HCSHR 8:1 – Mayfly Delight

Mayfly, issue 77, summer 2024

Published by Brooks Books, Illinois

one-year subscription (2 issues) $15US

review by Sandra Stephenson

I have not seen the 2025 issues of this little gem of a publication, have only just become aware of Mayfly by way of a copy a year old.  It's charming, and includes one exquisite haiku from each contributor.  Probably my favorite,

    horse-drawn

    those scribbled lines

    through the buttercups

is from Ireland.  One Canadian haikuist is in there too.  Antoinette Cheung should be recruited for Haiku Canada if she's not already a member.  Her poem:

    golden hour

    mom and I pick summer

    off the laundry line

It's true, most of the poets are American, like Lesley Anne Swanson, who wrote:

    patisserie window . . .

    nose prints vote

    for eclairs

I really like how the editor or writer spaced the ellipsis in this poem.  It's a pattern I intend to follow.

Maybe for 2026 summer issue we can inundate the editors, Randy and Shirley Brooks, with haiku by Canadians!