Haiku the Times: The Entries

A couple of weeks ago we decided to hold a contest in which people wrote haikus (typically poems of three lines, 17 syllables in three lines of 5, 7, and 5) about what’s going on in the world today. We were overwhelmed at the response and decided that we should post the submissions before we chose winners.

Originally we were only going to have one winner, but we were so moved by the submissions, we’ve expanded it to more than one. We’ll decide as we go through them. Four winners will get a paperback copy of Haunted Futures, with stories by Warren Ellis, Tricia Sulliavan, Jeff Noon, John Reppion, SL Huang, Alex Acks, Felicity Shoulders and more. One winner will be offered a chance to be featured in our upcoming anthology, The King in Orange.

We will announce the winners on Monday, 29th May, but for now, here they are in all their glory.

 

 

MANIFEST

People scream in streets
Leaders hobnob with elites
Unbelievable

by Ginger Roberts
VOICES

Collective voices
Cacophony of anger
We are still alive

by Alexander Patterson
DOMESTICALLY MINDED

Robots have taken
hospitals hostage and home
is still what scares me.

by Zebulon Huset
SAD VOICE

Always a silent
Woman, I learned late to speak
Of hidden abuse.

by Mary C. Johansen
CACTI SUPER BLOOM

After the flood birds
hiss; the flock fractures new lines:
cacti super bloom.

by K Fujiwara
THE TRUTH ABOUT
EXTRATERRESTRIALS

'Believe in Aliens,
If found us amongst the galaxy
I'd hide from earth too.'

by Taylor Roth
MAY 2017

cicada nymphs shed
the audacity of hope
sheer numbers survive

by Ruth Dowe
ALTERNATE FACTS

Hate holds the office.
Alternate facts deceive us.
Peace is at an end.

by Dean Moyer
JACK KIRBY WAS JEWISH

Hate is trending, so
Captain America gets
rewritten fascist.

by Megan J. Hesse
LILY

sea brings back to shore
boy bloated like closed lily
life never unfurled

by Samuel Son
ON ELECTING A BOMB
FOR A PRESIEDENT

A specter appears,
Casting the shadow of war.
Prepare to be ash.

by Dudgrick Bevins
FAME

Embarrassed Ashamed
If you want to have a say
I guess you need Fame

by CoCo Lemery
HAIKU FOR IMPEACHMENT

The word: Obstruction
your pride smells like dry kindling
not just smoke. Fire.

by Wyatt Bond


Small talk--
rain hums, glazes streets
flows off, fills grates.

by Brody Hughes

Greed multiplies like
black mould along damp windows,
a utopia.

by Jennie Byrne
WINTER ORANGES

Winter has fallen
Orange Nazis rejoice now
Pray Summer comes soon

by Nik May
FRUSTRATION

oh god what happened
i am so sick of these times
please just let them end

by Phoebe Zeitler
BEYOND

All land and sea shores
Great energies and spirits
Fall prostrate to love

by Phindiwe Cindy Nkosi
STAGNANCY

A puppet laying
sleepily distraught at life;
death, please come closer.

by Raul Meza
PARALLAX

unforgettable
times of plenty, times of want
gratitude, regret

by Mick Ó Seasnáin
noncontiguous

even our vastest
star-infested oceans now
just thick wet borders

by Anita Lo
ON THE IMMIGRATIONS
OF PEOPLE

Rags and no riches
A clay-brick wall
Teary eyes make lakes

by Noah Hale
FINAL EXAM ON
MY BROTHER'S SKIN

Week before finals
"He looked like he had a gun"
Buried with cap & gown

by Erin Jamieson
CHECKMATE

Empty stomach aches,
Pawn in political games,
Go rest easy sweet child.

by Elizabeth Daniel
MADMEN HAIKU

Monsters rule our world.
How can I calm my spirit?
Time for a haiku.

by Dana Wagner
PURPOSE

We no longer know
our reasons for this war or
what our purpose is.

by Rachel Smith
SECURITY PATCH

Security patch.
I'm updating my world view;
Progress bar is stuck.

by Illes Terjek
TOO MUCH AT ONCE

Overwhelming like
a messy room. Where should I
even start to clean?

by Tatiana Nunez-Powell
IF ONLY WE COULD
CHANGE OUR COLORS

As we are, rivals.
Never will we overcome.
Sealing our ruin.

by Brandy Smith
MOTHER RUSSIA

We live in Russia
Even in America
Putin, pass the borscht

by Jeanette Quick
IN TIME

In time there will be
A high cathedral window
Capturing sorrow.

by Jennie MacDonald
HAIKU

chicken caesar flat
four dollars with grad discount
I eat it alone

by Connor Fitzpatrick
END OF THE BLUE SKY

Blue sky is turning
Cloudy with our ignorance
Rain will burn our eyes

by Angela McEntee
SILENT SOLDIER

Chilled beneath the skin -
Colorless waves, gasping breaths.
Guns go off! Now watch.

by Jessica Briseno-Robinson
LIES, LIES, LIES

Irrefutable
Lies, damn lies, and statistics
How to know what's true?

by Merlin Love
HAIKU

Twenty-teens: growing
pains, angst, blemish of the soul.
That’s it—we’re grounded.

by Rachel Voss
MORE

More than more, we need
Generation Generous
More than more, we want

by Kasey Ryman

my black father didn't
expect the taste of gunpowder
before he left home.

by Kavya Malhotra
AMERICAN DREAMS

American dreams
are crushed by reality,
unforgivingly.

by Ashley Freeman
THAT IS OUR TODAY

My neighbor I fear
He could be Muslim, Trans, Left
That is our today

by Dakota Hensley
AMERICA

Purity must grow --
Cocooned. Nurtured. Fermented.
Old Barrel, thrown out.

by Krishna Patel
NEOPOPULIST

Darkness enters in.
Both sides fighting each other.
These are dangerous times.

by Christopher Moore
3 AM

Worlds sleep the same same
Not one new shade of white... yet...
I should..... Eureka!!!

by Sneha Chatterjee
IF

If I could only
Learn to not want to see things
To leave the lights off.

by Billy Malanga
LASH

within your lashes
I discovered dreams of time
had opened for me.

by Benjamin Hager
REALITY

The joyful moment
captured on live film, nowhere
to hide or escape

by Warren Jones
TIMELESS

I read this book once.
It was like reading my life.
Yes, from spring to spring.

by Sheila M. Gagne
AT LEAST

Ashes gently drift
Earth doomed by divers follies
But not her emails

by Michael Hope

Gerrymandering
and voter suppression made
an orange fool king.

by Mahan Ellison
MATH CLASS

Ninth circle of hell
Has a secret alias
Trigonometry

by Eve Taft
MOMENTS

Adonis roses
lightning and rain are pretty
its dawning with dreams

by Paweł Markiewicz
JOURNAL

Ink bleeds through the page.
Pen scratching, brain pondering.
Feelings become words.

by Alice Zhang
OUR GREEN AND SELFISH LAND

No more refugees?
You may get less. They've got nothing!
Shame on you Britain

by Dan Fuller
A HAIKU GESUNDHEIT!

Rivers run their course
Cherry blossom bears no fruit
Still singing, we die

by Max Bantleman


A damp tomb darkens,
Engulfing shadow flows,
This time before twilight.

by Mathew Sanders
FLOWERS: FREEZE/FRAMES

Words cut –frost/mist shades
bearing winds eyes glare shard glass.
In veins ancestors.

by Jose Trejo Maya
ALTERNATIVE FACTS

The marketplace of
Ideas fails when the far right
Sells quack medicine.

by Jesse Sauer
COPPER ROOFS, GOLDEN COINS

Copper roofs gleaming–
New houses, you are ugly!
Fresh paint is vulgar!

by Ethen Brouder

I opened the window and a moth flew in
attracted by the light
and not me

by Yuki Miyoshi
Haiku for the terrible
things in Boston, April 2013
by Anne Andersen

Sequester in place,
We may or may not be safe.
What is safety now?

Jesus, keep us safe,
Use your infrared night scope
Look under our beds.

How can a sweet boy,
I have a sweet boy myself,
do such bad things?

Is compassion wrong?
Such mixed feelings for this boy
Who did these bad things.

The hunt is over,
We found the boy in a boat.
A lost bloody boy.

How to understand,
We are all in the same boat
No one sails alone.

Use this sad time,
Show us how to reach out and
Touch those around us.

Stay my hand, our hands,
Give us the heart to forgive
In spite of our fear.

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