sound / no sound

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

The theme of this month’s collection is “sound / no sound”


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


old barber
his scissors snip
around my ears
    Adjei Agyei-Baah

the hidden language of dentures
    ai li

desert wind . . .
the rusty windmill
squeals all night
    Al Gallia

a new crack in the twice-recast Liberty Bell
    Alan Bern

amplified in the bird box   bees
    Alan Peat

footsteps ring along a sidewalk the fog lifting
    Alan Summers

a monk
sounding the butterfly
out of the bell
    Alexis Rotella

written exam —
the silence interrupted by
a question
    Ana Drobot

silence reigns
in this empty house —
I miss you mom
    Angela Giordano

yellow zinnias —
the cell phone rings
inside the bag
    Angiola Inglese

argument settled
a single clink of her teaspoon
against the cup
    Barbara Sabol

solitude
dust gathers in his
empty room
    Barbara Tate Sayre

aisle seat
the click of the ticket punch
getting closer
    Barrie Levine

storm front!
up and down the street
mothers calling
    Bill Waters

loving to hear
what dad didn’t say —
long drives in his truck
    Blue Waters

whistling along Wyoming
    Brad Bennett

two-minute silence
at the cenotaph
a veteran weeps
    Bryan D. Cook

horror flick
the sloppy kiss
of the couple behind me
    Bryan Rickert

waking before birds
no song accompanies my
stumbling steps
    C. Robin Janning

magic forest
the tintinnabulation
of fairy bells
    Carol Judkins

thump thump thump
street basketball
long into the night
    Carole Johnston

sleeping in —
the silence
of the cat’s stare
    Carole MacRury

a foreign language:
I listen to the poem
just for its music
    Charles Trumbull

the clatter
of this rusty gate
foreclosure
    Chen-ou Liu

quietude . . .
phlox blossoms round
the stone Buddha
    Christina Chin

whisper of wool
nothing
but the crochet hook
    Christina Martin

crackling
my son’s voice
changing
    Christina Sng

tv yoga
static interrupts
shavasana
    Christine Wenk-Harrison

under covers
beneath an open window
angry voices
    Claire Vogel Camargo

five a.m. white-crowned sparrow’s etude
    C.R. Harper

that dog
he doesn’t know
why he’s barking
    David Watts

watersongs the differing frequencies of stones
    Debbie Strange

spirit totem
a swallowtail pulsates
around her cairn
    Deborah Burke Henderson

because snow quiet
because ancient sun and moon
the way hearts sing
    Donna Fleischer

flying
with no sound
origami plane
    Elena Malec

first thunder
my boy bursts
his balloon
    Florin C. Ciobica

waiting room —
the fidgety clicks
of someone’s pen
    Geethanjali Rajan

lead singer
1980s basement band —
hearing loss
    Geoff Pope

spring solitude
a chickadee’s thrum
from the knothole
    Hifsa Ashraf

my mother singing
along with the radio
tuned in to her dreams
    Jack Goldman

morning chill . . .
the squeak of his chalk
on the blackboard
    Jackie Chou

street performer
draws a crowd
the clink of coins
    Janice Doppler

spilled ice cream
the duck’s quacks
sound like laughter
    Jay Friedenberg

the whole room yells
“unmute yourself” as if
they care what he’s saying
    Jenna Le

beyond pine shadows
and crickets . . . the clop
clop of an Amish buggy
    Jill Lange

in between . . .
the krawk krawk krawk
of a pinyon jay
    Jo Balistreri

dancing to my own heartbeat
    Joan Leotta

songbirds
suddenly
I’m not alone
    Joanna Ashwell

burying our friend
we walk back singing that song
half-moon on gravesite
    Joel Savishinsky

the pause
after I ask
if she still loves me
    John J. Dunphy

catching my breath
the parp and wheeze
of an old bike horn
    John Pappas

frozen snow —
I hear
the loneliness
    Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi
    
the tern’s call the enormity of the sea
    Joshua St. Claire

ploughed fields
oxen mooing
under the ombu tree
    Julia Guzman

mature garden the squeak of an old wheelbarrow
    Karen Harvey

at the Shinto shrine
bow twice, clap twice, bow again
make a little wish
    Karla Linn Merrifield

finally getting the right tone singing bowl
    Kath Abela Wilson

80 years
of yankees’ games
turning the sound up now
    Kathleen Kramer

one hot June morning
blueberry meditation
orbs ping on brass bowl
    Katya Sabaroff Taylor

harvest moon . . .
through the violet veiled night
my muse whispers
    kris moon

day lilies open wide . . .
loud laughter
from our neighbor’s party
    Kristen Lindquist

parched earth
a loud crack of thunder
from an earthen pot
    Lakshmi Iyer

so hard
not to slam
the door
    Laurinda Lind

morse coding climate change the fireflies
    Lorraine A. Padden

insomnia . . .
woodworm working
in the dark
    Lucia Cardillo

stale mint gum
the clank of a zipper
in the dryer
    Marcie Wessels

like a small distant
elephant trumpeting: fart
under the blankets
    Margaret Fisher Squires

sunday dinner
the children’s table
on the porch
    Margaret Walker

djembe
the throbbing heat
of summer
    Marilyn Ashbaugh

outback night
dingoes’ songs echo
across the gorge
    Marilyn Humbert

just married
joyful shivarees
all night long
    Marta Chocilowska

lyrics long forgotten
the melody always
in my mind
    Mary Kendall

sweet summer peach
 slurping the best bit from the pit
    Masha M.

summer heat
buzzing flies take refuge
in the basement
    Maya Daneva

in that sliver of blackness
between barn and moon
coyote calls his name
    Michael Flanagan

uncanny
his lawn mower knows
I meditate
    Michael G. Smith

talking
to his plate
alone
    Mike Gallagher

summer storm
all these silent talks
between you and me
    Milan Rajkumar

night walking alone
i miss the sweet harmonies
i no longer hear
    Mimi Foyle

family meal
from the other chair
the cat’s meow
    Mirela Brailean

bells chime the hour
uneven stepping stones
across the stream
    Miriam Sagan

wakeful child
humming an old lullaby
granny dozes
    Neena Singh

laughter
in every language
ESL class
    Pat Davis

recovery
the dog who lost its bark
finds it again
    Paul Beech

slight of hand —
in response to being duped
hearty applause
    Paul Callus

hearing loss
silence flows
from his moving lips
    Pris Campbell

seaside concert
the roars of seals
during pianissimo
    Richard L. Matta

dad’s death day —
a mourning dove coos
just enough comfort
    Robert Epstein

gentle rain . . .
sliding into the weekend
on wet leaves
    Roberta Beach Jacobson

mockingbird
knows what you want to hear
cedar waxwing
    Ron Scully

zen garden
the flapping wings
of a butterfly
    Rosa Clement

dune path —
just before the surf’s boom
we smell it
    Ruth Yarrow

Quaker meeting
a lone fly’s hum the only break
in the heat
    Sue Norvell

hiccups all the things I can’t control
    Susan Burch

the swish of the brush
dad’s shoe propped up
on his shoeshine box
    Teresa Bakota Yatsko

handlebar mustache
the way he rolls
his r’s
    Theresa A. Cancro

not even twilight can contain this silence
    Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

no one hears
the ocean
in my ears
    Tom Clausen

noisy tourists
a praying monk
rolls his eyes
    Vandana Parashar

midsummer rain
echo of thunder
in the conch shell
    Vibeke Laier

noisy tractor
goes silent for a moment
the lark song
    Wieslaw Karlinski

sore throat
after six hours
protest march
    Wilda Morris

afternoon nap
my sweetheart and i practice
synchronized snoring
    Zee Zahava