Monday, March 31, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Midnight Silence Haiku by David He

English Original

midnight silence ...
my wife opens the curtains
to let in moonlight

David He


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

午夜的寂靜…
我妻子打開窗簾
讓月光照進來

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

午夜的寂静…
我妻子打开窗帘
让月光照进来


Bio Sketch

David He has been working as an Advanced English teacher for 35 years in a high school in China. So far he has published  twenty short stories in English. In recent years he has published haiku and tanka in print journals and e-zines, including Acorn, The Heron’s Nest, Frogpond, Ribbons and Cattails.

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Poetic Musings: Dawn Moon Haiku by Marian Olson

dawn moon
quiet mind, quiet
embers in the ash

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, May 9, 2014

Marian Olson

Commentary: Enhanced by the midline break, the use of repetition of "quite," when juxtaposed with visually evocative and symbolically rich images of "dawn moon" and "embers in the ash," is fresh and psychologically effective, successfully conveying a sense of "contemplative calmness."

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

hazy day moon
alone, awake with the weight
of memory

PoemHunter, Feb. 17, 2013

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

― William Faulkner, "Requiem for a Nun"

Saturday, March 29, 2025

A Room of My Own: A Season of Regret

snowed in
for three straight days
again, I check
the machine for the sound
of your voice

I dream 
that winter dream again ...
sadder than then
as I look out the window
at the sky, endless gray


FYI: This set could be read as a prequel to my tanka below:

It's me
I just wanted to hear
from you ...
fifteen seconds of soft voice
after ten years of silence

Gusts, 35, Spring/Summer 2022


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XV

Day and Night, Forever?
for Mark Twain who claimed, "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."

step after step
one by one to the exit
DOGE cuts

red district town hall 
a crowd-fest 
of boos and jeers 

distant sirens
free-ranging dogs pee
on the Trump Mural

Liberation Day!
the news on mute, I change
my baby's diaper

bursts of spring snow
Tariffs are a tax cut,  a twist
to Trump's mouth


FYI: DOGE stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. And the Convicted Felon Donald Trump is set to roll out his massive tariff plan on April 2, which he has touted as "Liberation Day in America."

April 3: On Fox Business, former Republican Senator Pat Toomey warns Trump's tariffs will be “probably the largest tax increase on American consumers in the history of the country

And Daily Beast, April 3: JD Vance Tells Paycheck-to-Paycheck Americans to Suck Up Tariffs Pain

JD Vance is telling Americans living paycheck to paycheck that the pain from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs will all be worth it—at some point.


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XVI

10% tariff on goods from the manless islands near Antarctica

the fight with one man
a sea of king penguins
trumpeting


FYI: USA Today, April 6: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Sunday defended President Donald Trump's tariff rollout last week when asked why two uninhabited islands were hit with the fees, saying in a new interview "whatever."


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XVII

wecan'twaitfor 
$10, 000 made-in-USA
iPhones. iPhones now ...
flanked by a spray of flags
red-hattedTrumpistsshouting 


Added:

a dollhouse
in the rain-streaked window
of a thrift store
a girl holds her mother's hand
tight ... and tighter 


Added:

frost flowers
on my son's study room window
paper planes gather dust

Friday, March 28, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Father's Ring Haiku by H. Gene Murtha

English Original

shooting star -- 
father’s ring
slips off my finger

 The Heron’s Nest, 5:11, November, 2003

H. Gene Murtha


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一顆流星 --
父親的戒指
從我的手指上滑落

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一颗流星 --
父亲的戒指
从我的手指上滑落


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. 

Thursday, March 27, 2025

One Man's Maple Moon: Caregiver Tanka by Lorraine Pester

English Original

after five years
no longer your caregiver,
nothing matters now ...
unable to live
you sleep forever

Lorraine Pester


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

五年後
不再是你的照顧者,
現在什麼都不重要了 ...
無法活下去
你永遠沉睡

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

五年后
不再是你的照顾者,
现在什么都不重要了 ...
无法活下去
你永远沉睡


Bio Sketch

Being curious and staying open to possibility is Lorraine Pester’s way of keeping her haikai fresh. She shies from no topic that presents itself. Her deliberate interactions with birds while dog walking is a frequent theme. She lives with her husband and  Abbey schnauzer in south Texas. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Biting NOT Barking: Early Freeze Haiku by LeRoy Gorman

English Original

early freeze
some give in the sign
GOD SAVES

Modern Haiku, 55:3, Autumn 2024

Leroy Gorman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

早來的結冰
有些人提交了
上帝拯救的標誌
    
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

早来的结冰
有些人提交了
上帝拯救的标志


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. He is also the winner of the 2017 Dwarf Stars Award

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Turn Sign and Wild Lilies Haiku by Ellen Compton

English Original

missing the turn sign
                                    missing the turn
                                                                wild lilies

Woodnote, 30, 1996

Ellen Compton


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

錯過轉彎標誌
                          錯過轉機
                                            野百合


Chinese Translation (Simplified)

错过转弯标志
                          错过转机
                                             野百合


Bio Sketch

Ellen Compton was an award-winning haiku poet with a background in visual and theatre arts. Her haiku  collection, Gathering Dusk, received a Snapshot Press Book Award. And she was an editor emerita of The Red Moon Anthology series and a founding member of Towpath. Ellen credited her childhood in the Ohio River Valley for her deep love of the natural world and for her awareness of its fragility. 

Monday, March 24, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems on 50,000 DEATHS in GAZA

(FYI: EuroNews, March 31: Bodies of 15 aid workers discovered in southern Gaza mass grave

Haaretz, April 1UN Recovers 15 Aid Workers' Bodies in Gaza, Say Some Found Bound and Shot

Rescue teams say some victims had their hands tied and were shot at close range, suggesting they were executed.

please bury me
with no casket, no prayers
face down, away
from this shrapnel-filled world:
the note in an aid worker's hand


Haaretz, April 3: Israeli Strike on Gaza City School Leaves 27 Dead, at Least 70 Wounded

a girl convulsing 
on the bloodstained classroom floor
smell of Gaza's  air


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

And Haaretz, April 8: The killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Rafah sparked global outrage – but on Israeli TV, the real tragedy was the damage to Israel's public image

Following the global uproar, a few Israeli channels grudgingly mentioned the incident, tucking it into the margins of their broadcasts. The focus, of course, wasn't the possibility that Israeli soldiers had committed a horrific war crime, but rather the "damage to Israel's image" caused by the IDF's shifting accounts.


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXII: "aid workers bound and shot")

anything new 
on the other side of this wall
of indifference ...
15 aid workers bound
and shot at close range)


My Dear Readers:


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXX: "Gaza's are Humans?"

too much to ask YOU 
to see Gazans as humans? 
50, 000 deaths
silenced, forgotten, buried
under the weight of daily life

Haaretz, March 24: Announcement That Death Toll Surpassed 50,000 Didn't Faze Anyone, Not Even in Gaza

Even Gazans aren't preoccupied by the number of dead these days. They're busy with questions of day-to-day survival: Will Israeli attacks become as widespread as they were before the cease-fire? Will all of Gaza be reoccupied? And who will die today or tomorrow?


XVIII: "Rafah"

attacks on Rafah ...
will the sound of bombings 
echo, echoing
in the ears of the World
thousands of miles away



LXXXIX: "smeared sun"

anything new
under Gaza's smeared sun?
smoky rubble
beyond smoky rubble, and yet
again smoky rubble


Haaretz, March 23: Eyal Zamir Is the Israeli Army's First Kahanist Chief of Staff

Zamir even told Israel's ministers that he's capable of bringing about the complete destruction of Hamas' rule in Gaza and its military capabilities – or, in other words, the "total victory" Netanyahu promised.

Haaretz, March 23: Israeli Government Approves Bureau for 'Voluntary Emigration' of Palestinians From Gaza

Defense Minister Katz said the bureau will act to facilitate 'safe and supervised passage' of Gazans to target countries. Ministers also approved the separation of 13 neighborhoods in West Bank settlements, granting them independent settlement status


LXXVI: "Gaza's safe zone"

mule-drawn wagons
wind past one mound of rubble
after another ...
across the bottom of my screen
scrolls the text: from here to nowhere



CXIII: "preparing for settlement in Gaza"

each bombed-out house:
an album with no photos
but with people
living, wounded and dead
pressed between its pages


Haaretz, March 23: A Country That Dehumanizes Millions in Gaza Will Do the Same to Its Own People
Even if it's too late for tens of thousands of Palestinians who were killed, it's still possible to change our ways. This time, not just for the hostages – but to end the slaughter of our neighbors


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

In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
About the dark times.

-- Bertolt Brecht (tr. John Willett), "Motto", written during his exile in Denmark in the late 1930s. 


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXI: "crowded shelter"

crowded shelter
layer within layer 
of hushed silence


FYI: Haaretz, March 27: In One of the Gaza War's Most Horrifying Nights, the Israeli Army Killed Nearly 300 Women and Children

the IDF and the Shin Bet focused this time on civilian and political targets and less on the military wing of Hamas.

Sunday, March 23, 2025

A Room of My Own: Man in Black Haiku

store windows barred shut
footsteps of a man in black
echoing mine

FYI: For more examples, see "To the Lighthouse: Haiku Noir"


Added:

in a blue suit
the "Great One" walked onto the ice 
near the US team’s bench
with a thumbs up ...
Gretzky statue smeared with poop

FYI: Maclean's, March 5: Goodbye to Gretzky

The cracks in Gretzky’s patriotism have been showing for years. In 2009, he was promoted to companion of the Order of Canada—the nation’s highest civilian honour—but he wouldn’t come home to accept it. “It’s just embarrassing,” Christopher McCreery, an expert on the Canadian honours system, said in 2018, after nearly a decade had passed and The Great One still claimed the honour. 


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XI

Land of the Crazed --> USA
Canada <-- Home of the Brave
giant road sign
at the corner of the border
as flocks of geese fly north

FYI: This could be read as a prequel to the following:

in Toronto sunshine
with the scent of early spring
and freedom
two Americans meet and part:
one draft dodger, one Trump evader



Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XII

Uber ride home
a Trumpinator bobblehead
rattles on the dashboard

(FYI: Trumpinator bobblehead is a figurine of Donald Trump as the Terminator) 


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XIII

fast-hitting snowstorm
as Trump enacts another round
of tariffs ...
to stay or to go, I muse
[yet this longing for Never Land]


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XIV
inspired by The Atlantic, March 24: The Trump Administration "Accidentally" Texted Me Its War "Plans" 

supersized
FistStarsandStripesFire 👊 🇺🇸 🔥 ...
three emojis
and MAGAmoronsinsuits
love company in the spotlight


FYI: The Canadian Press, March 26: The Atlantic releases the entire Signal chat showing Hegseth's detailed attack plans against Houthis

The Independent, March 26: ‘It’s really not a big deal’: Trump responds to latest round texts published in Signal text scandal

And CNN, March 26: The politics of the Yemen chat scandal is obscuring key foreign policy shifts

Saturday, March 22, 2025

To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Humor

Humor is a rhetorical device that writers use to induce laughter or amusement in their readers, or more seriously, to highlight societal flaws

This Brave New World, LXIV
written in response to Republican Governor Doug Ducey's end-of-term, 97-million-dollars gift to his beloved "Land of the Free"

mile after mile
of stacked shipping containers 
topped by razor wire
under the desert sun
this Border Wall of Hate | Fear



mindless culture wars

On the Brink of Trumperica, XIII

woke mind virus ...
this double-masked man mumbles
in the psych ward


(FYI:

‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people...We must stay in community. We must help the vulnerable. We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future



political corruption, which is rampant in Trumpland (CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) is tracking Trump’s unprecedented corruption (again), Feb. 3, 2025), 

On the Brink of Trumperica, XII

the people of Trump
                  by the people of Musk
                  for the people of the SuperRich ...
sun-bleached stars and stripes
atop the Capitol fencing



Or complete incompetence.

Between Heaven and Hell, VI

ka-kis-to-cracy ...
my English teacher's voice
quivering
as U-S-A! chants get louder
from the crowd outside the school


(FYI: The first part of the word comes from the Greek kákisto(s), meaning “worst.” So kakistocracy means “government by the worst.” The earliest known use of the word was in the 1600s by Paul Gosnold, a loyalist to King Charles I during the English Civil War.)


Now, what literary device is being used for humorous effect? Hyperbole is one of the commonly used devices with a focus, thematic or visual, on exaggeration for humorous effect, or the effective use of pun, irony, sarcasm, or the combination of these devices, can also achieve the same effect.

For example, see the titling, structure, political jargons, and "scientific fact " (as shown in the third haiku 😆) of the following haiku sequence:

Trump Empire, Inc., IX
written in response to Bob Newhart's claim: "Humor’s a weapon if you want to make it one"

Easy as 1-2-3 When Humor Bombs

MAGA bar brawl between Trump jokes a thunderous echo-fart

floodafterfloodoftariffstaxcutMARA
King Trump's Castro-length shit-words

raising chickens for eggs
since wave after wave of DOGE cuts
I fart so often

(FYI: The noun shit-word has been obsolete since its recorded usage only in the Middle English period (1150—1500) (shit-word entry, Oxford English Dictionary). Now, it's revived by King Trump.

DOGE stands for the "Department of Government Efficiency", and MARA for "Make America Rich Again."

And eggs contain sulfur, which can contribute to the sulfurous smell of gas.  😂)


To conclude today's post, I would like to share with you the following remarks:

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.

-- Mark Twain

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

-- Oscar Ameringer

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

-- Plato


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., X

wall-mounted TV
blasting Putin demands to keep
captured territories
as we buy stinky tofu ...
one adds, "including the White House"


FYI: Stinky tofu, also known as "chou doufu" in Chinese, is a fermented bean curd dish popular in China and Taiwan, known for its strong, pungent odor and unique flavor. 

Friday, March 21, 2025

Biting NOT Barking: Geese and Refugees Haiku by Ernest J. Berry

English Original

frosty morning
migrating geese
and refugees

Forgotten War, 2016

Ernest J. Berry


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

霜凍的早晨
遷徙的大雁
和難民

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

霜冻的早晨
迁徙的大雁
和难民


Bio Sketch

Ernest J. Berry was born in 1929 in Christchurch, New Zealand. After a decade of shepherding, he spent several years in business before retiring to a beach in Mexico where he rediscovered his boyhood love of poetry. He un-retired in 1993 and settled in Picton. After founding Picton Poets in 1994, he started teaching haiku in workshops, secondary schools  and haiku meetings. Two of his haiku books were honoured with Merit Book Awards from The Haiku Society of America. 

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Carousel Haiku by Mohammad Azim Khan

English Original

tree shadows
ride the carousel
abandoned park

Modern Haiku, 50:3, Fall 2019

Mohammad Azim Khan


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

樹影
乘坐旋轉木馬
廢棄的公園

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

树影
乘坐旋转木马
废弃的公园


Bio Sketch

Mohammad Azim Khan is a retired UN official who has travelled to many war-torn countries to oversee relief and disaster operations. He graduated from Peshawar University with Master's degrees in both English Literature and Economics. He has since developed a special interest in haiku and tanka. And he has published many poems in journals around the world.

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Poetic Musings:Israeli Settler & Gazan Boy Visual Tanka by Chen-ou Liu

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CIII: "settler violence"

          under        slate-gray            skies

                                   |                          
a settler aims his gun | a boy throws his rock
                                   |

          tank track marks on the grass


Commentary: This is the first three-line visual tanka ever written, and its unusual format forces the reader to consider the relationships among Israeli incursions, as implied from L3,  in the occupied West Bank during the Gaza war. And the use of these vertical lines/slashes not only shows the "Apartheid Wall against Palestinians, a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity" (Amnesty International, Feb. 1 2022), as indicated in L2, but also implies a World Apart between the occupiers/Israelis and the occupied people/Palestinians. 


Note: The "single vertical line" has become the standard format for tanka written by the Japanese poets since the latter half of the 19th century; However, Ishikawa Takuboku, author of Poems to Eat and Romaji Diary and Sad Toys,  advocated for and started writing two or three lines, depending on the rhythm of each tanka. For more, see Hiroaki Sato, “Lineation of Tanka in English Translation,” 42 Monumenta Nipponica 3:347-56, Autumn 1987.


FYI: The following could be read as its sequel:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVI: "military watch"

burning olive groves ...
the weight of thick gray and black
blanketing
over the West Bank families
under military watch


And UN Press Release, March 18: Israel ramps up settlement and annexation in West Bank with dire human rights consequences

Covering the period from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024, the report details significant expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Steps have been taken towards implementing plans to construct over 20,000 housing units in new or existing Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem alone, according to Israeli non-governmental organisations, while 214 Palestinian properties and structures have been demolished in East Jerusalem. Over 10,300 units within existing Israeli settlements in the rest of the West Bank are in the pipeline and an unprecedented 49 new Israeli outposts have been established.


And Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVII: "pre-dawn bombings"
written in response to The Canadian Press, March 18: Israel's surprise bombardment plunged Palestinians back into 'hell'

By midday, over 400 people had been killed. It was one of the deadliest days of the 17-month war, following two months of ceasefire.


pre-dawn bombings
light the sky with orange flares 
shatter the stillness 
set fire to a sprawling tent camp ...
sounds of Death in a child's eyes


FYI: "Israel's oldest daily, now sanctioned by Netanyahu, the WarCriminal , Haaretz," Editorial, March 19: Israel, Not Hamas, Is Derailing the Gaza Cease-fire and Preventing the Hostages' Return

The Irish News, March 18: Netanyahu says strikes across Gaza that killed hundreds ‘only the beginning’ And Al Jazeera, March 19: Israel’s renewed strikes on Gaza have killed 183 children


The IDF announced it has begun a ground offensive in northern Gaza. The White House said that President Trump "fully supports" Israel's recent actions in Gaza. Over 710 Gazans have been killed and 900 wounded in Israeli strikes in the last 48 hours, the spokesperson of a hospital in central Gaza told Al Arabiya News.

And Haaretz, Analysis, March 21:  Israel Is Preparing to Occupy Gaza, Reinstate Military Rule and Fully Control the Palestinian Population

Israel appears to be creating a smokescreen around the government and army's true intentions. While awaiting updates on talks with Hamas, preparations are underway for a major operation to occupy Gaza


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVIII: "bomb after bomb"

some sleep, some prepare 
for another Ramadan fast ...
bomb after bomb 
silencing all things under the roofs 
and inside makeshift tents


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXIX: "inverted red triangle"

police phalanx on campus ...
with his face painted
with the inverted red triangle
he shouts, I need no mask; I speak
from my difference


FYI: Red triangle (Palestinian symbol), Wikipedia: Since the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, an inverted red triangle has been used by pro-Palestinian protesters.[1] The red triangle as a Palestinian symbol dates back to the 1917 Arab Revolt, after which it was also used in the Palestinian flag...

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Old Friends Haiku by Bill Kenney

English Original

old friends ...
the garden fading
into twilight

tinywords, 16:1, April 12 2016

Bill Kenney
 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

老朋友 …
在黃昏中花園
漸漸消逝

Translation result紙箱


Chinese Translation (Simplified)

老朋友 …
在黄昏中花园
渐渐消逝

 
Bio Sketch 
 
Born and raised in the Boston area, and living for over 50 years in New York City, Bill Kenney was a professor for many years in the English Department at Manhattan College. He started writing haiku in 2004, a month before his 72nd birthday, and became an active participant in the New York City Spring Street Haiku group. His haiku were published in numerous journals and anthologies. And his collection of haiku, keep walking, won the 2021 Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards.

Monday, March 17, 2025

A Room of My Own: Something New for a Day Trip, and Yet ...

Trump Empire, Inc., VII
written in response to Time Magazine, March 11: U.S. Is Added to Human Rights Watchlist

It's Trump-Free Zone
not the 51st US state
from New York
my friend trumpets with her eyes closed
face skyward, hands outstretched ...

in Toronto sunshine
with the scent of early spring
and freedom
two Americans meet and part:
one draft dodger, one Trump evader

wave after wave
lapping against the lake shore ...
the blood moon
shapes and re-shapes
our dark reflections

Note: During the Vietnam War, American "draft dodgers," most of whom were anti-war activists, evaded military service through various means, with some seeking refuge in Canada. And the origin of the name "Toronto" comes from the Huron word toran-ten, which literally means meeting place.

And BuzzFeed, "Jan. 22": Americans Share Why They Chose Canada Over The US


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., VIII

patho-cracy ...
my ESL teacher whispers
then puts her finger 
to her mouth as USA! chants 
grow loud and darker outside


FYI: ESL stands for English as a Second Language. And a pathocracy is “a system of government created by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society" 

For more details, see The Tyee, March 18: Trump and the Politics of Pathology: The strongman catastrophist summons the worst in us. 

Trump is a catastrophist. He wrecks things and then feeds on the pieces. His enablers scavenge the perks and privileges that he dispenses. He is a misanthrope. The conflict and confusion that he creates are purposeful, not incidental. It is a calculated cruelty. And it takes the combination of grievance, vulnerability, and pervasive public ignorance that allows a strongman symbol like Trump to rise to the surface by channelling these feelings into rage and the lust for retribution. It’s not the price of eggs.


Added:

no eye contact ...
a teen up and out of their shopway
this snowy morning


Added:

the beep, beep
of life on the brink
waxing crescent
in the window
of this ICU room

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Sun-Drenched Song Haiku by Kala Ramesh

English Original

long after sunset
the cuckoo’s
sun-drenched song
  
Acorn, 52, Spring 2024

Kala Ramesh 


Chinese Translation (Traditional) 

日落後一段時間
一隻杜鵑
陽光浸潤的歌聲

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

日落后一段时间
一只杜鹃
阳光浸润的歌声


Bio Sketch

Kala Ramesh is the Founder and Director of Triveni Haikai India, the Founder and Managing Editor of haikuKATHA Journal, an anthologist, and an external faculty member of Symbiosis International University Pune, where she taught a 60-hour haikai course from 2012 to 2021 — a first in India. She has organised eight major haiku festivals and to bring haiku into everyday spaces, Kala has initiated several successful projects in India.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

One Man's Maple Moon: Sketch Tanka by Michael McClintock

English Original

from the waterfall
I brought home a sketch
of a small fern
that stood by the torrent
and taught me to draw

Earth: Our Common Ground, 2017

Michael McClintock


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

從瀑布景點
我帶回家一幅素描:
長在激流旁
小蕨類植物
教我畫畫

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

从瀑布景点
我带回家一幅素描:
长在激流旁
小蕨类植物
教我画画


Bio Sketch

Michael McClintock's lifework in haiku, tanka, and related literature spanned over four decades. His many contributions to the field included six years as president of the Tanka Society of America (2004-2010) and contributing editor, essayist, and poet for dozens of journals, anthologies, landmark collections and critical studies. McClintock lived in Clovis, California, where he worked as an independent scholar, consultant for public libraries, and poet. Meals at Midnight [tanka], Sketches from the San Joaquin [haiku] and Streetlights: Poetry of Urban Life in Modern English Tanka, were some of his recent titles.

Friday, March 14, 2025

Biting NOT Barking: Bombs and Storks Haiku by Daniela Misso

English Original

bombs fall
in a child's eyes
storks flying

Third Place, indianKUKAI, 37

Daniela Misso


Chinese Translation (Traditional) 

炸彈落下
在孩子的眼裡
鸛鳥四處飛散

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

炸弹落下
在孩子的眼里
鹳鸟四处飞散


Bio Sketch

Daniela Misso lives with her husband and son in Umbria, Italy where she composes verses. Winner of national and international competitions, she has many haiku published in magazines. She is the author of the book, Connessioni Sottili, ed. FusibiliaLibri, 2021.

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Shift Change Haiku by Ignatius Fay

English Original

shift change
fried chicken and exhaust
on the warm breeze

DailyHaiga, 10 January 2017

Ignatius Fay


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

換班
炸雞味和汽車廢氣
隨暖風飄蕩

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

换班
炸鸡味和汽车废气
随暖风飘荡


Bio Sketch

Ignatius Fay was a retired invertebrate paleontologist. His poems has appeared in many of the most respected online and print journals, including The Heron’s NestModern HaikuArs Poetica, Gusts,Chrysanthemum and Eucalypt. Books: Breccia (2012), a collaboration with fellow haiku poet, Irene Golas; Points In Between (2011), an anecdotal history of his first 23 years. He was the editor of the Haiku Society of America Bulletin

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Poetic Musings: Protest March Haiku by Adjei Agyei-Baah

protest march
potbelly men
hold the line

Akitsu, Fall 2021

Adjei Agyei-Baah

Commentary: L1 sets the theme and tone while unexpected yet visually and emotionally "powerful" L3 makes this "protest" haiku fresh and effective, sparking the reader's emotions and reflection on what kind of reason is this group of potbelly men, who are, generally speaking, less active or energetic, protesting for? Which "sociopolitical" goal are they trying to achieve by "holding the line" firmly. 👏

What's left unsaid is at least as potent as what's stated.

And it might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of the following "magical-realist-esque" haiku:

a police phalanx
moves backward
a black woman

Applause Please, 2020

Jack Galmitz

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

A Room of My Own: The Longest Yet the Shortest Night

Trump Empire, Inc., III:

once upon a time
Rome was a Republic ...
my teacher laments
gazing at the White House
in the gathering dark

the dumb, no,
dumbest trade war in history ...
with news on mute
I see the MAGA neighbor
piling up boxes of eggs

this storm of thoughts
in my recurring dream
King Trump's head
sliced open with nothing in it
except a wall nut

warm bedside light --
Isaac Asimov flies me
into the Milky Way
to mind-witness the fall
of a galactic empire


FYI: It might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of the first entry of Between Heaven and Hell to reflection on what things have changed over a short period of less than 4 months in Trumperica.

Two Americas

the White House
surrounded by a metal fence 
ten feet high ...
this is America, and yet
the other America

this chilly night
stretching thousands of miles
behind the day
November 6th, the veil thinnest
between Heaven and Hell

Not Going Back
painted in large blue letters
on the billboard
in autumn morning chill
Not crossed out with red paint

raindrops stream
down Lady Liberty's face ...
in my mind's eye
atop the White House roof
the stars & stripes upside-down



And The New Yorker, March 8: America’s Founders Feared a Caesar. Has One Arrived?

Julius Caesar pressured the Senate, won popular support by fomenting class warfare, and sported a combover. The constitutional scholar Jeffrey Rosen discusses the parallels.

The Washington Roundtable speaks with Jeffrey Rosen, the president and C.E.O. of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit, about how America’s Founders tried to tyrant-proof their constitutional system, how Donald Trump’s whim-based decision-making resembles that of the dictator Julius Caesar, and what we can learn from the fall of the Roman Republic. Plus, how the Supreme Court is responding to the Trump Administration’s broad claims of executive power.


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., IV

in morning chill
to the clicking of cameras 
MAGA, MAGA ...
row upon rows of migrants
with hands and feet shackled


FYI: Time Magazine, March 11U.S. Is Added to Human Rights Watchlist


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., V

plunge after plunge
the stock market bleeding ...
to reporters
red-eyed King Trump shouts,
shut up about egg prices


FYI: USA Today, March 9: Don't worry about eggs or a Trump recession. The billionaires will be just fine.

And Al Jazeera, March 11: ‘Bloodbath’: US stock market sheds $1.75tn after Trump’s recession remarks
Tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 plunges 3.81 percent, its steepest single-day loss since September 2022.


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., VI

King Trump's meaty smile ...
phalanx after phalanx
of red-hatted men
chanting, tariffs are a tax cut
Make America Great Again

FYI: King Trump's mouthpiece, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, claimed on March 11, "Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people....”


Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XXXVII

the wind blows away 
what a homeless family
left behind ...
footprint after footprint
in the snow-covered park


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVI: "military watch"

burning olive groves ...
the weight of thick gray and black
blanketing
over the West Bank families
under military watch

Monday, March 10, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Flurry of Snow Haiku by Alan Summers

English Original 

a flurry of snow
the night settles
on each crow 

Lyrical Passion, July 2020
 
Alan Summers

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一陣雪花
夜幕降臨籠罩著
每一隻烏鴉

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一陣雪花
夜幕降臨籠罩著
每一隻烏鴉

 
Bio Sketch

Alan Summers is co-founder of Call of the Page, and founding editor of The Blo͞o Outlier Journal. He believes it’s essential to keep baking bread while creating innovative toppings from marmite and marmalade, not always at the same time, to other delights!

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Wren Song Haiku by Elmedin Kadric

English Original

holding off
holding on
wren song

rust, 2023

Elmedin Kadric 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

延後
堅持 
鷦鷯之歌

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

延后
坚持
鹪鹩之歌


Bio Sketch

Elmedin Kadric was born in Novi Pazar, Serbia, but writes out of Helsingborg, Sweden. His first collection, buying time (2017), was published by Red Moon Press.

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems on Women Navigating Their Multi-Faceted Lives

My Dear Friends:

In celebration of International Women's Day, I would like to share with you a set of selected poems on how women have navigated their multi-faceted lives when faced with challenges and trying circumstances.

A woman has many faces as she goes through her life. It's like we need more than one hair-do. We have many, many changes in the evolution of our lives. We have, we learn, and we grow; we view life differently, and life views us differently.

-- Sharon Stone


Selected Poems:

child  wife  mother
I’ve been many things
poet   teacher
one who sits all afternoon
gum leaves filtering the light

Kathy Kituai

blooming faces
mother's water sprinkler
spouts a rainbow

dewdrops on the tip of a leaf
the ballerina holds her pose

Chen-ou Liu

stacked stones
the steps I must climb
to my goddess self

Jackie Chou

a police phalanx
moves backward
a black woman

Jack Galmitz

training corps
marking time with style
blue mink stockings
bomber jacket, skirt
we made love not war

Martha Magenta

My Country,
I will build you again,
If need be,
with bricks
made from my life

Simin Behbahani

though now old
a woman is still a woman
as a breeze
to a summer bamboo screen
come to visit me

Fumi Saito

on the scale
my bathed and steaming body
this night of snow

Nobuko Katsura

the tattered banner
not one woman less
not one more death
flapping in evening chill ...
a long scream cuts to silence

Chen-ou Liu


To conclude today's Special feature post, I would like to invite you to watch and reflect on a free documentary, Joan Baez: I Am A Noise

Nearing the end of a 60-year musical career, legendary folk singer and activist Joan Baez reflects on her life on and off the stage - from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work with Martin Luther King, Jr. and a heartbreaking romance with a young Bob Dylan.

Three of my favourite Joan Baez quotes:

Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry. 

That's all nonviolence is - organized love

Action is the antidote to despair

Friday, March 7, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Winter Afternoon Haiku by Patricia Donegan

English Original

winter afternoon
not one branch moves --
I listen to my bones

Haikun Studio, 1991

Patricia Donegan 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬日午後
沒有一根樹枝移動 --
我聆聽我的骨頭

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬日午后
没有一根树枝移动 --
我聆听我的骨头


Bio Sketch

Patricia Donegan (1945 -- 2023) led a life of creative exploration, meditation, writing, translating and teaching haiku, and teaching haiku. Three of her most famous books of haiku Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion & Remembrance (co-translated with Yoshie Ishibashi), Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart, and Chiyo-ni Woman Haiku Master (co-translated with Yoshie Ishibashi). In 2017 she was named the honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives.

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Cool Announcement: 2025 Songbirds Online WAKA Anthology

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story contributor, an'ya, published the 2025 Songbirds Online WAKA Anthology as a digital flip book . The mission at Songbirds Online is to "preserve the songlike rhythm of Tanka and its predecessor Waka." 


Selected Tanka:

I waited all-day
your absence a restless ache --
now this winter night 
a chill that won't let go
wraps around my heart

Neena Singh

each heartbeat
lost in these pines --
when did love
become a fixed point
for our loneliness

Joanna Ashwell

days like beads
on a broken necklace
scatter ...
all leave behind
regrets and love lost

Dawn Bruce

dewdrops freeze
on a bed of fallen leaves
her scent 
pressed into the pillow
pressed against my broken heart

Robert Witmer

in a summer sky
temple doves somersault
into wing song
my thoughts are far away
on the sands of time

Kala Ramesh

night descends
and fireflies light up
the meadow
you trace a star map
across my belly

Debbie Strange 

the open gate
leading to wide fields
how quietly
my child has outgrown
the circle of my arms

Nitu Yumnam

no longer
waiting for her return
I open
the window and my heart
letting in the dawn chorus

Chen-ou Liu

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

A Room of My Own: Dumbest Trade War Tanka

On the Brink of Trumperica, XVIX

the dumb, no,
dumbest trade war in history ...
with news on mute
I glance at the MAGA neighbor 
piling up boxes of eggs


FYI: The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 31: The Dumbest Trade War in History
Trump will impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for no good reason.

And the following is an excerpt from Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, news conference on Canada’s response to tariffs, March 3:

So today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time they're talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator...

I think in what President Trump said yesterday, that there is nothing Canada or Mexico can do to avoid these tariffs, underlines very clearly what I think a lot of us have suspected for a long time — that these tariffs are not specifically about fentanyl, even though that is the legal justification he must use to actually move forward with these tariffs...

We have to fold back on the one thing he has said repeatedly, that what he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us.

And National Post, March 4U.S. is busting more people with prohibited eggs at the Canadian border

Between October 2024 and February 2025 at the Detroit-Windsor crossing, for instance, the field office has witnessed a 36 per cent increase in “interceptions of eggs” compared to the same time last year. 


This tanka is a sequel to the following one:

On the Brink of Trumperica, XVIII

white house blowout...
this man-child's meaty smile
in the window
as southern magnolias explode
with a mob of ravens

 
FYI: Among the [symbolically rich] trees on the White House Grounds, the oldest ones, southern magnolias, were planted by Andrew Jackson in 1829.

And PopMatters, Feb.9, 2017: The Spoiled Little Man-Child They Made King: Celebrity, Richard II, and Donald Trump.

Did Shakespeare predict Donald Trump? No. He just wrote a play about a thin-skinned, petty, self-aggrandising narcissist whose poor leadership drove an empire to ruin. 


Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, XX

one ice jam
after another, another...
shouts of trade war


FYI: The New York Times, March 4: Trump’s Tariffs Set Off Day of Anger, Retaliation and Market Unease: Global markets fell after steep U.S. tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico went into effect, and as the possible ramifications of a global trade war set in.


Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, XXI
written in response to Convicted Felon Donald Trump's longest recorded address to joint session of Congress

floodafterfloodofshitwords
Trump's Castro-length bunk

FYI: The noun shit-word has been obsolete since its recorded usage only in  the Middle English period (1150—1500) (shit-word entry, Oxford English Dictionary).


Added:

rusty nail heads
in my neighbor's fence
blast of Arctic air


Added: Trump Empire, Inc., I

The True North, Strong and Free

hard and fast
a bald eagle strikes its prey
on the ice ...
through bursts of the shutter
he captures a goose defying Death

a "colourful call"
between the Convicted Felon
and the PM
hockey sticks atop snowbanks
along the longest land border


FYI: “The true north strong and free,” originally a description of Canada in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem “To the Queen,” isa phrase from Canada's national anthem, “O Canada”, and a key part of Canada's identity. 

CBC News, March 5: a series of photos capturing this 20-minute deadly struggle about a Canada goose fighting off a bald eagle in a rare, symbolism-laden battle on the ice in Burlington, Ontario, Canada 

And The Hill, Feb.21: Trudeau after Canada hockey win over US: ‘You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game’


AddedTrump Empire, Inc., II

lineups in snow for free eggs
these distances 
of each from each


FYI: CBS News, New York, Feb 21: New Yorkers line up for free eggs in Brooklyn And Down to Earth, March 6: Chicken on rent in US as Trump asks people to grow poultry in backyard amid rocketing egg prices, A healthy hen can lay up to five eggs a week.

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.2 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone this morning: 2. 2 M pageveiws (FYI: NeverEnding Story reached 2. 1 M pageviews on November 25, 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 (6 Following; 4,762 Followers).


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"


Defy the law! –
Write the heartbroken
poetry of the World!

(often attributed to) Jack Kerouac 


I write as fast
as a downhill skier
then backtrack
revision by revision ...
my gaze turns to the hilltop moon

Chen-ou Liu

(FYI: For more about revisions, see To the Lighthouse: Revision, Revision, and Revision 😅)


And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood


Chen-ou

Monday, March 3, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems on Israel Blocking Gaza Aid

(Added FYI: Haaretz, Mar 11: Netanyahu Minister, Idit Silman: 'Only Solution for Gaza Is to Empty It of Gazans,' God Sent Us Trump to Build Settlements)

The United Nations and many Arab nations have condemned Israel for cutting off all food and humanitarian aid into Gaza on March 2. Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war...Over the past two days, Israeli troops have killed at least nine Palestinians in Gaza. 


Sadly, Nothing New Under the flag of Israel

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXIX: "starving babies"

smoky twilight ...
will starving babies in Gaza
heal the broken heart
of an Israeli mother
whose children were kidnapped



This Brave New World, CXIII

between his teeth
a piece of hummus-stuffed bread ...
maimed orphan's last meal


(FYI: [Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government] Haaretz, Nov. 28, 2023 : Gaza's Unfolding Disaster: When Humanitarian Aid Is Your Last Meal

And EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels, March 18, 2024

In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people... This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine)


Expanded: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXV: "first day of Ramadan" 

First Day

humming of drones ...
a family's suhoor meal,
finger-sized biscuits 

iftar table 
for a family of ten ...
six seats empty

mosque floor littered 
with plaster and broken glass ...
O Allah, grant us refuge

Ramadan moon 
behind skeletal houses
the edge of peace


(FYI: The first days of Ramadan, Ashra, are called the days of mercy. In these 10 days, Muslims should seek Allah's (SWT) mercy and praise Him. Suhoor is the pre-dawn meal eaten before fasting during Ramadan, and Iftar is an evening meal that Muslims eat to break their fast during Ramadan.

And Haaretz, March 2: Ramadan Begins in Gaza Amid Ruins and Devastation: "Some Families Were Wiped Out Completely")


And the Trump administration is fast-tracking another $4 billion in weapons to Israel, including more than 35,000 2,000-pound bombs, as well as 4,000 Predator warheads. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed an emergency declaration that bypasses Congress to expedite the arms shipment. The Trump administration has approved $12 billion in arms for Israel over the past five weeks.

-- Democracy Now, March 3: Israel Blocks Gaza Aid as It Continues to Derail Ceasefire; U.S. Expedites $4B Israeli Arms Transfer

ABC News, March 2: Israel block on Gaza aid coordinated with Trump administration, Israeli source says

And Haaretz, Analysis, March 3: Netanyahu Hoping for Cease-fire Violations That Could Justify Resuming the War in Gaza

With Trump's backing, the Israeli prime minister is allowing himself a free reign in Gaza – and in Lebanon. Knowing that his political survival is on the line, sacrificing the hostages and exposing IDF soldiers to life-threatening situations are a price he's willing to pay