First Glance

By Florence HeyhoeCounty Down, Northern Ireland Looking at both cars, he doesn’t see any damage. His door barely touched the one alongside, but this was enough to awaken the roaring bull inside who—primed and looking for a fight—leaps to his feet shouting, ‘Go back to your own country. You’re not from here. You’re nothing but a f…ing paedophile.’ The situation heats up and becomes more threatening. He has the wherewithal to phone the police. While they wait, the antagonist draws blood by scoring his nose with his car keys. ‘‘Officer, this man here assaulted me.’’ october morninga world so broken the…

Late October

By: Steve Van AllenCincinnati, Ohio, USA, Earth global warming?a beautiful spring daylate October

The Blue Dot

By Bryan D. CookOrleans, Ontario, Canada Cloaked from earthling sight, two extraterrestrial fortune hunters gaze down at planet Earth. “Which bit do you want?” “I’d take the blue stuff but it’s so full of plastics that I’ll pass. How about you?” “ I’d take the green-brown stuff but it’s overrun with pillaging apes. I’ll pass too.” “ Let’s go find another trophy world and leave this one’s sun to evaporate away its atmosphere.”  “O.K., pity though, it looked like such a precious blue gem on the trajector screen!” ocean highwaytoo fast and busyfor humpbacks

Crunch

By: Theresa CancroWilmington, Delaware, USA the crunchof gravel underfootstop-and-frisk

Wild Violets

By Theresa CancroWilmington, Delaware, USA wild violetsbrushing her cheekthe shadow of a bruise Selected poem, 7th Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest, 2018

Allegory

By: Steve Van Allen Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, Earth I've lost so much: people, pets, keys, books. In the short time since settlers arrived, streams and rivers in the Alleghanies have lost too. I am daily polluted by chemicals and plastics in my food and water. Streams are damaged by global warming, fertilizers, dammed rivers, and air pollution  effects us all.  80% of all hellbender salamanders are gone, and like me they want to hide all day, take care of their young, and not bother anyone. eventidelonely swimsearching for peace

Depression Era

By Debbie StrangeCanada Honourable Mention, 2024 Sonic Boom Annual Vispo Contest Artist's Statement:A paper collage embellished with frayed burlap and fabric symbolizing how women learned to "make do" during the Depression Era. The grains of wheat and ration ticket represent food insecurity and the lack of the most basic items after countless farmers lost their land. The staple stitching works to bring these two themes together.

Ghost Gun

By: Debbie StrangeCanada First Published: Human/Kind Journal, November 2020

Childhood

By: Fatma Zohra HabisAlgiers, Algeria childhoodbetween war and sundreams

Ongoing War

By: Fatma Zohra HabisAlgiers, Algeria ongoing wara stranger digs the gravefor a stranger

Oriental Plane 

By Diana WebbLeatherhead, Surrey, UK It towers above the park this tree . An ancient haven with countless generations of birds to its name.  It teems with wildlife down through its roots. Painters have painted it, poets penned poems on it, children danced and sang round the girth of its trunk.  Now there are plans for this space with a landmark. High rise tower blocks. Multi-story car park. Big hotel. Lots and lots and lots of concrete which will always resound with the multi-wave echo of the crash of a tree.  layered picnic rugwith shade of myriad summerswe shake out the tears

Rip-Off

By Bryan D. CookOrleans, Ontario, Canada It’s a taboo topic in polite society, but the ads don’t hold their punches when it comes to extolling the virtues of triple-ply, soft and scented toilet paper as tested by a family of teddy bears! My own testing shows that I have to fold many pieces to gain satisfaction; using many rolls and thus increasing the company’s profits.That is until I discover its high tensile-strength brand, 100 percent recycled with a promise to plant one tree per carton. No plastic wrapping and a fair price.I’m so happy with this product that I write…

To Whom It May Concern

By: Joe McKeon Available now at Red Moon Press -> To Whom It May Concern In To Whom It May Concern, Joe McKeon brings the haiku form to bear on social issues in a format that both informs and engages. This work exemplifies the role poetry, particularly short forms such as haiku, tanka, and senryu, and more specifically, the voice of the poet, has to play in the future of this planet and the wellbeing of its inhabitants. A compelling read from cover to cover. Richard GrahnFounder, The Abstractaphy Initiative

Solar Eclipse

By Debbie StrangeCanada Honourable Mention, 2024 H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryū Contest

Walking Widdershins: An Ode to Joy

By Jenny Ward Angyal and Autumn Noelle Hall Walking Widdershins is comprised of 108 sets of collaborative tanka, a genre of Japanese short-form poetry more ancient than haiku. Historically, tanka were often exchanged between two poets as a kind of poetic conversation. The tanka conversations in this volume were written over the course of a single year and reflect the poets' rootedness in the places where they live, their love for the natural world, and their concern for the havoc the human species is wreaking upon it. In his 'Afterword,' David C. Rice, tanka poet & editor, asks "If the root…

Day Three in Siem Reap

By: Anna Cates, Wilmington, Ohioand Steve Van Allen, Cincinnati, Ohio A kilometer from Ankor Wat, at Ta Prohm, a Mahayana 12th century Buddhist temple.  Huge fig trees hang over the temple and spread across the ground. Moss grows green over the temple stones.I walk around the walls and note three young saffron-robed monks sitting around a campfire. They call out, "Sok subai," and wave. I wave back and walk on. When I get back to my driver, I ask what the phrase means.  He says, "Are you happy?" In decades since, I have often wondered, am I happy? The US…

You will Hear

By: ©Noris RobertsLecheria Municipio Urbaneja, Venezuela You will hear that the day is of pearlsand the night a percussion of stars,that the enemy's evil plays at misfortuneand sinks its claws into you when you least expect itYou will hear that the weapon of violenceis man's by nature,that the blue is just a line in the dawnYou will hear that there are voices that shriek with envyand pain is foreverYou will hear that suffering never findsthe safe conduct of justiceYou will hear that freedom is an inverted illusionthat sometimes leads you to doomOf kindly greens are the mountains covered,and of dazzling…