July 2026 – Haiku About Birds
derelict cottage
the realtor’s hands
release a swallow
— Amanda Bell
seared marsh grasses
a pair of kestrels
fanning the sea breeze
— Paul Bregazzi
all their bellies
lit by sun as they turn
starling murmuration
— Liam Carson
storm edge
the last glimmer
of oystercatchers
— Paul Chambers
cold snap –
a sparrow flicks its tail
of snowflakes
— Marion Clarke
nightingale song
morning stillness bent
to a listening prayer
— Ria Collins
sing little bird sing
help us find a name
for the baby
— Gilles Fabre
sudden whoosh
a flock of Canada geese
call in low hoots
— Diarmuid Fitzgerald
low tide
on each exposed rock
a cormorant
— Eddie Gilligan
now the frost is here
I’m missing in Glenbalkan
the song of the wren
— Rody Gorman
sunset sky
from hedgerow to hedgerow
a bridge of redwings
— Jeremy Haworth
prayer beads…
a thread of geese
honk the heavens
— Florence Heyhoe
St. Patrick’s Day
the jigs and reels
of finch song
— David J. Kelly
ferns sifting dusk
and silently
an owl
— Clare McCotter
grey January
the sleek teal tail
of a magpie
— Máire Morrissey-Cummins
the cracked cliff
a seagull shadow
parachutes
— Pamela Muller
circling above
deepening the silence
eight or nine vultures
— Seán O’Connor
this wild spot
always a woodpecker
at the bark
— John Parsons
a pigeon ducks under
the security gate
winter’s end
— Matthew Paul
skylark
high enough to be nothing
but song
— Al Peat
a day immersed
in the cuckoo’s song
swaying bog cotton
— Thomas Powell
spring sunshine
the joy of being scolded
by a blackbird
— Lynne Rees
spring arrives
for my blind sister too
white-eye’s song
— Meera Rehm
grey dawn
the night scatters
into crows
— Sébastien Revon
ducks floating on the sky a shimmer of clouds
— Kim Richardson
June 2026 – Sound and Silence in Haiku
The June 2026 HOD explores the sound and silence in haiku. The poems are curated by Namratha Varadharajan.
The temple bell stops—
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers.
— Matsuo Basho
aspen leaves
the rustle
of kindergarteners
– Yvette Nicole Kolodji
metronome cadence
just the tide and me
breathing in Zen harmony
– Yvonne Crossley
August night
a siren
thickens the air
– Debbie Olson
afternoon snow
telling time by
vinyl records
– Ben Gaa
scavenging
the day’s gossip
rooftop crows
– Vidya Shankar
not yet dark …
the monitor beeps
with mom’s heartbeat
– Devoshruti Mandal
Mosquito at my ear—
does he think
I’m deaf?
– Kobayashi Issa
Pahalgam
the wind in the pines
wailing
– Vandana Parashar
abandoned village
the noise
of falling leaves
– Daniela Misso
girls on a park bench
weaving giggles
into their braids
– Denisa Hanöutov
summer sojourn—
from the mountain to the sea
the sound of water
– Kevin Valentine
I can name that tune
in three notes
redwing blackbird
– Carolyn Hall
starless silence…
the binary language
of fireflies
– Srinivas S
a minute’s silence
only the poppies
with raised heads
– Keith Evetts
testing the wind
she shakes
the wind chimes
– Gary Hotham
new hearing aids …
old pond frogs singing
heavy metal
– Ron C. Moss
rain stops the silence of the epitaph
– Suraj Nanu
tea silence…
I sip the steam
from fading dreams
– Angela Terry
mortar and pestle…
I crush the voices
inside me
– sanjuktaa asopa
uploading an interruption of wrens
– Shloka Shankar
snow clouds
the whoosh of mute swans
taking flight
– Polona Oblak
prairie sounds
the summer palette
of insects
– Kevin Browne
morning walk…
I hear the saffron
of a blooming palash
– Ustat Sethi
neon reflections
a retro melody
returns with the rain
– Nalini Shetty
pre-monsoon heat
when hailstones knock
on glass windows
– Kala Ramesh
breakfast for one
a morning held together
by sparrows
– Peter Jastermsky
twilight
the frog chorus begins
with a solo
– Stephen Colgan
new app on my phone –
I summon the thrush’s song
in a nearby pine
– Goda Virginija Bendoraitiene
falling ginkgo leaves…
silence settles
over silence
– Steliana Cristina Voicu
May 2026 – Loosening the Shackles on Haiku
A collection of pedigree verses which loosen the shackles on haiku curated by Keith Evetts
rape blossom…
the eastward moon
the westward sun
– Yosa Buson
rough sake
this cuckoo
this grove
– Issa
one full moon
myriad stars
green heavens!
– Shiki
one man, one fly
one large
sitting room
– Issa tr. Lanoue
the sight of green leaves
a mountain cuckoo
the first bonito
– Yamaguchi Sodo
The peony;
A silver cat;
A golden butterfly.
– Buson tr. Blyth
sandy swimsuits
damp towels
the long ride home
-Greer Woodward
without you
the grove is really
just a grove
– Issa
The dew of the rouge-flower
When it is spilled
Is simply water
– Chiyo-ni tr. Blyth
Until I hit the fly,
the fly-swatter did not exist
– Kawahigashi Hekigodo tr. Ueda
spring rain
if i lie
quite still
– jim kacian
the plum tree
by the job centre
is flowering
– Sarah Davies
a bit of birdsong
before we
start our engines
– John Stevenson
I borrowed my cottage
From the fleas and mosquitoes
And slept.
– Issa tr. Blyth
living alone . . .
both ends
of the wishbone
-Francine Banwarth
night train
each window carries
its own little rain
– Alan Summers
the thump
of a thousand rumps
returning to their pews in unison
– John Stevenson
wail of a loon
to a loon-
hunter’s moon
– Deborah A. Bennett
Blossoms that held bees
now leave with the gentle breeze
from butterfly wings.
– James W. Hackett
the old priest dines
his wine
just wine
– David Lanoue
into our bones
the heat of the day…
cicadas drone
– Peggy Willis Lyles
The flea
That is poor at jumping,
All the more charming.
– Issa tr. Blyth
the magnolia
wasn’t ours, yet its absence
is
– Patricia J. Machmiller
autumn leaves
rarer than gold
in the universe
– Jeffrey Ferrara
do not forget
that in the thicket are
plum blossoms
– Basho tr. Reichhold
where there’s people
there’s flies
and Buddhas
– Issa tr. Lanoue
peace for the heart daily life in the mountains
– Taneda Santoka
loneliness
lies within the listener—
a cuckoo’s call
– Chiyo-jo tr. Ueda
in the beginning
he was just pretending
to sound grumpy
– John Stevenson
War stood
at the end of the corridor
– Hakusen Watanabe tr. Ban’ya Natsuishi
One moonlit night
I released every last bug
From its cage
– Shiki tr. Keene
April 2026 – Haiku About Peace
Haiku centered around the theme of peace curated by Anju Kishore for the Haiku of the Day, April 2026.
tug of war
a robin’s song
mutes the news
— Marilyn Ashbaugh
moss
the quietest
of revolutions
– Tony Williams
after the storm
a roofless house fills
with moonlight
– Ravi Kiran
on condition
of anonymity…
deep forest blooms
— Laszlo Slomovits
gathering mist
on a twilight hill
a dreamer bathes
— Kala Ramesh
soft light rings
the mouth of a vase
spring rain
— Meredith Ackroyd
dreaming forward
I plant seedlings
— Norma Bradley
multilingual…
belonging to a world
of petals
— Katherine E Winnick
rice harvest songs
grandma sings again
in my voice
— Subir Ningthouja
a fork in the trail
taking the path
the butterfly chose
— Joseph P. Wechselberger
freeway curves
a pause in the rhythm
of pines splitting sun
— Richard Tice
meandering
through golden aspens
the sound of water
— Stephenie Story
an answer without end quotes the forest stream
— Kat Lehmann
recession—
the untended garden
full of butterflies
— Meera Rehm
a list of my slippages turning oak
— Shloka Shankar
hummingbird you lose the point of your story
— Debbie Strange
waning moon
becoming the wind
that shapes the mountain
— Sandip Chauhan
morning yoga
a bee guides the poppy
to a deeper bend
—Vandana Parashar
shavasana
a pathway between
dense clouds
— Sumitra Kumar
the last snowflake falls
onto the blue spruce forest—
quiet to quiet
— Patricia J. Machmiller
the way night collapses into a silent pair of arms
— Peter Jastermsky
love after love …
our bodies listening
to the light of dawn
— Chen-ou Liu
country road
turning up the volume
of stars
— Doug Belleville
full moon
a party comes to life
on the water
— Connie Pittman Ramsey
sunlit hospice
a seagull tilts
into the blue
— D W Brydon
amma’s handclasp
blue veins map a river
— Kavita Ratna
holding
the sunset still
his last poem
— John Pappas
Raas Leela
twirling away from dreams
into the Dream
—Vidya Shankar
pyre sparks rise
fireflies
escape the jar
— Sangita Kalarickal
one for the everyone in everyone
— Tim Murphy
March 2026 – Haiku About Oceans
Ocean themed haiku curated by Marietta McGregor.
just being the ocean breeze
– Bruce H. Feingold
beach stroll
the tide has left
its signatures
– Tom Clausen
jutting rocks
the boom of a breaker
toppling upwards
– Jan Dobb
surging waves…
the taste
of her tan lines
– Chad Lee Robinson
at low tide
slipping on rocks
summer sea
– Victor Ortiz
tropical night surf
each crash and hiss
phosphoresces
– Ruth Yarrow
skinny dipping
the graze of her nipples
under water
– Adjei Agyei-Baah
summer rockpool
and all of me —
midday sun
– Patricia Prime
midday sun
the slap of waves
under the pier
– Marion Clarke
after our vacation
unpacking stones
from the ocean
– Marco Fraticelli
fading light
the neap tide
slips between our toes
– John Hawkhead
autumn sea
a little girl’s love
of small brown shells
– Peggy Willis Lyles
in the place past all emotions winter ocean
– Agnes Eva Savich
unfolding a map
the ocean
between us
– Ben Gaa
Indian Ocean
I touch my childhood
on its shore
– Madhuri Pillai
winter sea
before refugees
beyond refugees
– Chen-ou Liu
southern humpback -
miles of ocean
pushing back – Scott Terrill
stormy sea
I cling to
a gull’s call
– Eva Limbach
your line in the sand
waves push in
the tide pulls out
– Deborah P Kolodji
inside the ocean the names of all the rivers
– Mark Miller
high surf
before the hurricane . . .
plovers huddle in the dunes
– Hannah Mahoney
white mist
the wing and the wave
almost touching
– Paul Chambers
alone again the tangled lives of kelp
– Lew Watts
the ocean in a raindrop inside my womb a heart
– Kala Ramesh
sixteen years gone…
dad’s old fishing bag
still smells of the sea
– Ron C. Moss
a certain kind
of inheritance…
shells at the tideline
– Michele L. Harvey
weathered gravestone-
ocean winds claim
the child’s name
– John Low
what remains of her remains ocean stars
– Elmedin Kadric
winter whitecaps
a piece of sea glass
not quite finished
– Paul Miller
noon blazing sun
in(de)finite
ocean shore
– Olivier Schopfer
Feburary 2026 – Haiku About Love
Haiku on the theme of love curated by Raghav Prashant Sundar
first date
speaking at the same time
for the third time
– Ram Chandran
hall of mirrors
what I think you think
of me
– Bill Kenney
from Bach to Bartok a delicate dance
– Norma Bradley
first kiss
marram grass stubbles
the dunes
– Susan Richardson
out of love we fake a November moon
– Laurence Stacey
love making moonlight of it
– John Hawkhead
hawk moth
finding its way
inside fire
– Evangelos Roussos
this long night’s ambition after the milk spills our closeness
– Richa Sharma
afterglow
your hand still
in mine
– Vidhi Ashar
meteors showering outside I rinse stars from her hair
– Christopher Peys
crowded bistro
only the bartender
knows I exist
– William Scott Galasso
life in a metro
I practice self-love
on Valentine’s Day
– Ganesh R
blue note the adjectives I use for you
– Surashree Joshi
quarter moon the size of the word love
– Adrian Bouter
pul ling aw ay it s par tly yo ur fau lt li ne
– Peter Jastermsky
in the foreground of decadence
please may I listen to your belly
– Mark Gilbert
lovecode the ultrasound of your photons
– Richard Gilbert
young impalas
all outrunning
the son I never had
– Lysa Collins
church bells
my daughter’s laugh
becomes religion
– Shane Coppage
unfilial
mother’s shoes
don’t fit
– Luminita Suse
wedding anniversary
gold larches
in the rain
– Richard Tice
Eurasian beavers
you arrange my pills
in the box
– Vidya Premkumar
still in your arms
almost forty years later
sleeper train
– Marion Clarke
snowdrops the moment I know how to love
– Isabella Kramer
outlasting
everyone she loved —
heartwood
– Roland Packer
terraforming
we begin again
as friends
– Bryan Rickert
January 2026 – Haiku About Compassion
Haiku on Compassion curated by Deborah A. Bennett
bone moon
love enough
in the marrow
– Lee Gurga
snowdrops
a deported man
comes home
– Alvin B. Cruz
Holi…
no one a stranger
at my doorstep
– Pravat Kumar Padhy
neighbor’s tomatoes
the comfort
of small favors
– Colette Kern
church picnic
an ant brings another
to the melon
– Dan Schwerin
state fair
sharing a corn dog
with a dunked clown
– Dan Burt
Juneteenth
the library closed to everyone
equally
– Mykel Board
planting rice
an old woman’s song
tinged with sorrow
– Neena Singh
wind through corn
a place for songs
no one sings
– Glenn G. Coats
hurricane prep
the stray cat sneaks her babies
into our garage
– Pris Campbell
passwords
the family pet
lives on
– Marianne Paul
bullied girl
in her shirt pocket
an origami swan
– Tom Bierovic
tank barrels
Banksy plants
a bigger daisy
– Alan Summers
harvest moon
far from the war zone
children’s laughter
– Fatma Zohra Habis
home from war
the first thing to go
is the forsythia
– Elmedin Kadric
my old friend…
a gold koi wandering
through clouds
– Jacob D. Salzer
wild indigos
poems on the same page
shine together
– Lakshman Bulusu
moonbase garden
the lettuce
learns my name
– Nalini Shetty
a handful of falling stars
the walk
in mother’s shoes
– Elisa Theriana
all these broken pieces have names
– Anne Fox
our seasonal emptiness fills with rain
– Roberta Beach Jacobson
balcony full of stars
our conversation
about illness
– Maria Concetta Conti
stage four the sunshine the rain
– Arvinder Kaur
nursing home forced forsythia
– Ruth Yarrow
a family’s worth deadheading roses
– Rowan Beckett Minor
stepping on my shadow bereavement handshakes
– Maya Daneva
veteran’s graveyard
one line after another
on her face
– Richard L. Matta
taking the wild
from the flowers
first frost
– Bryan Rickert
foreclosure
the corn rows
covered in snow
– Marilyn Ashbaugh
under the bridge
a circle of strangers
passing the stew
– Sandip Chauhan
in the heart
that mountain bluebird
still waiting
– Biswajit Mishra