One Man's Maple Moon: Whispery Hush Tanka by Larry Kimmel

English Original

listening

to the whispery hush

of the woods

and thinking of you,

I embrace a birch

Alone Tonight, 1998

Larry Kimmel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

聆聽

叢林間低語

的寂靜

想著你的時候

我擁抱一棵白樺樹

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

聆听

丛林间低语

的寂静

想着你的时候

我拥抱一棵白桦树

Bio Sketch

Larry Kimmel lives quietly in the hills of western Massachusetts.  His most recent books  are shards and dust (cherita), outer edges (tanka) and thunder and apple blossoms (haiku).

Butterfly Dream: Nursing Home Haiku by Kelly Sargent

English Original

nursing home

rosy-cheeked

in the frame

Presence, 73, 2022

Kelly Sargent

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

養老院

一個相框裡

的紅潤臉頰

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

养老院

一个相框里

的红润脸颊

Bio Sketch

Kelly Sargent is a widely-published poet and the author of Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), a collection of haiku and senryu. Honors in 2022 and 2023 include: The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems (nomination),The H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryu Contest (honorable mention), Golden Haiku Poetry Contest (recognition), and The Mukai Haiku Festival Poetry Competition (winner).

Hot News: A Milestone, 5 000 X Followers and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a milestone this morning: 

NeverEnding Story Editor and Poet, Chen-ou Liu: @ericcoliu

5 following, 5, 000 followers  

I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of this poetry journey. And NeverEnding Story now seeks the haiku and tanka that can bite and bite hard. 

The accepted haiku and tanka will be translated into Chinese and posted on NeverEnding Story and X. And you are welcome to follow me on X at @ericcoliu.

We write not to pretend the pain can be contained, but to keep the door slightly ajar between the world we inhabit and the world beyond the siege.

-- Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi, Palestinian writer, poet, and editor from Gaza

collapsed school wall

a butterfly

in shades of charcoal

First Place, 22nd annual Porad Haiku Award

Chen-ou Liu

(FYI: Democracy Now, Jan.6, 2025: American Historical Association Votes Overwhelmingly for Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza, 

The American Historical Association, the oldest learned society in the United States, has adopted the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,” condemning Israel’s “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.”)

Look forward to reading your poetry and share with you the following writing remarks and my tanka about a Sisyphean struggle with writing:

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.

-- Dan Poynter

Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little.

-- Holley Gerth

midnight silence

as my cursor blinks nonstop

beneath the weight

of a writer's boulder ...

still I haul this thought uphill

(FYI: this tanka could be read as the prequel to the following:

drenched 

in sweat and hot tears 

I push, pushing 

the last line of my tanka 

out into this October light 😅

NeverEnding Story, October 1 2025)

You fail only if you stop writing.

-- Ray Bradbury

Chen-ou

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLVI: "skeletal houses"

thunderheads ...

a row of skeletal houses

heavy with silence

A Room of My Own: Street-Preach Chants Haiku

street-preach chants ...

clouds of breath weaving through

the Friday night crowd

FYI: The following could be read as its prequel:

a street preacher talks

over a line of pro-choicers --

his arguments

frothy as soapsuds

get big ... and bigger

NeverEnding Story, September 21 2025

Added:

twilight fog drifting ...

my shadow and I follow

no one

FYI: My haiku below could be read as its prequel:

snow geese

unzip the morning sky

my journey starts

Brass Bell, January, 2022

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LX

Read My Lips

"Canada is not for sale. You can kiss me where the sun doesn’t shine, and you can put a big 'C' in front of it," a grey-haired auto worker shouts out his defiant challenge to the people strolling along the opposite bank of the river, at least one mile away.

Alone at the edge of East Riverview Park, a patch of green overlooking the Detroit River, he continues his shouting for minutes until he hears the distant laughter drifting toward him

migrant kids

chase kids chasing rainbow balloons

Trump-Free Zone

Added:

hillside maples

the sunset glow redder

... and redder

Added:

sunset glow

a pink-haired girl wheels her chair

through leaf fall 

Poetic Musings: Small Girl and Shadows Haiku by Michael McClintock

a small girl ...

the shadows stroke

and stroke her

Maya, 1975

Michael McClintock

Commentary: This is one of the most disturbing haiku, by genre a haiku noir, I've ever read.

It explores a dark theme of "child sexual harassment (or even worse, abuse)" by a group of people (as implied from the shadowS repeatedly strok[ing] a small girl). 

Technically speaking, combined with visually and symbolically rich "shadows" (not explicitly men or people), the use of repetition, "stroke and stroke," not only enhances the poetic rhythm, but also adds emotional weight and psychological depth to the haiku. 

What's left unsaid/what will come next is far more poignantly potent than what's stated in the haiku.

FYI: For more about haiku noir, see "To the Lighthouse: Haiku Noir" 

One Man's Maple Moon: Obituary Tanka by Margaret Chula

English Original

one more time

I help Mother

write her obituary

wisps of fog

shroud the maples

Winter Deepens, 2018

Margaret Chula 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

再一次

我幫母親

寫訃告

縷縷薄霧

籠罩著楓樹

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

再一次

我帮母亲

写讣告

缕缕薄雾

笼罩着枫树

Bio Sketch

 

Margaret Chula has published two collections of tanka: Always Filling, Always Full and Just This. She has promoted tanka through her one-woman dramatization, “Three Women Who Loved Love”, which traveled to Krakow, New York, Boston, Portland, Ottawa, and Ogaki, Japan. And from 2011 to 2015, Maggie served as president of the Tanka Society of America.

Biting NOT Barking: Dragon-Shaped Cloud Haiku by Barbara Sabol

English Original

charred earth

a dragon-shaped cloud

breathes smoke

Under the Bashō , May 17, 2022

Barbara Sabol

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

燒焦的土地

龍形雲朵

噴吐著煙霧

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

烧焦的土地

龙形云朵

喷吐着烟雾

Bio Sketch

Barbara Sabol’s most recent collection, Connections: core & all, was published by Bird Dog Press in 2022. She is the associate editor of Sheila-Na-Gig online. Barbara conducts poetry workshops through Literary Cleveland. She lives in Akron, Ohio with her husband and wonder dogs. 

Butterfly Dream: Turtle Haiku by Robert D. Wilson

English Original

this turtle ...

heat weaving in and

out of rocks

The Living Haiku Anthology, February 14 2016

Robert D. Wilson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

這隻烏龜 ...

暑氣在岩石間

穿梭

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

这只乌龟 ...

暑气在岩石间

穿梭

Bio Sketch

Robert D. Wilson is Co-Owner of Simply Haiku.

One Man's Maple Moon: Sprays of Wisteria Tanka by Masaoka Shiki

English Original

sprays of wisteria

arranged in a vase --

the blossoms hang down,

and by my sickbed

spring is coming to an end

Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era, 1984

Masaoka Shiki

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一簇簇紫藤

插在花瓶裡 --

它們的花朵下垂,

在我的病床旁

春天即將結束

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一簇簇紫藤

插在花瓶里 --

它们的花朵下垂,

在我的病床旁

春天即将结束

 

 

Bio Sketch

Masaoka Shiki (October 14, 1867 -- September 19, 1902) was a Japanese poet and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku, and he also published articles on the reform of tanka. Some scholars and poets consider Shiki to be one of the four great haiku masters, the others being Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa.

A Room of My Own: The old war comes to "an end"

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLI: "the wars, old and new"

"Now we're trapped in a new war." An aid worker draws a breath and resumes in an uneven voice, "the battlefield is in the wounded bodies of survivors, in the broken hearts of mothers, in the hungry eyes of children, in the distant stares of elderly people. We're just fighting to live, simply to live, and we have nothing to do so..." Before the aid worker finishes her answer, boom, boom, boom interrupts the interview. The TV screen goes black.

chilly rain

stalks the edge of his dream

my Gazan friend

still waiting for the phone call

I know won't come

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLII: "on my hands and knees"

On My Hands and Knees

"I crawled through a crowd of hundreds to scavenge a small bag with scraps of food ..." The gray-haired man pauses for a moment to take a deep breath, then continues, "I had to gather whatever had fallen to the ground -- lentils, rice, chickpeas, even flour mixed with dirt. My bones ached and my heart beat fast; I almost collapsed due to exhaustion. However, in my mind the sound of my children's hunger grew louder and darker ..."

a sack of flour

on the muddy roadside

just beyond reach

of an old Gazan's hand

in a pool of blood

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIII: "the wounded land"

The Wounded Land

ceasefire for now ...

dew-drenched blades of grass

hold the sky

first rooster crow

on a bombless day

skeletal farmhouse

an old man's fajr

hangs in the dusty air ...

withdrawal line

bombshell shards 

glint at the morning sun

the edge of peace

Note: The fajr prayer is one of the five daily Muslim prayers, and it is performed between the break of dawn and sunrise. 

And the IDF physically marked the initial withdrawal line in Gaza, known as the "yellow line," to clearly delineate it and alert both Hamas and Gaza residents. The IDF has killed dozens of Gazans who crossed the line.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIV: "charred photo frame"

charred photo frame

my friend's Gazan ancestors

stiff faced, straight backed...

Added:

the Peace Wall patterned

with shifting leaf shadows

this world in flux

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIV: "pyramids of rubble"

pyramid 

after pyramid of rubble ... 

again "ceasefire" strikes

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLV: "mutilated bodies"

detainees

returned to Gaza

in gathering dusk

at least 135 

mutilated bodies

FYI: Haaretz, Opinion,  Oct.23 2025: Israel's Government Prides Itself on Sadism, Abuse and Torture

Biting NOT Barking: One-Legged Boy Haiku by Djurdja Vukelic Rozic

English Original

a stork in its nest

and a boy in the yard

standing on one leg

D.V. Rožić: Under the Wing of a White Stork, 2016 

Djurdja Vukelic Rozic

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一隻鸛鳥在巢裡

一個男孩在院子

只能單腳站立

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一只鹳鸟在巢里

一个男孩在院子

只能单脚站立

Bio Sketch

Djurdja Vukelic Rozic was born in 1956, lives in the town of Ivanic Grad, Croatia, edits the magazine IRIS, translates and writes poetry, humorous sketches, short stories, haiku and haibun. So far she has published twenty books and translated a number of collections and anthologies into English. And her poetry has received thirty awards.

Butterfly Dream: Moth Haiku by Larry Kimmel

English Original

alone tonight

a moth taps 

at the window

Alone Tonight, 1998

Larry Kimmel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

今晚獨自一人

一隻飛蛾

輕敲著窗戶

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

今晚独自一人

一只飞蛾

轻敲着窗户

Bio Sketch

Larry Kimmel lives quietly in the hills of western Massachusetts.  His most recent books  are shards and dust (cherita), outer edges (tanka) and thunder and apple blossoms (haiku).

Special Feature: Selected Poems in Response to the Wannabe Dictator, Donald Trump: In America, the Law Is King!

My Friends:

Today, millions of people are rising again to show the world: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people.

Trump Empire, Inc, LIX

written in response to No Kings Protest, II: 

this recurring dream:

           ME

a                        rica

formed by buzzing drones over 

the white House bathed in dusk

FYI: The following poems were written in response to No Kings Protest, I, June 14, 2025:

Trump Empire, Inc, XXXVIII

in gathering dark

the entrance to the White House

No Parking Any Time  😎

No Kings Protest:

chant after chant of fried truth

eggflation

scrambled justice, poached rights,

cracked democracy...Trump, Fuck Off

NeverEnding Story, June 15 2025

(FYI: The Nation, June 16: The No Kings! Movement Trumped Trump

Thomas Paine from Common Sense, the 1776 rejection of King George III and the British monarchy, which declared, “O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!”

More than 5 million everydayAmericans stood forth, as patriots, and trumped Trump.

In America, the law is King!)

To conclude today's Special Feature post, I would like to share with you the following protest song:

People Rise Up  by Seth Bernard

People rise up people come together

We never give up we never surrender

To the forces that would keep us down

Our hearts are found

We’re mother bound

Keep on keep on lovers we’ve got what it takes

To shake off the shame and stay awake

Feel the feels and heal the deal

Take it all the way

Stay real

People rise up people come together

One foot in front of the other

Walk on walk on our hearts can crush this

Stand for peace

Work for justice

Keep a weary eye on the powers that be

Keep taking back our democracy

Keep your eyes up keep your mind sharp

The light in our eyes moving

Through the dark 

To the Lighthouse: Gembun, Untitled Minimalist Haibun

A sibling to cherita, gembun was created and conceived by NeverEnding Story contributor, ai li, on Friday 12 June 1997. 

It is made up of either a one-word first link or anything up to one sentence, to be capped by a haiku of up to four lines. It has to include an element of suggestion in either the opening sentence, the haiku or in both. For more details, see ai li's definition 

Selected Gembun:

the skipping rope in a cul-de-sac

a child

who looks like me

becoming dusk

Gembun, 2025

ai li

an intense Bhagavad Gita lecture in the open air but ah, my wandering mind

after a long search

the third-day moon found

between two branches

contemporary haibun online, 20:1, April 2024

Kala Ramesh

To conclude today's post, I would like to share with you my visual gembun

this season of my wounded heart

sunset glow

   red leaf

zig

     zagging

into my

      loneliness

The opening phrase includes an element of suggestion,  the melancholy of the season, autumn, and the layout of the haiku, with lines zigzagging like a lone red leaf drifting in sunset glow,  enhances a sense of lonely sadness that takes residence within the speaker ("my wounded heart" and "my loneliness").

Butterfly Dream: Swirling Leaves Haiku by Milan Rajkumar

English Original

swirling leaves --

the rattle of an old typewriter

Under the Bashõ , 2020

Milan Rajkumar

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

飛舞的落葉 --

老式打字機的嘎嘎聲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

飞舞的落叶 --

老式打字机的嘎嘎声

Bio Sketch

Milan Rajkumar is a  secondary school teacher who teaches economics while writing haiku. He lives in a corner of the north eastern India. Genetically a mongoloid by look and food, he speaks a Tibeto-Burman language known as 'Manipuri' ‘Meiteilon.’  Writing is his passion since childhood. Nowadays he writes haiku every day and night.