A room of My Own: Lopsided Moon Haiku

lopsided moon ...

eyes fixed on my wife

straddling me

FYI: This haiku could be read as a sequel and a prequel to the following ones respectively:

butterflies mating

my wife's hand made to fit

inside my palm

Haiku Foundation's Per Diem, March 14 2023

And 

beads of sweat

between my wife's breasts

yet this impulse ...

NeverEnding Story, January 14, 2020

Added:

slanted moonlight

slow, slow curving of her breast

into my dream

Added:

a box of letters

in dusty attic light

I recover

my young self once caught

in someone's love bonfire

Added:

a queue for gas

out of the blue call answered

by tree swallow song

FYI: A small and striking songbird, the tree swallow is renowned for its acrobatic flight and dazzling plumage. It features glossy, iridescent blue-green upperparts that gleam in the sunlight.

Added:

a white raven

back and forth, back and forth 

distant sirens

FYI: White ravens are exceptionally rare in the wild—occurring in roughly 1 in 30,000 birds. North America's two main hotspots for these sightings include:

1 Vancouver Island, British Columbia: The coastal area around Qualicum Beach and Parksville is widely considered the unofficial "White Raven Capital". 

2 Anchorage, Alaska: White ravens are occasional, viral sensations in Anchorage.

Added:

sunlit hillside

a tumbling waterfall

of scarlet

Added:

time to live 

with what remains ...

blossom rain

reprinted in  The Mainichi, July 15, 2026

Poetic Musings: Heated Bodies Tanka by Jane Reichhold

almond nails 

pressed into brown skin

a faint perfume 

of two heated bodies

touching light as petals 

A Gift of Tanka, 1990

Jane Reichhold

Commentary: Jane's tanka offers a richly multi-sensory depiction of lovemaking that is both intimate and restrained. Cinematic in effect, it unfolds like a series of close-up shots: “almond nails / pressed into brown skin,” Ls 1&2, immediately foreground touch and sight, while also implying racial difference between the lovers. The tactile pressure of the nails suggests desire tempered by gentleness, setting the tone for a sensuality that is attentive rather than urgent.

As the tanka progresses, scent (“a faint perfume,” L3) and heat (“two heated bodies,” L4) deepen the sensory field, creating a layered experience of physical closeness. The final line, “touching light as petals,” L5, softens the erotic charge through natural imagery, emphasizing delicacy, mutual awareness, and emotional attunement. The comparison to petals reframes touch as something fleeting and tender rather than possessive.

When evaluated within its historical and sociopolitical context—written in the 1980s and published in 1990—this tanka’s portrayal of an interracial relationship is quietly radical. Rather than foregrounding conflict or transgression, it normalizes intimacy across racialized bodies through sensory immediacy and lyric restraint. Its focus on embodied perception allows desire to emerge as both physical and emotional, affirming connection through subtle, evocative detail rather than overt declaration.

FYI: Interracial marriage was de-criminalized throughout the entire United States on June 12, 1967. 

On that day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia that state-level bans on interracial marriage (known as "anti-miscegenation" laws) were unconstitutional. 

A Room of My Own: Epstein Email Gembun

In a 2011 email to Ghislaine Maxwell, “… that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.”

a pink-haired girl

seen through a telescope

of age-spotted hands 

FYI: CNN News, Nov. 12 2025: Takeaways from the new Epstein emails mentioning Trump

‘I know how dirty Donald is’: Several suggestions about what Epstein knew about Trump

In one 2018 email, Epstein remarked amid a discussion about Trump’s possible impeachment: “you see , i know how dirty Donald is. my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. What it means to have your fixer flip.” (That last part was apparently a reference to Michael Cohen, who flipped on Trump.)

And 

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.

-- Ayn Rand, novelist and advocate of a philosophy, “the virtue of selfishness”

FYI: The Guardian, April 10, 2017: The new age of Ayn Rand: how she won over Trump and Silicon Valley

Her novel The Fountainhead is one of the few works of fiction that Donald Trump likes and she has long been the darling of the US right. But only now do her devotees hold sway around the world...

Added: 

the kettle whistles ...

my rented attic room

fills with its sound

as I look out at something

or nothing in the snowfall

Added:

snow on snow

the nursing home hallway

stretches into silence

Added:

another rent hike

a crescendo of rain

on the skylight

Added:

The Prime Minister's mouth opens, closes — yak, yak, yak, blah, blah,  blah ...

breadlines lengthen

in the Sunday morning chill

bare branches snap

FYI: Food Banks Canada's 2025 HungerCount report shows that Canada is facing a food bank crisis with record-high usage, as food bank visits in March 2025 were nearly double those in March 2019. This report indicates that monthly visits reached 2.2 million in March 2025, a new record.

Poetic Musings: Small Girl and Shadows Haiku by Michael McClintock

a small girl ...

the shadows stroke

and stroke her

Maya, 1975

Michael McClintock

Commentary: This is one of the most disturbing haiku, by genre a haiku noir, I've ever read.

It explores a dark theme of "child sexual harassment (or even worse, abuse)" by a group of people (as implied from the shadowS repeatedly strok[ing] a small girl). 

Technically speaking, combined with visually and symbolically rich "shadows" (not explicitly men or people), the use of repetition, "stroke and stroke," not only enhances the poetic rhythm, but also adds emotional weight and psychological depth to the haiku. 

What's left unsaid/what will come next is far more poignantly potent than what's stated in the haiku.

FYI: For more about haiku noir, see "To the Lighthouse: Haiku Noir" 

One Man's Maple Moon: Aftersound Tanka by Linda Jeannette Ward

English Original

it hasn’t stopped

where your hands

slid all over me

a deep humming

like the aftersound of bells

                                     

Scent of Jasmine and Brine, 2007

Linda Jeannette Ward 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

它沒有停止

當你的雙手

滑過我全身

深沉的嗡嗡聲

像鐘響的餘音

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

它没有停止

当你的双手

滑过我全身

深沉的嗡嗡声

像钟响的余音

Bio Sketch

Linda Jeannette Ward was best known for her tanka poetry, published in journals internationally, and included in two collections: A Frayed Red Thread (Clinging Vine Press, 2000) and Scent of Jasmine and Brine (Inkling Press, 2007). Her tanka won 2nd and 3rd prizes in the Tanka Society of America's annual competition, as well as four Tanka Splendor Awards. And her collection, a delicate dance of wings, received the Haiku Society of America's 2003 Merit Book Award for Best Book of Haibun. 

Butterfly Dream: In Weeds Haiku by Raymond Roseliep

English Original

in weeds where we love

sudden lantern

of a firefly   

Frogpond, 6:2, 1983

Raymond Roseliep

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在雜草中我們相愛

突然出現一隻螢火蟲

燈籠般的亮光

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

在杂草中我们相爱

突然出现一只萤火虫

灯笼般的亮光

Bio Sketch

Raymond Roseliep (August 11, 1917 – December 6, 1983) was a Catholic priest and a haiku poet. He has been described as "the John Donne of Western haiku." He won the Haiku Society of America Harold G. Henderson award in 1977 and 1982. Two of his better known collections of haiku are The Still Point – Haiku of Mu, 1979 and Listen to Light, 1980  

Butterfly Dream: Snow Storm Haiku by Bill Pauly

English Original

snow storm ...

unbuttoning

her in the dark

Walking Uneven Ground: Selected Haiku, 2021

Bill Pauly

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

暴風雪 ...

在黑暗中我解開

她的衣服

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

暴风雪 ...

在黑暗中我解开

她的衣服

Bio Sketch

Bill Pauly published two small books of haiku: Wind the Clock by Bittersweet (1977) and Time from His Bones (1978), but later his work appeared mainly in the haiku journals. And his collection of haiku,Walking Uneven Ground: Selected Haiku, won a a Touchstone Distinguished Books Honorable Mention. 

Biting NOT Barking: First Day of War Haiku by Dietmar Tauchner

English Original

first day of war --

on a sunlit wall

two flies making love

Kamesan’s World Haiku Anthology on War, Violence and Human Rights Violations, 2013

Dietmar Tauchner   

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

戰爭第一天 --

在陽光映照的牆上

兩隻蒼蠅在做愛

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

战争第一天 --

在阳光映照的墙上

两只苍蝇在做爱

Bio Sketch

Dietmar Tauchner, born in 1972 in Austria, lives & works in Puchberg & Vienna, as a social-worker / counselor, author and lover. His work has been published in various magazines & anthologies worldwide. He received some awards, as the Taisho (Grand Prize) at the International Kusamakura Haiku Competition in Kumamoto, Japan, in 2013; and received the Second Place for Noise of Our Origin (Red Moon Press, Winchester, 2013) at the 2014 HSA Mildred Kanterman Merit Book Awards

A Room of My Own: Threesome

simmering heat 

every touch of her

you ask, I answer

last light of day

my body alone

night chill deepening

FYI: This [first] 2-line haiku sequence is written in response to the following:

After Dusk

asleep

the firefly

is fueling

sparks

however small

light lovers

our bodies

listen

to light

Listen to Light, 1980

Raymond Roseliep

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

shooting her husband

in the heart three times

the neighbour 

said nothing... and yet

everything to each of us

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

a winter fog

smothers the winding road

to her mother's house

the bruises on her face

say everything & nothing

Bulgarian and English Tanka Handbook (edited by Dimitar Anakiev), 2022

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXXVII: "Life still goes on"

surrounded 

by rubble that was once his home

this Gazan man

flashes a defiant smile ...

his X post reads, Life still goes on

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

                                   |                          

a settler aims his gun | a child throws his rock

                                   |

FYI: NBC News, August 8: The silent war: Settler violence in the West Bank surges since Oct. 7

Poetic Musings: Aftersound Tanka by Linda Jeannette Ward

it hasn’t stopped

where your hands

slid all over me

a deep humming

like the aftersound of bells

                                     

Scent of Jasmine and Brine, 2007

Linda Jeannette Ward 

Commentary: Linda Jeannette Ward expertly manages to weave two senses, rich with meaning, into the one tanka. However, neither overpowers the other. Each complements and elevates to raise the sensual awareness of the entire poem.

-- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Sensing Tanka: Perceiving Life Beyond the Ordinary" by David Terelinck

One Man's Maple Moon: Prairie Motel Tanka by George Swede

English Original

a full moon 

and coyotes howling -- 

we're naked 

on our hands and knees 

in the prairie motel 

Fire Pearls, 2006

George Swede

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一輪明月

和土狼的嚎叫 --

在草原汽車旅館裡

我們全身赤裸

並且四肢著地

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一轮明月

和土狼的嚎叫 --

在草原汽车旅馆里

我们全身赤裸

并且四肢着地

Bio Sketch

George Swede's most recent collections of haiku are Almost Unseen (Decatur, IL: Brooks Books, 2000), Joy In Me Still (Edmonton: Inkling Press, 2010) and micro haiku: three to nine syllables (Inspress, 2014). He is a former editor of Frogpond: Journal of the Haiku Society of America (2008-2012) and a former Honorary Curator of the American Haiku Archives (2008-2009).

One Man's Maple Moon: Heated Bodies Tanka by Jane Reichhold

English Original

almond nails 

pressed into brown skin

a faint perfume 

of two heated bodies

touching light as petals 

A Gift of Tanka, 1990

Jane Reichhold

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

杏仁色的指甲

壓入棕色的皮膚

散發出淡淡的香水味

兩個激情發熱的身體

觸摸花瓣般的光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

杏仁色的指甲

压入棕色的皮肤

散发出淡淡的香水味

两个激情发热的身体

触摸花瓣般的光

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: Lovemaking Tanka by George Swede

English Original

another day closer 

to the end of my life 

without lovemaking --

a blue jay is screeching 

in the bare maple 

Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart, 2006

George Swede

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

又過了一天

更接近我生命的盡頭

而沒有做愛 --

光禿禿的楓樹上

一隻藍鳥在尖叫

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

又过了一天

更接近我生命的尽头

而没有做爱 --

光秃秃的枫树上

一只蓝鸟在尖叫

Bio Sketch

George Swede's most recent collections of haiku are Almost Unseen (Decatur, IL: Brooks Books, 2000), Joy In Me Still (Edmonton: Inkling Press, 2010) and micro haiku: three to nine syllables (Inspress, 2014). He is a former editor of Frogpond: Journal of the Haiku Society of America (2008-2012) and a former Honorary Curator of the American Haiku Archives (2008-2009).

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

Three Hundred and Twenty-Second Entry,  Coronavirus Poetry Diary

St. Patrick's Day

the warmth

of unmasked hellos

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

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-Third Entry

my sex drive 

on and off in lockdown ...

spotty showers

Added: Three Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Entry

green shoots

on an oak stump ...

lockdown lifted

Butterfly Dream: Mating Season Haiku by Garry Eaton

English Original

mating season

two radiators making

one cloud of steam

Tempslibres, June 1 2017

Garry Eaton

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

交配季節

兩個散熱器散發

一團蒸汽

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

交配季节

两个散热器散发

一团蒸汽

Bio Sketch

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

One Man's Maple Moon: Making Love Tanka by Kozue Uzawa

English Original

languidly 

peony petals fall 

into my heart’s 

empty space 

after making love

Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, 2010

Kozue Uzawa

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

做愛後

舒懶地一片片

牡丹花瓣

飄落並進入

我的心空白之處

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

做爱后

舒懒地一片片

牡丹花瓣

飘落并进入

我的心空白之处

 

 

Bio Sketch

Kozue Uzawa is a retired university professor. She works as editor of the English tanka journal GUSTS. She composes tanka both in Japanese and English. She also translates Japanese tanka into English and co-published Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2006), and Kaleidoscope: Selected Tanka of Shuji Terayama (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 2008). Ferris Wheel received the 2007 Donald Keene Translation Award for Japanese Literature from Columbia University.

A Room of My Own: No Strings Attached

a midnight cigarette

dangles from her mouth

I hold my breath

and the creaking door

for this high-heeled woman

I urinate

after cheap motel sex

the drip drip drip

of my midsummer dream

into a half-clogged toilet

Added:

Fire and Fury

nothing justifies

the lynching of Arabs

by Jews ...

PM's lips move for one minute,

his finger pointing elsewhere

columns of smoke

and a ball of fire rising

above rows of houses ...

the last day of Ramadan

in the Gaza Strip

Fist published in PoemHunter, May 13 2021

Added: 

Eve of Destruction

columns of tanks

along the Gaza border

street dogs howling

a tank gun

out of the smoke and dust

teens throwing rocks

Special Feature: (Pre-Covid) Sensual/Love Poems for Valentine's Day

My Dear Readers:

I Hear You (complaining about my "depressing poem:" unlove in the time of covid" 😂).  Here are sensual /love poems selected from pre-Covid times for your reading pleasure.

Selected Poems:

Pressing my breasts

I softly kick aside

the Curtain of mystery

How deep the crimson

of the flower here

Akiko Yosano

evening 

between her breasts 

sugar to lick off 

the cocktail glass 

rim 

ai li

warm brandy

her shadow removes

another garment

Margaret Rutley 

devoured

by your intense

dark gaze

I enter further

inside you

Chen-ou Liu

after love-making

she laughs

and her breasts quiver --

through the cabin window

the Sphinx-like summer sunshine

Larry Kimmel

our bodies

listen

to light

Raymond Roseliep

I fight the urge 

to ask them 

how to make love last 

old couple holding hands 

where the waves break 

Roberta Beary

To conclude today's Special Feature post, I share the following haiku with you who are hungry/thirsty for love: 😋

Valentine date

she licks a crumb of chocolate

off my lips 

Enjoy Valentine's Day, Love with the Coronavirus around

Chen-ou

A Room of My Own: Wild Hearts

a haiku set for Ingmar Bergman

this tangle
of wild strawberries
sultry night      

                            beads
                     
                              of
roll down between     my wife’s breasts
                   
                            sweat

Butterfly Dream: Cabbage Moths Haiku by Mark Dailey

English Original

double helix
the mating swirl
of cabbage moths

Frogpond, 40:3, 2017

Mark Dailey


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

雙螺旋
交配的捲心菜蛾
在空中漩渦式地飛舞
  
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

双螺旋
交配的卷心菜蛾
在空中漩涡式地飞舞


Bio Sketch

Mark Dailey is an anthropology professor living and working in rural Vermont, USA. He has studied, lived, and researched in mainland China, and has a lifelong interest in Chinese language and poetry. He has devoted his poetry writing to haiku since 2013.