HAIKU DIALOGUE – Childhood Memories – School Days, Family and Friends & Introduction to Resolutions

Childhood Memories & Introduction to Resolutions

Thank you, Guest Editors Zoe & Sherry Grant, for closing out the year with so many wonderful memories of childhood, & now we welcome back Guest Editor John S Green with the concept of Resolutions… please be patient as we move forward with our new presentation of a prompt every other week… thanks, kj

Introduction to Resolutions with Guest Editor John S Green

The start of each year is an opportunity to renew. We humans often make declarations. We write down goals, we resolve to do better, we create targets, we make promises. We also regret last year’s unsuccessful promises. Last year, we may have accomplished a few goals, but others we failed – some ridiculously quickly.

Over the month of January, let’s look at this annual tradition of making resolutions. The success we have had, and the failures also.

next week’s theme: success

This week let’s focus on our victories – our triumphs, small and large. If we managed to lose 5 pounds in 2022, that’s a win. If we wrote a poem a day for the month of April, that’s a feather well deserved. Hey, you organized the junk drawer – take that off your ‘to-do’ list. You climbed that trail all the way to that gorgeous mountain lake – cross that off your bucket list. I look forward to reading your poems.

The deadline is midnight Pacific Standard Time, Saturday January 07, 2023.

Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry. (The Submit button will not be available until the Name, Email, and Place of Residence fields are filled in.) With your poem, please include any special formatting requirements & your name & residence as you would like it to appear in the column. A few haiku will be selected for commentary each week. Please note that by submitting, you agree that your work may appear in the column – neither acknowledgment nor acceptance emails will be sent. All communication about the poems that are posted in the column will be added as blog comments.

below is the commentary for School Days, Family & Friends:

This is the fourth and final post (School, Family and Friends) of Haiku Dialogue that Zoe and I guest edit under the theme of Childhood Memories. Happy New Year 2023! Again Zoe has selected many haiku and we both appreciate the precious, even though not always happy memories you have shared with us.

Many thanks to kjmunro and Lori for inviting us to guest edit, as it has been fun not only reading, selecting and commenting on your poems, but also sharing our concerts and ideas of combining various art forms to pave the way to the next Golden Age, despite all the unprecedented challenges we are currently facing.

Zoe and I also hope that you would encourage young children around you to read and write haiku to submit to Haiku Zoo Journal, as well as collaborating for submissions to Raining Rengay, both with delayed first issues because Zoe and I have been busy with Haiku Down Under, International Scriabin 150 Festival and our many online concerts, but should be published online very soon now that we have finished editing Haiku Dialogue! It’s been a very intense 4 weeks for the two of us, but we enjoyed the editing process.

As haiku poets, Zoe and I have grown and learned so much from reading and writing with our friends all over the world in 2021 and 2022 – we feel ever so grateful to be in this amazing global haiku community and now we are starting to make contributions as journal editors and run international rengay gatherings. Make sure you check out Chalk on the Walk Haiku and Chalk on the Walk Monoku, and Zoe’s reading of 250 short form poems at the recent Scriabin festival. You can find Zoe and Sherry’s poetry and music on various social media platforms.

Poetry is powerful and we would love to see everyone in this world writing haiku in their native languages (translated to English) and creating together artistically on a regular basis at home. Zoe and I hope to do world concert tours in the near future so we can come and meet you in person – we were so excited to have spoken with some fellow haiku poets and journal editors during our recent online concerts and music festival!

To warm up our northern hemisphere friends in this cold winter, we offer Zoe’s winning haiku:

snowy night —
the smell of
hot soup

雪の夜—
温かいスープの
におい

— Zoe Grant (NZ), first prize at 2021 NZPS International Haiku Competition (School/Junior Category), Japanese translation by Hidenori Hiruta (Japan)

Zoe’s comments:

These are very funny school memories. I am the youngest kid at home, so I have always been the shortest and I also remember some boys at kindergarten were not very good at aiming.

old class photo
seated on front row
feet hanging

Jeff Leong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

schoolyard rivalry
the boys aim high
on the toilet wall

Marilyn Ward
Lincolnshire UK

Mum and dad are our protectors when we are young, but they can also be overprotective sometimes!

first diary
dad’s red pen marks
over misspelled words

Jackie Chou
United States

 

toy soldiers
my mom
settles the war

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

I used to always cry at kindergarten early in the morning when my mum had to leave, and it took the teachers a long time to calm me down. I enjoyed singing in school choir before Covid, and fortunately I can sing in tune. These days I sing and play flute or piano in my mum’s online concerts.

first grade teacher’s
first task:
wiping tears

Charles Harper
Yokohama

 

school choir
asks her to sing…
silently

Jan Stretch
Victoria BC Canada

Sherry’s comments:

One of my fondest memories was from primary school. During lunchtime we used to queue up in front of different classmates’ desks because everyone brought extra food to share and each mum specialised in a different type of cuisine, so we ended up enjoying potluck every day! Zoe and I just finished watching the latest musical version of Matilda on TV today so we could imagine when school children have to do what they are told, even at lunchtime.

school intervals —
a mini Indian cuisine
get-together

Lakshmi Iyer
India

 

hot dog day—
the mustard and ketchup
on my new dress

Susan Beth Furst
Fishersville, Virginia

 

lunch
the kid beside me
with none

Lev Hart
Calgary, Canada

 

school lunchroom
three hundred children
forced into silence

Kathleen Cain
Arvada, CO

The following haiku are rather unusual in how straightforward the messages are delivered or how experimental they are in the layout. We normally value “show not tell” in haiku, but it’s refreshing to see poems not quite following the standard rules at times.

to the beach
to the beach
are we there yet

Karen Harvey
Pwllheli, North Wales

 

science class:
“cool planet!”
“far out!”

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

searchingformum’ssmileinthecrowdattheschoolgate

Nick T
Frome, Somerset, UK

This haiku totally warmed my heart. How many treasured paintings created by a budding young artist did their parents keep? I’ve kept a large portion of all four of my kids’ school artworks, even if storage is always an issue. I hope parents or grandparents around the world at least take photos or even write haiku to make them into haiga (like Zoe and I do), which will be such beautiful collaboration across generations. It will further bring the family closer as well as boost the child’s confidence.

first grade folder—
carrying home
her crayon masterpiece

Barrie Levine
Massachusetts, USA

Finally, my last comment for this Childhood Memories theme. Hope you have enjoyed reading this wonderful collection of memories from around the world in the last 4 weeks and resonate with some of them. Perhaps Zoe and I will return as guest editors with a new theme in the years to come. Who knows?

These haiku about love, relationship, and the way friends grow up together, are memorable. Thank you for all your positive comments and support – I applaud all the poets who have submitted. Let us continue on this never-ending journey of haiku writing together. As haiku poets, we are never alone.

‘bosom friends’ –
uneasy about bosoms
together

Alice Wanderer
Australia

 

slumber parties
our same group of six gather
with changing crushes

Pris Campbell
U.S.

and here are the rest of the selections:

The school bell rings
before I find
a four-leaf clover

Caroline Ridley-Duff
Yorkshire, England

 

school seesaw
everyone finds
a best friend

Ruth Hermosa
Gloria, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines

 

Google lens …
no updates any more
for our friendship

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany

 

mountain trip-
me and my dog
lost for two days

Vincenzo Adamo
Italy

 

Mrs. Awady
She opened the world for me
My sixth grade teacher

Jennifer Gurney
United States

 

childhood home . . .
each brick resounds father
meditating malkosh

(Malkosh is one of the oldest ragas of Hindustani classical music sung at late night.)

Bipasha Majumder (De)
West Bengal, India

 

grandmama’s butter steak
what does everything else matter?

Barbara Gaiardoni
Verona (Italy)

 

my father’s barn
the night owl
takes flight

Katherine E Winnick
Brighton UK

 

new boy in school
finally the bully
gives me a break

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA

 

Friday night fish fry –
religiously enjoying
all you can eat

Bonnie J Scherer
Alaska USA

 

Justine,
who tried to show me
how to dance

Sarah Davids
Bedford

 

airing out a room
father wearing
house slippers

Dejan Ivanovic
Lazarevac, Serbia

 

loves loud
listens in silence, the old dog
licks my wounds

Connie Pittman Ramsey
United States

 

at seven
my first sleepover
non-stop giggling

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

classroom
the clank of radiators
cancels the lesson

marilyn ashbaugh
edwardsburg, Michigan

 

rushing home
to play romantic music . . .
did he notice me?

Alfred Booth
Lyon, France

 

shadowing grandma
in the kitchen
learning new recipes

Tuyet Van Do
Australia

 

after each storm
the whispered prayer
in dad’s voice

Neetu Malik
Pennsylvania, USA

 

In my brothers hands
Tiny pink plastic pony
Mine no more. Broken

Jacqueline Wagner
Montgomery, IL, United States

 

bedtime story
the three little pigs
trailed away with grandma’s voice

Wai Mei Wong
Toronto, Canada

 

still friends
after fifty years
our laughter deeper

Helene Guojah
UK

 

lunch break
cutting a sandwich in half
for my best friend

Christine Villa
USA

 

Sunday night—
writing our sister’s name
in the ring around the bath

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

 

sneaking cigarettes
we were everything
but grown-up

Curt Linderman
Seattle, Washington (USA)

 

full moon night
i reflect on my mother’s face
seeing me top monthly exams

Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA

 

physics lesson:
chewed over worksheets
bind to the ceiling

David Cox
Beijing, China

 

snowball fight–
even favorite teachers
pupils’ target

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

infant school photo
all the children but me
wearing a smile

Robert Kingston
Chelmsford, United Kingdom

 

baptizing our dog
with a garden hose—
Catholic school girl

Julie Bloss Kelsey
Germantown, Maryland, USA

 

sudden storm
that one day I
walked to school

David Josephsohn
Greensboro, NC

 

full moon night
my little sister asks for
the cow

Nisha Raviprasad
India

 

fancy dress –
i still imitate
my father

Amoolya Kamalnath
India

 

sports day sprint
mother cheers for me
in her working uniform

Keiko Izawa
Japan

 

history class
my eyes try very hard
to stay open

Akila G
India

 

maths conference-
I remember miss.smith
who gave me -0- in class test

Ram Chandran
India

 

neighbor friends
living in mystery books
in the pre-teen days

Govind Joshi
Dehradun, India

 

ballet shoes
choreographed childhood
improvised life

Olinda Ninolakis
Chania, Greece

 

this New Year
no more red envelope
from granddad

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

 

old photo –
is this youngster
my dead father?

Nikola Đuretić
Zagreb, Croatia

 

that shy boy at school
I took under my wing …
still there

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

schoolmate
her flawless ringlets
wild envy

Luciana Moretto
Treviso Italy

 

Piggyback
A joy ride from my dad’s back
after school

Aine Losauro / Ligaw Makata
Passi, Iloilo Philippines

 

end of the school day …
the touch of mom’s hand
a fluffy cloud

fine della giornata scolastica …
il tocco della mano di mamma
una nuvola soffice

Daniela Misso
Italia

 

holding
my old master’s kimono
universe expands

Sébastien Revon
Ireland

 

new neighbour
opening the window
mountain sun

Richa Sharma
India

 

after school activities
I catch the crossest nun
sliding on ice

Marion Clarke
Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland

 

unforgettable teacher –
In front of my class
I recognize her voice in mine

Maestra inolvidable
Frente a mi clase
reconozco su voz en la mía

Julia Guzmán
Córdoba Argentina

 

forbidden pleasures
we talk in spoonerism
around the bully

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

Sunday night
doing math together
teddy bear and me

Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia

 

peddling like mad
don’t let go dad…
he already had

Tony Harvey
Pwllheli

 

school desks –
so many hidden laughs
without return

Maria Teresa Sisti
Italia

 

home from school
trying in vain
to hide the black eye

Christopher Seep
USA

 

scraping chalk nub
writing five hundred times
“no talking in class”

Al Gallia
Louisiana USA

 

sunny day
student keeps yelling
basketball league

Crisiel Requiz
Philippines

 

nun ignores
my cries for help
bullying

Rehn Kovacic
Mesa, AZ

 

grandad’s narratives –
when boisterous moods become
silent fascination

Paul Callus
Malta

 

math Olympiad medal…
all those poems
I never wrote

Maya Daneva
The Netherlands

 

nine siblings
grandma always
on my side

Meera Rehm
UK

 

uncle’s visit
high jinks gymnastics
on the back lawn

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

evening stroll
with grandpa…
paper fans and toffee

Bidyut Prabha Gantayat
Bhubaneswar, India

 

my favourite teacher
every lesson
full of jokes

Ann Rawson
U.K.

 

Warm milk
and the cheesy smell
of plimsolls

Vivienne Tregenza
Penzance

 

in the humdrum
class, the teacher
tells us stories

Sreenath
India

 

rainy day recess
erasing hangman
from the blackboard

Seretta Martin
San Diego, CA USA

 

school recess
the bully challenges
a new kid

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

grooving
with all four
Beatles

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa

 

kicked out of class –
me and my ADHD
back in the corridor

Jonathan Aylett
Liverpool, UK

 

library rat
my adventures with
Nancy Drew

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

sunbeams lighten
a pair in sunglasses laying out
teenage fears

Christina Baumis
United States

 

wind in the hair –
with the steam train
I reach grandfather

vento tra i capelli –
con il treno a vapore
raggiungo il nonno

Maria Teresa Piras
Serrenti – Italy

 

magic sky
grandfather’s endless legends
of constellations

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

 

kiddie pool splashing through summer

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD

 

still growing greenbacks from my childhood pear

simonj
UK

 

bunches of ants
carrying great twig
the village it takes

(“It takes a village to raise a child” is a proverb that means that an entire community of people must provide for and interact positively with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment.)

Jerome Berglund
United States

 

namesake friend
we shared a school desk
in the hunger years

Christa Pandey
Austin, Texas, USA

 

along the stump
picked the first mushrooms
with Dad

Ljiljana Dobra
Croatia

 

her raincoat
for my long journey home
a wet teacher

njena kabanica
za moj dugi put kući
pokisla učiteljica

Zdenka Mlinar
Croatia

 

high school sports class
girls all choose tennis
… handsome new coach

wanda amos
Old Bar, Australia

 

autumn glaze
daylight retreats
on Anna and

Eleanor Dean
Massachusetts, United States

 

chicks, puppies
and bunnies
evening chores

Susan Farner
USA

 

early dismissal
snow dancing
in the bus line

Pat Davis
Concord, NH USA

 

five seven five
count on visiting poet
give lives to haiku

James Penha
Bali, Indonesia

 

school day
half song
gets full applause

Daya Bhat
India

 

chosen again
to clean the chalk board
teachers pet

Rebecca Kolstad
Rochester, NY

 

a million butterflies
flutter in my stomach
show and tell

Louise Hopewell
Australia

 

compass at work . . .
dates of the world war
inscribed on every desk

Kavitha Sreeraj
India

 

first day of school
a new friend breaks
my shell

Ravi Kiran
India

 

class pauses
a chalk eraser finds
the noisy one

Joevit Prado
Philippines

 

whistle stop
the berry tree near
the school gate

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

schoolgirls
arrive on a trisha
I watch with envy

Christina Chin
Malaysia

 

giving no quarter
to be first in queue
sticky tuck shop

Krishna Palle
Chennai

 

Child’s laughter echoes
Brings love, light, and happiness
Heart is again full

Lindsay Goldsmith
Belgium

 

strict mom
extra cookie from pa with
finger on the lips

Vishnu Kapoor
Chennai, India

 

grown up overnight
mom said I am going to be
a big sister

Vandana Parashar
India

 

post lunch . . .
the white board full of
unlinked numbers

Aadithya Sreeraj
Hyderabad, India

 

school over—
rushing home
to my pet’s licks

Neena Singh
India

 

school museum
my wooden rank –
an exhibit

Stoianka Boianova
Bulgaria

 

first day of school
the teacher’s nose
yea big

Tomislav Sjekloća
Cetinje, Montenegro

 

reading poetry
for the nuns
forgetting my lines

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

mythical robot
battery-powered
planet of childhood

Minko Tanev
Bulgaria

 

in the dim light
of a kerosene lamp
ammijaan’s stories

(i called my grandmother ammijaan (ammi: mother and jaan: both life and beloved)

Firdaus Parvez
India

 

first day to school
the trail of my footprints
with my sister

Chittaluri Satyanarayana
Hyderabad, India

 

our games
became our reality
plastic army men

Mark Scott
Hardwick, Vermont

 

window bench
the joy of building
castles in the air

Nitu Yumnam
India

 

yellowed pages
in my locker-
granny’s blessings on son’s birthday

Priti Khullar
India

 

sisterhood
knowing every kid
in our made-up town

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

snow fort
sister and I finally
on the same side

Sarah E. Metzler
USA

 

old friends
laughter lines in
the same places

Lori Kiefer
London U.K.

 

Present
With circle of friends
On attendance list.

Ferdinand Bajado
Laguna, Philippines

 

childhood hero-
my father fixed all my toys
with duco cement

Ruth Happel
Tennessee, USA

 

flute class
ah! the candy store
covered with icing

Mircea Moldovan
România

 

Rejected from troupe
she abhorred
her dark skin till her last

Shalinee Tripathi
Kerala, India

 

books in plain jackets
safe and sound
in the tree house

Caroline Giles Banks
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

 

sock puppets—
the small boy mimics
the father

Mona Bedi
Delhi, India

 

winter afternoon
we create a dance
to keep legs warm

(We went to school before girls were allowed to wear pants; we had to wear dresses and we were never excused from recess.)

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

in the same bench
two friends
class philosophers

u istoj klupi
dvojica prijatelja
razredni filozofi

Zrinko Šimunić
Croatia

 

At boarding school
the weekly airmail letter
only from Daddy

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

waiting for a turn
on the playground bird’s nest swing
school pecking order

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

unconditional hugs–
the family friends
we call “aunt” and “uncle”

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

tug of braids
secret whispers
friendship begins

Kathleen Mazurowski
Chicago, IL

 

school friends
from beginning
to end

Carol Reynolds
Australia

 

new baby–
I tell them I want
a brother instead

Ruth Holzer
Herndon, Virginia

 

Three sisters three brothers
A mom and grand mom
Papa leading the charge

Sudha Devi Nayak
India

 

our shared room
I mostly stay on my side
of the tape line

Kimberly Kuchar
Austin, Texas

 

school days
if only bullies
love studying more

AJ. Anwar
Jakarta, Indonesia

 

childhood pal
always on adventure
my squire and I

kawan masa kecil
selalu berpetualang
pendampingku dan aku

Christopher Calvin
Kota Mojokerto, Indonesia

 

half-day Wednesdays
our free afternoons
of what if….

Lorraine A Padden
San Diego, CA USA

 

exam hall…
over the silence of bent heads
whirr of fans

Vidya Shankar
India

 

rainforest
a line of creeping yellow
raincoats

Maurice Nevile
Canberra, Australia

 

running race —
a row
of soiled buttocks

Daipayan Nair
Silchar, India

 

my brother’s
jealousy–
a headless babydoll

Allison Douglas-Tourner
Victoria, BC Canada

 

first transitor radio
I tune to every station
in the universe

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

 

childish pranks
the gentle rebuke
from mum’s eyes

Mirela Brailean
Romania

 

school janitor
the welcoming flutter
of a butterfly

Angelo Ancheta
Philippines

 

A 13th December night – candle lights in windows -.
crying for my dad back

(In 1981 on 13th December Martial State was introduced in Poland. Many people were arrested and kept imprisoned by the government for months.)

Małgorzata Borzeszkowska
Poland

 

closed park…
a flock of sparrows
playing hopscotch

Florin C. Ciobica
Romania

 

wet panties
schoolgirl terrified
by geography class

Dubravka Šćukanec
Hrvatska

 

tamarind candy
my bestie and I
share secrets

sanjuktaa asopa
Belgaum, India

 

school bell’s echo
a swirl of red leaves
enters the gate

Seby Ciobica
Romania

 

first day of school
my teddy bear key chain
all eyes and ears

Cristina Valeria Apetrei
Romania

 

German lessons
“Hände hoch!” and “Kaputt!!”
keep running through my head

Bakhtiyar Amini
Germany

 

childhood winds –
in my mother’s arms
I was safe

Maria Tosti
Perugia – ITALY

 

school choir
on the window
birdsong

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

amusing mother
with our secrets …
sleep over

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

grand-maman —
forever a part
of my heart

Linda Ludwig
Inverness, Florida

 

P.E.
daily morning runs—
chronic tardiness

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
Bombon, Philippines

 

Wrapping notebooks-
last minute decor
on the eve of reopening

Santhoshi Valli
India

 

drive-in movie
a bag of popcorn dances
across the screen

Terri French
US

 

playing guitar
with the boy next door on a breadboard
with nailed strings

Guido De Pelsmaeker
België (Holsbeek)

 

class reunion
less hair, more weight and wrinkles
though same laughter

Kirsten Ge
Germany

 

remembering
the search for friends
school photo

C.X.Turner
United Kingdom

 

home’s sound…
grandpa’s calloused
vocal chords

Bittor Duce Zubillaga
Basque Country

 

only old auntie from Brazil
spotted a gift
in my dancing feet

Cristina Povero
Italy

 

best friend—
she beat me in maths
all the time

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

 

School bazaar
musical chairs to win cake

Joan Leotta
USA

 

in summer evenings
mother’s songs with the guitar-
in memory

Gordana Kurtović
Croatia

 

eldest daughter
dad used to wake me up
every morning

figlia maggiore
papà mi svegliava
ogni mattina

Angiola Inglese
Rapallo-Italy

 

summer’s end
the darkness of
the firefly jar

John Pappas
USA

 

snow globe
a child on the outside
looking in

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

long walk home
with classmates –
after school gossip

Sangita Kalarickal
United States

 

first loss
losing my marbles
in the school playground

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

childhood romance
we hold hands during
story hour

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

 

his eyes
river color…
serene as its name

i suoi occhi
colore del fiume…
serena come il suo nome

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna (Italy)

 

after horse ride…
coned butterscotch
on the ground

Nairithi Konduru (Age 8 years)
India

 

new year’s eve
impromptu sisters’ meeting
noticing how we’ve grown

Ella Aboutboul
West Sussex, UK

 

detention
I conjure a snow storm
of chalk dust…

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

our pockets
rattling with stones …
beach walk with dad

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

perfect posture and diction
…in unison…
Good Morning, Miss McElroy!

Holly Brennan
Bedford, MA

 

coffee with grandma
she lets me drink
decaf

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

the bell rings
recess is over
the last in line

ron scully
Burien WA

 

assassination
in awe of a man weeping
my sixth grade teacher

Mike Stinson
Nebraska USA

 

my mother and dog
on the house threshold –
the first day at school

Gordana Vlašić
Croatia

 

time flies quick
as a flick of my wrist
playing jacks with friends

Claire Vogel Camargo
USA

 

class double-act
tethered as one by a length of string
then as now

Helen Buckingham
United Kingdom

 

teacher asks me
to lead story time
early reader

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, Arizona USA

 

roadside fruit stand
Dad’s hard bargaining
spoils the strawberries

Tim Cremin
Massachusetts

 

after auntie —
pastel crayons
for the wolf

Jonathan Epstein
USA

 

Oma’s kind eyes
twinkled when we walked
without talking

Herb Goldsmith
Bastrop TX

 

basement fort
friends flash-lighting
starburst tongues

Richard L. Matta
San Diego, California USA

 

dust motes
in a ray of sunlight
my first poem

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

 

ice cream with two spoons
my 13 year old best friend
the cherry on top

Marcia Burton
Salt Spring Island, Canada

 

learning our ABCs
the first love note slipped
into his satchel

Mona Iordan
Romania

 

merciful sky –
relying on the stars
before school exams

Luisa Santoro
Rome, Italy

 

never without
friends to play with–
neighborhood dogs

Stephen J. DeGuire
Los Angeles, CA

 

next to our alley
a six foot wind blown drift
I build a snow fort

Sigrid Saradunn
Bar Harbor, Maine

 

mango fragrance
on grandma’s fingers
toothless grin

Jyotsna Are
India

Guest Editor Sherry Grant is a Taiwanese-born New Zealand classical concert pianist, cellist, poet, author, translator and festival organiser. Since 2021 she and her youngest daughter Zoe have been promoting short form poetry by co-editing several journals, presenting at haiku conferences and organising poetry workshops. As a musician, Sherry plays online concerts regularly and in her recent North American concert tour she also shared her poems during recitals. Sherry is a well published haiku/cherita/rengay poet. Her rengay written with Alan Peat (UK) won the first prize at the 2021 Otoroshi Rengay Contest. Sherry also enjoys writing longer rhymed poems and plans to publish several poetry books and chapbooks in the near future, including 300 love poems written for her favourite composer Alexander Scriabin, in 3 volumes.
Visit www.linktr.ee/sherrygrant for updates.

Guest Editor Zoe Grant, a well-published 8-year-old haiku poet from New Zealand, is the co-author and illustrator of Bat Girl, written in 2020 when she was 6 years old. Her haiku won the first prize at the 2021 NZPS International Haiku Competition (School/Junior) and she is the co-editor of Chalk on the Walk Haiku, Chalk on the Walk Monoku, Haiku Zoo Journal and Raining Rengay. Zoe enjoys drawing, singing, ballet and writing poetry. She co-hosts the International Rengay Gatherings with her mother Sherry Grant twice a year. This daughter-mother duo plans to go on concert tours to share their poetry and music with the world. Zoe shared 250 short form poems by 250 poets at the 3-day online International Scriabin 150 Festival in November 2022. She plans to do poetry podcasts in the near future. Follow Zoe’s projects at www.linktr.ee/zoe.grant.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. A novice haiku poet, she lives in New York City.

Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.

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