Thursday, June 1, 2017

Haiku about the ways we experienced May 23, 2017

Welcome to the summer 2017 issue of brass bell: a haiku journal.

The theme is a single date . . .   all the poems were written on/about May 23, 2017.

Enjoy! And please come back in September when brass bell returns from summer vacation.

Poems have been received from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, the U. K., and the United States


fog —
the train digs
its own tunnel
    - Adjei Agyei-Baah

tight on money
the fridge's
funny sounds
    - Adrian Bouter

after the rain . . .
the brightness
of pond lilies
    - Agnes Eva Savich

steaming rice
for the altar
the dead are here
    - ai li

never quite counting
but moving fingers
as if there were numbers
    - Alan Bern

weather forecaster lied — no sun today!
    - Alan Catlin

only the love songs
the wrong shade of blue
in Manchester city
    - Alan Summers

cat and i
what do we have in common
besides silence?
    - Amauri Solon Ribeiro

on the balcony
tonight the moon
so round
    - Angela Giordano

twilight
the full throated tenor
of a bull frog
    - Angelee Deodhar

spring cleaning
another trash bag heads
to Goodwill
    - Anna Cates

birthday —
I feel my bones
heavier
    - Antonio Magniameli

all day drizzle
an earthworm languishes
in the muck
    - Barbara Kaufmann

nap time
the robo calls
keep coming
    - Barbara Tate

head in the clouds . . .
without warning
rhododendrons
    - Bill Waters

rush hour
outside the bus window
a still kite
    - Billy Antonio

a struggle
to keep things in balance
when I am tipping
    - C. Robin Janning

grass nicely trimmed
garden in full bloom
sneezing
    - Carol Dilworth

grey mist
where grief
slips in
    - Caroline Skanne

morning rain
beneath my bedroom window
a wet school child
    - Celestine Nudanu

lost in a shuffle
of second-hand music books . . .
thrush answering thrush
    - Chen-ou Liu

batgirl in training
her cape
a serious matter
    - Christina Martin

spring daydream
my son's stuffed tiger
stares at the sun
    - Christina Sng

evening chatter
my puppy listens
to the buzz of a fly
    - Christine L. Villa

no fighting conch
on my last day of shelling
high tide
    - Claire Vogel Camargo

close to midnight
my muse snoozing
in the next chair
    - David J. Kelly

such variety
in the flavors
blueberries
    - David Oates

weather vane
a horse leads us
toward home
    - Debbie Strange

following the game
from the nosebleed seats
advancing years
    - Devin Harrison

wedding anniversary —
the twenty-third day
of the fifth month
    - Doris Pascolo

noonday sun
an aged bluejay asleep
on the birdbath
    - Dottie Piet

breakfast with kids
no reason to cry
over spilled milk
    - Elisa Allo

kindergarten class . . .
flowers and butterflies
in the children's drawings
    - Eufemia Griffo

walking in the woods
pointing out interesting things
to an absent friend
    - Frank Robinson

crunch
my neck
awakens me
    - Gabrielle Vehar

in the lamp's oblique shadows the back of my hand is strange
    - Glenn Ingersoll

aprons from three generations
whisper to me
when i cook
    - Grace Celeste

having its moment
the orb
of an onion flower
    - Hannah Mahoney

black morel . . .
how complicated it is
to survive
    - Hifsa Ashraf

when i bend over
and kneel down to plant these days
i say my prayers
    - Jack Goldman

café acoustics reaching me the pain in a stranger's voice
    - Jane Williams

wilted peonies
the day she doesn't
make the team
    - Jennifer Hambrick

today —
the mountain laurel
chooses to open
    - Jill Lange

our friendship . . .
the crest and trough
of waves
    - Jo Balistreri

just before midnight
pain ebbs . . . slowly moving
toward recovery
    - Joan Leotta

at the DMV
praying for our number
to be called
    - Joan McNerney

dawn rises
through the kitchen window
insomnia
    - Joanna M. Weston

urban demolition
under a powdering of dust
the promise of flowers
    - John Hawkhead

garbage truck
my dog hides
in the bathroom
    - Julie Bloss Kelsey

mooncake
on the wet ground
carving my birthday wish
    - Justice Joseph Prah

Taipei to Shanghai
about the length
of a haiku
    - Kath Abela Wilson

rain thunder lightning
a symphony I can hear
when the lights go out
    - Katya Sabaroff Taylor

we sort estate papers
the wind
picks up
    - kjmunro

sorting
a lifetime collection
of beads & baubles
    - Kris Moon

clatter of heels —
in my imagination
swaying hips
    - Krzysztof Kokot

hiding behind a tree
I see a chipmunk crack
a nut
    - Kumarendra Mallick

spotlight
the sun through
a leaking roof
    - Kwaku Feni Adow

the best way to cure sleepwalking
she tells me
is to hang upside down
    - Kyle Hemmings

storm clouds
getting closer
my court date
    - Laughing waters

so quiet
at the kitchen table
alone this morning
    - Linda Keeler

starlight —
all that i sing
starts now
    - Lovette Carter

twilight
another day is ending 
first star
    - Lucia Cardillo

one white
cabbage butterfly
on a daisy
    - Lucia Fontana

dinner time —
the bittersweet taste
of ripe apricots
    - Maria Laura Valente

deadlines
writing haiku
at midnight
    - Marianne Paul

out of her shell —
queen-of-the-night blooms
in the terrarium
    - Marietta McGregor

twilight soccer
nudged above the goalie's net
the full moon
    - Mark Miller

my first box
of watercolor paints . . .
trembling brush
    - Marta Chocilowska

wind in the woods
the conversation
of tawny owls
    - Martha Magenta

what a small world
all day and all night
in the same room
    - Marty Blue Waters

a glow in the east
black thins to gray shadows
a cardinal calls
    - Mike Flanagan

i know we are well
by the way your hair lays curled
against my pillow
    - Mimi Foyle

all day I tell
everyone to admire
these roses
    - Miriam Sagan

in the dark
hidden whispers of scent . . .
lilacs!
    - Nancy Osborn

long summer day
i shut my eyes
and it is dark
    - Neha R. Krishna

cold shadow
a sweaty shirt sticks
to my back
    - Nina Kovacic (translation by Durda Vukelic Rozic)

that wondrous feeling —
touring the insides
of the Kotzschmar Organ
    - Pat Davis

world turtle day . . .
at the garden place i find
a box turtle gift
    - Pat Geyer

poppies
my all-time favorite —
tissue paper art
    - Paula Culver

amid wild grasses
a lone asparagus
waves
    - Peter Ladley

mashed potatoes
for lunch and dinner
my throbbing jaws
    - Pris Campbell

busy spider
the tangled web
of my mind   
    - Rachel Sutcliffe

vanilla ice cream
drools into my hand
noon melts down
    - Ron Scully

reading the paper
I share my rocking chair
with a tiny spider
    - Rosa Clement

news of refugees
I separate basil seedlings
ripping the roots
    - Ruth Yarrow

fogged in
rubbing my toes
on the cat's back
    - Sandi Pray

remember it all
write it down
let it go
    - Sara Robbins

midday heat the stiffness of a cotton saree
    - Shloka Shankar

wrong number
nice to exchange
a friendly word
    - Simon Hanson

woman in purple shirt
pointing out tulips —
children clinging to her legs
    - Stephen Page

red-headed woodpecker
young man with a camera
makes me notice
    - Sue Perlgut

children's giggles
under the stairs —
cat's cradle
    - Theresa A. Cancro

meal planning
deciding which night
not to care
    - Tia Nicole

pizza for breakfast
my inner child
giggles
    - Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

for my mood
the clouds spaced out
just right
    - Tom Clausen

more worms
than anticipated
cracked dry soil
    - Tricia Knoll

mother's white
and purple irises —
a stranger's yard
    - Valentina Ranaldi-Adams

spring rain
a flower opens for
a butterfly
    - Vibeke Laier

as you fly west
i walk
into the rising sun
    - Zee Zahava

rain —
drop after drop the lake
steadily overflowing the banks
    - Zuzanna Truchlewska