running late
missing the swans
for his step count
a dog tramples the roses
bench
by the flower beds
checking his heart rate
ants rush to find a work around
a quick buzz—
haptic feedback
tapping time
neon shoes stipple the crosswalk
what’s in this season—
a window display
of the unneeded new
credit limit
Black Friday finishing
line
is a Touchstone Award-nominated poet whose work appears in Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, tinywords, and Frogpond, among other notable journals. She won Tricycle Magazine’s 2021 Best of the Haiku Challenge, and her rengay with Carol Judkins received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Haiku Society of America Rengay Award in Honor of Garry Gay. Ms. Padden’s 2022 awards include an Honorable Mention in the International Modern Kigo Competition and a Pinesong Award for her winning haiku in the Bloodroot Competition.
is a U.K.-based poet, educational consultant, and Fellow of both The Royal Society of Arts and The Historical Association. He is the author of several books aimed at encouraging children to write creatively, including Writing Exciting Sentences, as well as books about art, history, ceramics, and textiles. He has a long-standing interest in surrealism and, with Professor Brian Whitton, co-authored the catalogue raisonné of the surrealist artist John Tunnard (Scolar Press, 1997).
Peat’s poems have been published by Blithe Spirit, Frogpond, Hedgerow, Heliosparrow Poetry Journal, Mayfly, Modern Haiku, Presence, and The Heron’s Nest, among others. In 2022 he was runner up in the British Haiku Society Awards (Haibun section), and in 2021 Alan placed third in the International Golden Triangle Haiku contest. He also placed second in the New Zealand International Haiku contest, and placed both first and second (with Sherry Grant, and Pris Campbell) in the Otoroshi Rengay contest.
