Butterfly Dream: Winter Stars Haiku by Peggy Willis Lyles

English Original

he comes to bed

clean-shaven ...

winter stars

Where Rain Would Stay , 2022

Peggy Willis Lyles

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

他上床睡覺

把鬍子刮得乾乾淨淨的 ...

冬日星辰

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

他上床睡觉

把胡子刮得干干净净的 ...

冬日星辰

Bio Sketch

Peggy Willis Lyles was born in Summerville, South Carolina, on September 17, 1939. She died in Tucker, Georgia on September 3, 2010. A former English professor, she was a leading haiku writer for over 30 years -- helping bring many readers and writers into the haiku community.

Poetic Musings: First Light Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

first light

a tai chi master pushes

and pulls the breeze

Second Place, 2023 San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka

Chen-ou Liu

Judge's Commentary: I've always been fascinated by the concept of 'first light,' and here, it illuminates the tai chi master and his movements. Isn't that the impression tai chi gives to observers? It seems as if its practitioners and students are pushing and pulling the breeze.

 

Tai chi, a deeply meditative exercise, unfolds slowly and mindfully. Some liken it to mindfulness on wheels or meditation in motion.

 

The prevailing aesthetic nuance here is toriawase. Often misinterpreted as juxtaposition, Susumu Takiguchi suggests that “Combination would have been a better English word to choose, as toriawase means mixing or joining two or more things together to form a single whole.”

 

Consider two storytelling techniques employed by filmmakers: Mise-en-scène, meaning "to put into scene" or "staging an action," and Montage, the art of selecting, editing, and piecing together film sections to create a cohesive whole. The poet has expertly applied these techniques here, and I believe further interpretation is unnecessary. The mastery lies in the seamless execution of these elements.

And it might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of my haiku below:

light of dawn

a tai chi master

pushes the silence 

Japanese Translation

夜明けの薄明り

太極拳の先生が

沈黙を押し返す

Grand Prize, First Morioka International Haiku Contest, 2019

FYI: For more about the cinematic techniques employed in writing haiku, see To the Lighthouse: Arranged Marriage of Haiku and Cinema.

Butterfly Dream: Crowded Waiting Room Haiku by Al Fogel

English Original

crowded waiting room

the one without a smartphone 

stares at us

Holding Hand-Helds, 2013

Al Fogel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

擁擠的候診室

這個沒有智慧型手機的人

盯著我們

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

拥挤的候诊室

这个没有智慧型手机的人

盯着我们

Bio Sketch

Al Fogel, 79, began his haiku journey about 14 years ago and has been writing haiku, senryu, tanka and haibun ever since. Some of his work has appeared in leading haijin journals around the globe. He has recently published two books: So Little Time and  Holding Hand-helds

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

English Original

a tuft of wisteria

arranged in a vase

was too short

it couldn't reach

the surface of the tatami

Japanese Hermeneutics, 2002 

edited by Michael F. Marra and translated by Haga Toru

Masaoka Shiki

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一簇紫藤

插在花瓶裡

卷鬚太短了

無法碰觸

榻榻米的表面

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一簇紫藤

插在花瓶里

卷须太短了

无法碰触

榻榻米的表面

 

 

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: Valley of Smoke Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, XL

the morning sun

choked out by columns of black ...

car after car 

driving through the valley of smoke

as tongues of fire leap behind

FYI: My haiku below could be read as a sequel:

No More Fairy Tales, VI

tongues of forest fires 

there's no Plan[et] B, the rest

blah, blah, blah ...

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2022 

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLI

morning sun barely seen street after street charred by the frames

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLII

tongues of flame

grow longer and wilder

with raging hate and lies ...

a raven's kraa-kraa-kraa

atop the Mar-a-Lago flagpole

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLIII

a stairway

what remains of a burned house ...

Pacific Coast sunset

Added:

patches of fog

shroud this orphanage ...

un/knowing the past

FYI: This haiku could be read as a sequel of my haiku below:

jigsaw puzzle:

group-home kids piece together

“American Dream”

Touch of a Moth: 2012 Haiku Canada Members' Anthology

(Note: American Dream is FX Schmid's award-winning 750-piece jigsaw puzzle)

hand-me-down dream

twilight laughter drifting

from the orphanage

Whispers, Oct. 2015

Special Feature: Selected Poems on Scholasticide in Gaza

Democracy Now, Jan.6: 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.” 

The vote was a vote of 428 in favor and 88 opposed. And the resolution was written by Historians for Peace and Democracy. There were four abstentions. 

The American Historical Association’s Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza reads, quote, “Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between October 2023 and June 2024. Whereas that campaign, beyond causing massive death and injury to Palestinian civilians and the collapse of basic life structures, has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system; Whereas in April 2024, UN experts expressed 'grave concern over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip' including [quote] 'the killing of 261 teachers and 95 university professors … which may constitute an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as scholasticide,'” unquote.

My Dear Friends:

I would like to share with you the following published entries, LXXII, LXXXVII, LXXXIV and CXXII of  Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words to reflect on these relentless and indiscriminate Israeli strikes on Palestinian basic life structures and education system:

a girl convulsing 

on the bloodstained classroom floor

smell of Gaza's  air

screams cut off ...

another day, another school

bombed out

slanted moonlight

on a half-collapsed school wall

chalk poppies bloom

(FYI: "The Palestinian poppy (Anemone coronaria) is a non-official but more recognizable national symbol of Palestine. It's red, with black center and green leaves, evoking the primary colors of the Palestinian flag. And it symbolizes the relationship between Palestinians and their land, the bloodshed they have endured, as well as their resistance against Israeli occupation.")

a drift of olive leaves ...

my Gazan friend's kin living

in various bombed schools

To conclude today's post with the following newest entry:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLVIII: "silence upon silence"

ruins after ruins ...

these layers of silence

upon silence

We Cannot Be Bystanders to Genocide.

-- Chen-ou Liu

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

-- Martin Luther King Jr. 

Butterfly Dream: Dawn Moon Haiku by Marian Olson

English Original

dawn moon

quiet mind, quiet

embers in the ash

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, May 9, 2014

Marian Olson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

黎明月亮

心靜則靜

灰燼中的餘燼

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

黎明月亮

心静则静

灰烬中的余烬

Bio Sketch

Marian Olson, non-fiction writer and widely published international poet, was the author of nine books of poetry, including the award winning haiku in Songs of the Chicken Yard, Desert Hours, Consider This, and Moondance. Published in 2017, The Other and Kaleidoscope were her first books of tanka.

Butterfly Dream: Winter Wind Haiku by Laryalee Fraser

English Original

deep winter 

I walk the wind

into twilight

Roadrunner, 02, 2009

Laryalee Fraser 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

深冬

我隨風而行

步入黃昏

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

深冬

我随风而行

步入黄昏

Bio Sketch

A resident of British Columbia, Canada, Laryalee Fraser was actively engaged in online poetry forums from the mid-1990’s until her death in 2013. Her poetry has been widely published in haiku and tanka journals, and  in 2006, she compiled an online anthology of haiku, "a procession of ripples."

Special Feature: Selected Poems on January 6th U.S. Capitol ATTACK

in memory of John Lewis (February 21, 1940 -- July 17, 2020, Atlanta, Georgia), American civil rights leader and politician best known for his "Good Trouble" remark:

Democracy is not a state. It is an ACT … Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call "good trouble, necessary trouble."  

In the Wake of Defeat 

alone

before the long wall

of U.S. flags ...

bubbles of spit frothing 

from the President's mouth

piercing cries

of count every vote

and stop the steal ...

MAGA fans white with rage

against the dying of the light

NeverEnding Story, November 15 2020

Jan.6th: A Day Of Things To Come

the Capitol 

two-meter high fencing topped

with a sun-bleached flag

behind steel fences

night shadows etch the facade

of the Supreme Court

NeverEnding Story, January 6 2024

in dim light

I'm half awake, half asleep ...

blonde-haired old man

draped in a red-white-and-blue

cloak of impunity

NeverEnding Story, January 6 2024

(FYI: The Guardian, Jan. 5: Brett Kavanaugh will ‘step up’ to keep Trump on ballots, ex-president’s lawyer says: Trump lawyer ‘has faith’ in US supreme court justice appointed by the former president, though the court hasn’t said if it will weigh in)

Between Heaven and Hell, XVII

the winter woods

dark and deep into my dream

January 6th

(FYI: Ls 1&2 ironically allude to the concluding staza of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

Axios, Dec. 26, 2024: Trump's first day: 59 things he promised to do on "day one:" one of 59 things is "pardons for Jan. 6 rioters"

And Daily Beast, Jan.5, 2025: This is Sickening’: Trump Slammed for Jan. 6 Take at Secret Mar-a-Lago Bash)

Between Heaven and Hell, XVIII

Making America Trump Again

alone, soul-exiled

from Trumpland with its lies

and hush money,

I binge hour after hour...

Jan. 6th hearings

once blood-stained

the Capitol's arched portal ...

in two weeks

the Convicted Felon will take

(the oath and) the Power

51st state

the Gulf of America

buying Greenland...

with mind-punched news turned off

I stumble into the dark

the Arctic tap 

wide open to send chill after chill

as far south 

as the Gulf of "Trumperica" ...

long lineup at Mar-a-Lago

(FYI: Watch the 10-day Jan. 6th Committee Full Hearings.  and The New York Times, Jan. 5: ‘A Day of Love’: How Trump Inverted the Violent History of Jan. 6

The president-elect and his allies have spent four years reinventing the Capitol attack — spreading conspiracy theories and weaving a tale of martyrdom to their ultimate political gain)

Only God, if there is one, can save America from itself

Chen-ou

Added: Between Heaven and Hell, XIX

Trump this, Trump that ...

with this news-punched mind

I sound-bathe in silence

Added: Between Heaven and Hell, XX

unconditional discharge ...

I walk with winter gales

into the gathering dark

One Man's Maple Moon: Procession Tanka by James Tipton

English Original 

at the head 

of the procession 

an old man 

balances on one hand 

the tiny white coffin 

Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, III, 2011

James Tipton

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在葬禮隊伍

的前頭

一位老人

僅用一隻手保持平衡

小小的白色棺材

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在葬礼队伍

的前头

一位老人

仅用一只手保持平衡

小小的白色棺材

 

Bio Sketch

James Tipton lived in Ajijic, Mexico, on the shores of Lake Chapala, where he wrote poetry and enjoyed village life. His work is widely published, including credits in The Nation, Southern Humanities Review, and American Literary Review. He is also included in various anthologies and other works, most recently Haiku: A Poet’s Guide and Erotic Haiku.

A Room of My Own: Five Shekels Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLV: "five shekels" 

a telescope 

mounted on a hilltop ...

five shekels (FYI: 1.37 USD)

to see rubble after rubble

under Gaza's smoky skies

FYI: The Guardian, July 20,2024:Israelis gather on hillsides to watch and cheer as military drops bombs on Gaza

People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive

And Der Spiegel, Dec. 23, 2024: "Within a Year, We Will Be Living in Gaza"

The Israeli army is systematically destroying towns in northern Gaza and expelling the population. It is laying the groundwork for a military occupation - and for the possible construction of new Jewish settlements.

There is a telescope mounted on a hilltop outside the Gaza Strip. Here, on the outskirts of the Israeli city of Sderot, you can pay five shekels to watch the war at a magnification of 25x.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLVI: "war tourism" 

clouds of smoke and fire ....

through the telescope viewfinder

on a hilltop

Israeli tourists don't see the war

but vision a future of houses

FYI:  Der Spiegel, Dec. 23, 2024: "Within a Year, We Will Be Living in Gaza"

The Fenton family at the hilltop viewpoint near Sderot...When one detonation sends up a particularly large cloud of smoke, Fenton exults: "How beautiful! How beautiful! How beautiful! Thanks be to God!”

"The path we are being led down is one of conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing,” warned the former Israeli general, Netanyahu’s defense minister during the 2014 Gaza War, Moshe Ya’alon in an early December television interview. "There is no Beit Lahiya anymore, no Beit Hanoun, the army is intervening in Jabaliya, and in truth, the land is being cleansed of Arabs.” Israel is threatening to become a "corrupt and leprous fascist messianic state.”

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLVII: "Palestine sunbirds" 

the pause between fireballs ...

a burst of colors

Palestine sunbirds in flight 

FYI: The Palestine sunbird is the national bird of Palestine, a symbol of Palestinian resistance and freedom

Added:

Chinese fried dough

crumbled into black coffee ...

home away from home

Butterfly Dream: Winter Mountains Haiku by Pamela A. Babusci

English Original

winter mountains

i lose myself

in whiteness

Third Place, Anita Sadler Weiss Memorial Haiku Awards 2009

Pamela A. Babusci

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬季山脈

在無盡的一片純白中

我迷失了自己

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬季山脉

在无尽的一片纯白中

我迷失了自己

 

Bio Sketch

Pamela A. Babusci  is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon Competition (Aust) tanka category,  First Place Kokako Tanka Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival Haiku Contests (Japan).  Pamela has illustrated several books, including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US.

One Man's Maple Moon: Pigeons Tanka by M. Kei

English Original

like pigeons 

around your feet,

I too peck at 

what you have dropped

and forgotten

M. Kei

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

像鴿子一樣

圍繞在你的腳邊,

我也啄食

你所掉落並遺忘

的一切東西

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

像鸽子一样

围绕在你的脚边,

我也啄食

你所掉落并遗忘

的一切东西

Bio Sketch

M. Kei is a tall ship sailor and award-winning poet who lives on Maryland’s Eastern shore. He is the editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of World Tanka. His most recent collection of poetry is January, A Tanka Diary. He is also the author of the award-winning gay Age of Sail adventure novels, Pirates of the Narrow Seas. He can be followed on Twitter @kujakupoet, or visit AtlasPoetica.org.

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.128 Million Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

Launched on the first day of 2013, NeverEnding Story crossed the 2.128 million view mark this morning (FYI: NeverEnding Story reached 1. 826 Million pageviews on January 1, 2024)

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 (5 following, 4,754 followers).

And I'm here to to announce I will not be moving to Bluesky or another friendly social media/platform.

It's because 

On #ElonMusk's X, one of the things a #Twitter #Poet is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions, especially the ones regarding #ConvictedFelon #DonaldTrump

-- paraphrasing Salman Rushdie #quote #writing #FightBack

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent. This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.

-- Toni Morrison, "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear"

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

To conclude today's new year post, I would to like share with you the latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIII: "Jimmy Carter"

in memory of Jimmy Carter, a bluntly honest man of Faith who follow[ed] the Prince of Peace in the New Testament (The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024)

these worn pages

of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

in snowlight

Carter's word-bombs bunker-bust

IDF's tunnel-deep lie-mines

Happy New Year, 2025! Peace on Earth

Chen-ou

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIV: "new year of the same fate"

A New Year of the Same Fate

alone, lost

in the calm between fireballs

this Gazan boy's gaze

a two-thousand-yard stare

at the Great Beyond ...

with lifeless eyes

cast to Gaza's ashy skies

this girl's face

summons a grief 

as old as Time

FYI: The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024: Remembering a Visit to Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia

Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin spent thirteen days secluded near Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain and produced a peace treaty that has endured for forty years. It was Jimmy Carter’s signature accomplishment and one that has never been matched in the region, despite decades of strenuous attempts.

...on his first day in the Oval Office, in January, 1977, he stunned his Vice-President, Walter Mondale, by saying that his first priority was to bring peace to the Middle East. Carter later told me that he believed God had put him into the Presidency for that very reason.

...So why do you think God wants peace in the Holy Land?” I asked. “Because we follow the Prince of Peace in the New Testament,” he responded.

In retrospect, Carter’s priorities in the White House—the environment, energy conservation, peace, health care—were remarkably prescient, and certainly his personal qualities offer a dismaying contrast to so much of the present state of American politics. Perhaps his piety soured the American public on him. Other qualities—his doggedness, earnestness, sincerity, blunt honesty—were in sharp contrast to those of Reagan, who proved irresistible to the public.

One Man's Maple Moon: New Year's Eve Tanka by Angelo B. Ancheta

English Original

the column of sparks 

from the fountain rises 

on New Year's eve 

how do I start this time 

with an end

Angelo B. Ancheta

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

倒映的一柱煙火

從噴水池中升起

除夕夜

在歲末的時刻

我該如何開始新的一年

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

倒映的一柱烟火

从喷水池中升起

除夕夜

在岁末的时刻

我该如何开始新的一年

Bio Sketch

Angelo B. Ancheta lives in Rizal, Philippines. His haiku and other poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies both in print and online. He also writes fiction, some of which have won prizes in contests. He believes that writing complements object-oriented programming, which he does in daytime.