Afternoon of February 20, 2026

 

Jean-Jacques Sempe's art the bittersweet taste of mocha

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

Mardi Gras beads

broken and strewn—

war memorial

~Miriam Sagan

trapped in time

the faded colors

of prayer beads

~Stephanie Zepherelli

March wind

my MAGA neighbor's tulips

all lean to the left

~John J. Dunphy

Circe

When my sisters were teenagers

they’d say that like

the enchantress Circe on her island

we could turn men into pigs

in thirty seconds.

But unlike her

we couldn’t keep those swine

Imprisoned and

porcine forever.

Sadly for us they always turned back into men.

~Miriam Sagan

Tilted Houses

So you live in Amsterdam now.

Somber by day, out of control at night,

it may be the perfect city for you,

but probably not for a man your age.

The air is always damp,

and the wind can take you down like a rotten tree.

 

Still, the girls will treat you just like they did thirty years ago,

and if anyone asks, you can claim you came here for the tulips.

~R.K. West

some old women are annoyed

at their old men

who waste long minutes

in the driveway

warming up

a very old truck

but these men are patient

and will also warm up

an annoyed old woman

~Miriam Sagan

mountain peak cairn . . .

we share

our identities


~Nicholas Klacsanzky

gathering up

scattered fragments

of democracy

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Board of peace

Board of peace-

All wars unite.

~Partha Sarkar

Soft red lights

Turning the moon

Into a cherry

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

The lone temple

The lone temple in the vast deserted field.…

The unwanted solemn signature of no worshipers.

~Partha Sarka

One who goes

One who goes everywhere

goes nowhere.

~Partha Sarkar

To My Brother or Sister Whom I Devoured in Utero

such hunger

to the victor

coffin or urn

~dan smith

goingnowherestuckbetweenpushandpull


~Stephanie Zepherelli

rose stamens endless nonsensical thoughts


~Nicholas Klacsanzky

 

 

plum blossoms uncurling the hope of hope


~Nicholas Klacsanzky

Ducks gather ruffling some feathers


~Sarah Mahina Calvello

the funeral of a god unraveling sandstone


~Nicholas Klacsanzky

when i was dracula's wife

i found no joy except in

the moments i was alone.

~linda m. crate

human monsters

not all monsters

have fangs,

one lesson i have

learned all too

well.

~linda m. crate

ai is just theft

of other artists and writers

yet somehow worse as

it bares only remnants

of the root and no knowledge.

~linda m. crate

Ornette grooves we listen harmolodic

~dan smith

(Previously published in Jerry Jazz Musician)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon of February 17, 2026

 

sake just for the sake of sake

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

I don’t want roses

or even chocolates

I want justice

~Jennifer Gurney

Grocery trip

The high price

Of coffee comfort

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

poems are like cats

they crawl on you and

vomit right on your lap

~Noah Berlatsky

morning news

I take another

shower

~Anne Fox

Neanderthal

three percent of me

extinct

~Anne Fox

stargazing

I think I see

Earth

~Anne Fox

the cost of love

a rose decays

in landfill

~Melissa Dennison

shadow boxing in the grass the madness of hares

~Melissa Dennison

wasting my time wondering why sparrows never try to catch snowflakes

on their tongues

~Patrick Sweeney

protest poetry :: even this


~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

mean girl testy-fies

~Mary Oishi

happy to just be here one-legged pigeon


~Bryan Rickert

a lung cloud my winter breathes

~Maya Daneva

oyster shell moon trying to swallow the ocean

~Maya Daneva

tilting your rain stick in the dialect of raindrops

~Maya Daneva

skeletal houses behind them skeletal houses

~Maya Daneva

the sinkhole widening this solitude

~Bryan Rickert

wind through leaves lost in translation


~Bryan Rickert

his resolution was to avoid plots that encourage vengeance

and the eating of more than one dark chocolate with sea salt and caramel

centers

~Patrick Sweeney

freezing rain...

the pale-purple knuckles on the backward claws

of the crow

~Patrick Sweeney

long night

i surrender

to light

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

Extraction

 

Protests. Layoffs. Bombing. Shelling. Shooting. Abduction.

uprooting

periwinkles for a black dahlia

one-way valve

~Mohua Maulik

Summer Vacation

I spent my summer vacation

teetering on the brink of starvation.

Lost in self-imposed isolation.

Crippled by surging inflation.

Mired in quiet contemplation,

I lamented the death of a Nation.

~Amy Grech

between two explosions

the gentle voice

of someone’s violin

~Maya Daneva

post-viral aphasia

the unladylike speech

inside my head

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

surveilled . . .

we saddle-staple ourselves

to the first amendment

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

where to hide

where to shout

where to cry

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

https://oneartpoetry.com/2026/02/15/one-arts-2026-haiku-anthology/

Afternoon of February 12, 2026

Snowdrift

The last time you held my hand,

As we went down the sledding hill,

Fingers not quite intertwined,

Should have been the clue,

That you were leaving me,

For someone with a stronger grip

Of reality.

~Shawn Scott Smith

Each day is its own

failure, add them up

and down.


~Noah Berlatsky

dry month

surrendering to the boulders

a stream

~Tejendra Sherchan

the

steady

vibration

of grasshopper legs

is the perpetual love song

for Eos as she

dissolves night

into

dawn

~Marie C Lecrivain

TARDIS key

the timeslip

back into space

~Joanna Ashwell

dancing shoes the corner mouse slips inside

~Joanna Ashwell

moon bridge gathering all the fairy dust

~Joanna Ashwell

Crime

Crime always pranks by leaving evidence.

~Partha Sarkar

How

does one

learn to love

a scary monster?

That’s easy. Start by gazing

at your reflection

and repeat,

I love

you.

~Marie C Lecrivain

inspiration

love over hate

Bad Bunny

~Jennifer Gurney

sometimes

my favorite place to go

nowhere


~Jennifer Gurney

Someday I will learn how to perform

simple life tasks.

But not today.

~Noah Berlatsky

my catastrophic hypotheticals dismissed

we drove home on the rims

~Patrick Sweeney

sipping coffee

and simultaneously trying to process the news

of a fifty-car pile up

~Patrick Sweeney

easy, he says:

consult the fire scars on the cedar stump

before you were born

~Patrick Sweeney

snow fog

the place I was trying

to get to...

~Patrick Sweeney

admin should all take the Rorschach

and I've no doubt one of them

will brag he 'aced it'

~Patrick Sweeney

Evening of February 9, 2026

 

 

designer turncoat delivering putin the pralines

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

snuffed out

on jesus’s behalf

little lights

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

crunch of gravel

even the cat sleeps

with one eye open

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

revitalizing zine culture

for posterity . . .

       the damned

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

bullet train

one inch

either way

~Michael Henry Lee

dead poets

a society

unto themselves

~Michael Henry Lee

two blocks to school

most of the sidewalk

full of ICE

~Randy Brooks

friend and foes

equally

TARIFFied

~Randy Brooks

amidst the materialists

pebbles fascinate me more

than the diamonds...

sharing all the bugs on earth

1.25 billion in my lot

~Tejendra Sherchan

When you have a child

you wish many things

and one is to die

before they do.

It is a long race

and you start well ahead

and you lose if you’re standing

at the end.

~Noah Berlatsky

Smog Alert

pretending the orange cloud goes poof

meaning the nightmare is over

so we can go back to being ourselves

cooperative and kind

inclusive and compassionate

right now we’re trapped in a smog alert

the cloud is orange

with no end in sight

it just goes on and on

we’re choking

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

one final vote

on whether we ever

get to vote again

~Noah Berlatsky

airbrushed 

still the sharpness

of your absence

~Arvinder Kaur

super bowl

I tune in for

the halftime show

~John J. Dunphy