A Room of My Own: Wave after Wave Senryu

No More Fairy Tales, XV

wave after wave of heat

please press ?

for more Q&As

FYI: This haiku is a sequel to the following one:

No More Fairy Tales, VI

for Greta Thunberg

tongues of forest fires 

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

blah, blah, blah ...

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2022

New Yorker, July 11: Is It Hot Enough Yet for Politicians to Take Real Action? The latest record temperatures are driving, again precisely as scientists have predicted, a cascading series of disasters around the world.

And UN News, July 27: Hottest July ever signals ‘era of global boiling has arrived’ says UN chief

Added: Game Show 2024, XXVI

another rent hike ...

sleepless, I count the number

of Trump charges

FYI: BBC News, July 31: "Why Trump's poll lead went up after criminal indictments:" Most Republican voters see charges as politically motivated

"We're really dealing with the tale of two Americas and two distinct bubbles," says Mr Clifford Young, president of US public affairs with Ipsos. "There's one bubble that sees Trump's behaviour as lawless. And there's another bubble that sees him as their champion - and that he's being attacked because of that."

Added:

another hours-long

talk of ending the cycle 

of breaking up

and geting back together ...

behind her this blue supermoon

FYI: Torontonians will get a better look at the second full supermoon on August 30.

To the Lighthouse: Ekphrastic Senryu

                                                                                                     Dali's Melting Clocks 

                                                                                                     on the waiting room wall ...

                                                                                                     heat haze

An ekphrastic senryu is a senryu inspired or stimulated by a work of art, and through describing and reflecting on this piece of art, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.

Selected Senryu:

the half smile

begins to hurt

mona lisa

Daya Bhat

I'm lovestruck

by her Mona Lisa smile ...

the divorce lawyer 

Untitled

(a black-edged box

they’ll put me into)

John Hawkhead

empty space

on a gallery wall

framing my loss

Patricia Hawkhead

Van Gogh's daffodils

I tilt my head to be seen

in a group photo

Jackie Chou

to Andy Warhol

Campbell's Soup Cans

falling out of their frames ...

hunger trance

Happy Reading

Chen-ou

One Man's Maple Moon: Thin Moon Tanka by Thelma Mariano

English Original

in tonight's sky

your memory still lingers

a thin moon

growing fainter with each step

I take towards home

Thelma Mariano

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在今晚的天空

你的記憶依然揮之不去

一輪薄月

在我回家的路上每走一步

它都變得越來越幽微

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在今晚的天空

你的记忆依然挥之不去

一轮薄月

在我回家的路上每走一步

它都变得越来越幽微

Bio Sketch

Thelma Mariano is the author of Night Sky: a Selection of Tanka Poetry. She lives in Montreal and has published her tanka in literary journals as well as in various anthologies including Fire Pearls and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka.

Butterfly Dream: Cobblestones Haiku by Rich Schilling

English Original

cobblestones

the uneven path

of my thoughts

Stardust, 19, July 2018

Rich Schilling

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

鵝卵石

這條不平坦

的我的思考路徑

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

鹅卵石

这条不平坦

的我的思考路径

Bio Sketch

Rich Schilling is a husband, dad, and award-winning poet. He has been published in Human/Kind Journal, NOON,  antantantantant, Is/let, The Heron's Nest, Sonic Boom and numerous other journals.

Butterfly Dream: Morning Mist Haiku by Kanchan Chatterjee

English Original

morning mist ...

beyond it, the cry

of a quail

 

Presence, 64, 2019

Kanchan Chatterjee

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

晨霧 ...

在它之外的遠處, 一隻鵪鶉

的哭泣

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

晨雾 ...

在它之外的远处, 一只鹌鹑

的哭泣

Bio Sketch

Kanchan Chatterjee writes haiku, tanka and haibun, and has won several international awards. He has been published regularly in various online haiku and other poetry journals. His haiku appeared regularly in NHK’, Japan's "Haiku Masters." His poems were featured in a few Indian poetry anthologies, such as Beyond the Fields. His first book of haiku, Scattered Leaves, was published in January, 2020.

One Man's Maple Moon: Life's Page Tanka by Sanford Goldstein

English Original

half a tanka

will probably suffice

to say

this blur on life's page

is ready for erasure

Poetry That Heals, 2018

Sanford Goldstein 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

半首短歌

可能就已足夠

訴說了

生命這一頁上的模糊之處

已準備好被擦除乾淨

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

半首短歌

可能就已足够

诉说了

生命这一页上的模糊之处

已准备好被擦除干净

Bio Sketch

Long ago, Sanford Goldstein wrote haiku, but decided to focus on tanka. His latest books, three in two years, have each said this would be his last. The Tanka Society of America renamed its international tanka contest for him in 2015; and he has been called the grandfather of tanka in English. 

A Room of My Own: A Day Like This

smoky twilight

pieces of army jackets

on a burnt tree

Kyiv boys play

behind their cardboard tank

half-collapsed houses

Added: This Brave New World, XCVII

dadadadada ...

under the school desk a boy

hearing and seeing

Added: This Brave New World, XCVIII

Florida sunshine

the new neighbor's swimming pool

shaped like a handgun

Added:

sultry night

the Venus Fountain drenched

in moonlight

Poetic Musings: Thought Haiku by our thomas

the hole in the thought of a snake in the wall

Haiku Section, 2021 Trailblazer 

​

our thomas

Commentary by the judge, Kat Lehmann: ... The structure of this poem is interesting, and a quick read might see it as a nonsense poem. But “the hole in the thought” provides our gateway into the poem. The “hole” could refer to the physical means of gathering sensory information for the brain to process, or it could be abstract, such as Leonard Cohen’s crack for the light (of understanding, in this case) to enter. Taken further, the “wall” could refer to a literal housing of the mind or, again, it could be abstract, as with the selfhood that separates us into individuals...

Note: This boundary-blurring/breaking haiku reminds me of the following snake haiku:

a grass snake

escaping into

my thought of it

Honorable Mention, 2010 Haiku Now! International Haiku Contest

Anatoly Kudryavitsky

One Man's Maple Moon: Headstones Tanka by Paul Williamson

English Original

in pale sunshine

granite boulders dot the paddocks ... 

I remember

the headstones for miners

who once rushed here for gold

Paul Williamson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在蒼白的陽光下

花崗岩巨石點綴著牧場 ...

我記得

曾經趕往這裡淘金

的礦工墓碑

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在苍白的阳光下

花岗岩巨石点缀着牧场 ...

我记得

曾经赶往这里淘金

的矿工墓碑

Bio Sketch

Paul Williamson is an Australian poet who has published poems on eclectic topics in magazines including Neverending Story, Eucalypt, Tanka Music Anthology, Ragged Edges, Poems to Wear, Poetry Bridges, Atlas Poetica, Gusts, Skylark, Ribbons, Quadrant and Cordite.  He writes poems to clarify feelings and impressions, and record them. He has five collections: The DNA Bookshelf, Moments from Red Hill, To the Spice Islands, Edge of Southern Bright and Ties to Red Hill  in 2018.

Butterfly Dream: Field of Reeds Haiku by Elisa Theriana

English Original

field of reeds

in the wind

in the rain

Heliosparrow, April 16th 2020

Elisa Theriana

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一片蘆葦田

在風中

在雨中

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一片芦苇田

在风中

在雨中

Bio Sketch

Elisa Theriana, from Bandung, Indonesia, working as a computer programmer. Haiku and tanka lover and photography  enthusiast.

One Man's Maple Moon: Cicada Tanka by Kala Ramesh

English Original

a single cicada

ushers in the summer

once again

marking the calendar

one of empty squares

Notes From the Gean, June 2012

Kala Ramesh 

Chinese Translation (Traditional) 

一隻蟬

迎來了夏天

再一次

標記日曆中

的一個空方塊

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

一只蝉

迎来了夏天

再一次

标记日历中

的一个空方块

Bio Sketch

Kala Ramesh has published more than one thousand poems comprising haiku, tanka, haibun, & renku in reputed journals and anthologies in Japan, Europe, UK, Australia, USA and India. Her work can be read in two prestigious publications: Haiku 21: an anthology of contemporary English-language Haiku (Modern Haiku Press, 2012) and Haiku in English - the First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton 2013). She enjoys teaching haiku and allied genres at the Symbiosis International University, Pune.

Butterfly Dream: Waterfall Sound Haiku by vincent tripi

English Original

where I first 

catch a glimpse of the mountain

waterfall sound

Paperweight For Nothing, 2006

vincent tripi 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在我第一次

瞥見山嶽之處

瀑布的聲音

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在我第一次

瞥见山岳之处

瀑布的声音

Bio Sketch

Founder of The Haiku Circle, vincent tripi was closely associated with the spiritual movement in American Haiku. He wrote haiku for over 35 years, and published 14 books of haiku. Most of his haiku reflect a Buddhist foundation.

A Room of My Own: Diary Tanka

dear diary

how will I fill you up with thoughts?

in the attic

my ten-year-old self gazes

at the blank face of its page

FYI: For more about character tanka, see To the Lighthouse: Character/Persona Tanka

Added: Game Show 2024, XXIV

Mar-a-Lago at sunset

a wall of royal palms

heavy with crows 

Added: Game Show 2024, XXV

written in response to The Independent, July 19: "Is Donald Trump going to prison?"

a scream 

from Mar-a-Lago 

darkening

this  sultry night ...

one stray answers another

FYI: Vox, July 19: "Donald Trump’s list of legal headaches just keeps growing: With a third potential indictment against him, the walls continue to close in on Trump."

1 The hush money case, 2 The January 6 investigation, 3 The classified documents probe and 4 The case over interference in the 2020 election in Georgia

Added: This Brave New World, XCV

on TV 

missing Titanic tourist sub

headlines for a week ...

capsized refugee boats scrolls 

across the bottom of the screen

Added: This Brave New World, XCVI

a woman with kids

in the smoky twilight

a wall mural

of Bashar Assad looking out 

over earthquake rubble 

Butterfly Dream: Tree and Leaves Haiku by Fay Aoyagi

English Original

ghosting each other

           a tree

    and its leaves

Frogpond, 46:2, 2023

Fay Aoyagi

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

互相糾纏在一起

        一顆樹

    和它的葉子

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

互相纠缠在一起

        一颗树

    和它的叶子

 

 

Bio Sketch

Fay Aoyagi （青柳飛）was born in Tokyo and immigrated to the U.S. in 1982. She is currently a member of Haiku Society of America and Haiku Poets of Northern California. She serves as an associate editor of The Heron's Nest.  She also writes in Japanese and belongs to two Japanese haiku groups; Ten'I (天為) and "Aki"（秋), and  she is a member of Haijin Kyokai (俳人協会).

One Man's Maple Moon: Land Snail Tanka by Susan Weaver

English Original

under my daffodils

a land snail

stretches forward, forward

pearly house on its back ...

I forget my burdens

“Tanka of Flowing Tranquility,” Atlas Poetica, 2019

Susan Weaver

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在我的水仙花下

一隻土蝸牛

向前伸展, 向前伸展

珍珠色的房子在它的背上 ...

我忘記了我的重擔

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在我的水仙花下

一只土蜗牛

向前伸展, 向前伸展

珍珠色的房子在它的背上 ...

我忘记了我的重担

Bio Sketch

After a career as a magazine journalist specializing in bicycling and active travel, Susan Weaver began writing tanka in 2009. Her work appears regularly in Moonbathing, red lights, Ribbons, and elsewhere, and she is tanka prose editor of Ribbons. She lives in Pennsylvania with her landscape-painter husband and two cats.

Poetic Musings: Father's Shoulders Tanka by Michael McClintock

I’ve this memory --

riding my father’s shoulders

into the ocean,

the poetry of things

before I could speak

Tanka of Michael McClintock, Pinterest, 2011

Michael McClintock

Commentary: ...Even a child that cannot yet speak, may, like the readers of this tanka, intuitively grasp the poetry of a moment in time that defines meaning, significance or beauty in a novel and profound way. William Least Heat Moon spoke of those defining times in our lives most eloquently in his book, Blue Highways. For him, the moment was sharing a piece of old-fashioned buttermilk pie with new-found friends who had taken him in for the night on his long journey across the United States. For Michael McClintock a childhood memory was poetry and it became poetry for us as well as for himself, not through the use of excessive or impressive words, but through the sharing of an image that takes us into the experience with him. Tanka is traditionally imagistic, possessing the power and magic of images that take us beneath words to the essence of experience...

-- excerpted from "A Poet's Roving Thoughts: Dreaming Room" by Rebecca Drouilhet

It might be interesting to do a thematic comparative reading of my tanka below:

For my father who was born in mainland China, lived most of his adult life in Taiwan, died on Jan. 5 2022 and was buried there

this dream loop:

riding on my shoulders

into the Taiwan Strait

Father cries out, Mama

wait for me, I'm coming home

Pages Literary Journal, September 30, 2022

Butterfly Dream: Low Tide Haiku by Natalia Kuznetsova

English Original

low tide ...

a woman in black humming

a lullaby

Selected Haiku, 2020 Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest

Natalia Kuznetsova

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

低潮 ...

一個黑衣女人哼吟

一首搖籃曲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

低潮 ...

一个黑衣女人哼吟

一首摇篮曲

Bio Sketch

Living in Moscow, Russia, Natalia Kuznetsova is an assistant professor of English and freelance interpreter. Before discovering the haiku world, she wrote poetry in Russian. She started writing tanka and mostly haiku in English several years ago, and participated in numerous competitions worldwide and won some awards. She now contributes regularly to World Haiku Review, Mainichi Daily, Asahi Haikuist Network, Shiki Kukai and other traditional and on-line publications. She was included on the list of "European Top 100 Most Creative Haiku Authors" from 2010 to 2013.

Hot News: A New Milestone, 1.6 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone this morning: 1.6 M pageviews (FYI: On January 22, 2023, NeverEnding Story crossed 1.5 M view mark) 

We read to know we're "not alone."

-- The character of C.S. Lewis in William Nicholson's play, "Shadowlands" 

The proper response to a poem is "another poem."

-- Phyllis Webb 

I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of this poetry journey. And look forward to reading your haiku and tanka (see anthology submission guidelines for haiku and tanka)

Chen-ou

A Room of My Own: MAGA Pin Tanka

a MAGA pin

on this old man's breast pocket ...

his patience 

stretched to the limit

by a breadline blocks ahead

FYI: MAGA stands for "Make America Great Again." And Democracy Now, June 28, 2023: Poverty 4th Leading Cause of Death in U.S. as Calls Grow for Third Reconstruction.

Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says it’s “grotesque and immoral” that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, higher than homicide and respiratory illness, citing recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Why do we hear so much about crime rates and opioids and gun violence in America, but poverty kills more people than all of those things?” asks Barber... 

Added:  This Brave New World, XCIII

a colorful slide

snakes down to a rectangle

of synthetic grass ...

behind the play area

stands a 30-foot high wall

Added:

alone, loading

one 20-pound crate of eggs

after another

onto skids, then onto trucks ...

hour after hour, day after day

Added: This Brave New World, XCIV

inspired by 2023 Oscar-shortlisted film, Angola, Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison

holding rifles

white officers on horseback --

row upon row

of black men in jumpsuits

working the field in summer heat

FYI: Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is America's largest prison-plantation

Butterfly Dream: Cloudy Night Haiku by Dorothy McLaughlin

English Original

cloudy night

remembering where

the moon belongs

Bear Creek Haiku, October 22, 2017

Dorothy McLaughlin

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

陰沉的夜晚

勞勞記住月亮

所在之處

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

阴沉的夜晚

劳劳记住月亮

所在之处

Bio Sketch

Dorothy McLaughlin's poems has been inspired by her husband, daughter, son, and grandsons, her native Massachusetts, forty-five years in Somerset, New Jersey, her interest in history and mythology, and teaching. Her haiku has appeared in bottle rockets, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, tinywords, South by Southeast, and other journals and anthologies.

One Man's Maple Moon: Cigarette Tanka by Zane Parks

English Original

brisk morning

I hesitate putting out

my cigarette

so she can pass

and I can follow

American Tanka, 16, 2006

Zane Parks

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

輕快的早晨

猶豫要不要熄掉

我的香煙

這樣她就可以從我身邊走過

然後我就可以跟隨她

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

轻快的早晨

犹豫要不要熄掉

我的香烟

这样她就可以从我身边走过

然后我就可以跟随她

Translation result

Bio Sketch

Zane Parks lives with his wife Bridget and cats Boaz and Miss Kitty on the gulf coast of Florida. He writes haiku, senryu, tanka and related forms. His books, tiny dropping and Journey are available at lulu.com.

Hot News: Chen-ou Liu, Poet of the Month at Triveni

My Dear Friends and Readers:

I'm happy to share with you this exciting news: I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected to be the Poet of  the Month at Triveni.

You can read the full interview with Triveni editors here and the following is the Q&A about how I became a tanka poet: 

2. TTH: How did you get started as a poet? What was it about tanka that inspired you to embrace this ancient form of poetry? In short, why do you keep writing tanka?

After more than ten years of struggling towards a new life vision and preparing for a major change in my field of study (computer science to cultural studies), in the summer of 2002, I emigrated to Canada to pursue a PhD and settled in Ajax, a suburb of Toronto. After arriving in Canada, I was frustrated by the lack of in-depth and wide-ranging classroom discussions, and most importantly, I was stressed by the financial burden. I quit my studies and started to write essays in an adopted language, English. 

After two years of striving, I published three essays but got little attention from scholars in those fields. Furthermore, I was disappointed by my inability to master English quickly. My pent-up emotions began spilling over onto pieces of scrap paper in the form of short poetry. The more I wrote, the more I thought about becoming a poet. 

After a year of striving to write free verse poetry without much success, I came across three books of tanka poetry by Takuboku: Poems to Eat, A Handful of Sand, and Romaji Diary and Sad Toys. The emotional strength, socio-political sensibilities, and colloquial language of Takuboku’s tanka, a kind of poetry in the moment, appealed to me. 

For Takuboku, writing tanka was more like the emotional outburst of a mind agonized by the inner struggle and external events that shaped his life and identity. Since encountering Takuboku’s heartfelt and poignant work, I came to view tanka as a poetic diary that could be employed to record the changes in my immigrant life, a newly-racialized life of struggle with transition and translation.

Three of my tanka are selected for your reading pleasure:

I look away

from his intense gaze …

this homeless man

speaks English

with an accent like mine

Honorable Mention, Tanka Section, 2017 British Haiku Society Awards

              the dervish

              of first snowflakes …

              a Syrian

              child refugee talking

              to the foreign sky

              Runner-Up, 2019 British Haiku Society Awards

mid-autumn night …

the wind whispers to me

Chinese words

that offer me a home

in the shape of a moon

Tanka First Place, 2011 San Francisco International Competition Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and Rengay.

And you can read my 34 award-winning tanka here (including one tanka sequence, Without the Middle)

Happy Reading

Chen-ou

Note: For more about my tanka journey, please read my "Poet and Tanka" essay, which was first published in Ribbons, 12:2, Spring/Summer 2016.

Butterfly Dream: Selfie Haiku by Milan Rajkumar

English Original

food bank

the Minister's selfie 

with the poor

Cattails, October 2020

Milan Rajkumar

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

食物銀行

部長與窮人

的自拍照

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

食物银行

部长与穷人

的自拍照

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.

One Man's Maple Moon: Milky Night Tanka by Jun Fujita

English Original

Milky night; 

Through slender trees in drowse

A petal --

Falling. 

Tanka: Poems in Exile, 1923

Jun Fujita

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

銀河之夜; 

在困乏中穿過細長的樹林

一片花瓣 --

墜落。

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

银河之夜; 

在困乏中穿过细长的树林

一片花瓣 --

坠落。

Bio Sketch

Jun Fujita (1888-1963) was born in a village near Hiroshima, Japan, and immigrated to Canada as a teenager. By 1915, he was in Chicago, where he worked for the Evening Post, known as the first Japanese-American photo-journalist. He was also an accomplished poet,  arguably the first master of tanka poetry in English. He certainly was a master of the rhetoric of omission or, as he put it, "that fine and illusive mood, big enough to illuminate the infinity of the universe," which is a defining characteristic of tanka. And his Tanka: Poems in Exile, first English language collection of tanka, was published in 1923. The flip-flop ebook version can be found here.

A Room of My Own: The Quietest Place Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, XIII

an explorer

once murmured, the quietest place

I've ever been ...

wind-sculpted ice cliffs, sperm whales

penguins -- and now cruise ships

FYI: Ls 2&3 are the remark made by the famed Norwegian explorer, Erling Kagge (Flow, Dec. 20, 2020: "Erling Kagge: The Famed Norwegian Explorer on Silence, Philosoph, and Summiting Everest")

And The Atlantic, July 3 2023: "The Last Place on Earth Any Tourist Should Go."

Traveling to Antarctica is a carbon-intensive activity. Flights and cruises must cross thousands of miles in extreme conditions, contributing to the climate change that is causing ice loss and threatening whales, seals, and penguins. By one estimate, the carbon footprint for a person’s Antarctic cruise can be roughly equivalent to the average European’s output for a year, because cruise ships are heavy polluters and tourists have to fly so far. 

This tanka is a sequel to the following one I wrote about the Arctic region:

this world of reduction: 

of fingers lost to frostbite

of lives lost to depression ...

in the morning sunshine

another polar bear drifts off

PoemHunter, March 23 2022 

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XIV

a massive chunk

of Greenland's ice cap

has broken off ...

her silence sets the tone

for our talk going nowhere

Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXXII

Freedom Isn't Free

in morning breeze

it takes the chimp minutes

to step outside

of its decades-old cage ...

this sky with no metal bars

gazing for hours

up at this endless blue

the freed chimp

at the edge of the refuge

now the center of its world

FYI: The title is taken from Paul Colwell's song of the same name:

Freedom isn’t free! Freedom isn’t free!

You’ve got to pay a price,

You’ve got to sacrifice

For your liberty.

Freedom is a word often heard today,

But if you want to keep it there’s a price to pay.

Each generation’s got to win it anew,

‘Cause it’s not something handed down to you.

Freedom isn’t free! … etc.

There was a gen’ral by the name of George,

With a small band of men at Valley Forge,

Left the comfort of home for the snow and ice,

They won independence ’cause they paid the price.

Freedom isn’t free! … etc.

For some people freedom is a waving flag,

To do your own thing is another man’s bag,

But for ev’ry man freedom’s the eternal quest.

You’re free to give humanity your very best.

Freedom isn’t free! … etc.

Butterfly Dream: Shaft of Light Haiku by Hilary Tann

English Original

approaching solstice

a shaft of light

finds summer

Upstate Dim Sum, Autumn 2020

Hilary Tann 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

臨近至日

一束光

發現夏天

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

临近至日

一束光

发现夏天

Bio Sketch

Hilary Tann was a founding member of the Route 9 Haiku Group known for its biannual anthology of haiku and senryu, Upstate Dim Sum. Her work has appeared in various publications, including 20 issues of Upstate Dim Sum (2001-2010) and Mann Library Archive (December 2008). And she was also  an internationally acclaimed composer known for the lyricism and spirituality of her music and for her devotion to students over four decades of teaching at Union College in Schenectady, New York.

One Man's Maple Moon: Urn Tanka by Mary Gunn

English Original

last journey

first time in a mercedes

then a guinness urn ...

the gates are grey, not pearly

bloody hell, is this it?

Neon Graffiti, 2016

Mary Gunn

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

最後的旅程

第一次坐賓士轎車

然後是吉尼斯骨灰罈 ...

Translation resul

大門是灰色, 不是珍珠色

該死, 是這裡嗎?

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

最后的旅程

第一次坐宾士轿车

然后是吉尼斯骨灰坛 ...

大门是灰色, 不是珍珠色

该死, 是这里吗?

Bio Sketch

Mary Gunn has been writing haiku, tanka and cherita for several years. Her tanka has appeared in a variety of publications, both online and in print, including Eucalypt, Blithe Spirit, Presence, Moonbathing, Atlas Poetica, cattails and Poetry Quarterly.

Poetic Musings: Summer Haze Haiku by H. Gene Murtha

summer haze --

a crow flaps free

of the asphalt 

Frogpond, 27:1, 2004

H. Gene Murtha

Commentary: This is a haiku which reveals its grim meaning gradually. Line one is subtly paradoxical. In Japanese haiku there are particular words to refer to the ‘haze’ or ‘mist’ of spring and the ‘fog’ of autumn and winter – all with the potential of beauty. This is not what is alluded to here. This is a heat haze, created perhaps by petroleum fumes. Such beauty as it has is illusory. Line two shows a crow apparently flying freely; however, line three reveals this too is an illusion. It is freeing itself from the ensnarement of bitumen, perhaps from a natural tar pit, perhaps from a road surface, perhaps from a tar sands tailings pond. The ‘haze’ of line one now seems like the optical illusion of water apparently shimmering on a summer roadway. The dragging effort involved in the bird’s apparent escape is suggested by the alliteration, the repeated ‘f’s’ catching in the reader’s mouth as teeth make contact with bottom lip. The bird’s freedom may well be temporary.

First impressions mislead in this haiku. The crow is likely to have been soiled by the black sticky substance that had trapped it. Its contamination may be permanent, though not immediately apparent on its black, shining wings. Images of seabirds mired in oil slicks may come to the reader’s mind. This is another poem that ultimately treats a wild creature’s problematic survival with simple, unflinching directness.

Yet, Murtha’s position is not always that of an observer of despoliation and loss. He appears to write with such subtle power about destruction and degradation because his work recognises the value of what is endangered. His poetry is therefore as capable of enjoying the natural world as of chronicling the threats its denizens face...

-- excerpted from "Dark Wings of the Night: First Warm Day – H. Gene Murtha’s Bird Haiku" by Jo McInerney

Butterfly Dream: Boots Haiku by Rp Verlaine

English Original

pink haze of dawn

the farmer puts on boots

with yesterday's mud 

Chrysanthemum, 29, 2021

Rp Verlaine

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

粉紅色的黎明薄霧

農民穿上靴子

帶有昨天的泥土

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

粉红色的黎明薄雾

农民穿上靴子

带有昨天的泥土

Bio Sketch

Rp Verlaine lives and writes in New York City. He has an MFA in creative writing from City College. He taught in New York public schools for many years. No longer teaching, he continues to write and do photography in New York. He has published five books, Damaged by Dames & Drinking, Femme Fatales Movie Starlets & Rockers, and a set of three e-books, Lies From The Autobiography, vols.1-3. And his poetry has appeared in various online and print journals.

One Man's Maple Moon: Tea Mug Tanka by Susan Mary Wade

English Original

every morning

he brings me tea in a mug 

only slightly chipped

everyday his love for me

something different

Frameless Sky, 15, 2022

Susan Mary Wade

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

每天早上

他給我端來一杯茶

它有一些缺口

然而每天他對我的愛

卻是有些不同

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

每天早上

他给我端来一杯茶

它有一些缺口

然而每天他对我的爱

却是有些不同

Bio Sketch

Susan Mary Wade has been published in International Tanka, Gusts, Ribbons, and many other magazines over the years. Her work has been anthologized, and she has received awards in the 6th, 7th and 8th International Tanka Festival Competition in Japan.

A Room of My Own: That's It

Canada Day

through wildfire smoke

the squawk of gulls

fireworks over ...

the distance between stars

and our silence 

FYI: CNBC, Climate, June 30: Four North American cities now near worst air quality in the world

Key Points:

1 New York; Washington, D.C.; Montreal; and Toronto have some of the worst air quality in the world, according to an AQI tracking service.

2 Canadian wildfires have sent smoky air around much of North America over the last few weeks.

3 The effect of the wildfires has been significantly worsened by climate change, researchers have found.

Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXX

firework-lit sky

my veteran friend sleeps 

with a gun

Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXXI

our football team

lines up for O' Canada

in the center

a Black player looks up

at the sky, endless blue

Added: This Brave New World, XCII

a rowdy white man

held face down on the airport floor

by policemen

he screams, you’re treating me

like a fucking black person