Afternoon of December 31, 2023

monarch this too shall pass

~Kerry J Heckman

I used to look forward to the new year.

~Noah Berlatsky

crows gather for a murder could it be yours

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

like the chipped figurine a little broken

~Kerry J Heckman

firing up his ash bucket list

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

maybe it’s a sign…

the ladybug’s

seven spots

~Kerry J Heckman

the bard warned us

about the trickery

of such fellows

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

my inner sky

mostly sunny or

partly cloudy

~Kerry J Heckman

anniversary

he tells me he hates

my meatloaf

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Twelfth Night kings' cake

I bite into

the baby Jesus

~John J. Dunphy

company

for Christmas

stray cats

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

prison math

 

i was 17

& you were 28

~Tiffany Elise

Afternoon of December 30, 2023

a new year

the woman with hope

releases the ball

~Sharon Ferrante

ringling pizza banana bread party on the lake

~J. D. Nelson

end of the year —

I win the lottery

in Monopoly

~Maurizio Brancaleoni

2024

everyone with their new

year's resolutions,

and here i am just hoping 2024

will be kinder than 2023 was.

~linda m. crate

Call for Submissions

Could 2024 be the year? The Asahi Haikuist Network is requesting haiku for the new

Anthropocene epoch. Send to David McMurray, mcmurray@fka.att.ne.jp.

flapping

as hard as I can

I kiss the street

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

fish sticks people inside of the radio

~J. D. Nelson

like a sturgeon divested of her eggs

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

soldering lamb the sleep of orion

~J. D. Nelson

Beatles once there were four

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

science barn rowdy tree bug inside

~J. D. Nelson

i don’t know what got into me rum

~Julie Bloss Kelsey

she coughed

the whole time

viral video

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

halting moving

along a window ledge in December

a fly, poor thing

~Steve Van Allen

Beaks of sandpipers poking into the sand

and dart off to chase the waves.

Eleven pipers piping

in the sea, swimming.

~Fhen M.

overstaying

your welcome—

roadkill raccoon

~Julie Bloss Kelsey

‘twas a Phoenix, let it burn bright

illuminating our mind's dark corners.

~Fhen M.

Award Season

Are you aware individuals can nominate two haiku for a Touchstone Award? The deadline

nears, is Dec 31. Hurry! One poem can be your own work, the other a poem you admire.

Publication must have been during 2023.

Link to the (google form) nomination:

https://docs.google.com/forms

/d/e/1FAIpQLScNLIih4nJItt0IonbySDfdAbn_JK4RuN4IVmLnD516ce9CJw/viewform

death to parasites

you were a parasite

desperate to turn

every light into darkness,

but i have too many

feathers and have risen from

the ashes too many times

for you to win.

~linda m. crate

trash weeps a cloned carp

~J. D. Nelson

in an English Bath until I pruned

~J. D. Nelson

Evening of December 29, 2023

 

  Covid for New Year’s.

I’ll probably be fine.

Probably.

~Noah Berlatsky

underneath the tree –

a 1000 fallen pine needles

and my cat drinking

~Jennifer Gurney

New Year's Eve

sound of gunshots

just like every other night

~John J. Dunphy

there are no more

ordinary moments –

now that my eyes are open

~Jennifer Gurney

the same steps

with different footprints

lineage

~Mona Bedi

clever or not

we never imagined the end

like this

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Watermelon rinds of hunger sprout in my hand

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

still wondering about the pronouns winter rain

~Mona Bedi

Rain teaches you to cry

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

growing old the sisters I once had

~Mona Bedi

sailing in from past lives snowbirds on ghost ships

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

a poem written

on the wings of sleep

dances differently

~Jennifer Gurney

death the everlasting sheep

~Keith Evetts

The cry of silence in the middle of the night

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

all night worrying

whether the sleeping pills

have worked

~Keith Evetts

old hippie

now even his kidneys

stoned

~John J. Dunphy

squid-fingered slipwit

subtle as a whale

—why she loves him

~Keith Evetts

Afternoon of December 26, 2023

A woodpecker's bill 

rapping a series of notes.

Twelve drummers drumming

for money, they sing.

~Fhen M. 

sanctified ice

church's holy water

during the power outage

~John J. Dunphy

full moon grows bright

as the world fades to gray and black

dollar store baskets

full of bright, plastic, colors

~Steve Van Allen

lessening a little more holiday diet

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

post-holiday thaw

only my snowman

losing weight

~John J. Dunphy

for whom do we drink water if from heaven God brings down rain on the earth?

for whom do we live if the top angels press the wrong buttons?

it turns out that we all live on a cloud

it turns out that we are electronic rivers of rain from electronic clouds

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Ripple Lit)

hiding

surprises in every corner

St Nick and cranny

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Christmas Eve

 

Midnight is mysterious

when you are old.

I fell asleep at eight.

~Noah Berlatsky

the fear of dying in a dream woke up again

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

Layover Poem

This is living, This is life;

a small chuckle,

Fey Inebriation

before an endless,

sleepless dream.

~Thomas Skahill

French film

the smell of the cheese sauce

on their nachos

~Marie Derley

Some Like It Hot

It seems more

Like it luke-warm,

Like lapped milk

or the radiance

We peel back from the stars.

~Thomas Skahill

reverting to whisky—

warding off the cold

from within

~Jennifer Gurney

If The Lights In My Head Go Out

I’d show my friends the door,

and how it feels

when the vertical green

hits their face like a jilted clover

after a night of irish whiskey.

~Thomas Skahill

hunting screenshots

in a storm door world

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

our        A

                         |

              C — first —G

                         |

                        T         word
~Shane Coppage

learning curve

8 

letters

make 

i-n-f-i-n-i-t-y

~Shane Coppage

cold

        snaps at my feet

ghost

        we named you Pocket

dad 

        left his mind skin

        on the moss-bright lintel

stay

        everything's okay until it isn't

~Shane Coppage

if I won the lottery—

front row tickets to the

Rolling Stones

~Jennifer Gurney

cemetery

on each child's grave

a candy cane

~John J. Dunphy

Afternoon of December 22, 2023

Baudelaire in the Frigidaire: The 60-Cycle Hymn

full fathom fly

soft velvet soft

sky-lift music

steals the deep blue

strobe light sun

~dan smith

Simone and Jean Paul

gnomic thick-lensed

cigarettes and wine

sacramental threesomes

a Nietzschean design

~dan smith

white knuckles

gripping the wheel

carpool tunnel syndrome

~David Josephsohn

As solid as a stone

coffee’s combined with hot water

a little stir, a little patience

all things hard have a soft spot.

~Fhen M.

The Art of Poetry, The Poetry of Art

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~Noah Berlatsky

dying to know how it feels living wage

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

statues

die too

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

polka

resistant

dots

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

One-Liner

______________________________

~Noah Berlatsky