Haiku Pause Issue 1

Dear readers, our first issue is here – welcome!

As we are just past the winter solstice, and the days are getting longer again, as we step into the early days of this very new year, 2025—the haiku form itself in its 17 syllable perfection not only allows us to take a pause but is itself centered in the pause, the turn, the change, the seeing suddenly from a fresh perspective that can let us continue into a new year with energy and hope.

This year has started with a bang of worrisome developments, and as we each navigate the global and the personal challenges of being alive in our world today, it is our hope that Haiku Pause as a monthly (and possibly more frequent) Substack will offer you a space to breathe in and appreciate 5/7/5 haiku and haibun in a welcoming community of poets.

This newsletter—Haiku and the Breath—Letting in the Light— is our first offering to you. We were awed and overwhelmed by all of the beautiful submissions we received and delighted by the wide range of interpretations of the theme we provided, which proves yet again that formal haiku in English is a truly universal container which can embody any experience of the world. We are deeply grateful to our fellow poets for trusting us with their most personal work. After the darkest part of winter, and no matter what weather you are currently experiencing wherever you are in the world right now, we hope the following haiku and haibun offer you breath, light, and hope.

— Mariya, Resa, and Sandra

Issue 1 2025, in Flipbook format, available for viewing and download: https://fliphtml5.com/haikupause/vutb/

Issue 1 2025, in PDF, available for download:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qpbmWjn5jcMug2H3P4ucryoPC50B0DcM/view?usp=sharing

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Our previous call for submissions is archived below. Please stay tuned for a new call for submissions for Issue 2, which will be on the topic of climate change!

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Dear haiku poets,

You are invited to submit your work to the inaugural issue of Haiku Pause, a brand new FREE Substack-based monthly haiku newsletter, which will feature a seasonal theme each month. As a collaborative volunteer effort, Haiku Pause strives to add a forum for poets writing haiku in traditional style worldwide, and to help foster a community by both publishing poems and providing monthly reflections on seasonal topics and the history of haiku. We hope that our publication may bring our readers and contributors an opportunity to take a pause from the stresses of daily life and global worry, by entering the timeless space of haiku, and by engaging in conversation with one another.

The THEME for this month will be: Haiku and Breath: Letting in the light.

We are accepting submissions of up to 5 of your best haiku written in formal style (5-7-5), and may publish up to 3 haiku per author (or a sequence of three thematically linked haiku), if your work is selected. Please also feel free to send us haibun, haiga and artwork! We may select some of your artwork for the header / end-pieces for the issue! We accept both published (please include an acknowledgement) and unpublished works.

Please email submissions in the body of your email, with your name and this issue’s THEME included in the subject line, to: sketchfromlife@gmail.com, by November 16th.

We will reply to all submissions before the publication date. You will retain the copyright as the author of each poem published. We look forward to reading your work!

Our guest editors for Issue 1 will be Resa Alboher, Mariya Gusev and Sandra Filippelli.