One Man's Maple Moon: Sharing Love Tanka by H. Gene Murtha

English Original

sharing love

with another child

I count

the different shapes

of each snowflake

Biding Time: Selected Poems 2001-2013, 2013

H. Gene Murtha 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

和另一個孩子

分享愛

我計數

每一片雪花

不同的形狀

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

和另一个孩子

分享爱

我计数

每一片雪花

不同的形状

Bio Sketch

H. Gene Murtha, a naturalist and poet, sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, NJ., for the Virgilio Group, of which he was a lifetime member. He was widely published for his work in haikai literature from the USA to Japan.

A Room of My Own: Surge of Cases Haiku

Three Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Entry,  Coronavirus Poetry Diary

a surge of cases ...

half buried in the snow

face masks

FYI: Yahoo News, March 27: Be ready to 'pivot' back to COVID restrictions, Anthony Fauci warns leaders; and Reuters, March 30: Canada faces rising COVID wave as restrictions ease 

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Entry

meteor shower

bit by bit I let go

of this viral fear

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Entry

her voice 

on my answering machine 

for three months ...

her absence another barrier

to this world of masked strangers

One Man's Maple Moon: Passionate Cry Tanka by Martha Magenta

English Original

the passionate

cry of a stag

awakens the forest ...

parts of me

forever wild

Frameless Sky, 10, July 2019

Martha Magenta

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

熱情

的雄鹿叫聲

喚醒了森林 ...

部分的我

永遠地狂野

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

热情

的雄鹿叫声

唤醒了森林 ...

部分的我

永远地狂野

 

 

Bio Sketch

Martha Magenta lived in England, UK. Her haiku and tanka had appeared in a number of journals, and anthologies. She was awarded honourable mentions for her haiku in The Fifth Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku  Awards, 2017, and in the 71st Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest, 2017, and for her tanka in UHTS  “Fleeting Words” Tanka Contest 2017.

Butterfly Dream: Leaf’s Descent Haiku by Rachel Sutcliffe

English Original

the leaf’s descent ...

leaving my best years

behind me

Cattails, September 2015

Rachel Sutcliffe

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一片樹葉的墜落 ...

生命中最好的歲月

已離我而去

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一片树叶的坠落 ...

生命中最好的岁月

已离我而去

 

 

Bio Sketch

Rachel Sutcliffe had suffered from a serious immune disorder for over 16 years; throughout  this time writing had been her therapy, and it kept her from going insane! She was an active member of the British Haiku Society and has been published in various journals including  Prune Juice, Failed Haiku and Hedgerow.

Butterfly Dream: Felled Oak Haiku by Jane Reichhold

English Original

the felled oak

bending to fit

the earth

Tiger in a Teacup, 1998

Jane Reichhold

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

被砍倒的橡樹

彎曲它的樹幹以適應

大地

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

被砍倒的橡树

弯曲它的树干以适应

大地

 

 

Bio Sketch 

 

Jane Reichhold was born as Janet Styer in 1937 in Lima , Ohio , USA . She had published over thirty books of haiku, renga, tanka, and translations. Her latest tanka book, Taking Tanka Home was translated into Japanese by Aya Yuhki. Her most popular book is Basho The Complete Haiku by Kodansha International. As founder and editor of AHA Books, Jane also published Mirrors: International Haiku Forum, Geppo, for the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, and she had co-edited with Werner Reichhold, Lynx for Linking Poets since 1992. Lynx went online in 2000 in AHApoetry.com the web site Jane started in 1995. Since 2006 she had maintained an online forum – AHAforum

Poetic Musings: Evening Fire Haiku by Jennifer Hambrick

evening fire

thoughts flicker

in his words

Haiku Canada Review, 11:2, October 2017

Jennifer Hambrick

Commentary: Technically speaking, there is a subtle yet effective "link"-and-[shift] relationship between the two parts (flickering sparks from [physical] "evening fire" and [inner] "thoughts flicker"/in his words) of the haiku. And thematically speaking, Jennifer's verb choice in L2, thoughts "flicker," not only adds emotional weight to the haiku, but also expands its "dreaming room." What's left unsaid is at least as potent as what's said.

The light of truth burns without a flicker in the depths of a house that is shaken with storms of passion and fear... Thomas Merton

Note: For more about dreaming room, see To the Lighthouse: Denis M. Garrison's Dreaming Room and Roland Barthes's Writerly Text

Butterfly Dream: Sea Wall Haiku by Marian Olson

English Original

no gulls today

high waves explode

on the sea wall

bottle rockets, 11, 2004

Marian Olson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

沒有海鷗縱跡

巨浪衝撞海堤

爆發四散

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

没有海鸥纵迹

巨浪冲撞海堤

爆发四散

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.

A Room of My Own: Unmasked Hellos and Laughter Tanka

Three Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Entry,  Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written for Peter York who claims, "One should never learn from one's mistakes. Making the same mistakes, over and over again, is a source of unremitting pleasure. "

unmasked hellos

and laughter at the mall  ...

I click off the news

and doomsurf

with my drunken shadow

FYI: The Tyee, March 18: It’s Not Over. Experts Warn of New COVID Wave: A variant and fading vaccine protection could bring a rise in cases in April. And Mint, March 22: Stealth Omicron BA.2 spreading fast globally.

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-Sixth Entry

sticker shock

at the grocery store

deafness

like stealth omicron passing

among unmasked politicians

Added: This Brave New World, XXXXI

Caribbean tour ...

a boy lacing his fingers

through the holes

in the chain-link fence

between pickets and royals

FYI: Time, March 24: Prince William and Kate's Tour Was Meant to Secure the Monarchy in the Caribbean. Instead, It's Raising New Questions About Its Future.

The news arrived at a difficult moment for the royals. The day before the couple’s arrival in the country, one hundred Jamaican academics, politicians, and cultural figures signed an open letter calling for the royal family and British government to apologize and pay reparations for subjecting the island to colonial rule and slavery.

The letter’s consignatories describe Prince William and Kate as “direct beneficiaries of the wealth accumulated by the royal family…from the trafficking and enslavement of Africans”. In reference to the Queen’s Jubilee, the letter reads: “We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, has perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind.”

“Slavery was abhorrent and it never should have happened,” he said. “I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales [Great Talker and Little Doer], who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.”

Butterfly Dream: Roadside Memorial Haiku by Garry Eaton

English Original

roadside memorial

morning glories

ruffled by the wind

tinywords, 19:2, October 28 2019

Garry Eaton

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

路邊紀念碑

一叢牽牛花

被風吹亂

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

路边纪念碑

一丛牵牛花

被风吹乱

Bio Sketch

Garry Eaton was a Canadian poet from British Columbia. He started writing haiku in 2006 and was published occasionally in the major haiku magazines. He volunteered as the digital librarian for The Haiku Foundation Digital Library.

One Man's Maple Moon: Lost Lover Tanka by Alegria Imperial

English Original

the moon
straying into my night
like a lost lover
stirs in me again
long silenced caws

A Hundred Gourds, March 2015

Alegria Imperial

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

月亮

遊蕩進入我的夜晚

像是一個迷路的情人

再次激起我內心

悠長的沉默啼聲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

月亮

游荡进入我的夜晚

像是一个迷路的情人

再次激起我内心

悠长的沉默啼声

Bio Sketch

Alegria Imperial, a former journalist in the Philippines, started writing haiku and other short Japanese poetry  forms a few years ago. Her works have since been widely published, some gaining awards. Her first collection is an  e-chapbook, counting star-bones, of 20 contemporary haiku. She immigrated to Canada 12 years ago.

Butterfly Dream: Coastal Mudflat by Kokuu Andy McLellan

English Original

coastal mudflat

the ebb and flow

of sandpipers

Blithe Spirit, 28:3, 2018

Kokuu Andy McLellan

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

沿海泥灘

伴隨潮起潮落飛翔

的一群鷸

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

沿海泥滩

伴随潮起潮落飞翔

的一群鹬

 

 

Bio Sketch

Kokuu Andy McLellan is a haiku poet and Soto Zen novice priest living in Canterbury, UK.  He spends a lot of time drinking tea and has three children and a PhD in plant biology.

One Man's Maple Moon: Reflections&Past Ventures Tanka by Naomi Beth Wakan

English Original

reflections 

of anchored small boats

ripple in the lake 

I too feel fragmented 

when I think of past ventures

Wind on the Heath, 2020  

Naomi Beth Wakan

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在湖裡

停泊小船漣漪

的倒影

當想起過去種種的冒險

我也覺得是支離破碎

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在湖里

停泊小船涟漪

的倒影

当想起过去种种的冒险

我也觉得是支离破碎

Bio Sketch

Naomi Beth Wakan is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo (2014–16) and the Federation of British Columbia Writer’s Inaugural Honorary Ambassador. She has published over fifty books. Her most recent book of essays, On the Arts, came out in 2020 (Shanti Arts). Her trilogy, The Way of Tanka, The Way of Haiku, and Poetry That Heals was published by Shanti Arts in 2019. Wakan is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada, and Tanka Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, the sculptor Elias Wakan.

Butterfly Dream: Rebel Song Haiku by Roberta Beary

English Original

st patrick's day

a rebel song that died

with my dad

tinywords, 19:1, 2019

Roberta Beary 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

聖帕特里克節

一首和我爸爸一起死去

的反叛歌曲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

圣帕特里克节

一首和我爸爸一起死去

的反叛歌曲

Bio Sketch

Roberta Beary writes to connect with the disenfranchised, to let them know they are not alone. She coedited the  women’s haiku anthology Wishbone Moon (Jacar Press, 2018.) Her collections, The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press,  2007) and Deflection (Accents, 2015) are multiple award winners. She is haibun editor for Modern Haiku.

A Room of My Own: St. Patrick's Day Haiku

Three Hundred and Twenty-Second Entry,  Coronavirus Poetry Diary

St. Patrick's Day

the warmth

of unmasked hellos

FYI: CTV News, March 17: Halifax pubs ring in St. Patrick’s Day, the first since the pandemic began and CP24, March 17: St. Patrick’s Day parades turn pandemic blues Irish green

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-Third Entry

my sex drive 

on and off in lockdown ...

spotty showers

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Entry

green shoots

on an oak stump ...

lockdown lifted

Poetic Musings: Forget-Me-Nots and Echo Haiku by Mellisa Allen

the forget-me-nots

and the sky —

an echo

Red Dragonfly, December 2015

Mellisa Allen

Commentary: Allen takes on a centuries-old challenge here. Basho was known to advise prospective students, “Don’t imitate me; / it’s as boring/ as the two halves of a melon.”

In response to the following by Basho:

                The daffodils
                And the white paper screen
                Reflecting one another’s color 

Without mimicking, Allen closely copies image, structure of experience, and insight. She sticks with flowers—Basho’s daffodils become forget-me-nots. She substitutes the sky for the paper screen. She asserts similarity between reflection and echo. Grammatical structure and thus order of experience remain the same. So does insight and mood... 

-- excerpted from To the Lighthouse: "Copying to Create: The Role of Imitation and Emulation in Developing Haiku Craft" by Michele Root-Bernstein

One Man's Maple Moon: Front Porch Dusk Tanka by Elliot Nicely

English Original

front porch dusk
we linger a moment
in our goodnights
the reach of my shadow
the breadth of her smile

bottle rockets, 41, 2019

Elliot Nicely

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

前廊的黃昏

我們逗留片刻

在道別的晚安中

我的影子觸及之處

和她微笑的深度

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

前廊的黄昏

我们逗留片刻

在道别的晚安中

我的影子触及之处

和她微笑的深度

 

Bio Sketch

Elliot Nicely is the author of two chapbooks: The Black Between Stars (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017) and Tangled Shadows: Senryu and Haiku (Rosenberry Books, 2013). He resides in Lakewood, Ohio in the United States.

Butterfly Dream: Canoe Haiku by Ben Gaa

English Original

the canoe

floating through our silence

summer stars

The Bamboo Hut, Spring/Summer 2018 

Ben Gaa 

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

獨木舟

漂流過我們的沉默

夏日星辰

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

独木舟

漂流过我们的沉默

夏日星辰

 

Bio Sketch

Ben Gaa is a haiku poet from St. Louis, MO. He is the author of two full length collections of haiku and senryu, One Breath (Spartan Press 2020) and the Touchstone Award winning Wishbones (Folded Word 2018), as well as three haiku chapbooks, Fiddle in the Floorboards (Yavanika Press 2018), Wasp Shadows (Folded Word 2014) and Blowing on a Hot Soup  Spoon (poor metaphor 2014). You can find more on Ben online at www.Ben-Gaa.com

One Man's Maple Moon: Gunpowder Tanka by Shuji Terayama

English Original

it may be my angel --

this small sparrow

I shot

then returned home

smelling the gunpowder

Kaleidoscope, 2007 

Shuji Terayama

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

這可能是我的天使 --

我射殺

一隻小麻雀

然後就回家

但仍然聞到火藥味

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

这可能是我的天使 --

我射杀

一只小麻雀

然后就回家

但仍然闻到火药味

 

 

Bio Sketch

The avant-garde stage and film director, poet, critic, author and founder of the experimental theater group Tenjo Sajiki, Shuji Terayama was born in 1935 in Aomori, Japan. He started writing tanka in his late teens and received the Tanka Kenkyu Award for Emerging Poets. He published several tanka collections before he stopped writing at the age of 30. Many of his tanka read more like scenes from a movie scene or short story. He died in 1983. The first English language collection of his tanka, Kaleidoscope, was published by The Hokuseido Press in 2008 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of  his death.

Butterfly Dream: Fisherman's Boat Haiku by Helena Wolthers

English Original

the lake by moonlight ...

amidst the silvery waves

one fisherman's boat.

Those Women Writing Haiku, 1998

Helena Wolthers

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

月光下的湖泊 ...

在銀色波浪中

的一條小漁船

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

月光下的湖泊 ...

在银色波浪中

的一条小渔船

 

Bio Sketch

Helena Wolthers (1909-1998) spent sixty years of her life writing poetry, and had been taken by haiku year ago. She published few haiku and enjoyed reading many of fine haiku. Her haiku were first published in Those Women Writing Haiku, 1998, edited by Jane Reichhold.

A Room of My Own: A Ukrainian's Stare Haiku

written in response to The Globe and Mail, March 11: Mariupol "on the edge of total desperation," official says, as death toll mounts in besieged Ukrainian city

A Ukrainian's stare ...

his shadow slips 

into a mass grave

Added:

not a place

like Iraq or Afghanistan

it's civilized ...

the reporter states at the border

crowded with Ukrainians

FYI: Global News, March 10: Prince William faces fury over ‘racist’ Ukraine war comments

During a visit to the Ukrainian Cultural Centre yesterday, Prince William said: “Everyone is horrified by what they are seeing. The news every day, it’s almost unfathomable. For our generation, it’s very alien to see this in Europe. We’re all right behind you.

And The Tyee, March 11: This isn’t a place like Iraq’: racism in the media coverage of Ukraine.

Reporting on the conflict, on February 25, CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata said: “this isn’t a place like Iraq or Afghanistan…this is a relatively civilized European city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.”

When NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella was asked why Poland is suddenly accepting Ukrainian refugees and didn’t accept others in 2015 from other countries, she responded: “…to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria….these are Christians; they’re white”.

Added: for Vera Lytovchenko, dubbed Ukraine’s “cellar violinist”

distant thunders ...

the violinist playing

a lullaby

for Ukrainian children

sheltered in a cellar

FYI: Time Of Israel, March 10: Sheltering from Russian bombs, Ukraine’s ‘cellar violinist’ plays on: Vera Lytovchenko becomes internet icon of resilience as images of her playing in basement bomb shelter inspire an international audience via social media

Special Feature: Poetic Impulse in the time of Covid19

Today/March 11, marks two years since the Work Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a pandemic, which has been upending life across the globe. We’ve had mask mandates, Covid-19 screening, quarantine, lockdowns, schools closed, online "learning," anti-covid19 ("just a flu"  "fake news," "conspiracy") protests, vaccines, and heated arguments about how to move forward and "live with" this virus. 

I started a journal, Coronavirus Poetry Diary,  on the day of the WHO's "pandemic"  announcement. Since then, I have been writing and publishing more than 350 poems in various forms, some of which won awards in the contests,  to "investigate"/reflect on my thoughts about and feelings towards what this pandemic has done to me, the people I care about, the society where I live, and most importantly, to the lifeworld. 

The following are my deeply held beliefs that

One writes not because one knows the answer but because one wants to explore the question. 

-- J.M. Coetzee 

Poetry acts as a witness in, to, and most importantly, through troubled times.

Chen-ou Liu, An Interview with Dimitar Anakiev, editor of Bulgarian-English Tanka Handbook 

Today, my drear readers/friends, I would like to invite you to embark on an exploratory journey with me to ask these following challenging questions, which are not just perceived from an individual vantage alone and should be contextualized from within a much larger picture:

Question 1: The Atlantic, March 8: How did this many deaths become normal? The U.S. is nearing 1 million recorded COVID-19 deaths without the social reckoning that such a tragedy should provoke. Why?

Three Hundred and Nineteenth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written on the day that marks two years since the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. 

a great loss

when only one man dies

of covid

but millions is just a number ...

this twist to my doctor's mouth

44th Entry

a tired nurse

opens the bedside window

my friend's voice

flows in with the night breeze

as his mother's eyes close 

Chen-ou Liu

in the garden

the dwindling petals

of the daffodil

the blessing of a death

from natural causes 

Dance into the World, 2020                                               

Marianne Paul

20th Entry

refrigerated trucks

outside a hospital

an old man

under the shadowy gaze

of the Empire State Building

209th Entry

spiralling

funeral pyre smoke and dust 

all week long

the workers enveloped

in their own unrest

Chen-ou Liu

these nameless

covid-19 stats ...

shivering drizzle 

Boston Haiku Society Newsletter, March 2020

Richard St. Clair

Question 2: CBC News, March 9: Mask mandates are being lifted in Canada: Politicization of messaging could further divide Canadians over masking in the future.

Three Hundred and Twentieth Entry

does it matter

to mask or not to mask ?

in dim light

Ukrainians crammed

into a bomb shelter

312th Entry

time to learn

to live with Covid-19

on the news ticker ...

a nurse turns off the TV

and starts her midnight rounds

Chen-ou Liu

Question 3: Daily Beast, March 18, 2020 (seven days after the WHO's pandemic announcement): Trump Addresses "Kung-Flu" Remark, Says Asian-Americans Agree "100 Percent" With Him Using "Chinese Virus," Really?

 Isaac Yeboah Addo's essay, Double pandemic: racial discrimination amid coronavirus disease 2019 and The New York Times, May 20 2021: Biden Signs Bill Addressing Hate Crimes Against Asian-Americans: The measure is the first legislative action that Congress has taken to bolster law enforcement’s response to attacks on people of Asian descent during the pandemic. 

Asians all look the same ...

yet, with the sharpness of an eagle's eyes, this white man still manages to hone in on the most vulnerable and defenceless.

an uptick

in new variant cases

another

Asian-looking old man 

knocked to the muddy ground

In the dark tunnel of my daymare with no light at its end, I dash to and fro, but settle nowhere. I can feel a bull's eye on my back.

The Blo͞o Outlier Journal, 2, Summer, 2021 

                                                       ... to be continued 

FYI: Today's post title alludes to Nobel prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez's 1985 novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, which most prominent theme suggest that lovesickness is a literal illness, a plague comparable to cholera.

As historian Yuval Harari argues in In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,  it is "the ability to create an imagined reality out of words’ (p.36) that really sets humans apart from other animals."

This is the main reason today's post is titled, Poetic Impulse in the time of Covid19.

167th Entry

quarantining

this world of masked faces

into five lines ...

I throw a stone of words

across the river of no return

Chen-ou Liu

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-First  Entry

written in response to Hong Kong's Covid-19 crisis

quarantine room

shifting shadows of me

togetheralone

FYI: Reuters, March 13: Hong Kong reports 32,430 COVID cases, 264 deaths on March 13 (note: 213 reported deaths in 2020 and 2021)

Some 300,000 people were isolating at home,...Hong Kong has recorded nearly 700,000 COVID-19 infections and about 3,500 deaths since early 2020 - most of them in the past two weeks. Most of the fatalities are among unvaccainated senior citizens.

One Man's Maple Moon: Violence and Nursery Songs Tanka by Fumi Saito

English Original

violence

like this is beautiful

living in the world

all day long I sing

my nursery songs

White Letter Poems, 1998

Fumi Saito

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

暴力

像是這樣是很美的

活在世上

我整天都在唱

幼兒園歌曲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

暴力

像是这样是很美的

活在世上

我整天都在唱

幼儿园歌曲

 

 

Bio Sketch

Daughter of a military officer who was noted for his verse-writing talent, Fumi Saito began writing poetry in the traditional 31-syllable tanka form in her early teens. Her first book of tanka, Fish Songs, published in 1940, immediately established her as a brilliant young poet. She was inducted into the Japan Art Academy in 1993 and invited to serve as meshiudo (a position similar to the Poet Laureate's) at the Imperial Palace in 1997.

Butterfly Dream: Das Kapital Haiku by Jack Galmitz

English Original

In my bureau drawer

a copy of Das Kapital

and a leather glove

Applause Please, 2020

Jack Galmitz 

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在我的辦公室抽屜裡

一本資本論

和一隻皮手套

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在我的办公室抽屉里

一本资本论

和一只皮手套

Bio Sketch 

 

Jack Galmitz was born in NYC in 1951. He received a Ph.D in English from the University of Buffalo.  He is an Associate of the Haiku Foundation and Contributing Editor at Roadrunner.  His most recent books are Views (Cyberwit.net, 2012),  Letters (Lulu Press, 2012), yards & lots (Middle Island Press, 2012), not-zero-sum (Impress 2015) and Takeout (Impress, 2015).  He lives in New York with his wife and stepson.

Special Feature: Haiku and Tanka Selected for International Women's Day against War and for Peace

My Dear Readers:

With war raging in Europe after 77 years of peace, this International Women’s Day is a time to acknowledge the courage, intellect and grit of extraordinary women in key roles in every aspect of this conflict. In commemoration of International Women’s Day 2022, I would like to encourage each of you to take time to rethink the geo/sociopolitics of war and peace through the haiku and tanka selected below:

Selected Haiku and Tanka:

drum roll

rifles at the ready 

at the march out

she can't distinguish 

her son from the others

Ribbons,  13:1, Winter 2017

Hazel Hall

fireflies --

a Kamikaze mother whispers

her son's name

Chrysanthemum Love, 2003

Fay Aoyagi

a soldier

in a foreign land

my son

is too far away to hold

yesterday ... I bathed him

NeverEnding Story, July 12, 2018

Giddy Nielsen-Sweep

crows spiral

in a double helix --

battlefield smoke

Windfall, 4, 2016

Marilyn Humbert

one child

sits alone weeping

for a mother

the falling bombs

will kill twice

NeverEnding Story,  May 17, 2019

Giddy Nielsen-Sweep 

sun dogs

on the winter horizon ...

another body count

First Prize, 2007 Porad Award Winners

Francine Banwarth

more peace talks …

a monal hen startled

by our approach

Shamrock, 32,  2015

Sonam Chhoki

ceasefire --

a soldier comes home

wrapped in moonlight

Honorable Mention, 2015 Mainichi Haiku Contest

Arvinder Kaur

a soldier's headstone  

from one date to another

so short a line

First Prize, 2008 Ukiah Festival

Sylvia Forges-Ryan

in attic webs

I find letters

from father

lost to the dark side

after his tour of duty

Eucalypt, 20, 2016

Marilyn Humbert

training corps

marking time with style

blue mink stockings

bomber jacket, skirt

we made love not war

The Bamboo Hut, Autumn 2016

Martha Magenta

To conclude today's International Women's Day Special Feature post, I would like to share with you the following poems and remarks:

written for Ukrainian girls

bomb shelter wall

the girl draws a dove flying

to a field of sunflowers

Lviv Art Center

turned into a refugee shelter

the sunflowers

in a pink-haired girl's painting

change into soaring white doves

Added: written one day after International Women's Day against War and for Peace

the silhouette

of a soaring white dove

girl at the border

Poetry acts as a witness in, to, and most importantly, through troubled times.

-- Chen-ou Liu, An Interview with Dimitar Anakiev

This is our response to war: to make haiku/tanka more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. Changing the world one haiku/tanka at a time.

-- Chen-ou Liu paraphrasing Leonard Bernstein

Happy International Women's Day for Peace

Chen-ou

One Man's Maple Moon: Nuclear Winter Tanka by LeRoy Gorman

English Original

horizon’s last glow

coming soon

to a neighborhood

near you

nuclear winter

Ribbons, 14:1, Winter 2018 

 

LeRoy Gorman

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

地平線最後的光芒

即將來到

離你很近

的街坊社區

核災冬天

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

地平线最后的光芒

即将来到

离你很近

的街坊社区

核灾冬天

Bio Sketch

LeRoy Gorman lives in Napanee, Ontario. His poetry, much of it minimalist and visual, has appeared in publications and exhibitions worldwide. He is the author of two dozen poetry books and chapbooks.  His most recent book, goodwill galaxy hunting, is available from Urban Farmhouse Press.

A Room of My Own: Trapped in the Endgame

written for the Global Day of Action against War

a line of soldiers

sprawled on muddy ground 

before a disabled tank ...

sheets of snow falling

on a sheet of snow

rattling cups

against jail-cell bars

in dim light

bruised Russian students shout out

fight for peace! fight for peace!

shouting, No to War

staffers leave the studio

live and on-air ...

after loud bangs, then silence

the news channel plays Swan Lake

FYI: Punch, March 3: Putin detains 8,000 Russian protesters;  The IndianEXPRESS, March 4:  Russian news channel signs out saying ‘No To War,’ plays ‘Swan Lake’ as staff walks out; CBC News, March 5: Kremlin tightens grip on Russians' access to media with misinformation law; and Reuters, March 6: Ukraine's president  Volodymyr Zelenskiy tells Russians to protest before it's too late

Citizens of Russia! For you, this is a struggle not only for peace in Ukraine! This is a fight for your country... If you keep silent now, only your poverty will speak for you later. And only repression will answer.

If Russia stops fighting, there will be no war.

If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no more Ukraine!!! 

-- Anti-War Protest Sign

Added:

written for the Global Day of Action for Peace

soul-tired refugees

stream through the Polish border

behind the fence

a pianist's fingers dancing

across ivory keys for peace

FYI: Wion, March 4: Watch: "Piano Man" Davide Martello brought some musical joy to the refugees. Martello travelled from Germany with his instruments on wheels.

Added: written for Dr. Y (whose name has been withheld to protect his safety) and his 5-year-old son: 

amidst oil price surge

Russian invasion and Trump 

ranting on Fox News ...

in his Batcopter the Batman

soars into skies over Kyiv

FYI: Today, Feb. 28: Ukrainian father gives his son Batman toy and a message, "Be brave:"This Kyiv pediatrician and dad drove his family 40 hours to safety, then turned around to go back and fight for his country.

And The Batman premiered in the United States on March 1, 2022.

Added:

Death of Innocence

hospice courtyard

Russian children line up

in the shape of Z

smoky sky

in each cracked window ... 

Kharkiv daycare center

FYI: Sky News, March 7: Ukraine war: Terminally ill children in Russia line up outside hospice in shape of 'Z' to show support for invasion

The letter Z has become a propaganda symbol showing support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military invasion of Ukraine... The Z insignia has become popular in Russia, with many daubing it on their cars or wearing it on their t-shirts. It came to prominence after it was spotted on Russian military vehicles operating in Ukraine.

And “Z,” the Symbol of Russia’s New Politics of Aggression: The letter came to stand for devotion to the state, murderous rage, and unchecked power. Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, March 8 

Cool Announcement: Reissue of Checkout Time is Noon: Death Awareness Haiku

My Dear Friends:

I'm happy to share with you this exciting news: NeverEnding Story contributor Robert Epstein announced the reissue (as a tenth anniversary edition) of Checkout Time is Noon: Death Awareness Haiku this past February.

Book Summary: The great poet Rilke declared: “There is no task as urgent for us as to learn daily how to die.” Yet, how many of us actually live our dying? To be born is to die. Few appear willing to die psychologically moment after moment, and yet it is this very dying that is essential if one is to encounter the Eternal Now, where all true life takes place. Described as “wordless” because intuition relies on a pre-reflective form of knowing, haiku appears perfectly suited to shed light on cracks in the night that reveal the unborn and deathless right in the midst of our living-and-dying. This is the essence of death awareness haiku--a poetry of truth, love, and freedom. Will you wake up with former US Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, who wryly insists: “Death is what gets poets up in the morning”?

The following are the haiku selected for your reading pleasure:

zen garden

nothing

stands out

that way home

falling

cherry blossoms

coyote tracks

I follow them

to the end of time

in pine shade

for a while I forget

this life will end



indigo night

in the cricket's song

no birth no death

Happy Reading 

Chen-ou

Butterfly Dream: Evening Fire Haiku by Jennifer Hambrick

English Original

evening fire
thoughts flicker
in his words

Haiku Canada Review, 11:2, October 2017

Jennifer Hambrick

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

夜間的壁爐火花

在談話中

他的思緒閃爍

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

夜间的壁炉火花

在谈话中

他的思绪闪烁

Bio Sketch

A Pushcart Prize nominee, Jennifer Hambrick was the First Place winner of the Haiku Society of America’s 2018  Haibun Awards Competition and has received numerous honors for her free verse and Japanese short-form poetry,  including in the Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition, in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku  Invitational, from NHK World TV’s Haiku Masters series, from the Ohio Poetry Association, and others. The author of  the poetry collection Unscathed, Jennifer Hambrick recently served as the inaugural artist-in-residence of historic  Bryn Du Mansion, Granville, Ohio. jenniferhambrick.com.

Butterfly Dream: Crocodile's Jaws Haiku by Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

English Original

summer evening ...

through crocodile's jaws

the time slips through

British Haiku Anthology, 2018

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

夏夜 ...

穿過鱷魚的嘴巴

時光流逝

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

夏夜 ...

穿过鳄鱼的嘴巴

时光流逝

Bio Sketch

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi, a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma, is currently working in a Pharma Company in Hyderabad, India. His haiku are regularly published in all the leading haiku journals.

One Man's Maple Moon: Dead Brown Seed Tanka by Jane Reichhold

English Original

a dead brown seed

becoming in a muddy pot

a white flower

it is a lie you know

about death, I mean

A Gift of Tanka, 1990

Jane Reichhold


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

乾枯的棕色種子

在泥潭中生長成

一朵白花

我的意思是, 這是你所知道

關於死亡的謊言

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

干枯的棕色种子

在泥潭中生长成

一朵白花

我的意思是, 这是你所知道

关于死亡的谎言

Bio Sketch

Jane Reichhold was born as Janet Styer in 1937 in Lima , Ohio , USA . She had published over thirty books of haiku, renga, tanka, and translations. Her latest tanka book, Taking Tanka Home was translated into Japanese by Aya Yuhki. Her most popular book is Basho The Complete Haiku by Kodansha International. As founder and editor of AHA Books, Jane also published Mirrors: International Haiku Forum, Geppo, for the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, and she had co-edited with Werner Reichhold, Lynx for Linking Poets since 1992. Lynx went online in 2000 in AHApoetry.com the web site Jane started in 1995. Since 2006 she had maintained an online forum – AHAforum

Butterfly Dream: Fuel Price Protest Haiku by Martha Magenta

English Original

fuel price protest

we burn our placards

for warmth

Cattails, April 2019

Martha Magenta 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

抗議燃油價格

我們燒掉標語牌

以便取暖

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

抗议燃油价格

我们烧掉标语牌

以便取暖

Bio Sketch

Martha Magenta lived in England, UK. Her haiku and tanka had appeared in a number of journals, and anthologies. She was awarded Honourable Mentions for her haiku in The Fifth Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku  Awards, 2017, and in the 71st Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest, 2017, and for her tanka in UHTS  “Fleeting Words” Tanka Contest 2017.