HAIKU DIALOGUE – Childhood Memories – Special Occasions

Poets from all around the world – we appreciate your support of Haiku Dialogue! Because of your enthusiasm & record submissions, we will be changing how the column runs in the New Year… starting in January 2023, we will break each current post into two – the long list of selected poems will be posted one week, & the poems with commentary, & a new prompt, the following week… please be patient as we all adjust to the new system! with sincere thanks, kj

Childhood Memories with Guest Editors Sherry & Zoe Grant

Childhood. We’ve all been there. No matter your age, your childhood memories are probably like mine, made of happy and sad moments. Along the way, we’ve all had to make choices. Did you turn out to be the person you’ve dreamt to be? My youngest daughter Zoe and I grew up in different countries and therefore faced different expectations and challenges. We enjoy creating arts, music and poetry together, and I often find her ideas fresh and inspiring. Our goals for the next five years will be to inspire one billion people with our music and poetry, and for families around the world to have fun creating collaboratively like we do! What was your own childhood like? What was the most memorable moment? This month, Zoe and I would like to invite you to share your treasured childhood memories.

next week’s theme: School Days, Family and Friends (“Who” was important in your life during childhood and “why”?) by Zoe Grant

I have lots of friends at school. But there is only one BFF. Who was your best friend at school? Did you get along with your siblings? Were your parents nice or strict? What about your teachers? I am very lucky my teachers are very cool, and I enjoy going to school most of the time. My mum told me she had so many tests and music exams when she was little because she was born in Taiwan!

The last two years we had several long lockdowns in Auckland and I had to go to school online. I enjoyed not having to get up early to get changed at first, but soon I really missed my friends and teachers, even though I could see and talk to them online everyday, but it was not the same. So I wrote this haiku and we republished it at Chalk on the Walk Haiku later:

school swings
only pigeons
play

— Zoe Grant (NZ), Stardust Issue 58, Oct 2021 & Chalk on the Walk Haiku, Dec 2021

My mum also wrote a similar poem, one of six in a haiku sequence called “Our Games:”

empty park
echoes of paper
scissors rock

— Sherry Grant (NZ), Modern Haiku 53:1 Feb 2022

My mum wrote a very sad poem when her old cello teacher passed away earlier this year:

my old teacher
her death
a cello string snaps

— Sherry Grant (NZ), Brass Bell Mar 2022

I am a very busy girl. After school I go to ballet, singing and flute lessons. In my spare time I help my mum with chores and also we run online poetry workshops and edit haiku and rengay journals. I’ve been recording 250 short form poems about music or sound for the International Scriabin 150 Festival that my mum organised. Perhaps you have memories of your after-school activities. Were you as busy as me?

My mum and I love creating together. We want to inspire one billion people with our music and poetry in the next 5 years. After I edited this photo, my mum wrote a haiku to go with it. It was also inspired by Stravinsky’s “Firebird” ballet concert we saw at the time:

ballerina
a firebird’s dream
reborn

— Sherry Grant (haiku), Zoe Grant (photo/art), Chalk on the Walk Haiku Sept 2021

We would love to read about your school days, or your family life in childhood. You can probably already guess that I look forward to Chinese New Years because I will get red envelopes from my grandparents!

The deadline is midnight Eastern Standard Time, Saturday December 31, 2022.

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 special occasions:

To cheer up the world during a cold Christmas, Zoe and I performed an online family concert where over 40 Christmas haiku and 2 rengay were shared alongside music. For the New Year (first weekend of 2023) Zoe and I will perform another online concert with all piano music by 85-year-old Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov to promote world peace, where more poetry will be shared. I feel that by getting children involved in what we do, we pass on our passion, experience and values. Writing haiku trains the mind to focus – it is important to spend some quiet time with ourselves in this noisy world where everything demands our attention. This week, poets were invited to share childhood memories of a special occasion. Zoe and I hope that you enjoy reading this mixture of happy and sad memories. We certainly have learned a lot about other cultures through these wonderful poems. Instead of handing out “rejections”, Zoe and I would rather if they are considered “invitations to rewrite and improve”. Oh the things haiku can teach us!

Zoe’s comments:

Like most kids, I enjoy watching superhero movies because they always save the day. I hope one day I will be brave and no longer afraid of the dark.

Bocca della Verità –
my little daughter does not dare
put her hand

Tomislav Maretić
Croatia

 

backyard superhero
before saving the world
naptime

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

I love surprises. Especially when they are presents for me. I can feel the excitement in these haiku.

pillow fight
whirling snowflakes
outside & inside

Chen Xiaoou
Kunming, China

 

surprise party my scream before theirs

Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD

This time I learned about different cultures and festivals. These haiku were really funny!

Eid festival
a peanut stuck
in brother’s nostril

AJ. Anwar
Jakarta, Indonesia

 

Diwali night
a firecracker finds
my skirt

Vandana Parashar
India

Sherry’s comments:

I appreciate the humour in these poems. They made me smile. How wonderfully different images are joined together here.

old calendar
a crushed mosquito marks
Basho’s birthday

Florin C. Ciobica
Romania

 

jingling pockets
chase a mango cart
temporary truce

Kavita Ratna
India

 

pics and songs
lost to smoke and fire—
saved to cloud

Stephen J. DeGuire
Los Angeles, CA

These moments and emotions have been beautifully captured. Childhood dreams can never be lost – even if we are deeply buried in the reality of here and now, we have these memories to go back to.

paper boat
a long time ago
i was the captain

Daniel Dapo
Sorsogon City, Philippines

 

tonga ride
grandpa makes me
a princess

Daya Bhat
India

 

new pet
the squeak of excitement
guinea pigs

Millie Mignonne Cox
Warwickshire, UK

 

lunch with grandma –
pretending the dog
ate my greens

Lori Kiefer
London U.K.

 

shiver of the universe
from first love-
graduation dance

Gordana Kurtović
Croatia

 

christening cake–
the first taste
of your name

Pippa Phillips
Kansas City, MO

and here are the rest of the selections:

kite flying —
letters to dad tied
to the string

Lakshmi Iyer
India

 

a pile of apple fritters
sneaking out in the middle
of the night

Barbara Gaiardoni
Verona (Italy)

 

first holiday since,
I pull your empty chair
closer to the hearth

Christopher Seep
Ballwin, MO

 

A snow day –
cold flakes on my tongue,
the taste of freedom

Caroline Ridley-Duff
Yorkshire, England

 

visiting England with granny the bitter taste of ale

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany

 

Winter solstice
sunrise between the trees
of Kyiv

martin gottlieb cohen
the shadows are growing shorter, USA

 

book fair. . .
dad gets me my own
big girl books

Surashree Joshi
Pune, India

 

stacking memory
over memory
seven stones

Sangita Kalarickal
United States

 

Charmouth beach
tapping a pebble with a hammer
first ammonite

Ann Rawson
U.K.

 

Saturdays
in the church organ loft . . .
grandpa’s lessons

Alfred Booth
Lyon, France

 

paper dolls
designing the outfits
I’d never have

Pat Davis
Concord, NH USA

 

eighth birthday
pass the parcel reveals
a toothbrush

Marilyn Ward
Lincolnshire UK

 

skating
on thin ice
Christmas morning

marilyn ashbaugh
edwardsburg, michigan usa

 

broken piñata –
slowly sipping Prosecco
while spilling her guts

Jonathan Aylett
Liverpool, UK

 

Turnip lanterns,
cutting myself as I carve,
ragged winter face

Sarah Davies
Bedford

 

headlamps bobbing…
mom and I flip another rock
for the crabs

Wai Mei Wong
Canada

 

brave the snow never missing a coffee date

Eleanor Dean
Massachusetts, United States

 

motel
lobby bulletin board
last summer’s rates

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa

 

Christmas night
the children’s bellies
full of cocoa

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA

 

my first role
Doc in Snow White at five
the drama begins

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

we walked into
the future measured out
in km – expo 74

Curt Linderman
Seattle

 

boy in bermuda shorts
the sun touches
chains of waves

Dejan Ivanovic
Lazarevac, Serbia

 

Chinese new year
trading my red envelope
for a mistletoe

Jackie Chou
United States

 

Christmas trip
in the backseat bag
Santa’s gift, found

Pris Campbell
U.S.

 

clear sky –
inside a pin cushion
looking out

Jerome Berglund
Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

dropped coin…
my broken smile
costs mum a bunch

Robert Kingston
Chelmsford, United Kingdom

 

drop a coin to watch
milk pour from a dolphin’s mouth—
automat birthday

James Penha
Bali, Indonesia

 

holiday journey ~
we raced the snowstorm
to grandma’s

David Josephsohn
Greensboro NC

 

coming of age day
the scent of mother’s
old kimono

Alvin Cruz
Philippines

 

home away from home the breath of a sycamore

Tiffany Shaw-Diaz
United States

 

salt in the air
knees sunk in the sand
searching for starfish

Rebecca Kolstad
Rochester, NY

 

jump ropes
hide and seek
reminiscing at 75

Naomi G Tangonan
Philippines

 

celebration of life–
a scattering of
cosmos seeds

Allison Douglas-Tourner
Victoria, BC

 

one sleepyhead
behind the tree
waiting for Santa

Ester Castillo
Cebu, Philippines

 

axe in hand
daddy dances
with the chicken

Charles Harper
Yokohama

 

laundry bubbles
blowing a snow
in my hands

Ronjo Cayetano
Sampaguita, Naujan, Oriental Mindoro

 

bon festival dance—
showing a stranger
how to step

Keiko Izawa
Japan

 

little children
exchanging box of gifts
christmas party

Crisiel Requiz
Philippines

 

bicycle
beautiful togetherness
explore the sunday market

Nani Mariani
Australia

 

anniversary
the old campus where
our eyes met

Jeff Leong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

tiny grandma
decorating the spruce
tinsel rides her skirt

Michelle V. Alkerton
Ontario, Canada

 

snow again–
yesterday’s snowman wear
much makeup

Teiichi Suzuki
Japan

 

uncle’s wedding
the taste of a cake
before it is cut

Ravi Kiran
India

 

summer rain…
in the yard
scream

Refika Dedić
Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

Wedding feast
at the village hall
my dogs and cats are invited

Aine A. Losauro Ligaw Makata
Passi Iloilo, Philippines

 

winter sunshine
the boy’s best friend
is soup

Bee Jay
Melbourne, Australia

 

grade 2 teacher
sending a note in a book
cool touch

Loreta Bande
The Philippines

 

stealing mangoes
from mango-tope
chased by mali

(tope = grove, mali = gardner)

Sreenath
India

 

Diwali night
going on a drive
to view the displays

Govind Joshi
Dehradun, India

 

escaping from mother
with palmful of warm oil
festival of lights

(On Deepavalli, festival of lights, tradition was getting up very early morning to have an oil bath and wearing new clothes. It’s celebrated as the day when light won over darkness.)

Krishna Palle
Chennai

 

straight shooter
Daddy wins me something
from the top shelf

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

rain on birthday
for the same kokeshi doll
a new song

Richa Sharma
India

 

monarch butterflies
the september smell
of pencil shavings

John Pappas
United States

 

son’s birthday
a scrumptious solar system
on the cake

Nitu Yumnam
India

 

first cherry harvest
earning enough money
to buy a cherry box

Sébastien Revon
Ireland

 

first piano recital
my chopsticks set
starting on the wrong keys

Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA

 

county fair …
the smell of sausage
on his hair

fiera paesana …
l’odore della salsiccia
sui suoi capelli

Daniela Misso
Italia

 

summer vacation
this year, i am
the tallest cousin

Akila G
India

 

outside and free,
tree climbing, river-side camping
on a sandy shore.

Rhonda Brown
United States

 

Thanksgiving
the winter spider still
on the food carton

Ranice Tara
India

 

colours
masking faces
bura na mano holi hai

(popular saying in Hindi meaning don’t mind it is holi, the Indian festival of colours)

Ishmeet Kaur Chaudhry
Ahmedabad

 

state fair days …
puffed up expectations in
a creamy delight

Bonnie J Scherer
Alaska, USA

 

first solo
diaper change—
diminishing returns

Jonathan Epstein
USA

 

she knows all about me
the fortune teller’s dress
just like Ma’s

Caroline Giles Banks
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

 

night fires mummer’s
cowbells chase the evil
deep into the ground

Stoianka Boianova
Bulgaria

 

flashbacks –
with grandfather’s donkey
across the mountain

Minko Tanev
Bulgaria

 

birthday party . . .
he names the puppy
after his grandpa

Kathleen Trocmet
Texas, USA

 

looking up
at Christmas tree
stars in their eyes

Luciana Moretto
Treviso Italy

 

a dream come true …
I am under the rainbow
in the fountain

Tsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria

 

frosted white
a shop bought bun
after the dentist

simonj
UK

 

first rock concert-
raising heart rate hidden
under gold bow tie

Franjo Ordanić
Croatia

 

summer holidays
braving the Irish Sea
eating red ripple ice cream

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

Father’s Day
four women celebrate
the man in their lives

Susan Farner
USA

 

Helston Flora Day –
Like a sunflower our child opens
her petals to the light

Vivienne Tregenza
Penzance

 

Christmas eve
snow wraps gifts
in silence

Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA

 

bar mitzvah
why do I still dance
awkwardly?

Nicholas Klacsanzky
Burien, WA, USA

 

Christmas tree
the children are alone at home
broken ornaments

božićno drvce
djeca su sama kod kuće
slomljeni ukrasi

Zdenka Mlinar
Croatia

 

hammering the last step
into the pine trunk
treehouse

Louise Hopewell
Melbourne, Australia

 

summer holidays
down the creek
chasing grandma’s geese

Tuyet Van Do
Australia

 

vintage car rally
waving at the drivers
in my new pink frock

Neena Singh
India

 

birthday party
my son shares the last piece of cake
with a beggar’s son

Chittaluri Satyanarayana
Hyderabad, India

 

exam result
a bunch of daisies nodding
in a tiny hand

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India

 

pink pockets hanging out at pyjama party

teji sethi
India

 

first birthday
we huff and puff till he
blows out the candle

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

vacation to ancestral home-
the ghost inside rice barn
I have never seen

Ram Chandran
India

 

Lantern festival:
flames glow in cellophane lamps —
our rainbow faces

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK (Brought up in Taiwan)

 

canned turkey Christmas
if mom can hide the money

Lev Hart
Calgary, Canada

 

moving boxes …
still leaning on the bare tree
our rotten ladder

Eva Limbach
Germany

 

September again
finding a silver Easter egg
behind the sofa

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

exchange gift
no one wants
a fever

Joevit Prado
Philippines

 

Sari’d ladies
Wrap me up in childhoods
Heady spice.

Richard Harris
Loughton, Essex

 

tucked in
to the lamp lit bedroom
soft falling snow

Sarah E. Metzler
USA

 

happy birthday eve –
dad takes me to the pet store
to meet my soulmate

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

frosting Christmas cookies…
four sisters add sparkle
to the angels’ pink wings

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

 

Buddha’s Birthday
at last tall enough to turn
108 prayer wheels

Meera Rehm
UK

 

birthday party
classmates delighted
by homemade cookies

Dubravka Šćukanec
Hrvatska

 

every birthday party
the wrong gifts –
identical twins

Guido De Pelsmaeker
België (Holsbeek)

 

the best gift of all
a child born on Christmas day –
my baby sister

Paul Callus
Malta

 

circus show
throughout the arena
a child’s babbling

Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia

 

snowed in
Santa and Frosty wave
from the neighbor’s yard

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington USA

 

family hike
pointing out the recent
bear tracks

Richard L. Matta
San Diego, California, USA

 

summer holidays
fighting for grandma’s lap
with all my cousins

Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
Kolkata, India

 

first train ride
the conductor sings
the all aboard song

Barrie Levine
Massachusetts USA

 

folk festival
limberjacks dancing
under the trees

(A limberjack is a folk percussion instrument: a jointed wooden doll made to “dance” on a flexible board.)

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

Labour Day
on dad’s shoulders the sweet burden
of the little girl

Mirela Brailean
Romania

 

mum’s lap
i speak
the first word

Vijay Prasad
Patna, India

 

doting grandparents
an orange at the bottom
of Christmas stocking

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, Arizona USA

 

Diwali night
we scour the streets
for leftover crackers

Mona Bedi
India

 

birthday in the park
swatting the butterfly
piñata

Lorraine A Padden
San Diego, CA USA

 

opening presents
boldly proclaiming
his disappointment

Rehn Kovacic
Mesa, AZ

 

birthday surprise
the secret return
of father home at last

Ingrid Baluchi
North Macedonia

 

holiday dinner
imperfect snow angels
show up for dessert

Kathleen Mazurowski
Chicago, IL

 

summer treat
of mud Holi
uncle’s wedding

Bidyut Prabha Gantayat
Bhubaneswar, INDIA

 

winter winds
everybody bent forward
on the Great Wall

Hla Yin Mon
Yangon, Myanmar

 

Lions Club float
in the small town parade…
I roar the loudest

Jan Stretch
Victoria BC Canada

 

birthday party –
the balloons color the wind

festa di compleanno –
i palloncini colorano il vento

Maria Teresa Piras
Serrenti – Italy

 

the first day in kindergarten
crying in the morning
laughter in the afternoon

prvi dan u dječjem vrtiću
ujutro plač
popodne smijeh

Zrinko Šimunić
Croatia

 

dog day
champagne for children
tickle the tongues

Mircea Moldovan
România

 

amusement park –
sunlight through
my closed eyes

Danijela Grbelja
Croatia

 

Christmas dawning — a train whistle circles the tree

Ann Sullivan
Massachusetts, USA

 

snow globe
the slow swirl~
into childhood

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

earliest memory
the cuts and bruises from falling
into the dishwasher

Bruce H. Feingold
Berkeley, CA, USA

 

on your birthday
back and forth we bat balloons

Tony Williams
Scotland, UK

 

manger at the church
my sister and I took turns
holding the baby

Marcia Burton
Salt Spring Island, Canada

 

empty beach
ma and I agree
to skip the day

Christopher Calvin
Kota Mojokerto, Indonesia

 

school Christmas –
part of me
still parked there

Amoolya Kamalnath
India

 

50th anniversary
dad asks
for a cup of tea

Daipayan Nair
Silchar, India

 

family lunch
my Christmas cracker
empty . . .

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

 

holy dip…
grandpa lets go
of grandma’s ashes

Vibha Malhotra
Noida, India

 

anniversary photoshoot
her head tilts
away from him

Priti Khullar
India

 

driving…
even without wheels
a pillow

John Francis Alto
Naga City, Bicol Philippines

 

Diwali skyline
Garland of candle fire
Crackers exploding stars

Sudha Devi Nayak
India

 

Dad’s Christmas gift
a backyard rink –
endless figure-eights

Holly Brennan
Bedford, MA

 

harvest moon
grandma’s song carries me
to the rice fields

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

boyhood blackbird
my voice breaking
into a song

Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton UK

 

mountain picnic
the trickle of a brook through
our parents’ chatter

Madhuri Pillai
Australia

 

keeping warm
the scent of chestnuts
in silver foil

C.X.Turner
United Kingdom

 

peñafrancia fiesta —
the red balloon
i prayed for flies

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
Bombon, Philippines

 

Durga Puja
from grandfather’s orchard
stolen pomelos

(Children used to decorate Durga’s miniature hut with silver oak leaves and pomelo fruit. A forgotten ritual.)

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

ice cream cart
candy floss
the days of street feast

Geetha Ravichandran
Mumbai India

 

little sisters
in matching dresses
Midnight Mass

Christina Chin
Malaysia

 

Independence Day
during the festivities
kids and dogs run free

Mike Stinson
Nebraska USA

 

playing dreidel
with m&ms-eating
more than betting

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

 

School farewell-
Shirts dyed in ink
Eyes dyed in tears

Santhoshi Valli
India

 

Halloween
too many angels
on the street

Nisha Raviprasad
Kerala

 

biting into burnt
marshmallows –
Boy Scout campfire

Dan Campbell
Virginia

 

pandal hopping . . .
I put off the new shoes
and apply a salve

Bipasha Majumder (De)
West Bengal, India

 

family zoo day
the sea otter
has her own room

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California, USA

 

swallow’s nest –
coming back as permanent
to my desk

Luisa Santoro
Rome, Italy

 

book character day
I explain why he can’t be
a power ranger

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

Quivering in my hands
night before christmas
one present that may be opened

Herb Goldsmith
Bastrop TX

 

summertime
the first sip
of the sea

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

 

birthday party
my 3-year-old relishes
his recycled presents

Lynne Jambor
Vancouver BC Canada

 

first time at the stadium
learning new
cuss words

Tomislav Sjekloća
Cetinje, Montenegro

 

family gathering…
had sleepless nights
over gossips

Devoshruti Mandal
Varanasi, India

 

tripping on cow dung
my reputation sealed
the gauche girl

Ella Aboutboul
West Sussex, UK

 

Six Flags park fun
the skin I left behind
from my little knee

Claire Vogel Camargo
USA

 

climbing in
the tiny cabin
first blimp ride

M. R. Defibaugh
United States

 

PTA meeting
third graders entertain
off-key

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

Christmas the hill i climbed with dad in my head 𝄇

Alan Peat
Biddulph, United Kingdom

 

luck smiles at school raffle—
I win a toy lion

Joan Leotta
USA

 

school ballet show
one of the snowflakes
leaves a puddle

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

zoom party –
only the birthday girl
gets the cake

Nairithi Konduru, Age 8
India

 

childhood Christmases
when all my grandparents
were present

Carol Reynolds
Australia

 

snowstorm on halloween
adding boots to
my costume

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

excursion…
how many somersaults
among the red poppies

escursione…
quante capriole
fra i papaveri rossi

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna (Italy)

 

annual camp trip
but this year a brand new hat
makes me a cowgirl

Shelli Jankowski-Smith
USA

 

new
microphone
moss
and spit

Vicki Miko
California

 

school days
waking up early to watch
cartoons with Dad

Alex Fyffe
Houston, TX

 

the cover
with Pinocchio’s nose …
childhood home

la copertina
col naso di Pinocchio …
casa d’infanzia

Angiola Inglese
Italy

 

visiting Grandma’s
the old doll found
in the attic trove

Mona Iordan
Romania

 

carnival milkmaid
in petticoat and pigtails –
her pails of paper

Helene Guojah
UK

 

family vacation –
dad cooks steaks in beer
for breakfast

Colette Kern
Southold NY US

 

first communion
dressed all in white
a toothless grin

Linda Ludwig
Inverness, Florida

 

at thirteen playing ball
again breaking glass
Bar Mitzvah

Margaret Tau
New Bern, North Carolina

 

blindfolded
and spun around
I stumble towards the donkey

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

 

Mount Lassen hike . . .
our daughter
composes an opera

Sheila Sondik
Bellingham, WA USA

 

birthday party
we play bingo
for bracelets

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

cold bunker bed . . .
colourful crepe-streamers
crisscrossing the dorm

Firdaus Parvez
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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