Poems in Print - 2025

Occasional Leaves 1

 

Sano Seiji - Shining in Early Summer (2002)

Last year was the first time I have submitted my poems to haiku magazines in almost twenty-five years. Amid the falling surf of rejections, collected here in this retrospective survey are the favoured few which managed to crest the wave and make it through to publication.

 

 

folding into itself –

each furrow turning

the field anew

 

The Haiku Foundation - Haiku Dialogue (10 December 2025)

 

 

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pondering a leaf

placed under

a stone

 

Autumn Moon, 9:1 (Autumn-Winter, 2025-2026)

 

 

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a ripple         passing through         the leaf litter

 

OneLineOctober 2025 Anthology

 

 

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every star

outlasting

all our ills

 

Chrysanthemum, #35 (Fall, 2025) 

 

 

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curtains

breathing

in and out

 

Chrysanthemum, #35 (Fall, 2025)

 

 

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ivy –

alive with

birdsong

 

Tiny Words [blog] (August, 2025)

 

 

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a white egret

in the rice field,

upside down

 

Mainichi Daily (4 September 2025)

 

 

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lightning in a bottle

I keep the cork

as a memento

 

Failed Haiku, Vol. 10, #111 (August, 2025)

 

 

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heavy with rainwater,

the blossom head

breaks with the breeze

 

Fresh Out

 

 

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returning to the same

lotus leaf

– a dragonfly

 

Mainichi Daily (14 August 2025)

 

 

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the hour too late

for a country bus

– moonlight and

the long road

 

Hedgerow, #149

 

 

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over the yellow field,

the barn owl’s slow wing beats

– early morning mist

 

Wales Haiku Journal (Summer, 2025)

 

 

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a hand waving –

the last leaf

at the top of the tree

 

Fresh Out

 

 

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a bare bough –

why am I troubled

by the wind?

 

Failed Haiku, Vol. 10, #110 (June, 2025)

 

 

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quiet Sunday afternoon

– wife and I

pleating gyoza

 

Asahi Shimbun (12 June 2025)

 

 

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sweet scent of fried fish

– a cat’s closed-eyes smile,

beside our table

 

Asahi Shimbun (6 June 2025)

 

 

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the rainy season begins

– and so, I add ice

to my evening whisky

 

Asahi Shimbun (6 June 2025)

 

 

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Kurashiki’s canal –

memories burnished

in two bizen-ware cups

 

The Haiku Foundation - Haiku Dialogue (4 June 2025)

 

 

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green leaves

beneath my window

– whispering

 

Wee Sparrow Haiku Nook (May 2025)

 

 

 

Maeda Koichi - Spring (2006)

 

I also had a longer narrative poem titled: 'The Returning Wave' featured in, and was interviewed by, Oatleaf Poetry Magazine in July, 2025 (see here).