Warp and Weft ~ Images and Words

Monday, June 08, 2026

Geppo: The Haiku Work-Study Journal of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Volume L1:1, February 2026

November 2025 - January 2026

a chick roosting

on the barn cat's head . . .

snowdrifts

scattered flurries

a blue jay buries nuts

in the window box

Winter Challenge Kigo: First Winter Rain, hatsu shigure

first winter rain

for a moment I thought

you walked beside me

Honoured to know that "a chick roosting" was included among the favourites of Dojin Patricia J. Machmiller, and "scattered flurries" was included among the favourites of Dojins Hiroyuki Murakami and Patricia J. Machmiller.

Also honoured that "scattered flurries" was included among the "Voted Best" in the subsequent issue.

Geppo: The Haiku Work-Study Journal of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Volume L:4, November 2025

August - October 2025

All Hallows' Eve an intermittent flurry of snow ghosts

embers burn holes

in their makeshift tent . . .

first frost

Autumn Challenge Kigo: Autumn Deepens, aki fukashi

deep autumn

cranberries anchor

the bog

Honoured to know that "All Hallows' Eve" was included among the favourites of Dojin Emiko Miyashita, and "embers burn holes" was included among the favourites of Dojins Emiko Miyashita and Phillip Kennedy.

Sunday, June 07, 2026

Keeping Faith, Yuki Teikei Haiku Society 50th Anniversay Members' Anthology 1975 - 2025, 2025

My thanks to the editor, Gregory Longenecker!

freight train the rags of a vagabond moon

candy floss

hair ice transforms

a rotten branch

Members' Celebratory Haiku:

fox's wedding

this metamorphosis

of light

Also included in this anthology is "The Poet's Journey" by Ellen Brooks, who created and performed a kyogen style dance using haiku composed by the society's members. The dance was performed at the society's fiftieth anniversary dinner held on May 10, 2025, and again at the Haiku Retreat on November 6, 2025. I was over the moon to know that the following two haiku were incorporated into her performance:

my body

becoming weightless . . .

spindrift

yutori

offering my held breath

to the wind

(note: yutori = the Japanese philosophy of creating space (mentally, physically, and emotionally) for joy and longevity)

Password: Journal of Very Short Poetry, Issue 3.2, June 2026

K-shaped

the beetle in her belly

dive in

Frogpond, Vol. 49, Number 1, Winter 2026

Thrilled that the following poem was selected by Joan C. Fingon and Lee Hudspeth for inclusion in their essay: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow: The Power of Color in Haiku":

Section: Color Words and Parts of Speech

"Strange's poem below gives equal weight to "dandelion" and "yellow" in the beginning and at the end of the monoku. By separating the two words, i.e., instead of writing "yellow dandelions," the poet emphasizes the yellowness of the entire experience. Here, "yellow"—as a primary color and as a property—is equally as important as the flower's color and the mood it represents.

dandelions the multiplication factor of yellow

Bottle Rockets #45

Frogpond, Vol. 48, Number 3, Autumn 2025

Honoured that this issue contains a lovely review of Random Blue Sparks by Allyson Whipple which can be accessed under the book's tab of this blog. Also featured in this issue are the results of the 2025 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards in which Random Blue Sparks placed third. The judges' report can also be found under the book's tab of this blog.

Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2026

fossil hunter

dragonflies sunning

on the erratic

Waka Society of America, Petals Journal (Waka in English), 2026

that afternoon

we lay together beyond

our garden wall . . .

undulating mosses still

mimic the shape of you

one window

remains in the church

where we danced

coloured shafts of light

tango with shadows

I weave

a mourning cloak on the loom

of your loss,

obsidian threads pulled from

storm clouds and starless nights

this dull ache

of yearning every autumn . . .

I recall how

the wind played with your hair,

your hands played with mine

Blossoms in the Breeze: Twenty Years of Haiku from the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, 2026

Thrilled to be included in this gorgeous anthology of the top winners of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational from 2006-2025. Grateful thanks to the 2017 VCBF Judges, Devar Dahl, Angelee Deodhar, and Billie Wilson, and to the editor, Michael Dylan Welch!

transience . . .

petal by petal

we let go

Canada Winner

Upstate Dim Sum, Route 9 Haiku Group - A Biannual Anthology of Haiku and Senryu, Number 1, Spring 2026

Honoured to be the guest poet for this issue of Upstate Dim Sum!

bowed lyre

a willow shouldering

the wind

an obituary

I did not expect to see . . .

frost smoke

someone's mitten

frozen to the slough . . .

fallow fields

empty beach

gulls have lost their reason

to squawk

whale bones

snow makes a church

of them

inky caps

make their own puddles . . .

valley rain

Special thanks to Ion Codrescu for creating this lovely haiga for inclusion in the issue:

Ribbons, Volume 22, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2026

the old oak

leans against our fence

all those times

you held me up when

I was about to fall

Tsuri-doro: A Small Journal of Haiku and Senryu, Issue #33, May/June 2026

the missing pocket

on a veteran's jeans . . .

scud clouds

Sonic Boom, World Collage Day 2026

My thanks to Shloka Shankar and Robin Smith for selecting the following collage for inclusion in Sonic boom's lovely World Collage Day eBook (24 collages were selected from 80 submissions):

Sommergras: Magazine of the German Haiku Society, Issue 152, March 2026

Translated into German

Honoured to have the following collaborative haiga included in this issue:

photograph: Claudia Brefeld

haiku: Debbie Strange

Seashores - An International Journal to Share the Spirit of Haiku, Vol. 15, April 2026

today is the day . . .

our ginkgo tree drops

every leaf

walrus tusks

a rusty pickaxe stuck

in the glacier

Our Best Haiga: Black and White Haiga/Haisha, May 2026

Curated by Lavana Kray

May 31, 2026: "fly" feature

(note: this haiga first appeared in Haiga in Focus #67 in colour)

NeverEnding Story: Biting NOT Barking Series, May 2026

Translated into Chinese by Chen-ou Liu:

zombie fires

come back from the dead . . .

this wilderness

haunted by skeletons

and memories of trees

Blithe Spirit 35.4, 2025

Chen-ou Liu's Comments:

This tanka bridges climate science and Gothic imagery. In L1, "zombie fires," refers to overwintering peat fires that smoulder underground through freezing winters before reigniting in spring. By framing this ecological phenomenon as a literal haunting in L2, the tanka emphasizes the lingering trauma climate change inflicts upon natural landscapes.

In L4, "skeletons" operates as a powerful double entendre, evoking both charred tree trunks and traditional images of the dead. L5, "memories of trees," deepens the sense of grief and absence, suggesting ecosystems that survive only as traces or recollections. Nature is irrevocably altered: the once-living forest has become a graveyard of skeletons that refuses to rest in peace.