homeplace

Welcome to the September 2022 issue of brass bell: a haiku journal.


The theme of this month’s collection is “homeplace”

Contributing poets are from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Ecuador, India, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Wales    


old malaya
the only way back
is to dream
    ai li

dallas, texas
tarzan matinee starting
all bike racks filled
    Al Gallia

berkeley everything expected begins again
    Alan Bern

bowburn, england
putting granddad back
in the garden
    Alan Peat

cairnbrook, pennsylvania
first grade photo
my bangs crooked
    Alexis Rotella

bucharest, romania
not visible when I
spin the globe
    Ana Drobot

avigliano, italy
mother teaches me
to knit
    Angela Giordano

camogli, italy
the wind tastes of salt
and fried fish
    Angiola Inglese

northern appalachia
the abandoned quarry
our riviera
    Barbara Sabol

akron, ohio
planting a row of catnip
for the kittens
    Barbara Tate Sayre

linden, new jersey
hungry in Hebrew school
for five years
    Barrie Levine

greensburg, kansas
chasing crows
down rows of cornstalks
    Blue Waters

banstead, england
watching the cricket game
from high in a may tree
    Bryan D. Cook

belleville, illinois
the geese that pass through
twice a year
    Bryan Rickert

dayton, ohio
stars and clouds all know my name . . .
autumn insects hum
    C. Robin Janning

pearl harbor
the oval roof
of our quonset hut
    Carol Judkins

santa fe trail
beneath the wind-bent grass
the ruts of ages
    Charles Trumball

fuzhou, fujian
carrying water home
in buckets
    Chen Xiaoou

old map of taipei . . .
lost again in the backstreets
of my mind
    Chen-ou Liu

borneo
bamboo longhouses
i worry about fire
    Christina Chin

great neck, long island
the old house
fireflies
    Christina Martin

penang road, singapore
sitting like a boss
poking through dad’s desk
    Christina Sng

christmas in manila
the sound of tambourines
made of bottle caps
    Christine L. Villa

new mexico desert
dad lays out
mom’s japanese garden
    Christine Wenk-Harrison

midland, texas
crouched under my first-grade desk
nuclear bomb drill
    Claire Vogel Camargo

saskatchewan plain(s)ongs meadowlarks on my mind
    Debbie Strange

reading, massachusetts
her ghost stories keep me
wide-eyed until dawn
    Deborah Burke Henderson

northern spain
pink foggy breath
awakens the river
    Elena Calvo

somewhere in bucharest
the apricot tree
my childhood hideout
    Elena Malec

unteni, romania —
the scarecrow still wears
my school uniform
    Florin C. Ciobica

thibodaux, louisiana
swimming in the bayou
until caught
    Geoff Pope

rawalpindi, pakistan
exchanging little secrets
roof to roof
    Hifsa Ashraf

a bronx apartment
aunts, uncles, and grandparents
a poor kid’s kingdom
    Jack Goldman

taipei, taiwan
oyster omelets sizzle
in the night market
    Jackie Chou

philadelphia
mustard on warm soft pretzels
dense and chewy
    Janice Doppler

edina, minnesota
my scraped knee skin cells
still mixed with the asphalt
    Jenna Le

pennsylvania avenue —
our front lawn generous
with four-leaf clovers
    Jill Lange

ithaca, new york
pulled by my hair
swimming-hole rescue
    Jim Mazza

pittsburgh, pennsylvania
making my own soda
in dad’s drugstore
    Joan Leotta

the pennine hills
curlew cries
through the mist
    Joanna Ashwell

bronx apartment
a stool by the stove
watching babeh make kugel
    Joel Savishinsky

alton, illinois
we rotate potted plants beneath
our leaky roof
    John J. Dunphy

north adams, massachusetts
my father picked berries
for school clothes money
    John Pappas

chivilcoy, argentina
home from school
my smock stained with red berries
    Jorge Giallorenzi

new freedom, pennsylvania
picking wildflowers
between the train tracks
    Joshua St. Claire

cordoba, argentina
the sound of bells
among the raindrops
    Julia Guzman

bountiful, utah
still in the backyard
eating sour plums
    Julie Bloss Kelsey

staten island
my bedroom nightlight
was manhattan
    Kath Abela Wilson

curwensville, pennsylvania
tannery whistle
seven, noon, and five
    Kathy Kramer

san francisco fog
only the golden gate bridge
says where we still are
    Katya Sabaroll Taylor

kerala, india
grandpa sings stories
of the temple elephants
    Lakshmi Iyer

black lake, new york
daily chore
raking up dead fish
    Laurinda Lind

wisconsin farm land
the cows
in our driveway
    Lorraine A Padden

mansfield, ohio
engines from the sports car course start
the summer heat
    Marcie Wessels

arlington, virginia
pretending to paint the house
with real mud
    Margaret Fisher Squires

pawleys island, south carolina
flip flops
in the pluff mud
    Margaret Walker

charleston lake, canada
breaking through the thin ice
with our canoes
    Marianne Paul

calivil, victoria
moving the cattle herd
lost in dust
    Marilyn Humbert

old Warsaw ruins
a crate of mossy wine bottles
in the cellar
    Marta Chocilowska

buffalo, new york
our childhoods shaped
by snow & more snow
    Mary Kendall

buffalo, new york
home of the buffalo bills
i love the t-shirts
    Masha M.

auburn, new york
hitching to my first job
running the merry-go-round
    Michael Flanagan

rahway, new jersey
oil refineries upwind
pool covered in soot
    Michael G. Smith

achill islanders
forever facing out to sea
living and dead
    Mike Gallagher

manipur, india
grandpa says
“we gave the world the game of polo”
    Milan Rajkumar

hyde park library
fortnightly destination
ten books, one doughnut
    Mimi Foyle

bucovina, romania
on my grandparents’ porch
just an old cricket
    Mirela Brailean

crossing the george washington bridge lower level we call her martha
    Miriam Sagan

lucknow, india
wishing upon the star
mom became
    Neena Singh

east boston
the front stoop
where everything was shared
    Pat Davis

lancashire mill town
with my thruppence
I buy sherbet lemons
    Paul Beech

hal safi, malta
struggling up the ladder
the old lantern lighter
    Paul Callus

pageland, south carolina
posed on watermelons
for tv news
    Pris Campbell

new york’s hudson valley
summers finding fossils
on the hillside
    Richard L. Matta

saddle brook, new jersey
sweat pouring down our faces
stoop ball
    Robert Epstein

rural ohio
enough poison sumac
for everybody
    Roberta Beach Jacobson

all rhode island
my arms and legs
your harbors
    Ron Scully

manaus, brazil
the river showed my face
and I bowed to it
    Rosa Clement

frederick, maryland
begging for a quarter
for the vending machines
    Susan Burch

silver spring, maryland . . .
raising baby bunnies
in the playhouse
    Theresa A. Cancro

moravia, new york
home revealed to me reading
winesburg, ohio
    Tina Wright

ithaca, new york
every time i leave
i have returned
    Tom Clausen

ambala cantt, india
a squirrel and I race
for the last guava
    Vandana Parashar

randers, denmark
shadow of the old oak tree
all my sleeping dolls
    Vibeke Laier

iowa city
walking home on the frozen creek —
in trouble again
    Wilda Morris

bronx, new york
we put olives on our fingers
and call them puppets
    Zee Zahava