Once Upon a Time

Michael Dylan Welch and Scott Mason, editors. Last part of Fire in the Treetops: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Haiku North America, which collects poems from all previous HNA anthologies (the following poems are selections from the 2015 section). Press Here, Sammamish, Washington, 2015, 418 pages, ISBN 978-1-878798-37-4. This section: 94 poets (one poem each). See the Press Here page for this book for ordering information and links to the introduction and contributor list.

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