Once Upon a Time

The 2015 Haiku North America conference took place 14–18 October 2015, amid autumn colours at Union College in Schenectady, New York. The 2015 anthology collected poems from all previous HNA conference anthologies, encompassing more than one thousand poems, with a new section featuring poems by 2015 attendees. From this new section’s introduction: “Haiku North America celebrates its twenty-fifth year with a focus on haiku in education. Perhaps we who write haiku are always perpetual learners, our eyes always wide with wonder at the world around us, at what we can record and share through haiku poetry. And perhaps every haiku is a way of starting a story . . . once upon a time.”

All excuses spent,

I tell my wife

about my alien abduction.

            Alan Pizzarelli

            Bloomfield, New Jersey

rooftop restaurant

a crow drinks up clouds

from an empty table

            Angelee Deodhar

            Chandigarh, India

anniversary

the entomologist buys the roses

with aphids

            Anita Krumins

            Toronto, Ontario

cherry blossoms

she tries on her first

wedding ring

            Aubrie Cox

            Knoxville, Tennessee

slow dancing

I pretend

I remember

            Bill Kenney

            Whitestone, New York

I think I’ll build a hut

right here

with these words

            Bill Porter / Red Pine

            Port Townsend, Washington

f(ailing)s

            Bruce H. Feingold

            Berkeley, California

going rogue

I count

my syllables

            Carlos Colón

            Shreveport, Louisiana

秋風に浮世の塵を払けり

akikaze ni ukiyo no chiri o haraikeri

            Tagami Kikusha

dust of an uncertain world

brushed away

by the autumn wind

            Cheryl Crowley, translator

            Atlanta, Georgia

taps . . .

all we could say

now said

            Deborah P Kolodji

            Temple City, California

sound of a stream

in the wind

poplar leaves

            Hilary Tann

            Schuylerville, New York

tall window

of a ruined church—

the glory of lichens

            Ion Codrescu

            Constanta, Romania

rivergum walk

magpies warble

at morning recess

            Jennifer Sutherland

            Viewbank, Australia

the vast west

railroad cars decouple

in the dark

            Jim Kacian

            Winchester, Virginia

sleepless

a summer night

dabbling in rain

            John Stevenson

            Nassau, New York

a nun’s collection

of nesting glass hens

late-autumn sun

            Joyce Clement

            Bristol, Connecticut

temple redone

Kali’s tongue

not so red

            Kala Ramesh

            Pune, India

Hiroshima Day

shakuhachi cracks

at every node

            Kath Abela Wilson

            Pasadena, California

Valentine’s Day

park pigeons settle on

LO

VE

            Kathe L. Palka

            Flemington, New Jersey

the one I love

sitting out back

with the feral cats

            Lee Gurga

            Lincoln, Illinois

polished wood shelf

the book collection

doubled

            Leena Luther

            Albany, New York

crunching

spring cabbages

hippopotamus

            Makoto Nakanishi

            Matsuyama, Japan

depression

each snowflake

apparently different

            Marco Fraticelli

            Pointe Claire, Québec

positive . . .

magnolia buds

browned by frost

            Marietta Jane McGregor

            Canberra, Australia

abandoned quarry

standing at the bottom

an inukshuk

            Maxianne Berger

            Outremont, Québec

autumn dusk

the Van Gogh

in the sunflowers

            Meik Blöttenberger

            Hanover, Pennsylvania

first frost

a retelling

of the fable

            Melissa Allen

            Madison, Wisconsin

pumpkin weigh-in . . .

the judge’s motion

to lift off hands

            Michael Dylan Welch

            Sammamish, Washington

big shot

three olives

in his martini

            Michael Ketchek

            Rochester, New York

trail map

you are here

and now

            Michele Root-Bernstein

            East Lansing, Michigan

supermoon—

they abandon

their selfie sticks

            Pamela Cooper

            Montréal, Québec

iced tea with lemon

an undeclared contest

for best grandmother

            Patrick Gallagher

            Pacific Grove, California

a coyote disappears

down the deer track

burst milkweed pods

            paul m.

            Bristol, Rhode Island

mother’s pastry brush—

stiff bristles bending

more each year

            Penny Harter

            Mays Landing, New Jersey

morning walk

how the gulls have grown

to ignore me

            Peter Newton

            Winchendon, Massachusetts

winter’s bone the smell of sushi

            Philip Rowland

            Tokyo, Japan

kayak conversation

the blue heron

hears enough

            Randy M. Brooks

            Taylorville, Illinois

autumn arrives

cool breeze stretches

the harbor’s mooring lines

            Richard Schnell

            Keeseville, New York

at the top

of the ferris wheel

mary jane

            Roberta Beary

            Bethesda, Maryland

home early

I explain my lay-off

to the dog

            Robert Forsythe

            Annandale, Virginia

shoes off, coat in tray

belt removed, pockets emptied

I feel so secure

            Robert Lundy

            Del Mar, California

conch to my ear sonic boom

            Scott Mason

            Chappaqua, New York

tangled lives—

i square the placemat

with the table

            Sondra Byrnes

            Santa Fe, New Mexico

Year of the Sheep—

another month

wanders off

            Stanford M. Forrester

            Windsor, Connecticut

late apology—

the parted beak

of a carved bird

            Susan Antolin

            Walnut Creek, California

mall Santa—

when I sit on his lap

he ho ho ho’s

            Susan Burch

            Hagerstown, Maryland

old poet’s reading

each book dedicated

to a new woman

            Terry Ann Carter

            Victoria, British Columbia

once upon a time

on grandma’s porch

the world

            Tom Clausen

            Ithaca, New York

morning meditation

hummingbird visits

the prayer flags

            Zoanne Schnell

            Keeseville, New York