Grateful to Patricia McGuire & Editors for featuring my haiku & senryu—the first two on creepy crawlies and the next two selected for the monthly video prompts:
dusty windowsill— a beetle trails through summer’ end
Honorable Mention
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caterpillar crawl the child mimics on her belly
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sway of hips the night itself set spinning
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autumn dusk ripples shimmer around the dance of trunks
Sharing the Judge’s Choice Commentary. Congratulations to all featured poets.
Poetry Pea Podcast S8E39 on creepy crawlies in haiku and senryu for August 2025 is online. Grateful to Patricia McGuire, Editor for including my haiku. It was thrilling to hear the insightful commentary by Clive Grewcock who selected my #haku as his Judge’s choice.
Do listen to the podcast: https://youtu.be/hkxnuNKO8MU?si=F1JcdeZ6zCBC94ns
dusty windowsill— a beetle trails through summer’s end
This will also be published in the Poetry Pea Journal 4:25 alongside my other accepted haiku. @pealogic, #ThePoetryPea
Congratulations to all #poets whose poems are featured in the podcast.
Up on Triveni Haikai India’s Spotlight feature today on 27th September 2025 is my haiku selected by Guest Editor Anju Kishore. Grateful dear Anju for selecting this haiku which is a dear favorite of mine published in Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2023 issue. The Editor Joe Woodhouse had given it life and also recommended it for a Touchstone Award. 🙏💕
Thrilled to be a part of the new smols poetry on 24th September, grateful to Robin Jacobson, Founder editor Roberta Beach Jacobson. https://smolspoetryjournal.blogspot.com/
Happy to be in The Mamba – Journal of the Africa Haiku Network, issue 18 – September 2025, with a collaborative haiga. The beautiful photo which inspired the haiku was clicked by my friend Pritpal Sagoo, Creative Director of Bushtrek Safaris.
Grateful to the editor Ayeyemi Taofeek and the guest editor, Scott Mason for the acceptance & publication. Thanks to Emmanuel Kalusian for considering my work.
Grateful to dear Rev. Maurice Reynolds, Owner-Editor, Creative Inspirations, for the beautiful Autumn edition of “Cover Creations” which includes my poem “Autumn Benediction” and photo.
Honored to be in the beautiful Drifting Sands Haibun – a Journal of haibun and tanka prose, Issue 33, September 2025, with my #haibun, “War and Peace” among the gallery of poems by talented poets.
Grateful to dear Dr. Anna Cates, Guest Editor, @Sangita Kalarickal, Chief Editor & @Reid Hepworth, Associate Editor, for the acceptance & publication. 🙏💐
Congratulation to all featured poets.
War and Peace.
Neena Singh Chandigarh, India
air raid siren amid the darkness moonflowers
It begins with the sound — shrill, rising, slicing the dusk like a blade. The siren is followed by a blackout, and everything dissolves into shadow: lights are off, ceiling fans stop, conversations halt, the city holds its breath. We pull the curtains tight, switch off phones, and light a single candle.
My grandson asks if war has begun. Grandpa’s voice is calm telling him it’s a mock drill. Yet the next day, reality strikes, the sky feels no longer mine, with missiles flashing like gargantuan fireflies.
That night, I dream of green fields and children of both countries flying kites—no borders, no flags, no fear.
ceasefire granny hums louder shelling peas
Author’s Note: Title borrowed from Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”.
