Afternoon of February 21, 2025

The Golden Hour

~Jean-Paul Moyer

Editor’s note: Our featured artist, Jean-Paul Moyer, is a cat. Here’s a video of him at work.

 

 

A shriek in the night.

The cat has slaughtered

a pair of underwear.

~Noah Berlatsky

I must stand forever,

for in every seat

there is a cat.

~Noah Berlatsky

Someday cats

will fly.

All the cats here

are waiting.

~Noah Berlatsky

day breaks gently

in saunters the new year

on cat’s paws

~Jennifer Gurney

consistent

Valentine

my cat

~Jennifer Gurney

the rumble

of affection

cat’s purr

~Jennifer Gurney

my stray queen

gives me brief company

as her gratitude!

~Tejendra Sherchan

alley

a feral follows me

to the food bowls

~John J. Dunphy

reincarnated Zen gardener

now rakes patterns in

his litter box

~John J. Dunphy

my black cat

tuxedoed

by the snow

~John J. Dunphy

The Asahi Haikuist is in need of haiku (catku) about cats in love.

Details (scroll to the end): https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15632135

Afternoon of February 18, 2025

Five Fleas shirts and mugs

https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas

his whole philosophy on the front lawn


~Patrick Sweeney

Mowing the lawn

the same pattern

over and over

imprinting lines into grass’s memory

thinking the same thoughts

again and again the same pattern

can’t get out of my own head

maybe this time I should

break free

mow diagonally right across the lawn

~Robert Miner

Vox Populi

once a whisper

now a scream

~dan smith

Imperialism

Throws upward

The torn pieces of a paper

The madman

Standing on a thin broken wall.

~Partha Sarkar

The Gift of the Maga

a scalped population

getting the brush off

~dan smith

non-sequitor

nothing

makes sense now

~Robert Epstein

Trapped in a traffic jam

Let me cross the road...

Then I decide whether

I will return home or wander under the stars.

~Partha Sarkar

her honking smiles in the morning rush


~Vijay Prasad

immune to my telepathy, a deer on the berm of the road

~Patrick Sweeney

waiting

for the light to change

roadside chicken

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

generation X marking the spots on my hands

~Kelly Sargent

he wants to wrestle Antaeus at zero g

~Patrick Sweeney

valentine’s day lonely full moon

~Tejendra Sherchan

there's no 'is what it is' in high-energy physics

~Patrick Sweeney

line editing the line editing my ex

~Robert Epstein

riding on the wobbly wheel of what's going to happen to me

~Patrick Sweeney

holes in the paper dolls playground wars

~Kelly Sargent

there in the monostich of time; a bluejay in the snow

~Patrick Sweeney

even zen can be overdue books

~Robert Epstein

under floorboards behind bookshelves happening again

~Patrick Sweeney

a threatening letter

from the good people who sent him

a free blood-pressure cuff

~Patrick Sweeney

the smell of bacon

forgiving

the night before

~Kelly Sargent

Dawn Senryu

smashed bottle

in grey sand --

baby's first steps

~Brian Palmu

often I dream

of globe-trotting the world

my holed pocket

~Tejendra Sherchan

first shower at his apartment

clarifying shampoo

in my eyes

~Kelly Sargent

Un-Zen Thirty

Unknown to him

Clock was reset

Instead of alarm

Woke late

In panic-rush

Showered halfway

Dressed, until

He realized

He was early

~Keith Snow

after remortgaging a second time

he kept the intricacies of his gambling theories

to himself

~Patrick Sweeney

On our radar: Poetry contests open now

Wergle Flomp (humor): Deadline April 1

https://winningwriters.com/our-contests/wergle-flomp-humor-poetry-

contest-free

The Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Contest (fee): Deadline March 13

http://modernhaiku.org/spiesscontest/spiesscontest2025.html

Morning of February 16, 2025

 False Spring

~Jean-Paul Moyer

starlight the miles between us


~Mona Bedi

just hatched chicks all over the plum tree

~Tejendra Sherchan

 

threading needles the eyes have it

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

 

babyboomerangst

~Barrie Levine

old dreamcatcher I let go of my aspirations


~Mona Bedi

new wars tacked onto old wars

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

tulips bloom

in no man’s land

peace talks


~Mona Bedi

mayfly

what do we take with us

to the afterlife


~Mona Bedi

 

birds are looking for beaks

 and wings

  and air

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

flavor of the day fresh air

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

leafless tree

the children

I never had


~Mona Bedi

chatting by the fence

the neighbor’s opinions

invade my yard

~Barrie Levine

trees are talking to me

my coffin sprouts roots

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

Valentine's Day

I drive to pick up

my cat's ashes

~John J. Dunphy

on till he’s thirteen

the frog nightlight

in my son’s room

~Barrie Levine

censored paint set

the rainbow colors

d  i  l  o  o  t  e  d

~Barrie Levine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open all this month: Cattails

http://www.cattailsjournal.com/submissions.html

Afternoon of February 15, 2025

 

Knucklebone

Outside the moon is

a knucklebone and someone

     is staging a post-

post-modernist production

     of Our Town in the old black

     box theater of my dreams.

~Jason Ryberg

Passing Truck

How many lifetimes

ago did that passing truck

cause the coffee in

your cup to ripple, the plates

in the cupboard to rattle?

~Jason Ryberg

The djinn came out of the desert,

its wrath whirling like brains of sand

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Walkin’ Boss

On days like this (one

hundred-plus in the shade and

no breeze), the sun is

a mean walkin’ boss with a

     loaded cane, mirrors for eyes

     and a big dog on a chain.

~Jason Ryberg

Out Here

Underground rivers

of memory, country grave-

yards of secrets; out

here, the winters are always

old black and white photographs.

~Jason Ryberg

intermittent sleep

sneaking through the cracks

poem lyrics

~Fatma Zohra Habis

Blind Eye

There’s been a prison-

     break of poets, tonight, and

     the hound dogs and guards

     are all out in force, but the

     moon is casting a blind eye.

~Jason Ryberg

the stars come to us with their histories

the ones just arrived

            have the longest stories to tell

~Steve Horel

The World Below

The night sky is a

giant fishnet scattered with

its daily haul of

     glittering starfish and the

world below is an endless

     dark ocean of prairie grass.

~Jason Ryberg

night and day you are the pawn

~John H. Dromey

variable star

if you don't like the weather

wait a minute

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Ho Bug!

Don’t go near my garden

There lives the snake

Who works with me.

~Steve Horel

circus peanut

2am

she fashions a trapeze

from a fishing pole

~for Simone

Jean-Paul Moyer/Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

 

Open now: World Haiku Review

https://worldhaikureview.wordpress.com/about-whr-submission-guidelines/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1TxCBbjv-Mgpb4kGE7cuIUlvnysBcLg7P5FvuOl2AkKFhtjkCjeOXDmrM_aem_ZCe0xVKWl68fp_u4-TujNA