September 2026-Haiku Chapter Poems
TREE FROG
By Polly Brody
No longer than
my thumb’s last joint,
you wince as my scissors cut
that Hosta stem you grasp.
I see your beige tremble,
just before the blind blades reach you,
and am glad.
Gently, I lift
both stem and you
away from the obscuring plant.
Your shadowy vale is lost
to a drench of sunlight,
yet you cling in stillness
save for your soft sides pulsing.
Tiny suede-skinned being
entire even to your toes,
each with its minute spatula
adhering you–
adhering you to whatever
is to come.
August 2026- Haiku Chapter Poems
November by Nancy T. Whitney November 2025
November. Daylight slows as Mother Nature settles into Her Autumn’s rest
Opens her arms to receive the bounty of leaves from Her trees.
Vibrant color carpets the ground. In Morning, Jack Frost paints the leaf tips.
Energy slows but is not wasted. Winter Holiday celebrations appproach.
Mystery of spiritual traditions overflow, Chanukah, Solstice, Advent, Christmas.
Bounty comes from the Land. Squash pumpkins. Winter vegetables, Seeds, nuts,
Each with their own special fragrance. Now, fresh from the oven dishes,
Rejoicing celebrants devour the offerings with Gratitude, the Bounty of November.
July 2026 -Haiku Chapter Poems
June 2026-Haiku Chapter Poems
The Year was: Nineteen Hundred Forty-One
New Year’s in New York City, watching
Increasing tension overseas.
Nervous government, waiting. The
Economy moved forward with
Temporary jobs for women as men
Entered The Service.
Everything began to be rationed.
No one saw it coming. Then. . .
How ‘bout them Yankees and Dodgers?
Under the name “Subway Series” the
Nation pulled for both teams.
Dodger’s Mickey Owns drops on a third strike.
Red Barber was the radio announcer!
Everyone rooted for Joe DiMaggio. He captured the airways
Driving home a streak of 56 games!
Forty-Second Street sang with standing
Ovations to George M. Cohan.
Readers clamored for the Pulitzer Prize book: For Whom the Bell Tolls.
There was much to talk about.
Young people wondered what would be next.
Out over the waters off Hawaii, a storm brewed.
Next up. . . December 8th, Roosevelt announced War in the Pacific.
Everyone jumped on the Bandwagon to rally for Peace.
Nancy T Whitney
the year was 1941
21 Jan 2017
INVASIVES
by Polly Brody
It reaches, hungry twining
through thin air,
green tendrils, deceptive in their frailty
hungry to fasten on any solid.
Implacable growth every day
seeking, leafy appetite
seeking contact.
With each tip-touch, it grasps
and braids, grows thickening
strangle holds upon its host,
proliferates.
She is out in her yard
shears in hand, daily,
cutting back green tentacles.
Daily she tugs and yanks
wherever she can reach,
to pull this invader
from her burdened yew.
She learned, a month ago,
malignancy inhabits her bowel.
May 2026-Haiku Chapter Poems
DART
By Polly Brody
Waxwings spew from the Bradford Pear,
a streaming torrent of wings
spills over the shopping center
and suddenly, bursts apart
like the exploding sky-chaff
of July fireworks.
The charcoal dart from heaven
that sent panic out of the tree,
scatters that eruption now
to every point of the compass—
a Merlin.
Merlin, now homing on one bird,
the confusion of many dispersed,
zig-zags over the huddled cars
pinned to the jinking flight of its prey,
a heat-seeking missile
avid for pulsing flesh.
Shoppers wheel carts with confident leisure,
their eyes pinned ahead
to the self-opening doors of market.
The Merlin strikes, talons stretched forward—
hunter and hunted one clutch in the air.
Inert captive clasped
tight to its breast,
boomerang-winged raptor
scythes toward the horizon.
April 2026-Haiku Chapter Poems
March 2026 Haiku Chapter Poems
February 2026 Haiku Chapter Poems
January 2026 Haiku Chapter Poems
2025 Haikus
December 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
November 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
“Land of My Home”
by Adair Heitmann
Drinking tea: age two
Calling the bathroom – the loo
Name for a cow: coo
Oil lamps light our home
Briny scents waft off North Sea
At night sheep bleating
Seals playing on rocks
We draw water from fresh streams
Shortbread melts in mouth
Decades later when
Remembering windswept coasts
Our rugged lifestyle
Back in the U.S.
Connecting home and myself
Memories flood back
Purple heather fields
The land of the midnight sun
Scottish isles formed me
Connecticut Press Club 2024 Professional Communications Contest Second Place Writing Award for Creative Verse (Single Poem)
Heitmann, Adair. “Land of My Home.” We Are Here: Poetry That Explores the Power of Place, edited by Sandy Lee Carlson, Orenaug Mountain Publishing, 2024, pp. 65-66
October 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
PIETA*
By Polly Brody
She clasps him, pallid torso
naked against her knee.
She’s turned his face
into the black pyramid of her grief.
We see neither face.
Could we endure their grimace?
Her stygian burqa
conceals her cradling form
but we know her—
mother of sorrows.
There is the irony of latex gloves,
necessary precaution
that denies his flesh
her fingers’ treasuring touch.
And what of that small, white slit
in her head’s obsidian cowl—
her teeth gleam there,
bared by lamentation’s howl.
*From photo of a Serian woman holding her son.
And may stand in now, 2025, for all Palestinians.
Halloween
By Matthew Borelli
Here we are at October’s tail
Time for witches and goblins to wail
Nighttime shadows create fear
Making you think that evil is near
Black cats seen everywhere
Make us heed the signs that say Beware
Eerie sounds in the night
Cause us to run in mortal fright
In the streets on the Stoops and at each entry
Adults await the children who ask for plenty
Trick or treat is their cry
Wanting candy is their why
Dressed in costumes and fancy dos
They prepare to practice their Halloween ruse
They come to us with good in their heart
Hoping with loads of candy they will depart
Using every trick that they can ply
No request can we deny
What they say
Is as an actor in a one act play
No evil for us to fear
There can only be goodness when children are near
So on this special night
Allow the world to be filled with fright
Let the ghouls the ghosts and the black cats play
Make believe that they are real this day
It’’s all a game and when the night is through
Reality will come back to you
The monsters that came asking for more
Tomorrow will play soccer right next door
The evil witches and goblins too
Will ride their bikes in front of you
For us, we will again put our costumes and decorations away
Storing them for another scary Halloween day
IMPRINT
by Polly Brody
At conception, gene galaxies
pregnant with stars
code embryo ears
toward particular oracles.
The mallard rolls her eggs and settles closer.
Brood skin presses its contact
hot toward the pipping tooth
and tremors of imminent heads shoving.
Bill down, she speaks:
tucked within nacreous curves,
ducklings hear her whispers.
Their cries respond through eggshell walls–
dialog, sealing identity.
My unborn child floats, chin-down.
Behind his brow new cortex waits,
its hemispheres as yet naïve.
I press my palm to the ripple
of his heel shoving my flesh.
Does this infant, tucked under thunder
of my proximate heart,
hear maternal syllables
and know himself?
September 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
August 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
July 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
June 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
May 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
April 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
March 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
February 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems
January 2025 Haiku Chapter Poems