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