sips of sweet tea
Haiku by Sheza T., Vaishnavi Ramaswamy, Melissa Dennison, and C. Jean Downer
hot haze
with each blink
black petunias
Sheza T.
Pakistan
hot sand —
a toddler's flip flops
in the surf
Vaishnavi Ramaswamy
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
heatwave
sun baked cotton
swishes on the line
Melissa Dennison
Bradford, England
sweltering gale
a swallow rides the limb
of an evergreen
C. Jean Downer
White Rock, British Columbia, Canada
Editor Bio: Samantha Pardo Irigoyen (she/her) is a multi-genre poet, with an emphasis on haiku. Her work has been published in numerous literary publications, including The Heron’s Nest, Wales Haiku Journal, Blithe Spirit, The Dewdrop, and Cathexis Northwest Press, to name a few. Additionally, in 2025 her work was accepted into The British Haiku Society Members’ Anthology Hope, and the Haiku North America anthology Nowhere Else. She is on the editing team for Poetry Pea Journal, and one of the founders and editors for O2 Haiku Literary Magazine. She lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest, a place of poetic beauty itself.
Tip Jar
Haiku Girl Summer will always be a free publication. If you want to make a financial contribution, please visit Allyson Whipple’s Buy Me a Coffee page. Mention Haiku Girl Summer in the comment box and your donation will go into a pool that will be divided among the guest editors at the end of the 2026 editorial run.
Merch
If you want to even more ways to share the summer love, you can check out the Haiku Girl Summer merch shop. We have T-shirts and tank tops along with hats, mugs, buttons, and a spiral notebook. Email me if there are other items you’d like to see!
