Morning of July 18, 2026

 

  

   

Five Fleas swag: https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas

 

 

 

An idea, a joke

a suggestion

and wordplay all

walk into a bar.


I buy them a round,

then invite them

into my poem.

~Keith Snow




shadow of a soul

marks on a canvas

ghosts that ask forgiveness

longing for redemption

yearning for the light

~dan smith




sweaty brow—

only a large fan

at the laundromat

~Patricia Carragon




midsummer birds cling to the air the space between us 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 



 

his way of looking always askance

~dan smith




light comes down soft in the moment it happens morning coffee 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




Purity

 

I do not read poetry.

 

I do not want it to affect

 

my voice.

~Noah Berlatsky



 

After Jean Valentine

 

footprints

slowly

fill with snow

 

write a different poem

slowly

not about snow

~Noah Berlatsky



 

Death of a Hummingbird 


 A dot, a miniature cyclone. 


The heart is breathless like the most beautiful diamond that could ever be

made to resist death. 


And the beauty, the crystalline analysis, the perfection of form, the

balanced line, the irresistible temper of a creature living at such speeds it

flies itself out of this world.

~John Vlachos



 

frequency hopping 


accept able      



employ able 



suit able


~Jerome Berglund



 

summer heat 

even the dirty stream

is tempting

~tom blessing



 

road trip

my son sings both parts 

of the song

~Jennifer Gurney



 

all I hear

in the heat of the moment

ice in my glass

~Jennifer Gurney



 

low tide leaves gifts

a castle in the driftwood

a mermaid in the kelp

~Jennifer Gurney



 

Somehow 


Somehow an incomplete sentence draws the conclusion. 
 

~ Partha Sarkar

 

 

Open August 1 -15: Post-Ku (Verses on postcards)

https://post-ku.com/submit/

 

 

 

Evening of July 15, 2026

 


monsoon rain

a sparrow on a powerline

owns all of it

~Tejendra Sherchan




late sunflower ~

i remember the ocean

before the frost

~katharine love




Star of Peace 


Star of Peace! 

Let the midnight come. 

~ Partha Sarkar




Breaking bread getting to the bottom of things 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello  




I shouldn't have told my neighbor

about the power I'm gaining from his silver maple tree

~Patrick Sweeney




his plan for today is to go to the edge of the forest

and sit for another chickweed tutorial

~Patrick Sweeney




old forest tangled within walls wild birdsong 


~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




midnight ballerina her tassels

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




Longing upon the page my story unwritten

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




When the Origami Smokes 


The moving of some intention to dry the ocean in your mouth so you can

speak and say,  


Plantagenets are sewn into the earth to make bread where peasants

loosen their tongues and call it an inside out apostrophe, 


The laundry turns into doves and flies away as the laminated child breaks

apart like porcelain to my map of many planets. 

~John Vlachos




she blinks . . .

some of the pain

slips out

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




THE OPEN PLAN SYMPHONY


Eighty people are typing in unison

Everyone wears noise-canceling earphones

We send emojis to our neighbors  

Nobody looks at the actual window 

The sky outside is purely cosmetic 

We breathe the recycled air deeply

I am lonely in three dimensions 

~Leonard Zinovyev




UPGRADE


I uploaded my mind to the cloud today,

But the "Terms and Conditions" forgot my face;

Now I wander the grid, like a viral ghost,

Reblogging the silence of empty space.

~Leonard Zinovyev




Civil War battlefield

fresh hostilities break out between

partisan tourists

~John J. Dunphy




my fingers weave 

through her silver hair 

i search for lice 

~Bernadette O'Reilly 




COMMUTER'S  LAMENT


We sit on the train, polite and discreet,

Eating Wi-Fi signals for our morning meal.

A stranger beside me just sprouted an eye,

And we both double-tap to see if it's real.

~Leonard Zinovyev




THE ALGORITHM KNOWS ME


The Internet suggests a new jacket. 

It matches my deep

existential dread.

The color is called "Corporate Void".

I bought it with one click.

The delivery drone arrived 

before I ordered.

It dropped the box on my head.

It whispered

that it loves me.

~Leonard Zinovyev




WIRELESS


The router blinked twice.

An uninvited ghost logged

into the Wi-Fi.

It changed the password

to "boo".

~Leonard Zinovyev




Simple good life 

Soup noodles 

Leave me wanting 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




a love match—

the IBAN code on the invitation card

in lowercase

~Nicoletta Ignatti




Where to submit in August:


Kingfisher Journal

https://kingfisherjournal.com/submissions/



tinywords

https://tinywords.com/about/



Wales Haiku Journal

https://www.waleshaikujournal.com/submit

Evening of July 11, 2026

 


invisible

                  connections

our phones touch    briefly


~Melissa Dennison




Down we go like a submarine sweet dissolving sugar 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




mortality grey skies that don't clear up

~dan smith




Can’t move time there’s no point purple prairie sage

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




Yarrow fields thick fog but we’ll make it through 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




Honeysuckle  a gloomy day passes for a new dawn 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 




e-bikes

gateway drug

to demolition derby

~Jennifer Gurney




demolition 

big house on the street

eats itself 

~RJ Humbl’ 




After Liu Tsung-yüan

 

The birds don’t fly in these mountains now.

No footprints mark the road.

 

One boat, one man, one straw hat

and fish beneath river snow.

~Noah Berlatsky




Words   


Words get deep in a natural morning. 

~ Partha Sarkar




high gas prices

the body bags 

keep filling up

~dan smith



 

Visitation Rites

  

dad took Rusty

to the vet

both long dead

I finally cry


~dan smith




All Out 


Arriving now and again trying to be mighty, as we ponder what to say,

insects living in our words as we dare to pretend, as we scoop up

adjectives in the open fields and read them to the bees. 

 

And the moon, a ruined monument rusts. 

 

Let it be that it was never said the words became old walking on crutches.

 
~John Vlachos




Vegetable Talk 


There you are I see you now, as you become emblem, pledging a dream to

the Robin Redbreast, an oath to the sparrows, a promise to the gadflies

and insinuating circumstances, emailing themselves the proper way

with an icon attached…disrobing the statue before it walks away. 


~John Vlachos




on the street

a woman washes clothes

her zebra legs

 ~Tejendra Sherchan 



Open now: The Pan Haiku Review 7

https://www.callofthepage.org/the-pan-haiku-review/

(email: panhaikureview@gmail.com)

 

 


Open all of July: Cornflower Magazine

https://haikudingen.be/magazine/