As we enjoy our sixth year together at THE DAILY HAIKU, with a worldwide membership of almost 20000, I am delighted to announce the publication of LEAF Issue Seven, our now much loved dedicated Journal edited by the wonderful Ravi Kiran together with commentaries from our guiding lights Keith Evetts on haiku and guest editor Ron C Moss on Haiga – all brought together by the design talents of Jade Wildgoose.
LEAF Issue Seven is the first issue of our third year of THE DAILY HAIKU Journal and we have a bumper edition for you to savour. We really have arrived on the haiku and haiga Journal stage.
Enjoy reading LEAF Issue Seven here, do post comments and share with your friends.
Thank you so much for published my works! I am so honored and thrilled to be part of this wonderful edition!
Dear Steliana Thank you so much and I have to say I absolutely loved your work. The gingko leaf haiku ‘silence settles ‘over silence’ is gorgeous. I feel that I have visited the ‘closed garden’ of your haiku before in another life or perhaps one to come, how magical and ethereal the mood of that haiku, the ability to capture the joy of being in the present and trying something anyway, to follow the blue butterfly…. The alliteration of a ‘burdened branch’ is such a wonderful image of bountiful peaches, their sweetness almost bringing a tree to breaking point, a metaphor perhaps for the world we live in. Do we want too much? Or perhaps we do not appreciate the nature in front of us. Your haiga are equally as arresting and full of sensory delights – the joy indeed of new life to visit and enrich the old walnut tree is wonderful as is the musicality of the wind and the hope in new blossoms bringing a garden to abundant life. Thank you.
Dear Amanda,
Thank you so much for your appreciation and kind comments on my works, they mean a lot to me! I feel grateful and honored to be published in Leaf!
Blessings,
Steliana
Another superb collection. Proud to be included.
A huge thank you to the editors for all your work and dedication.
Dear Malcolm thank you so much for your support and most importantly your work. I loved the imagery of a light engine speeding between two tunnels to describe our brief but miraculous time here. A joyful image that reminds us to make the most of the time we have! Equally profound and at the same time ‘grounded in life experience’ is ‘between loves’ – an insight into our desires to change and then our nature to revert back to the same old mistakes again.. and again. Wonderful work Malcolm, expansive and relatable to our human experiences that touches me and inspires.
I was so proud to see my haiku among all these beautiful works of art.
Dear Editors,
Your team is doing an excellent job. Really honoured to be featured in the current issue which is a collection of extremely brilliant works. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to you for including my haiku in this issue.
Dear Bipasha Thank you for your support and work here. I adored the humour of ‘yoga class’ which actually made me laugh out loud while I was editing the Journal. I love yoga too but also love the funny moments that interupt and contribute to our state of ‘om’ and relaxation. I frequently incorporate the sound of a strimmer into my daily practice and mix it with the sound of the sea! ‘War debris’ is deeply profound and a reminder of the crisis affecting too much of our shared world, origami cranes symbolising peace sadly lying in tatters as so many dreams and hopes. Beautifully executed and edited. The soft and lilting s alliteration of ‘sunny Sunday/shadows’ contrasts so well with the hard edges of ’empty homes’ – a filmic and epic image portrayed again so sparingly and with such an awareness of your craft. Brava.
So happy to be published in Leaf 1 to Leaf 7 at a stretch. , it’s a great joy to be with TDH as a moderator and contributer .
All the best for the team TDH , key person Amanda White , Editior Ravi Kiran et al .
Dear Bidyutprabha We are super happy to publish you here. Your ‘slow erosion..’ haiga is so deep and thoughtful, such a wonderful way to view faith and religion in one distilled gem with the perfect marrying of image and words. I would love to know where the photograph is from? Your haiku of ‘growing expectations’ and the image of a fast approaching train has wonderful parallels with Malcolm Highfield’s life tunnel haiku. The tracks, trains, journeys, adventures, derailments and moments experienced in travel make for such relatable imagery and metaphors. Your ‘baby squirrel’ kireji is brilliant and like Bipasha’s yoga haiku made me laugh out loud. This was one of my favourites in the collection. Great work Bidyut.
Dear Kenneth We are proud to have you here and know you make up the whole of a splendid and inspired collection of work. Your ‘afterglow’ haiku is brilliant and so evocative as the black rose dissolves into night and we imagine the melding of all things together in a magical and otherwordly place. I LOVED ‘chrysalis phase’ and may well use it now to describe my current status. Thank you for that gem. ‘Distant thunder’ is soooooo romantic and beautiful, Laurie-Lee-esque in its stunning use of language. A fabulous trio.
So wonderful to be part of LEAF! Thank you for another great issue!
Dear Editors, thank you for this beautiful issue of LEAF – a very rich collection of verses. Very glad and humbled to be included, with so many great writers here. Congratulations to all the poets, and to the Editorial Team for their dedication. Gratefully ever, Vaishnavi
Dear Vaishnavi Thank you so much for contributing to LEAF and your comment here too. I really enjoyed your haiku. ‘unpacking’ actually brought me to tears remembering the loss of my father. The ‘weight’ of your father’s books is such a perfect word to sum up the heaviness of our family connections whether they are still with us or not. A family member’s books are also such a representation of that person’s personality as they are still here living through their passions and of course the physicality of a once thumbed page and remembered phrases. So much to enjoy with this haiku and again so well condensed. ‘Home again’ really engaged my senses, I felt it gave me a window on a life, such a strong image of returning to much loved cats and the humorous contrast of watching birds together where one party would like to catch them! Charming. Thank you.
Neetu we are so pleased you are both a part of LEAF and TDH, as well as being such a welcome part of our administration team. Your trio of haiku/senryu are delightful and make for both individual jewels and form a really lovely series when read together. You have crafted a wistful tone that both resonates and gently surprises with careful choices of language and deft touches of alliteration (only where needed). Keith’s ‘curls of smoke’ choice is indeed a stand out piece that absolutely physically tugs at the heart strings, a whole scene of love and loss played out with such sparse but skillful words – youthful, reminiscent – great imagery. ‘dimming light’ evokes a similar ‘disappearing act’ of imagery where vanishing shadows dance slowly, lives are perhaps moving towards their endings, the music is fading, the beat just audible, the steps keeping up, until… ‘Empty nest’ particularly appealed to me as a mother with three children now birthed from their family home and spreading their wings, returning at points to question where the precious souvenirs we keep now are, often ‘in storage’ a fearful expression to our children who assume that means lost. But of course many precious souvenirs, first drawings remain in frames to greet them as they come home, a swimming medal here and there, cards they have made and continue to make for our birthdays, a shell necklace, a first pottery creation, their books, their songs…. Your words took me to a very happy place despite the loss of little ones and actually to a place of anticipation for a future with grand children. Thank you Neetu for your thoughtfulness and stunning imagery.
Thank you so much, Amanda, for everything you do to make this journal a place where we can come home to. Your deep and insightful comment on my haiku/senryu is greatly appreciated. Poetry is nothing if it doesn’t come from the life we have lived, felt and absorbed. In my case, it comes only from living and being acutely aware of how my experiences affect me and those around me. But all my experiences are not unique to me alone. They are universal in all of us. The commonality of human experience is our connection, if we care to listen to our hearts. Thank you so much!
So glad to be here ….I wish the Leaf continues to grow and spread the beauty of brevities to as many readers as possible.
Thank you Shilpa we continue to grow because of contributors and members of THE DAILY HAIKU like yourself to spread the ‘beauty of brevities’ – love that phrase. Thank you so much for your beautiful haiku and for evoking such a lovely image, I felt I really was right there looking at those soft ripples creating ‘white pleats’ touched by the moon. It made me want to go skinny dipping.
Another beautiful edition of ‘Leaf’ thanks to the hard work of Ravi, Amanda, Keith and the team… so happy to be included, alongside many talented poets from all over the world. Thank you all, and congratulations 🙏💖
Penny, Devon UK
Penny thank you so much for being part of our DAILY HAIKU and LEAF family. Your own talent really shines through. I really enjoyed your haiku ‘greeting the sun’ and felt like the blackbirds I too was at your window saying hello. It conjures up such a lovely domestic scene where a new day beckons us beyond and we are there noticing the wonders of nature through blackbird song. It did of course make me think of a song I really enjoy, that two of my children sing and play, Blackbird by the Beatles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7epRPz0LGPE Your haiga of ‘old still waters’ accompanied by such a fabulous what I assume to be family photo is just gorgeous and evokes such a lovely relationship between father and daughter. The cut of ‘slow progress’ here has a magical feel, the slower the better, to linger in that moment a little longer and hold on… but as waters keep flowing, life carries on and all changes. Loved this so much. Thank you Penny.
Thanks a lot! A lot of work lies behind every issue – from reading and selecting, vis vpntsctong suthord, to preparing the issue snd …
THANKS again!
Yvonne we thank you for your work. Your ants haiga is a great combination of words and image, nature is amazing and this makes us remember that. Likewise your haiku encompasses the seasonal shifts that ensure nothing stays the same, the spring leaves ‘leave’. Beautiful work.
Thank you Amanda, Ravi, Keith and Team for another amazing issue of LEAF!!!
Issue Seven is so full and after a quick read I am savoring it again bit by bit! So many inspiring poems here. I’m deeply honored to have work included. Thank you! Congratulations to all!
Dear Belinda Thank you for your stunning contributions. Your haiga ‘soft cry…’ is such a celebration of nature and its bounties, you really get the sense of the person observing this land/seascape scene playing out in front of us. The end of another day that calls us to watch its closing, a sunset brimming with colour, the call of the gulls gently bringing everything to life, the promise of supper for them and us! The tenderness of your haiku is actually breathtaking (sorry alluding to your content) in the gorgeous ‘the space/between your breath/and mine’ I could read this on a loop for hours. ‘No view’ has such a celebratory tone, that ability to lift our spirits by climbing to the roof to see further… that thirst for space that we humans have as well as the need for beauty witnessed from our own homes. Lovely work Belinda.
Proud to be published in “LEAF Journal Issue 7!
Thanks to the entire team and congratulations to all those selected.
Dear Guido Thank you so much for your contribution and support, it means a great deal. Your ‘hypnotized…’ haiga is so uplifting and hopeful. I love the image you have chosen with the perfect angle of a head looking to the future. Cherry blossoms have such a rich symbolic history of renewal, beauty and the impermanent nature of life that reminds us to cherish every moment, or take that time to notice these wonders to inspire our own lives. Your words made me feel very energized as I walked around my father in laws garden and appreciating the care he has taken to nurture his own blooms. War fields is chillingly poignant, the word field here takes on both a sad and sinister tone with that of renewal and hope through the blooming of poppies so well associated with loss. Thank you for your thoughtful work.
Dear Amanda, lovely issue housing my first poetry publication and thanks to the editor for his grace and patience with my queries. I’ll be funding your coffee account generously very shortly. May I ask what journal attitudes are about re-submitting? If there’s a protocol concerning that please let me know and forgive my ignorance of creative publishing. Non fiction I know and do. This haiku was a late life manifestation of lifelong notes and hidden verse. Friends convinced me to give it a go and…here we are.
Dear Kevin Thank you so much for posting your comment. We are indeed honoured here at LEAF to be publishing your first works, the first of many we hope. I am so very glad your friends persuaded you to submit and ‘have a go’ an ethos we like to foster on THE DAILY HAIKU which has inspired many members with their writing. For resubmitting look out for the submission windows, the next will be in October for publication in December and the guidelines are always attached. Your haiku ‘I forgot the things…’ has a wonderful philosophical resonance and provokes deeper thoughts about what it might be we shouldn’t remember. It also touches on the instinctive and unfathomable knowledge carried by animals such as elephants that humans can only hope to glimpse or perhaps in modern days have lost sight of…. I look forward to more of your writing.
Thank you Amanda, Ravi, Keith and all the team for this beautiful LEAF issue 7 !
I’m so glad and honored to have my works included. Congratulations to all!
Thank you to you Françoise. I love your haiga, the collage plant imagery and that word ‘gramineous’ was one I have added to my own vocabulary – grass-like plants such a beautiful and fairy-tale segway into the little girl brushing her dolls hair. The natural and unnatural, the childlike and the eternal. Wonderful. Your haiku too are magical but with such hidden depths. Funfair evokes such an exciting but also rather dark and dangerous world, perhaps of a first kiss or more… filmic and sensory ‘whiff’ is a perfect word here. Candyfloss both intoxicating but also sickly, I have memories myself of wanting it so much then not wanting it almost as soon as I tasted it. Bath time is a lovely haiku, it brought back such lovely memories of playing with my own children and inventing worlds, those days of pure imagination and freedom, like soap bubbles not to last… but sweet, sweet memories. Soap bubbles are a great image for the moment of creation, poems perhaps, haiku…. Great work Françoise. Look forward to more. x
Dear editorial team,
Thank you for your time to read, consider, select and prepare for publishing this fantastic issue.
You did a wonderful job!
I am honoured tha5 my work was also selected and I can see my name among so many distinguished poets!
Congratulations to all!
Boryana it is a joy and honour to have your work in LEAF Issue Seven. Your trio of haiku are extremely evocative and relatable. Shadows in ‘summer memories’ bring both dark and light memories as changeable as days, hours, seasons, take me to beaches, gardens, rooms, slanted light through sun shades, a sudden storm, bright blue skies casting sharp shadows on my path through olive groves, across mountain tops…. lovely, waves, collages perfect images. ‘Rose petals’ is a haiku that keeps me coming back for another read, rose petals falling, marriages, funerals, friendships, love…. leaving me with my own musings on forgiveness, that desire to forgive and yet often that resistence until we understand how simple it can be, how freeing and remember the scent of rose petals. Such a philosophical piece. The sister piece is of course ‘honeysuckle’ that takes us to a darker, headier place where disillusionment is so perfectly conjured. In reading this haiku I am myself overcome by the inviting but overwhelming smell of honeysuckle. Thank you Boryana.
rose petals
the magical scent
of forgiveness
honeysuckle
soaked in its scent
my disillusionment
Boryana Boteva
I just read Amanda’s post on the TDH page and remembered I wanted to leave a comment here too: a very rich number of submissions, so many hajin from all over the world, and I’m very honored to be featured in the magazine for the third time with haiku and haiga. Unfortunately, I haven’t studied English—it’s too late to start now—but I do my best using Google Translate, which I don’t always trust. We’re a great group, and I love being a part of it.
Thanks to Amanda and the whole team!!
Angiola thank you for your lovely comments and so glad you are here. You are doing very well with your English and I love your work. Wind… from the sea… haiga is so brilliantly formatted to imply the direction of the wind and in reading we taste the dryness and reach for the comfort of aloe, the photograph too is well chosen. Your ‘green wheat’ haiku expressing the essence of haiku is really stunning. It stood out for me when I was editing this issue. It encompasses the creation of haiku in looking at a whole field of wheat to find that one poppy, to condense and encompass a clear thought held in a profound gaze, it really evokes the essence of haiku. Rosemary is beautifully married with the absences felt by the writer and is present between the fingers which are also at the same time apart. ‘These fingers’ makes it very personal. Really enjoyed this haiku too. Lovely, lovely work.
Thank you so much, Amanda. Your words make me think it’s worth continuing to write haiku. Unfortunately, four years ago I lost my husband to illness, just when we thought we were finally having time to grow old together, after more than 50 years of marriage. And with him, much of my inspiration went away. I struggle to concentrate, and in Italy we don’t have great work groups. With The Daily Haiku and LEAF, I’ve found a group where I feel appreciated and that motivates me to keep going. It was so kind and affectionate of you to reply. Hugs.
You are so very welcome Angiola and I am glad that you have found THE DAILY HAIKU and contributing to LEAF such a nurturing and positive experience. Very happy to have you here. x
Dear Amanda, thank you and the whole team for each opportunity you offer us to share our work in the LEAF Journal which keeps gaining in popularity. You are doing an excellent job! Blessings
Dear Paul your work is always insightful and inspiring. Such a strong and arresting trio. Discarded broadsheet takes us straight to the streets a contrast of lives from the first read, first hand paper buyer to the tramp’s world where papers are often bedding or warmth and where news is something only to flip through when finding a place to sleep or something to eat is always more pressing. The tramp does not have the luxury of reading a broadsheet and taking ones time. Ryegrass offers us hope from the lessons we see in nature, that tough and resilient ryegrass, beautiful imagery, seasonal shifts, that natural world we have lost perhaps…. Stained glass, bougainvillea and a rising sun, religious connotations, a southern European country perhaps, a vibrancy but also a gaudiness, vivid and provoking. The real and the unreal, the portrayed and the actual. An eternal sun cancelling everything out as well as enhancing everything. Wonderful work.