THE DAILY HAIKU has just turned six years old and we have an international membership of 20000 and now our LEAF Journal with Issue Nine turns three years old. We continue to adapt and respond to our growing membership. LEAF Issue Nine is our largest yet and continues to offer thought-provoking, arresting and beautiful haiku and haiga. During the editorial process I have absolutely loved immersing myself in each haiku and haiga skillfully selected by our superkustar editor Ravi Kiran and stylishly pulled together by our talented designer Jade Wildgoose. Thank you too for the engaging commentaries for haiku by Sébastien Revon and haiga from Ron C Moss which really add a deeper dive and curatorial edge to our beloved Journal LEAF. I am just so uplifted by LEAF and am always inspired by the diverse voices and creative work. THANK YOU.
Enjoy reading LEAF Issue Nine here, do post comments and share with your friends.
While editing this gorgeous edition of LEAF I was completely immersed in the stunning collection of haiku and haiga. I was transported to new worlds, re-seeing familiar places and re-visiting feelings through fresh and inspiring eyes. Thank you so much to all the contributors for taking the time to hone your craft and submit your work to LEAF.
Thank you, dear Editors Amanda White and Ravi Kiran.
Thank you. Congratulations to all incuded poeta.
Thank you so much for another wonderful edition! Thank you for published my works, I am so honored and grateful!
Congratulations for the hard work!
Wish you and to all the team a beautiful spring with joy and peace!
Big hugs from Romania,
Steliana
Dear Steliana
Thank you so much for your kind words.
I loved your haiku and haiga featured here in LEAF Issue Nine.
Your first haiku really took me to that night-time magic of a garden when the stars come out both in the sky but in the flowers, in this case the heady beauty of a buddleja. It evokes a summer’s evening of wonder and epiphany. The ability to linger a while between daylight and dusk and nighttime and relish the changes, let our imagination take hold. As the person in the haiku is closing the gate to the garden we imagine a secret world erupting without humans, a garden and universe full of delights.
The extraordinary and the ordinary are stunningly portrayed and brought together from Venus to a new coffee blend, our imaginations expanding to outer orbits and then daily rituals, both grounding and inspiring us in the same breath. Venus of course as is both a goddess but notably the only planet named after a female. Love and beauty, and…. an essential cup of coffee. I am drinking my own as I write this.
Your haiga are stunning. Firstly the delicate but soon to fade pink rose that evokes the silk moon on your sister’s scarf. Again a reference to a feminine beauty but also a tender family bond between sisters. As a violinist I loved the monoku haiga of the close up of a leaf, a ladybird and the curl of words emphasising the slowness and green-newness involved in learning a new instrument. Again the contrast is beautifully handled between the natural world and its instinctive effortlessness where the ladybird knows just how to ‘be’ within its ecosystem and the often stumbling, journey of a human attempting to master a new skill. The music that is played may or may not be sweet and mirror that of the natural world’s more nurturing sounds. Very inventive. I find myself returning to this final haiga. Brava.
Dear Amanda,
Many thanks for your wonderful comments on my poems! Much appreciated! They means a lot to me!
Steliana
Congratulations on a wonderful issue. Wow, I was immersed in the beautiful layout of haiga and haiku. Grateful to be included! Thank you!
Thank you so much.
I have enjoyed returning to your haiku.
Fractuals is such an expansive and brilliant word of geometric, complex patterns that mirror the mathematical and natural world and repetitive processes that contrast so brilliant with the drawing of net curtains that in themselves evoke the same structure. In re-reading this haiku, I found myself closing and opening these veils of meaning between the human and natural worlds and that everyday joy of a ‘better view’.
Curling smoke is a meditative and very calm haiku that takes the reader into the moment of watching curling smoke whether from a fire, a cigarette, a mountain, a cloud but whatever that moment stilling the mind and finding the silence which however brief is so nurturing. Love this, it touches on deeper philosophical thoughts of finding the silence especially in Dharma practice which focuses on the discovery of stillness and silence of mind.
Thanks for the hard work of Ravi Kiran and Amada White an the team all TEAM!
Thank you Guido for your continued support and wonderful work.
Your haiga of a son and father is both tender for its words as for the stunning artistry of the image. It portrays both visually and through the sensitive words a special moment that makes the reader both relate and wonder what exactly has passed between them. But the details are less important than the weight of the emotion that is so perfectly evoked here. The focus in the image is on the father, his arm is raised in a gentle way, his head leaning forwards, he is utterly focused and sharing something deep and meaningful. The son is slightly leaning towards him, his own hands on his lap. He is open and actively listening. The final line of ‘no wound or blood or pain’ suggests a healing and a reconciliation. Having just spent a week with my father in law who is now 96 and very poorly, we had a sequence of deep and meaningful moments like this.
Your haiku duo represent a powerful juxtaposition of moods, one darker, the other lighter. A sitting duck is a tantalising glimpse into potentially both a deeply personal situation but it also suggested a wider global metaphor of power struggles. The sweet flowerbed haiku is heady and pungent but the contrast of likening the alyssum to a snowflake evokes the changing seasons that can so swiftly move from summer to winter, plenty to emptiness. Gorgeous.
Thank you so Amanda! I’m really glad to hear that from you. I’ve added it to the “Comments” section on my Facebook! So i made for you a nice springhaiga! I hope uou’ll love it! A toujours!
It is always with excitement and joy that I look forward to every new issue of LEAF. I am honored to be on the contributor list alongside so many haiku poets, many far more experienced and accomplished than I am.
Thank you to Ravi Kiran and the whole team that work hard to produce each issue and for the opportunity to give voice to so many poets globally.