Sunday, May 1, 2016

small things

Welcome to the May 2016 issue of brass bell: a haiku journal.

This month's theme is Small Things.

Contributors are from: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, England, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine, and the United States



first sail
inside his paper boat
the weight of water
    - Adjei Agyei-Baah

years ago born on a short street
    - Alan Bern

the teddy bear
and a change of clothes
I plan a journey
    - Alan Summers

crashing waves . . .
a small crab still having fun
beside the pebbles
    - Ali Znaidi

rusty fishhooks —
I still carry with me 
dad's wooden box
    - Amauri Solon

new born's cry full moon
    - Ana Drobot

finally together . . .
family reunion
in dollhouse
    - Anna Goluba

thinking about you
I crack open
a walnut
    - Anna Mazurkiewicz

the ecstasy
of butterflies
upon milkweed
    - ayaz daryl nielsen

earthquake swarm —
cherry blossoms and others
tremble
    - Barbara Hay

pointillism — I follow the dots
    - Barbara Tate

square by square
by square, the beetle
scaling the screen
    - Bill Waters

hometown visit father's untrimmed bonsai
    - Billy Antonio

making wishes
the first star tonight
and dandelion fluff
    - Brenda Roberts

mermaid tooth!
child holds up
a seashell piece
    - Caroline Skanne

tiny mice
nibblers and chewers
of new parsley
    - Chandler Hennessy Scott-Smith

bacon sizzling . . .
I whisper those three words
in her right ear
    - Chen-ou Liu

marching beside
the boy scouts . . .
a line of ants
    - Cliff "kawazu" Roberts

every morning —
my cat shows me
the way to the kitchen
    - Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă

spiderweb
I brush aside her
little traps
    - Dave Read

white berries
by the picket fence
freshly painted
    - David J. Kelly

dust motes
drift between sunbeams
your last letter
    - Debbie Strange

rolled-up sleeves
button holes shrink
with age
    - Dottie Piet

unfinished patchwork
my eye cannot see
the eye of a needle
    - Đurđa Vukelić Rožić

a hummingbird nest —
hibiscus leaves conceal
two eggs
    - Elena Malec

the morning’s promise:
every day is new
every day is the same
    - Frank Robinson

black-and-white memory
the bridge of my first
kiss
    - Gergana Yaninska

the huge black bee
comes back in the window
I didn't close
    - Glenn Ingersoll

undulating
underthestairs
flyingants
    - Helen Buckingham

in blue
small things bloom . . .
forget-me-not
    - Hideo Suzuki

cold water on an african violet ghosts bloom
    - Jan Benson

sparks
from the bonfire . . .
cicada song
    - Jo Balistreri

amazing how many stars fit inside my windowpane
    - Joan McNerney

pine trees a layer of used needles
    - Joann Grisetti

bite my lips in the car a wasp
    - Joanna M. Weston

one candle —
the beginning
of understanding
    - Karen O'Leary

hemlock and cedar
needles soften each footfall:
stealth in the forest
    - Karla Linn Merrifield

awake all night
the flower
in my hair
    - Kath Abela Wilson

invisible mystery the perfume of the sea
    - Katherine May

one tiny green shoot
bathed by a drizzly sky
cucumber to be
    - Katya Sabaroff Taylor

engagement ring —
opening and closing
the little box
    - Krzysztof Kokot

narrow passage —
moon squeezes
between the clouds
    - Kumarendra Mallick

scattered showers
i too jump around
the puddles
    - Lovette Carter

last year's nest
I'll never
know
    - Margaret Jones

first day of school —
the girl hides her doll
in a satchel
    - Maria Tirenescu

fruit flies
circling the peach
soft bruises
    - Marianne Paul

damselfly . . .
this rain puddle
your universe
    - Mark E. Brager

old wardrobe
in grandma's purse
casino chip
    - Marta Chocilowska

preschool graduation
a yellow monarch
flies ahead of us
    - Mary Hohlman

bell flowers —
silence deep
inside
    - Mary Kendall

counting syllables
I haven’t heard a word
you’ve said   
    - Miriam Sagan

snowglobe hopefully I can dance tonight
    - Nicholas Klacsanzky

a dent in the pillow — memory
    - Nina Kovačić

last blackbird song
before nightfall
over-steeping tea
    - Olivier Schopfer

fast whir as if the drone of a didgeridoo tiny hummingbird
    - Pat Geyer

these are things I need:
cat food, carrots, cream, coffee
things that start with "C"
    - Patti Witten

two wasps
in the pet shop window
are they for sale?
    - philip d noble

overnight
six edible mushrooms
break ground
    - Phyllis Lee

meditation hall —
the falling nail reveals
deep silence
    - Pravat Kumar Padhy

pins on a map
that long shadow
of memory
    - Raamesh Gowri Raghavan

old notebook
only the shadow
of a poem
    - Rachel Sutcliffe

today the bud
at the end of the gray twig
whispers red maple
    - Ron Scully

broken mirror
my face carefully
collected
    - Rosa Clement

it ends
with a ladybug
moonlit poem
    - Sandi Pray

eucalypt seed
the forest
held in my hand
    - Simon Hanson

her gossip
how the dust motes
rise and resettle
    - Sondra Byrnes

on this page
green blood —
crushed gnat wing
    - Stephen Page

pomegranate seed
on the tip of my tongue
an apology
    - Theresa A. Cancro

river riffles
a tiny bullhead
goes with the flow
    - Tim Gardiner

setting sun
geese rising from
the still lake
    - Vibeke Laier

lilies of the valley gather in their cups morning dew
    - Virginia Popescu

stretching my ears
I listen for your breath
coming from upstairs
    - Zee Zahava


With thanks to Yu Chang, whose haiku collection "Small Things Make Me Laugh" provided inspiration for this month's theme.