Butterfly Dream: Barking Dogs Haiku by Robert D. Wilson

English Original

barking dogs ...

the neighbors

singing karaoke

Jack Fruit Moon, 2009

Robert D. Wilson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

狗吠聲 ...

鄰居們

唱卡拉OK

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

狗吠声 ...

邻居们

唱卡拉OK

Bio Sketch

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

One Man's Maple Moon: Picture Scroll Tanka by Aya Yuhki

English Original

rewinding

a picture scroll of memory –

could I relive

those happy days

with my dog

White Flowers in the Sky, 2005

Aya Yuhki 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

倒帶

一段記憶的影像捲軸 —

我能否重溫

那些快樂的日子

陪伴我的狗

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

倒带

一段记忆的影像卷轴 —

我能否重温

那些快乐的日子

陪伴我的狗

Bio Sketch

Aya Yuhki was born and now lives in Tokyo. She started writing tanka more than thirty years ago and has expanded her interests to include free verse poetry, essay writing, and literary criticism. Aya Yuhki is Editor-in-Chief of The Tanka Journal published by the Japan Poets’ Society. Her works are featured on the homepage of the Japan Pen Club’s Electronic Library.

Butterfly Dream: Smell Haiku by Larry Kimmel

English Original

smelling of himself,

grass, and sunshine

the puppy

Alone Tonight, 1998

Larry Kimmel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

聞起他自己的氣味,

青草, 和陽光的氣息

小狗

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

闻起他自己的气味,

青草, 和阳光的气息

小狗

Bio Sketch

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

A Room of My Own: River Trail Tanka

Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, IV

silver moonlight 

drips through weeping willow leaves

the river trail  reeks 

where a stray rips the throat

from a bag of rotting guts

FYI: My new writing project, Starlight on the Gutter of Blossoms, applies the violent lens of the urban onihishigitei style to the modern landscape. Inspired by Christine Judd’s "neon lights" tanka, the title hijacks Oscar Wilde’s romanticism—"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"—and forces that celestial gaze down into the city’s filth to "slay" traditional beauty.

You can read its I, II, and III here.

Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, V

the milky way 

floats in the midlight river --

one yellow stream

arcs higher than the other

while two drunks shout and laugh

Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, VI

the warbler’s wail

ripples through the morning mist --

the screech of brakes

as a truck grinds to a stop

inches from the toddler

Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, VII

the moonlit creek

chatters over mossy rocks

the drainage pipe 

spewing vomit after vomit

of neon-blue factory sludge

Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, VIII

fields of wheat

rippling in morning sunshine

roadside billboards

hawk cheap loans and debt swaps

to the hollow-eyed and aged

Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, IX

morning mist

veiling the river’s curve ...

the bridge traffic stops

as a rusted semi-truck 

grinds a stray into pulp

A Room of My Own: Cherry Blossom Dawn Haiku

cherry blossom dawn

my beagle and I bathed

in the scent of light

Added:

breezy sunshine

bumblebees stitch gold threads

among blossoms

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

bumblebee flitting

among the meadow flowers

humming to itself

Haiga Moments: Pens and Lens, 2008

Ignatius Fay

Added:

blossom rain

my son takes a selfie

I breathe deeply

Added:

pick-your-own farm

my toddler’s lips and fingers

blue-stained

Added:

strawberry juice …

drip, drip from her tongue

into my mouth

Added:

garden hut

newborn kittens blink

into tulips

Added:

break of dawn

a wedge of geese honking

the northbound freight

A Room of My Own: Late Night Shift Haiku

late night shift done

a stray’s barks lengthen

the way home

Added:

thunder and lightning

what's left between us 

half-spoken

Added:

cascading clusters, 

clusters of wisteria …

scent of sunshine

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCIII: "trapped echo"

the sound of drones 

in an armless boy's head

like a trapped echo

his mother's last scream 

drowns in the smoky dark

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

Opinion, April 24, 2026: Israelis' Thunderous Silence Enables Daily Atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank

In the Gaza Strip, the dead and wounded aren't "casualties," they are "collateral damage" – a dry technical term backed by artificial intelligence and legal permits. They aren't casualties, they are damage. Language itself has been recruited to cloud what happened, as if by swapping the terms, we could also swap our reality...

But the most chilling sound of all is silence. Israelis' thunderous silence was what enabled and continues to enable the atrocities we committed in Gaza and the ones we commit every day in the West Bank. 

This tanka could be read as a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCII: "P/Crime Minister"

written on Israel's Independence Day

behind the shroud

of "our hero warriors"

the P/Crime Minister

spills the Castro-length 

blah, blah, blah on victory

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCIV: "fighter jets' trails"

Gazan sky tinged gray

fighter jets’ trails underline

a crescent moon

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCV: "bullets and blasts"

a hum

thickens into a roar ...

bullets and blasts

tear through brick walls and flesh

as dust and blood fill the air

Added:

makeshift clinic

a  Beirut boy blowing

on shrapnel wounds

A Room of My Own: Thoughts Pacing Gembun

Another night of shifting, flipping the pillow, and counting sheep …

my thoughts pacing 

in moonlit dark, one stray 

outbarks the rest

Added: This Brave New World, CXXVII

round after round

pink slips slide across desks—

warehouse aisles hum

as robots pick and place parcels

on time, 24/7

FYI: CBC News, Jan. 28 2026: 

Amazon is slashing about 16,000 corporate jobs — the second round of mass layoffs for the e-commerce company in three months...The latest reductions follow a round of job cuts in October, when Amazon said it was laying off 14,000 workers. 

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXV: "New Gaza"

New Gaza: a coastal strip, replete with high-rises and resorts.

newsfeed scroll:

ripped tents after ripped tents

in freezing rain

FYI: The Nation, January 30 2026: Jared Kushner’s “Plan” for Gaza Is an Abomination

Kushner is pitching a “new,” gleaming resort hub. But scratch the surface, and you find nothing less than a blueprint for ethnic cleansing.

And this is a sequel to my gembun below:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXI: "Phase Two"

The ink barely dry on the paper, and Phase Two of the ceasefire plan announced to the clicking of cameras.

these dark blue lips

as frost thickens on cracked panes

Gazan sky tinged red

NeverEnding Story, January 19 2026

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

raven by raven

skeletal houses in Gaza

darkening

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXVI: "Rafah refugee camp"

tents go dark

in Rafah refugee camp

moon-filled puddles

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXIV

written in response to The Daily show, Jan. 30 2026: the best bribe disguised as a documentary goes to... "Melania"

in the near-dark room

less than a dozen viewers

glance back and forth …

Melania Trump’s mouth

rarely opens on screen

FYI: The Nation Magazine, Feb. 2 2026: The Melania in Melania Likes Her Gilded Cage Just Fine

The $45 million advertorial abounds in unintended ironies.

Melania, this documentary makes perfectly clear, likes her gilded cage just fine. After all, it lets her produce this movie starring her clothes, her hair, her shoes, and her complexion, and how many women can say the same?

And The New Yorker, Feb. 2 2026: 

In the film, the First Lady comes across as brittle and materialistic; her interactions with her son and husband are stiff. Instead of baby photos or family mementos, viewers get so many shots of Melania in high heels that it starts to feel “like an OnlyFans account crossed with that meme of Kim Jong Un visiting factories,” Caroline Mimbs Nyce writes in her delightfully cutting review, The Melania Documentary Is “Exceedingly Mid"

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXV

on silver screen

Melania walking, walking

to nowhere ...

viewers awake when the light's on

all give ¼ star

Butterfly Dream: Dog's Eyes Haiku by Isabel Caves

English Original

wild thyme 

the dog’s eyes

full of moon

Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2020

Isabel Caves

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

野麝香草

一隻狗的眼睛

滿是月亮

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

野麝香草

一只狗的眼睛

满是月亮

Bio Sketch

Isabel Caves is a haiku poet living in Auckland, New Zealand. Her haiku have appeared in several journals including Stardust Haiku, Wales Haiku Journal and Femkumag. She is a regular contributor to the Haiku Pea Podcast.

A Room of My Own: Their Own Echoes Haiku

Game Show, 2024, LV

CNN debate

the alley strays bark, barking

at their own echoes

FYI: Kansas Reflector, June 27: Biden and Trump trade insults, accusations of lying in acrimonious presidential debate.

And Business Insider, June 27: Joe Biden's 1st debate was a complete disaster:

Biden appeared out of breath. He hastily began reciting facts while slurring and occasionally omitting words. At times, Biden uttered nonsensical phrases.

Added: Game Show, 2024, LVI

written in response to Haaretz, June 28: Meandering Biden, Pathological Trump: The Worst Possible Presidential Debate Was a Sad Night for America

This was a sad night for America: Biden lost. Trump lost. Hosting news channel CNN lost. And American democracy lost. For Democrats, this was the sum of all fears.

eight feet apart

two old men shout at each other

at their own echoes ...

I look out the window at stars

going dim, dimmer with fear

Added: Game Show, 2024, LVII

written in response to Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, Opinion, June 27: President Joe Biden, I’ve Seen Enough

sometimes 

he stumbles over his words

most often 

he blanks out entirely ...

and yet he's a "Better Golfer!" 

FYI: To me (Ezra Klein), the blockage in people’s minds was not so much whether Biden’s age had become a really substantial risk on the campaign trail or even within the Presidency but in imagining that the Party was strong enough to do something else and take on the risk of doing something else...The Democratic Party has become this party of normalcy and of systems and of institutions

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXII: "Gaza and West Bank"

Night for Day and Day for Night ...

a girl convulsing 

on the bloodstained classroom floor

smell of Gaza's  air

scorching heat

a West Bank man strapped to the hood

of an IDF jeep

FYI: Reuters, June 25: Gazans run after Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter;  The Canadian Press, June 26: A Palestinian was shot, beaten and tied to an Israeli army jeep. The army says he posed no threat.

And Haaretz, July 1: Al-Jazeera's videos showed Israeli soldiers strapping cameras to Palestinian detainees whose hands are tied and dressing them with uniform and vests before sending them into damaged houses and tunnel shafts.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXIII: "the oppressed"

in memory of Marek Edelman, the deputy commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in WWII and the only leader to survive the war, who was known for his heart-and mind penetrating remark: "To be a JEW means always being with the oppressed and never the oppressors"

late night lightning 

links Heaven and Gaza's ruins ...

with news on mute

my friend murmurs, what does it mean

to be a Jew to the oppressed 

FYI: Chris Hedges, Canadian Dimension, "October 8, 2023": Palestinians speak the language of violence Israel taught them:

I was a close friend of Alina Margolis-Edelman who was part of the armed resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in World War II. Her husband, Marek Edelman, was the deputy commander of the uprising and the only leader to survive the war. The Nazis had sealed 400,000 Polish Jews inside the Warsaw Ghetto. The trapped Jews died in the thousands, from starvation, disease and indiscriminate violence. When the Nazis began to transport the remaining Jews to the extermination camps the resistance fighters fought back. None expected to survive.

Edelman, after the war, condemned Zionism as a racist ideology used to justify the theft of Palestinian land. He sided with the Palestinians, supported their armed resistance and met frequently with Palestinians leaders. He thundered against Israel’s appropriation of the Holocaust to justify its repression of the Palestinian people. While Israel dined out on the mythology of the ghetto uprising, it treated the only surviving leader of the uprising, who refused to leave Poland, as a pariah. Edelman understood that the lesson of the Holocaust and the ghetto uprising was not that Jews are morally superior or eternal victims. History, Edelman said, belongs to everyone. The oppressed, including the Palestinians, had a right to fight for equality, dignity and liberty.

“To be a Jew means always being with the oppressed and never the oppressors,” Edelman said.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXIV: "October 7"

this endless loop:

October 7, October 7 ....

[and yet 

the decades before

and the day after...] bloodshedding

A Room of My Own: Valentine's Day and Night

a teen couple 

share one chocolate heart ...

me and my shadow

dim TV light

my dog licks chocolate crumbs

I left behind

Added: a tanka sequel

I share 

one chococlate heart

and Valentine poems

with my post-divorce date ...

her scent on my fingers

Added: This Brave New World, CXLII

this year 45 days old

in the breezy sunshine

49th mass shooting 

FYI: Most of the mass shootings don't make the news in the US (CBC News, Feb. 14)

And The Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 15: Gunfire at Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration kills 1 and wounds nearly two dozen, including children: 

“Parades, rallies, schools, movies. It seems like almost nothing is safe,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said.

A Room of My Own: Refugee Shelter Tanka

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XVII

the entrance

of a closed refugee shelter

darkening ...

an African man and a stray

share a box of French fries

FYI: CityNews, Dec. 22, 2023: Coalition of community leaders demand action, funding for [mainly African] refugees and asylum seekers, in Toronto

A coalition of community leaders is urging the federal government to take immediate action to address what they describe as a crisis on Toronto streets. Funding is desperately needed to shelter the growing number of refugees and frontline workers say the federal government has left them stranded in the bitter cold.

Thousands of African refugees have taken shelter in the basements of churches and inside a strip mall since the summer as religious organizations voluntarily took them in without government support. Many of those organizations are now tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

Added: Game Show 2024, XXXII

beach diner's TV

blasting Donald Trump's win ...

a rogue wave slams ashore

FYI: FYI: Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships and isolated structures such as lighthouses." 

Added: Game Show 2024, XXXIII

written in response to CBS News, Jan. 16: Trump wins 98 of 99 Iowa counties, CBS News projects

pundits claim

Trump can be President from jail

if he has to ...

in my trance the royal palm

crowned with winter crows

FYI: "The royal palm is a large majestic palm that is native to south Florida . And crows are highly social during winter, gathering in large flocks that sometimes number thousands."

Added:

I do, I do

over a video call ...

the bright world

in the eyes of the masked bride

holding a paper bouquet

FYI: ABC News, Jan. 10: Why are 1,500 Americans still dying from COVID every week?

Experts said there are several reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including not enough people accessing treatments or getting vaccinated as well as waning immunity.

As of Jan. 5, just 19.4% of adults aged 18 and older and 8% of children have received the updated COVID vaccine, CDC data shows.

And CNN, Jan. 14: Health experts sound alarm over JN.1 Covid variant

Michael Holmes speaks with cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, Eric Topol about the high levels of coronavirus across the U.S.

Butterfly Dream: Blood Moon Haiku by Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

English Original

blood moon

a sniffer dog leads

to wilderness

The Mamba, 9, march 2020

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一輪血月

一隻嗅探犬引導

到荒野之處

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一轮血月

一只嗅探犬引导

到荒野之处

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

Butterfly Dream: Old Labrador Haiku by André Surridge

English Original

summer afternoon

settling into its shadow

the old labrador

Honorable Mention, 2006 Betty Drevniok Award

André Surridge 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

夏日午後

一隻衰老的拉布拉多狗

安適在它的陰影中

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

夏日午后

一只衰老的拉布拉多狗

安适在它的阴影中

Bio Sketch

André Surridge was an award-winning playwright and poet who immigrated to New Zealand from Yorkshire, England in 1972. He was President of the Playwrights Association of New Zealand from 1998-2000. Widely published, some of his awards included: 1995 Minolta Playwriting Award,  2007 Elizabeth Searle Lamb Award, 2008 Tanka Splendor Award, and 2010 Jane Reichhold International prize. And his first collection of haiku ans senryu, one hundred petals, was critically acclaimed in 2019.

Butterfly Dream: Winter Thaw Haiku by S. M. Kozubek

English Original

winter thaw

my dog and I

spring off-leash

Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2020

S. M. Kozubek 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬天融雪

我的狗和我擺脫束縛

一躍而起

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬天融雪

我的狗和我摆脱束缚

一跃而起

Bio Sketch

After retiring from practicing law, S. M. Kozubek spends more time now writing poems. His haiku and tanka have been published in NeverEnding Story, Frogpond, A Hundred Gourds, Prune Juice, Modern Haiku, bottle rockets, Skylark, is/let, Red Moon Anthology, Wales Haiku Journal, and other publications.

Butterfly Dream: Bits of Night Haiku by Jane Reichhold

English Original

a barking dog

little bits of night

                              breaking off

Haiku Moment, 1993

Jane Reichhold

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一隻嚎叫的狗

夜晚一點一點地

                              斷裂開來

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一只嚎叫的狗

夜晚一点一点地

                              断裂开来

 

 

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

One Man's Maple Moon: Speck Tanka by Denis M. Garrison

English Original

I am a speck

on this rock in this ocean

lost in endless space

but for this puppy I hold

I am a warm, breathing world

Gusts, 7, Spring/Summer 2008

Denis M. Garrison

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在這片海洋的岩石上

我是一個斑點

迷失在無盡的空間

但是對於我抱著的這隻小狗

我是一個溫暖, 散發氣息的世界

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在这片海洋的岩石上

我是一个斑点

迷失在无尽的空间

但是对于我抱着的这只小狗

我是一个温暖, 散发气息的世界

Bio Sketch

Denis M. Garrison, from Iowa, now lives in Maryland. His childhood was spent in Japan, youth in Europe, Africa and western Pacific. His poetry’s widely published. Garrison’s print collections include First Winter Rain, Eight Shades of Blue, Hidden River, Sailor in the Rain and Other Poems, and Fire Blossoms.

A Room of My Own: Somewhere, Nowhere Tanka

power lines

droop across the main street

strewn with rubble

a stray with its head down

wandering somewhere, nowhere

Added:

with toy guns and sticks

a line of neighborhood boys 

saluting soldiers

at the self-made "checkpoint"

under Kharkiv's twilight sky

Added: written in response to LA Times, July 26: Trump hints at third presidential run in first Washington visit since leaving office

a third run ...

murmurs of assent ripple through

the psych ward lounge

A Room of My Own: Pandemic Puppy Haiku

Three Hundred and Forty-Fourth Entry,  Coronavirus Poetry Diary

Back to Normal ...

a pandemic puppy tied 

to the closed shelter's door 

FYI: CBC News, July 4: Pandemic pets ending up in shelters as owners return to office, struggle with rising costs

Added:

summer jazz

a bullet cuts through

this breezy night

Added:

forked tongues of bushfire tasting this inky night

Butterfly Dream: Deep Winter Haiku by Marion Alice Poirier

English Original

deep winter ...

a dog whines outside

the dark house

Marion Alice Poirier

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

深冬 ...

一隻狗在黑暗的房子外面

不停地嗚咽

    

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

深冬 ...

一只狗在黑暗的房子外面

不停地呜咽

Bio Sketch

Marion Alice Poirier is a lifetime resident of Boston, MA. She began writing haiku in 2001 and eventually began to teach haiku in workshops on Poetry Circle and Emerging Poets. She also write short poetry and have been published in on-line haiku and short poetry journals like Tinywords, Hedgerow and The Heron's Nest.

Butterfly Dream: Old Dog and I Haiku by Marilyn Humbert

English Original

old dog and I

sharing the glow

winter sun

Stardust, 32, 2019

Marilyn Humbert

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

老狗和我

分享日照光芒

冬天的太陽

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

老狗和我

分享日照光芒

冬天的太阳

Bio Sketch

Marilyn Humbert lives in the Northern suburbs of Sydney NSW Australia. Her tanka and haiku appear in international and Australian journals, anthologies and online. Her free verse poems have been awarded prizes in competitions and some have been published.