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The Haiku Pea Podcast where we meet up with some of our dearest haiku friends and get to meet some new ones along the way. Welcome one and all.
Each podcast is very special but today more so than usual because today is our 100th episode.


Congratulations to all of us because the podcast is a community effort. Thank you for coming along and making time fly.
I’m Patricia, and this time I’m joined by Craig Kittner and Ben Gaa both of whom we’ve met before and Matt Snyder who is making his debut on the podcast. They are our community charges for this month and have chosen their nominations. I wonder if you will agree with them?

Before we go on I have an update from the last episode. If you remember I was beside myself with excitement because Richard Tice and his poem:

our car never nearer the shimmer of black water on the desert road

had made the Touchstone award longlist for individual poems, well he also made the shortlist. You can imagine my excitement. Now I’m preparing and recording this podcast before the final results are out so it might seem weird if I say good luck to our Richard, but everything is crossed and I’m willing you on.

As usual for this podcast I will be reading you some previously published haiku and some which have been written especially for us on the topic of no ego. You might remember that Ben Gaa came along to give us the workshop and I was very excited about having a podcast without the mention I, we, you, us and I’m rather pleased with the results.

My thanks to James Young and to Robert Horrobin who were instrumental in choosing the poetry that is featured this month whether here on the podcast or  in the Journal of which more news later. If you would like to join the editing team if only for one month, please let us know we’d be delighted to have you on board.

Speaking of whom, they and Ted Sherman are editing this month’s submission on Euphony, deadline 20th April, 2021 midnight CET. So you are fast running out of time. Haiku and senryu with sound and rhythm.

Let’s start with some poetry that’s been previously published I’ll read the poem first as always and the poet after.

Previously published:

between
wildflowers
a comma

Jeff Hoagland

sun breaking through–
the entire village
silent

Lysa Collins

Both from Presence Journal #69

storm hour
the cliff’s face carved
a little deeper

Debbie Strange, 3rd Prize, 2020 Irish Haiku Society Int’l Haiku Competition

Now for your original haiku and senryu written especially for the podcast on the topic of no ego. We’ll start with Craig Kittner’s nomination. Welcome back Craig and congratulations on being shortlisted for the Haiku foundation Touchstone awards for individual poems with this poem:

fall starts measuring time in butterflies

Craig Kittner, Bones 21

Fabulous work. As I said before we are recording this before the final results are out so I wish you all the best with your poem.

Craig’s nomination for the Judge’s choice:

fallen bramleys
and the dark windows
of the pub

Mark Gilbert

Thanks Craig. Now let’s hear some more haiku and senryu:

leaf litter
turkey tail fungus
skirts the pine

Debbie Strange

a vase filled
with autumn leaves –
the shape of shadows

Angela Terry

gathering dusk
an urgency in the sound
of scurrying leaves

Vandana Parashar

under the redwoods
a tall man
diminished

Christa Pandy

snow laden trees
midday sun creating a
silhouette rain shower

Dean Leivers

a night breeze
bends the blossomed branch
newlyweds

Robert Witmer

log pile
getting smaller by the day
longer and longer

James Young

in
an empty nest
an acorn

Pippa Phillips

carpenter’s saw
but the trees are silent
as they fall

Minal Sarosh

new moon
through spring willows
drifting mist

David He

Many of you were inspired by the birdlife that you see around you.

cormorants hopping
along the shore…
dotted silence

Sonal Srinivasan

march 1st –
a dove
spreads its wings

Zahra Mughis

dusting off mirrors hummingbird wings

wendy c. bialek

what might have been
birds falling into deep blues
of shadows

Sarah Mahina Calvello

birdsong the tug of winter

Roberta Beach Jacobson

longest day
a copper opens its wings
to the sun

Kristen Lindquist

stiff winds
a flock of sparrows beat
against the sea

Bruce H Feingold

at the shrine –
a sparrow drinks
from Buddha’s hands

Bill Fay

floating voices
geese ride a current
to still water

Craig Kittner

Indian summer
the silence buried
in a sparrow’s nest

Isabel Caves

winter dusk….
in a scarecrow’s straw heart
a fledgling awakes

Nisha Raviprasad

beachball
partly inflated
songbirds gone

Ignatius Fay

stormy gusts
the heron still
on its rock

Marion Clarke

swinging the birdfeeder,
the blue jay
coming and going

Kathleen Tice

carrying
the cold
the bird’s cry

Alex Fyffe

no race the snow geese taking off at the same time
Meik Blöttenberger

winter in Alaska
rooster crows
at noon

Pam Joy

five crows
one at a time
from bare oak to tall pine

Megan Herlaar

raindrops
a coot dives
headlong

Anna Maria Domburg Sancristoforo

sticks and weeds
the mute swans
get ready for spring

Marilyn Ward

still distancing
mother wren watches
across the garden

BA France

distant stars
on the fresh snow
a crow’s shadow

Humaira Sholihat

sharpening
the scars
cuckoo’s call

Richa Sharma

woodpeckers counting out
the last meters of winter

Art Fredeen

lucky charm
the shimmering gift
of a goldfinch

John Hawkhead

crescent moon
with each ripple
the curlew dips

David Eyre

Matt Snyder’s nomination for the judges’ choice:

stone Buddha
in newly formed puddle
melting snow

Anna Yin

Before I continue with the poetry I just want to say a couple of things. Most importantly thank you to Meik, Richard, Matt, Lorraine, Rob, Natalia, Neera and Peter, who clicked the buy me a coffee button on the website and bought me some coffees in March. I truly appreciate your kindness as it helps me to keep the podcast free to all comers.

You can always leave a message with your donation, I love to read them and Richard left a great suggestion. Could I do a podcast on punctuation? Yes I could Richard, thank you. Now a plea for help, would any of you like to help me out with a 15/20 minute workshop on how to punctuate haiku and senryu? Please email me and let me know.

Great news, the Spring Journal is out. It’s been out a week or so and those of you who have signed up for the mailings will have heard the news early. If you had a poem on the podcast or accepted for the Journal for the topics Kigo (from Januaries podcast), Humour, Exaggerated Perspective, Ogre, or you had a haibun or essay published in the spring journal, you can click on this link to buy it.

If you are not sure, please look at your acceptance email, it should tell you which Journal your work will be in.

A quick reminder that I am accepting haibun and essays for the journal, please email them to me. I rather think the ones in the journal are brilliant.

Now on with the poetry.

glasses left
on the poetry book.
it’s snowing!

David Wheeler

fox in deep snow
how cool it must be to sense
the easterly wind

Wendy Gent

barely spring…
forsythia blooms
through the snow

Pat Geyer

before the news –
the light
in the middle of the lake

Deborah A Bennett

fresh snow on lake ice
joint splashdown in rivulets
birds of a feather

Richard Bailly

a lipstick of snow
left by late winter’s flurries
rims the hay field’s dome

Ronald Tobey

bees pulsating
the temple bells
snowdrops

Christina Chin

a sunken stone
thorned sticks, broken reeds –
PoEM spelt in the snow

Geoff M Pope

hip-high
in new snow
yesterday’s snowman

Pat Davis

downpour
washing slates clean
new year’s day

Lorraine Carey

each wave claims
mounds of golden grains
high rollers

Hannah Hulbert

approaching storm –
the sea pounds relentlessly
against the levee

Richard Tice

drifting down
dual-tread fishing trail
twin sons’ whistling

Douglas J. Lanzo

banks of the Fraser
a shadow
sneaks a swim

P H Fischer

Milkyway’s image
radiance on a calm lake
mirrored galaxy

Chris Gomez

Celestial bodies and the sky were popular inspirations :

summer sun
the horned lizard appears
on the wildlife calendar

Christine Wenk-Harrison

first chemo
the fading boundary
of day moon

Hifsa Ashraf

full moon
roof corner icicles glow
winter silver

David Brydges

cold moon-
the warmth of yesterday
a distant dream

Margaret Dornaus

sunrise –
black mountain slowly
turns to gold

Neera Kashyap

only the night
ends with the sunrise
looming sunset

Natalia Kuznetsova

ashen sky –
burning on the pyre
a nameless corpse

Suresh Babu

opal sky
a birthstone charm
for the new child

Valentina Ranaldi Adams

angular shadows
moving softly in the moonlight
black butterfly

Barbara Carlson

sirens
through the fir trees
a howling moon

Edita Strieženec, translated by Juraj Strieženec and Ted Sherman

a flower blooms
in the midnight sun
or is it the moon?

Robert Quezada

noir agave
sensual shapes, sinister shadows,
tequila lipstick

Eavonka Ettinger

wild rhubarb
not knowing what to say
in the chapel of rest

Tracy Davidson

between rains
a cricket’s chirps
flood the darkness

Srinivas S

spring lawn
freshly dug mole-tunnels
17-year cicadas

Doris Lynch

spring whispers
gentle blow of fresh air
buzzing bees

Bhawana Upadhyay

silent paws slip past
redwood fence top trails

i m a g i n e

Wayne Kingston

winter closes…
the dense chorus
of thawed wood frogs

EL Blizzard

itinerant monk
and an injured donkey
on his back

Mark Farrar

city zoo…
bold local rat steals food
from the lion’s cage

Rob McKinnon

cats take over
the pool table
stripes and solids

Lorraine A Padden

sweet pea –
the cat climbs up
the trellis

Paul Callus

in the meadow
a fawn stops
to spot clean her coat

Julie Gomez

locked gate
the meticulous web
across roof tiles

Joshua Gage

braking hard—
caught in the headlights
the jackrabbit makes it

Lee Hudsbeth

Juliet’s balcony
still empty

pissing up the wrong tree cocker spaniel

Dr Tim Gardiner

gnarled apples
forgotten orchard
feeding deer

C X Turner

sunlight through the tree
spider web of light weaving
stillness

Steve Ullom

stiff
in their winter coats
the grass

Allison Douglas-Tourner

bright green grass
children playing ball
an old man falls

Ellen Urowitz

white purple cups
blossoming above
fresh cut grass

Matt Snyder

chilly start to day
sip a mug of hot coffee
waiting on the sun

Veronica Hosking

black and white movie
two coffee cups
on the chequered tablecloth

Nadejda Kostadinova

hot sake… everyone speaking in tongues

Linda L Ludwig

butterflies
around the plant pots …
shades of tea

Daniela Misso

chipped mug
steam from green tea
blurs the falling snow

Stephen Joseph

bin day cacophony
breaches the summer silence
black coffee and toast

Ted Sherman

bar restroom
the ghost graffiti
show through the paint

David Oates

more than leaves and milk
the universe stirs within
a simple teacup

James Welsh

steeped mate tea
an afternoon bouquet
of new-mown hay

Michael Dudley

bamboo flutes
the melancholy of
mountain evenings

Anjali Warhadpande

storm in the mountains
a spider stretches his thread
across the painting

Eugeniusz Zacharski

birdbath –
ice cold
mud puddles

Laura Driscoll

raindrops
collected beads
from sunny days

Eva Drobna

rain rhythms
memories splashing
on the window

Kim Russell

clouds
on the slope
sheep

Dorothy Burrows

luciferin light
drapes a dark cove-emeralds
on décolletage

Joan Huffman

existing in
parallel worlds the
good and evil

Carolyn Crossley

candles
half a million flickering
sayonara

Achingliu Kamei

the one
red spine on the shelf
Macbeth

Dorothy Mahony

through a fence
scores of yellow gourds
tennis practice

Richard L Matta

termites …
dad’s bookshelf
Gone with the Wind

Lakshmi Iyer

reading
between the lines . . .
a cat’s tail

Ronald K. Craig

words
a poem sings
a life

Susan Plumridge

summer heat –
colours ripen within
the tired landscape

Margaret Dale Bennett

bus window view
Van Gogh’s rooftops
below the bridge

Jackie Chou

on the sidewalk
blue chalk hopscotch
a shade darker at night

Neena Singh

open blooms
of the Magnolia
a simple prayer

Eve Castle

march morning
a softener awakens
the smell of flowers

Samo Kreutz

spring dawn
a whiff of jasmine rises
in the stillness

Bona M Santos

Ben Gaa’s nomination for the judges’ choice

December
the persimmons
no one can reach

Bret Wooldridge

I really enjoyed the commentaries from our judges. I think hearing another perspective of a piece often gives it a freshness, don’t you? What did you think of their nominations? Would you have chosen differently?

Just a few reminders before I head off into the wild blue yonder:

  • Your deadline for Euphony is the 20th April. If you are listening in real time that’s tomorrow, so if you haven’t submitted yet you need to get your skates on.
  • If you would like to get involved as a community judge or as an editor, both of which are a great way to hone your own haiku, by the way, please email me for details.
  • Don’t forget to check out the Poetry Pea YouTube channel for writing prompts and haiku moments as well as an ever increasing body of educational materials. Leave us a little message, it’s always lovely to hear from you and if you have time, please leave us a review on whatever platform you listen to the podcast, like iTunes, for example.

Last but not least, thank you to our lovely judges, Craig, Matt and Ben and to our terrific editors for April, James, Robert and Ted.

See you all in a couple of weeks for more haiku treats. Until then, keep writing….

If there’s anything I’ve left out or messed up, just email me and I’ll put it right.

Ciao

S4E8: No Ego haiku