Welcome to the December issue of brass bell: a haiku journal. This month's theme is WINTER HAIKU.
You will find work here by 103 contributors, from Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Switzerland, Tunisia, and the United States
after the snow the flight of crows
- Alan Catlin
dark snow the night begins its winter
- Alan Summers
cold morning —
her hands hide
the strawberry
- Ali Znaidi
the old oak branches
heavy with snow —
a woodpecker works
- Amauri Solon
winter time —
no more tourists
asking for ice cream
- Ana Drobot
close of the year
just one empty page
in the old diary
- Angelee Deodhar
searching for the dog
through the snow
two eyes
- Anisoara Iordache
dying fireplace
only a cat at the window
minds the snow
- Anna Mazurkiewicz
his voice
on the answerphone
— winter drizzle
- Anne Curran
long dark evenings
I pass the endless hours
reading George Eliot
- Annie Wexler
winter night
silent snowfall
bedtime stories
- Archana Kapoor Nagpal
first light of dawn
sparrows chanting
above new snow
- ayaz daryl nielsen
sunny porch —
a blooming hibiscus
mocking the north wind
- Barbara Kaufmann
frost flowers
an artist paints
the winter white
- Barbara Tate
snowfall . . .
even the broken fence
is beautiful
- Bill Waters
quiet winter
the deep clink of a coin
in a beggar's can
- Billy Antonio
hungry cat
gazes sadly at the sky —
fish swim under the ice
- Bozidar Skobic
ice blooms
in and all around my heart
winter sun
- C. Robin Janning
silent first snow
hides summer lawn furniture
in stillness
- Carl Scharwath
dying embers —
the missing xoxo
in her texts
- Carl Seguiban
deepest magic
of the year — my candles glow
solstice eve
- Carole Johnston
first touch of frost a faery huddles in the late-blooming rose
- Caroline Skanne
Groundhog Day
on the clothesline
bedsheetsfrozenstiff
- Carolyn Coit Dancy
winter fog
a few steps from the house
I feel lost
- Catherine Rigutto
winter night —
one more marshmallow
in hot chocolate
- Charishma Navneet Gupta
winter solstice
I recycle my youth
in a dream
- Chen-ou Liu
last day of the year
evening arrives
little by little
- Constantin Stroe
light snow
she brushes off
my opinion
- Dave Read
winter dawn —
the seagull's shadow
drags on the grass
- David Rodrigues
winter bird
am i the only one
who knows your song
- Debbie Strange
falling temperatures
frost settles
into his beard
- Devin Harrison
first snow
a new outfit
for the old neighborhood
- Diana Petkova
mouths agape
children eating
snowflakes
- Diana Teneva
first snowflakes —
the cat shakes off
his wet whiskers
- Elena Malec
we install the car seat
for our first grandchild . . .
winter stars
- Ferris Gilli
I dig up the crocus
and tulip bulbs —
something alive to take away
- Frank Judge
basketball hockey
endless pro football
skis snowboards — winter
- Gale Owen
winter day
a kitten and a street musician
in the underpass
- Gergana Yaninska
first snowfall
the trees dissolve
into evening sky
- G.R. LeBlanc
first snow
the emptiness
of the bird feeder
- Helen Buckingham
playing guitar —
the pain in my fingers
this winter
- Jayashree Maniyil
in a patch of confusion
October pumpkins
punch through winter snow
- JenMarie Macdonald
New York winter
small dogs stroll
in shiny red boots
- Joan Corr
stopping to see
the shape of
a snowflake
- Joan McNerney
hail
out of a clear sky
angry words
- Joanna M. Weston
first frost —
the postman's
crackling footsteps
- John McDonald
getting out
my old winter
thoughts
- Julian O'Dea
this winter too
me and my old
rug
- Kanchan Chatterjee
first winter days —
again in mom's frail hands
my unfinished sweater
- Kashinath Karmakar
as if silence
could be seen
snow globe
- Kath Abella Wilson
muntingia blossoms
our scattered jokes float down
— best friend's funeral
- Ken Sawitri
overnight snow . . .
the river
narrowed
- kris moon
winter morning
one ray of sunlight joins me
at the table
- Kristen Lindbeck
a hole in a fence —
snow is falling
into an empty bowl
- Krzysztof Kokot
fragrant path . . .
all that we have
frozen night
- Kuheli Santra
first snowfall —
the kids gather
fresh flowers
- Kumarendra Mallick
old forest —
covered by snow
only the stumps
- Laura Vaceanu
old threads
woven into a bird's nest . . .
sweater weather
- Laura Williams
hemmed in by snow —
red apples lined up
on the windowsill
- Lavana Kray
winter field
a crow pecks at
the scarecrow's pocket
- Magdalena Banaszkiewicz
every twig ice-sheathed
yet — business as usual
for the noisy crows
- Margaret Fisher Squires
winter sky —
looking for an asteroid
between the stars
- Maria Tirenescu
morning light . . .
woodsmoke painting
the silence
- Mark E. Brager
cold night
my gloveless hands
in my pockets
- Marta Chocilowska
white-cowled and drowsy —
silence descends at Compline —
pines bowed in prayer
- Mary Carter Ginn
melting ice
I am startled
by his touch
- Mary Hohlman
visiting graveyards . . .
an invisible snowflake
kisses my forehead
- Maya Lyubenova
white embroidery —
in the winter sky
one thousand stitches
- Nicole Pottier
winter evening
even the carousel horses
stopped running
- Nikola Duretic
breaking through
monochrome winter
the red trills of a robin
- Olivier Schopfer
winter dawn i fold into your breath
- Paresh Tiwari
aching back a staring contest with two snow clouds
- Pat Geyer
snow piles up
as I wait on the corner —
darkness falls
- Patricia Prine
gliding on thin ice in her new figure skates
- Persis Parshall Vehar
sunrise
children clap their hands —
snowman without a nose
- Petruta Ionescu
winter morning
the scarecrow with
a snow cap
- Pravat Kumar Padhy
winter night
I search for more heat
in the spice rack
- Rachel Sutcliffe
going home
I look for the smoke
from the chimney
- Radka Mindova
(English translation by Maya Lyubenova)
winter dawn
a patch of clouds
blossom a bare tree
- Ramesh Anand
unhinged unfurled cruel
wet wicked winter winds wail
their banshee refrain
- Rob Sullivan
melting snow
another hope
to fall in love
- Robert Kania
the way heavy snow
bends the white birch
and mother with age
- Robert Henry Poulin
strong winter wind
my house is broken too
tiny spider
- Rosa Clement
frozen river . . .
in its grip
the loon's call
- Samar Ghose
walking into
an argument of crows
winter fog
- Sandi Pray
long winter night
gentle as falling snowflakes
your glance
- S.Eta Grubesic
young lovers
trembling
a winter storm
- Silvestru Miclaus
winter solstice —
i chip the darkness
off my toast
- Sondra J. Byrnes
on this frosty night
we are made clean
new in the world once again
- Stacey Murphy
nightly visitors' log
signed on fresh snow —
3 deer, one paperboy
- Sue Norvell
on the snowy railing
three dozen pigeons
all facing east, but one
- Susan Sonnen
fresh snow
on the palm of my glove
winter sky
- Theresa A. Cancro
winter morning
even the child's breath
is smoky
- Thriveni C. Mysore
chopping wood nothing prepares us for winter
- Tim Gardiner
my mother again
atop a bare branch alone
red cardinal singing
- Tish Pearlman
crowing rooster —
New Year's
first greeting
- Tomislav Maretic
shadow running
ahead of me
winter sunshine
- Tricia Knoll
vacation
snowman watches over
the school yard
- Vasile Moldovan
snow storm
japanese rose blooms
in her room
- Vessislava Savova
pearls of dewdrops
from a frozen twig
a sparrow's song
- Vibeke Laier
snow-bound path —
footprints full
of moon rays
- Virginia Popescu
the silence
of a cooling tea pot —
winter morning
- Yesha Shah
early morning snowfall
stepping into your footprints
who will step in mine
- Zee Zahava
Previously published:
Carl Seguiban — dying embers — FreeXpression Haiku (August 2014)
Kashinath Karmakar — first winter days — European Kukai (December 2013)
Krzysztof Kokot — a hole in a fence — Diogen Winter Contest (2014)
Maya Lyubenova — visiting graveyards — Flecks of Blue, a bilingual haiku collection (English and Bulgarian), by Maya Lyubenova
Radka Mindova — going home — World Haiku Review (February 2012)
Robert Kania — melting snow — World Haiku Review (January 2014)
