March & April 2020
Vol V No II
Not your ordinary poetry magazine!
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Published bi-monthly
Haiku
with Kevin McLaughlin
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Clarity
The Buddha-to-be sat beneath a banyan (Ficus/Bodhi) tree, moments away from his Awakening. The full moon shone through the tree limbs and leaves. Siddhartha, Prince of the Skakya clan, smiled. Venus rose dimly above the horizon. Obscurations vanished.
This is the aim of the haiku writer’s craft: to be Awake, to perceive and convey both the conventional and the essential nature of things. The gifted haiku writer perceives reality with clarity.
The crushed raccoon’s corpse,
Is partially decomposed:
Ants begin to feed.
Kevin McLaughlin
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Jason Ringler lives in northeast Ohio. Your editor enjoyed the good-natured character of his verse.
came fancy sailor
orders Pisces from the chart
wooden peg and squawk
saltwater letter
tiny handwriting hello
in bottle return
Jason Ringler
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Robert Beveridge makes rhythmic noise and writes poetry in Akron, Ohio. Among other journals, his poetry has been featured in New American Legends and Chiron Review.
foothills in the mist
at dawn
spring breeze draws the musk
of the forest’s heart.
howling wind
chanting pilgrims
wailing wall
spark from the metal
post: wrench slips, takes along knuckle.
Wrist tingles all night.
oatmeal rots
nursing home sheet pulled over
my great aunt’s face
asphalt rippled, tumbled:
warm weather has arrived in
Medina county
Robert Beveridge
Devin Harrison makes his home in Vancouver Island, Canada. There is a pleasing philosophical and melancholy cast to his work.
bleak diagnosis
the passage of time
jumps the track
mixing them up
after souls have flown
bone piles
busker
turning his inside
out
railroad ties
from the outset of my life
a vanishing point
old loves
in the late Autumn sun
whorls of dead skin
Devin Harrison
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Kenneth Cahall lived in Asia for nearly a decade. When not hiking or bicycling, he guides students toward effective self-expression in the language known as English.
Mother passed in June
Her essence is still present
In fluttering moths
Summer rain droplets
Form nebulae on asphalt
In used motor oil.
(Form nebulae . . . magnificent!)
A lonely season
Leaves the trees sparse, cold, dark
And our hearts bitter.
Autumn weeps farewell
To diminishing summer
Falling leaves are its teardrops
Infinity pool
Provides an optical trick
To resort lovers
Springtime commands
The warming of fields we humbly trace
Grieving winter’s death.
Kenneth Cahall
​
Angelica Cabral is a recent graduate of Arizona State University. She employs poetry as a means of connecting with others.
dancing, the choking
citrus on the yellow branch
your dangling arms.
I always wanted
to make the soil better
she picks the kind fruit
I thought I was an
oak that ate itself alive
taken by the wind
Angelica Cabral
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Bob Carlton hails from Leander, Texas. His lines reveal an intense sense of perception.
Mockingbird
outside my window;
whose song does it sing?
shooting star—
frog croaking
in a swamp.
(What a wonderful juxtaposition of images!)
stuck
to sweaty skin:
dandelion fluff
summer storm—
insects pour out
the pitcher plant
sun out—
new squash leaves
stuck in mud
windy dusk
the hummingbird still
searching
Bob Carlton
Mark Ward lives in Dublin. He is the author of Circumference and the founding editor of Impossible Archetype, an international LGBTQ+ poetry journal.
tiny ponytail
pulls the rest of his hair tight—
a new bloom through snow
trying haiku
not knowing plants names—
a sea of green
insulated heat
makes airless this lambent day—
conference trundles on
the first time I asked
a boy to go out with me—
cherries floating in milk
Mark Ward
Margo Das is a young writer from Belgium. She has been published in Selah Magazine. Clearly, she has a warm love of poetry and knows the value of those fallen leaves.
Ink from fingertips
Forms words in intricate lines
Weaver of stories
Fallen leaves of gold
Nature’s precious currency
Pays for life and death
Quiet melodies
The burning stars sing at night
For those who wander
Pearls, they hold secrets
Whispered to them by the sea
Drenched into their hearts
At home dust settles
On the weary, beaten floors
Hushing them to sleep
Greatest fiction shared
Between the hearts of lovers
Whispering white lies
Margo Das
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Cheryl Caesar has lived in Paris, Tuscany, and Sligo for 25 years. She earned her doctorate in comparative literature at the Sorbonne. She now teaches writing at Michigan State University.
The cool clean birdsong
sluices my brain; cool water
calls to hands and face.
I wake to a moan
Hungry cat behind the door?
Or my own belly?
Undecided wind
is making leaves flutter
like wings of small birds.
She doesn’t look old.
but now, from my lap, she hunts
the bug with her eyes.
Previously published in Ariel Chart.
Cheryl Caesar
Devon Richey celebrates a trip to Costa Rica. These are autobiographical. The best haiku are those that arise not from the imagination but from actual experience.
Under the dapple shade
Memories
Of her
Costa Rican rain
Distant thunder rumblings
At the verge of dreams
Childhood games on beach
Footprints disappear with sand
In receding surf.
On the balcony
Strays enjoy the summer breeze
Upon the guests’ laps.
Sailboat paradise—
An old woman with a cart
Pushing through the mud
Devon Richey
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Occasionally BTS receives a spate of haiku bearing titles. Haiku do not carry titles. The title is really an inadvertent fourth line that explains the verse to the reader. Let the reader perform their art, the ability to read, on a profound level, a haiku. —Kevin McLaughlin
Yet once more I encourage all haiku writers to share their work, their insights into the nature of all things, with fellow poets and BTS readers.
For those interested in haiku,
I recommend you cast back into the BTS archives and reference the September 2016 column. It provides a pretty thorough explanation of the basic format.
—Kevin Mclaughlin
Haiku Archive
Sept 2016 Oct 2016 Nov 2016 Dec 2016 Jan 2017 Feb 2017 Mar 2017 Apr 2017 May 2017 June 2017 July 2017 Aug 2017 Sept 2017 Oct 2017 Nov 2017 Dec 2017 Jan 2018 Feb 2018 Mar 2018 Apr 2018 May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 Sept 2018 Nov 2018 Jan 2019 Mar 2019 May 2019 July 2019 Sept 2019 Nov 2019 Jan 2020