaves swept away?
weathered wrinkles

               Nitu Yumnam





sudden rain...
a canna lily unfurls
its deep secret

               Neena Singh





after the last guest leaves   birdsong

                Arvinder kaur





new day -
still travelling
without leaving

              Giuliana Ravaglia





stopping midway
the hare looks equally
surprised

              Biswajit Mishra





so soundless
this changing world
scudding clouds

              Jay Friedenberg





war...
everything I can't
bring with me

            Angiola Inglese





no cure
the deep end
of the ocean

            Sharon Martina





white butterfly –
the nun goes from bed to bed

              Guido De Pelsmaeker





fresh air
I breathe out 
for the trees

             Alice Wanderer





puja ghar laddus-
the scent of elaichi
in my fingers

             Bidyutprabha Gantayat





sunflowers
rising and rising
a skylark's trill

           Sue Courtney





smooth skin
and skinny limbs
the body I had

           Jenny Shepherd





falling star . . .
I wish you could see
me

           Jayson Dela Fuente





patches of green
in the dry grass
one-sided love

           Maya Daneva





autumn mountains—
I want them to hear me say
magnificent

             James Penha





the piercing
cry of a newborn
garbage bin

           Nicoletta Ignatti





dusting off
all this grief
moth wings

           C.X. Turner





paddy fields...
no walls to block
the full moon

            K. Ramesh





first rain—
the apples
slowly rot

           B. L. Bruce





pond adventure
the children return
with frog song

           Michael Smeer (Mikō)





clearcut a tuneless cricket

              Lorraine A Padden





I pray to the god
for Dad's resurrection
summer fog

              Bipasha Majumder (De)





running...
one bomb crater
to another

              Stephen Jarell Williams





ripples the power of one stone unthrown

                Julie Schwerin





I take a break
from resting
curled leaves

             Bee Jay





from a perch

      on the fence

                  father's sky


             Marilyn Ashbaugh





a spring cloud
once again
learning non-attachment

              Dan Schwerin





sound of rain . . .
the forest clearing fills with
a woodlark's song

              Lori Kiefer





daddy's gramophone
a waltz
down memory lane

             Baisali Chatterjee Dutt





it takes a cold night
to bring us together
blankets of snow

              Patricia Hawkhead










haikuDrishti - The Observation





first snow -
the yodeling newsboy
twirls his moustache 

                Hla Yin Mon






misty dawn 
every colour fades
in me 

              Beata Czeszejko






the weight of you
on my lap -
centering

             Jennifer Gurney






muddy feet —
rice gatherers count
the grains

              Zvonko Jurcevic





the rhythm of
our sleepless feet
school day

            Engin Gulez





hazy moon
the muffled sound
of a vinyl disc

            Daniela Misso





another chapter
coming to a close—
third trimester

             Shane Coppage





gran's sari
I see her gazing at me
from the mirror

              Baisali Chatterjee Dutt





a love letter
in my old diary
remembrance day

              Lori Kiefer





turning to leave cherry blossoms

              Dan Schwerin





red-winged moth –
my child leaps out
of my lap

              Jyoti Doley





rain of flowers
little hands shake
the creepers

             Kumarendra Mallick





autumn dawn...
father-in-law's gasps fill
his loneliness

                    Amoolya Kamalnath





morning mist
the blackbird's song
seems louder

             Tomislav Maretic





sudden hard rain
two mallard ducks
in a pop-up puddle

             Wilda W. Morris





old mango tree -
a yellow-breasted kiskadee
at the topmost branch

              Gillena Cox





cicada drone
the syncopated rhythm
of summer love

              Marilyn Ashbaugh





afternoon wind
the pile of scrap wood
in the driveway

             Goran Gatalica





hanging baskets
filled with flowers
spring breeze

            Zaidee Pisani - Lysenko





the last train under a black cloud overcoats

              Bee Jay





the lightness
of children's laughter
crimson leaves

          Eavonka Ettinger





our rendezvous
today, the brook
with little to say

           Julie Schwerin





worried about death...
the quiet boy walks
with his grandma

             Stephen Jarell Williams





cyclone
the last player swings
his bat

             Bipasha Majumder (De)





crickets
the pivot
between

            Daya Bhat





trading recipes
over the fence
braided river

           Lorraine A Padden





incessant rain
the village floods
with wellies

             Michael Smeer (Mikō)





autumn mist
the stag disappears
into the woods

              B. L. Bruce





Milky Way...
hostel boys switch off
the torch lights 

             K. Ramesh





express lane
strung blue lights
imitate a tree

           Jerome Berglund





heavy backpack . . .
the light wings
of a butterfly

            Rosa Maria Di Salvatore





this longing
of an empty nester
gathering dusk

            Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo





moon-viewing ...
wondering about
his dark side

             Natalia Kuznetsova





tan lines
time in the sun
fading

             Elizabeth Crocket





escaping
only the sound of air
lab rat

             C.X. Turner





prickly neighbor
I listen to her need
to tell the story

              Randy Brooks





moonlight
entering his tent...
squeak of flip-flops

               Maya Daneva





the pin drops
the faintest ping
as it hits the floor

              Jenny Shepherd





from the high branch
a leaf fluttering
in adagio

             Mark Meyer





oriental bazaar
a new incense tickles
my nose

              Christa Pandey





beautiful morning
I catch a few lyrics
from a passerby

                Sue Courtney





dancing dragonfly...
a wayward stroke 
on guitar

               Bidyutprabha Gantayat





cuckoo's call -
the cheer
in grandma's face

              Guido De Pelsmaeker





her mind made up
overnight the ginkgo
drops its leaves

               Sharon Martina





wind in the gray sky last dahlias

                Angiola Inglese





onomatopoeia
the dee dee dee
of a chickadee

               Jay Friedenberg





Navaratri—
the priest tests speakers
for mantra

             Biswajit Mishra





warming up
by your side -
hot chestnuts

              Lavana Kray





lottery tickets
a rusted corner
of granny's trunk

             Arvinder Kaur





crisp autumn air...
grandson cuddles me
at the school gate

              Neena Singh





for how long to keep it bottled up
fermenting cider

               Nitu Yumnam





milkweed floss
drifting under
a raptor's shadow

                Colette Kern





on top of spaghetti somebody's sneeze

                  Susan Burch





fresh mehendi —
a few hand gestures
zipping up her blouse

                Zerine Wahid





stone-still
the watchful
kookaburra

               Marilyn Humbert





eager sun
between briars -
last fox home

              Simon De Courcey





community table—
the lamb stew bubbling 
with innkeeper's tales

              Barrie Levine





our secret tryst
a grove filled
with blue asters

               Pris Campbell





cloudless sky
the beggar peers
inside his cup

             Alvin B. Cruz





the millipede ... then me

              Jan Stretch





archive–
a book of ethics
in a dusty shelf

             Kalyanee Arandhara





between wind
and window gap
a drawn-out conversation

             Tony Williams





a pop art

   of dialects

       Indian train


              Rupa Anand





quiet morning
I watch the spider
on your shoulder

            Sharon Ferrante





a boat rests
on a wave of sand
lake bed

            Robert Witmer





street kitten
the letter carrier lifts
her mailbag

              John J. Dunphy





midday sunflowers
my third-grade teacher
reads my poem to the class

               Kelly Sargent





spiking my blood sugar treacly tanka

                Peter Jastermsky





magenta sunset
mother unties
her silk scarf

             Sue Wood





snow
piling in trenches
dead soldiers

             Myron Lysenko





little cliques
on the college campus
white china roses

              Jackie Chou





after rain
the nearby squeak 
of a wheelbarrow

              Mike Gallagher





swifts
between us
this song and dance

              Bryan Rickert





event horizon
slipping into something
less comfortable

              John Pappas





indigenous flower
she wears mother's
wedding dress

              Kathabela Wilson





deer antlers
his first love letter
full of exclamations

             Minal Sarosh





lovers' tiff
the cat moves
house

           Wanda Amos





busy metro
the young girl lost
in her book

             Timothy Daly





false spring —
a misplaced love letter
in my mailbox

             Mona Bedi





shrink wrap
my big mistake
never far

            Cynthia Anderson





acacia leaves—
fingers intertwined 
at midnight

             Genevieve S. Aguinaldo





henna night candles...
the drowsy cousins
rub their eyes

               Hassane Zemmouri





november romance the sea churns white

                  Isabella Mori





home flight ...
a Tasmanian tiger
in the toy box

                 Tuyet Van Do





Labor Day—
the weary woodman
reaches his cot

                Sandip Chauhan





trailing to infinity reflections on the lake

                   Stephanie Zepherelli





ocean rise
the samphire
between our toes

                Joanna Ashwell





rat-a-tat-tat
a pileated woodpecker
fine-tunes its drill

              Bonnie J Scherer





tin wedding
the honorable seat
of surrogate mother

              Bakhtiyar Amini





hormonal pills
spitting
watermelon seeds

               Camela Marino





wooly bear
the posture of a toddler
learning

             Pat Davis





campfire night
the hearth carries ashes
of our conversation

                Anwitha Sudeep





produce market
a boy copies mommy
thumping melons

               Joseph P. Wechselberger





autumn shapes
a pregnant cow
adjusts her weight

              Lakshmi Iyer





rain boots
missing
our walks

             Jovana Dragojlovic





sea wolf
I wasn't expecting 
to find you here

             Debbie Strange





double dutch
the girls' pigtails
uncurl—

              Kimberly A. Horning





morning mist
she gently wipes
cataract eyes

               Marilyn Ward










haikuJyoti - The Third Eye





b   o   r   n
collecting
l a b e  l  s
b e f o r  e
s      h      e
i               s

C. X. Turner





getting old
I repeat the phrases
mother used

            Marilyn Ward





dragonfly buzzing backwards evolution

                Kimberly A. Horning





ethno music
the calling
of my roots

           Jovana Dragojlovic





dung-splattered street
an ektara tunes
the godhuli

            Lakshmi Iyer





early monsoon


...a drop


stains my jeans


              Anwitha Sudeep





plumes
of pampas grass
awaiting the goddess

              Amita Paul





sourdough
my son falls asleep
on the sick sinus

               Camela Marino





valley retreat
the way you 
navigate silence

             Joanna Ashwell





putting his blanket
back in the chest
damping off

             Joshua St. Claire





blackberry harvest
on my skin a tattoo
of the thorns

              Daniel Birnbaum





molten serpent
the grudge
I let go

              Sandip Chauhan





nightingale no matter how blackbird

                 M. R. Defibaugh





funeral
I can't
move on 

            Isabella Mori





bullying learning to love learning to hate

               Hassane Zemmouri





sunday sunlight -
my kids trying the old cradle
from my childhood

                Steliana Voicu





her mind
after the baby—
cornfield rats

              Genevieve S. Aguinaldo





pile of rubble
every war a stone 
in my heart

              Cynthia Anderson





nursing the bruise of heartbreak blue violets

                  Mona Bedi





airport bus
held up 
by her eyes

            Timothy Daly




 

knitted pouch
the agile jump
of an orphaned joey

             Wanda Amos





end of spring —
the books in father's library
I didn't read

               Minal Sarosh





sunlit bath
scrubbing harder
darkens the scars

               Patricia Hawkhead





earsplitting my head

               Kathabela Wilson





dune grass
as if it too
waves goodbye

              John Pappas





sheet clouds
not one break
in her lie

            Bryan Rickert





the new king
a gloved hand waving
at limbless veterans

              Mike Gallagher





sunlight through the slats
an acceptance letter
wedged between junk mail

                Jackie Chou





explosion 
on an energy grid
winter chill

            Myron Lysenko





jellyfish dance the poison in every jiggle 

               Peter Jastermsky





calm water-
she counts the clouds
dissolving

              Radhika De Silva





coronation
the monarch
unfolds its wings

             Kelly Sargent





"I'm not armed"
sign held by
the hitchhiker

             John J. Dunphy





juggling 
flaming torches
the child's eyes

           Robert Witmer





twinflowers the duality of (our) nature

               Debbie Strange





mother . . .
your tanchoi sari
the softness of warp
through the weft

             Rupa Anand





at sea
all the bits
of a broken moon

           Tony Williams





first date...
a horse races
back to the barn

            Jan Stretch





summer ending
scud clouds carry off
scraps of thought

            Chen-ou Liu





forget-me-nots
the war nowhere close
to the end

             Alvin B. Cruz





pressed bouquet...
each petal holds 
our memories

              Pris Campbell





sagging pockets . . .
grandfather's cardigan
full of change

             Barrie Levine





paper cut -
my memory
draws blood

             Jahnavi Gogoi





morning
through light and shadow
a blackcap

             Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo





bedtime prayer
rosary beads click
click click

             Marilyn Humbert





banyan stump —
another fancy tale
of my ancestors

            Zerine Wahid





hangnail moon
filing
for divorce

           Susan Burch





dusty earrings
all the joy
I used to wear

          Colette Kern





dream scatters
in the rumblings
a hornbill's call 

            Suraj Nanu





flyer in hand
she tells her teddy
it's time to leave

            Nitu Yumnam





kneading flour
I pour water
on old hurts

       Neena Singh





resume

describing

what I used to be


Joseph P. Wechselberger





parents' gift —
my wristwatch
turns back time

           Adrian Bouter





night rain
shaking stars
off her hair

          Arvinder Kaur





honking geese
the ragged edge
of a summer cloud

           Jay Friedenberg





long shadows
my manager extends
the work time

             Pragyan Mishra





bare trees in winter
living from paycheck
to paycheck

              Sharon Martina





in the nest
by my front door
a strand of police tape

            Alice Wanderer





bride
carrying  a rainbow
rangoli

           Bidyutprabha Gantayat





the conversation
we need to have . . .
butterfly weed

            Sue Courtney





toddler's shaved head –
the curse and blessing
of wildfires

             Christa Pandey





viewing myself
in a fisheye lens
raindrop

            Jenny Shepherd





rusty lock...
yet another try
to accept his apology

            Maya Daneva





Alzheimer's-
dad asks me 
my mom's name

            Nicoletta Ignatti





the wren's garden
chattering in case 
I forgot

            Randy Brooks





bonfire
we throw in 
regrets

         Elizabeth Crocket





looming storm ...
tired of half-truths
and white lies

           Natalia Kuznetsova





south-west wind . . .
a new fragrance
on my hair

            Rosa Maria Di Salvatore





low clouds -
how many laughs from dad
I carry inside

             Maria Teresa Sisti





golden oriole song...
the farmer's baby asleep
in the tree shade

             K. Ramesh





pre-election rally
all the transformations
of a cloud

            Samo Kreutz





the whites
of the dog's eyes
gibbous moon

            B. L. Bruce





cold autumn breeze
a feral cat twirls
with the leaves

            Michael Smeer (Mikō)





marginalia
he opens a conversation
with King James

            Lorraine A Padden





fresh start unlearning freshness

              Daya Bhat





a train derails
from the track -
addiction clinic

             Valentina Ranaldi-Adams





hyacinth blooms
her curly hair locks
entice me

            Bipasha Majumder (De)





heartbeats
the war spreading
inside and out

            Stephen Jarell Williams





labyrinth
my own pace added
to the path

           Julie Schwerin





handing over
this heart of mine
ladybug

           Eavonka Ettinger





a newspaper 
on the picnic rug
hospital garden

            Bee Jay





mossy rocks
the smiles of monkeys
as we toss coins

           Zaidee Pisani - Lysenko





twinkling star...
stuck to his nose
cherry blossom

             Dorna Hainds





with or without a blood moon war

               Roberta Beach Jacobson





home visit
a tire swing scar
on the oak's limb

            Marilyn Ashbaugh





newspaper wrap -
the blood-stained hands
of a fishmonger

            Gillena Cox





daylilies
mother's dislike
had a reason

            Wilda W. Morris





spiderweb
the approaching buzz
of a stink bug

           Tomislav Maretic





summer morning -
the glow of a flameback
in flight

            Amoolya Kamalnath





Diwali
refueling the lamps
deep within

            Kumarendra Mallick





whites of xewali spread cupid's spell

             Jyoti Doley





pushing apples
off the branch
harvest moon

           Dan Schwerin





at the end
of the bellflower path
ear clinic

          Lori Kiefer





standing ovation
she limps back 
to the greenroom

           Baisali Chatterjee Dutt





this desire
to cling to you
wilted leaf

            Debarati Sen





autumn stream
the same stones
other stones...

              Mircea Moldovan





acceptance—
taking the long
way around

             Shane Coppage





summer is over
fallen London Plane leaf
in the driver's seat

             Kathy Watts





leaves turn red . . .
a desire
to be younger

             Daniela Misso





the road
I've always taken
fallen leaves

             Engin Gulez





autumn rain
the glistening
on asphalt

             Nancy Brady Smith





turkey feather 
pinioned to a post 
walker's whim 

             JL Huffman






yoga
with my fourth-grade class –
balancing act

             Jennifer Gurney





flying birds:
how swift
is our passing

           Beata Czeszejko





an autumn leaf
here and there . . .
my bestie's return

            Malgorzata Formanowska





what lies beyond
the horizon
whale song

            Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo





technically can
probably shouldn't
thin ice sign

           Jerome Berglund 

 

 


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haikuNetra ISSUE 1.4

  Editor's Note We received a bulk load of submissions for the fourth Issue. Each haikuist has submitted his or her best for this Issue....