Poets Salon: Voting

POETS SALON

I Voted sticker (Photo – Kathabela Wilson)

– 11/02/22

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

political statement?
high in the pine a squirrel
drops cones on our heads

~ Kathabela

Ο Ο Ο

Marilyn Ashbaugh

Election Day
both parties colors
on the covid strip

wild turkeys
run through the mud
Election day

blanket of leaves
cover the chestnuts
Election Day

Ο Ο Ο

Linda Papinicolaou

ticking leaves—
our political neighbor
pounds in her new sign

Ο Ο Ο

Clark Strand

Their cry to heaven:
the wild geese pass unnoticed
on Election Day

Election results
candidates falling like leaves
right-side up, and down

As if to mock us
during election season:
autumn equinox

How it resembles
a hangman’s lever: the one
in the voting booth

Ο Ο Ο

Michael Henry Lee

the sunshine state
seeing red
wherever i turn

midterms
another skeleton creeps
out of the closet

Ο

Voting: Notes and Credits

Marilyn Ashbaugh lives in Edwardsburg, a small village near Lake Michigan where she enjoys the seasonal changes of the heartland. She is widely published in journals and anthologies of haiku and tanka. She has never run for office but has voted in every election since turning eighteen.

Linda Papanicolaou is an Art teacher in Palo Alto. She has been writing haiku for over 20 years and from 2006 to 2022 was editor of Haigaonline. She is currently serving as President of Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. Her haiku ticking leaves appeared in Mariposa 47, Fall/Winter 2022.

Clark Strand is the haiku columnist for Tricycle Magazine and the founder of the 17–Haiku in English community. His haiku are grounded in the four seasons, but he does not shy away from controversial topics, including politics.

Michael Henry Lee resides in Saint Augustine, FL, the Nation’s Oldest City, where he votes blue in a sea of red. Lee is an internationally published, award-winning haiku poet whose work regularly appears in numerous print and online journals. Lee is the SE Region Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America and a charter member of the Ancient City Poets and Coquina Haiku Circle.

Submission Guidelines

Suggest your own theme. or write Kathabela for a theme suggestion. We publish every two weeks. Send short poems, free verse, haiku, senryu, tanka, cherita, haibun, tanka prose, short prose poems, etc., or your own unique approach, to Kathabela by text message or (click here to email her directly). We can feature your work again after five months. Multiple Submissions can be saved to appear later:

1. Send a short bio, with comments on your theme.
2. Send photos or artwork by you, or friends.
3. Put your poems directly in the email.
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