A Room of My Own: Wooden Jesus Tanka

slanted sunlight

reaches Wooden Jesus on the cross

I close my eyes

... yet nothing whatever emerges

in my mind or my heart

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

in the chapel

I pray to Jesus

hour after hour

finally tired of me

Time leaves me alone

NeverEnding Story, September 15, 2017

Added:

a  l  o n e togethertogether a l o  n  e

     meandmydrunkenshadow

Added:

the patches

on my neighbor's screen door

foreclosure notice

Poetic Musings: Burst of Fragrance [Found] Tanka by William Carlos Williams

Who shall hear of us

in the time to come?

Let him say there was

a burst of fragrance

from black branches.

Al Que Quiere!, 1917

William Carlos Williams

Commentary: This five-line stanza that concludes William Carlos Williams’ short “Love Song,” from his first collection Al Que Quiere! (1917), looks and feels much like today’s tanka in English: the interrogative of the first two lines, the stanza’s two-part structure, the poem’s alliteration, and its vivid, single image from nature are all elements common to traditional Japanese tanka and its English cousin... excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Introduction to The Tanka Anthology by Michael McClintock"

FYI: For more of "found tanka," see "To the Lighthouse: 'Tanka' Found in Western Tradition"

Butterfly Dream: Sunlit Laughter Haiku by Laryalee Fraser

English Original

threading

through a weeping willow 

sunlit laughter

a leaf rustles, summer 2012

Laryalee Fraser 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

穿過

一棵垂柳

陽光下的笑聲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

穿过

一棵垂柳

阳光下的笑声

Bio Sketch

A resident of British Columbia, Canada, Laryalee Fraser was actively engaged in online poetry forums from the mid-1990’s until her death in 2013. Her poetry has been widely published in haiku and tanka journals, and  in 2006, she compiled an online anthology of haiku, "a procession of ripples."

Butterfly Dream: Sausage Meat Haiku by Bill Pauly

English Original

grinding sausage meat

she recounts the times

her husband cheated

Walking Uneven Ground: Selected Haiku, 2021

Bill Pauly

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

磨碎香腸肉 ...

她追敘她的丈夫出軌

的那些期間

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

磨碎香肠肉 ...

她追叙她的丈夫出轨

的那些期间

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. 

Butterfly Dream: Falling Leaves Haiku by Brendon Kent

English Original

falling leaves ...

reading the same line

over and over

Navigating Moons, 2024

Brendon Kent 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

片片落葉 ...

細讀同一行文字

一遍又一遍

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

片片落叶 ...

细读同一行文字

一遍又一遍

Bio Sketch

    

Brendon Kent lived in Botley, an old countryside village in Southern England (circa 890 A.D.) Born in the late 50's he had written poetry for many years preferring the "short forms." Brendon's haiku/senryu were published worldwide in many leading books and journals. He was a member of the British Haiku Society.

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Russian Opposition to Putin and His War in Ukraine

                                                                                           Patriot: A Memoir

                                                                                           written in blood, sweat and tears ...

                                                                                           the battle 

                                                                                           continues from Navalny's grave

                                                                                           as the Kremlin is cloaked in shadows

My Dear Friends:

A much-awaited posthumous memoir by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was published worldwide on Tuesday. He began writing Patriot: A Memoir after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020, and his wife, Yulia Navalnaya,  helped piece together the book following his death in February.

The book recounts his youth, activism, personal life and his fight against Putin’s increasingly authoritarian hold on Russia. US magazine The New Yorker published excerpts from the book on October 11, titled Alexei Navalny’s Prison Diaries, an account of his last years and his admonition to his country and the world.

The book is set to be published in 22 languages; the English-language edition hit number one on Amazon’s bestselling book charts just hours after its release.

Now, I would like to share with you some of my published poems about Russian opposition against Putin and his war in Ukraine. 

Un/Truth

"George Orwell's novel tops all of the Russian bestseller lists in 2022. Really?" Raising her voice on the last word, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman reacts to the West’s latest report on what's happened in Putin's Russia.

"I remember in the 1990s within the public school system," the spokeswoman pauses to clear her throat, then continues, "we were drilled that Orwell was describing the horrors of totalitarianism, instead of how liberalism would lead humanity to a dead end." 

"We now know that all the powers of liberal Europe had entered into an unholy alliance to corrupt the Russian youth who were hungry for truthful knowledge at the time. As Orwell wrote in his novel, 'There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.' This is our Russian stance." The volume of her last statement is amplified by the clicking of cameras.

a pink-haired teen

held face down in the mud

by plainclothes cops

her Nineteen Eighty-Four

torn apart page by page

Drifting Sands, 20, 2023

Russia Will Be Free

Putin's critic

given sentence after sentence --

inside the glass cage

he gestures to his wife

with hands shaping a heart

Prompted at the end of the documentary to deliver a message to his supporters outside the courthouse, Navalny emphasizes, “If they decided to kill me, then it means we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power to not give up.The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." He flashes a smile at the end of the film.

He is moved from one prison to another to serve his 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. On one occasion, the contact with him is lost for three weeks; it is rumored that he is being denied food and kept in an unventilated cell. Finally he is located at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle, and he dies there months later.

a pink-haired teen

dragged and carried away

by policemen ....

Navalny's youthful face glows

in flickering candlelight

Drifting Sands, 26, 2024

FYI: "Russia will be free" is a century-old political slogan used by Russian dissents. And the documentary, "Navalny," won the Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.

To conclude's today's Special Feature post, I would like to share with you a video posted on Alexei Navalny’s YouTube channel by his widow, Yulia Navalnaya. In This 9-minute video, titled “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny,”and the description read, “An appeal by Yulia Navalnaya. Alexei’s work will continue. The fight for a free Russia will not stop.”

By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up...

But Putin also took Navalny away from you, where in a colony in the Far North, beyond the Arctic Circle, in eternal winter, Putin killed not just a man, Alexei Navalny, but together with him he wanted to kill our hopes, our freedom, our future...

I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. Continue to fight for our country. And I invite you to stand next to me. To share not only the grief and endless pain that envelops us and does not let go. I ask you to share my rage. Rage and anger towards those who dared to kill our future. I address you with the words of Alexei, in which I believe. It’s not a shame to do little, it’s a shame to do nothing. It’s a shame to let yourself be intimidated.

A Room of My Own: You're Not/Knowing

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIII: "preparing for settlement in Gaza"

no visible trace

of the walls of my house

of the living room

chairs, tables, dishes, and beds ...

a Gazan sighs between fireballs

each bombed-out house:

an album with no photos

but with people

the living, wounded and dead

pressed between its pages

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz" Editorial, Oct. 21: Netanyahu's Party Is Clearing the Path to Settling Gaza

...a conference titled "Preparing for Settlement in Gaza," that is slated to take place on Monday. Effectively, it is signed by the Likud party.

"We are honored to invite you to participate in the 'preparing for settlement in Gaza' event ... and to be hosted in Likud's sukkah," the invitation says. The ruling political party is thereby inviting the general public to a conference that includes building an illegal outpost, as a step toward building a new settlement in northern Gaza. This insanity is part of an initiative led by the Nachala movement, which is known for promoting illegal settlements in the West Bank.

And Haaretz, Oct. 21: 'Conquer, Kick Out, Resettle': At the 'Preparing to Resettle Gaza' Conference, Wishful Thinking Made Way to Concrete Plans

At a Sukkot-themed gathering near the Gaza border, settlers and far-right leaders outlined plans to reestablish Jewish settlements in the Strip 'within a year.' Police blocked counterprotesters from entering the event, as speakers called for the 'voluntary transfer' of Gazans and the redrawing of Israel's borders to stretch 'from the Euphrates to the Nile'

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIII: "olive harvest in the West Bank"

the sun glints

on a settler's M-16 ...

olive harvest

FYI: Reuters Video, Oct. 21: Palestinians say West Bank olive harvest "tarnished with blood"

Palestinians harvesting olives in the West Bank faced Israeli soldiers blocking access to land. Rights groups say settlers have attacked farmers and damaged groves as tensions from Gaza worsen the situation in the region.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIX: "dead-end, no-end war"

Gaza news

a world away this dead-end

no-end war on drugs

Added: Game Show, 2024, LXIX

with no hairnet

Donald Trump works 15 minutes

at a McDonald’s

shoulder to shoulder protesters shout

minimum wage, maximum rage

Added: Game Show, 2024, LXX

smell of sunshine

a turd-shaped monument (installed on the National Mall,  Washington, D.C.)

for the Jan. 6 mob 

Butterfly Dream: Thoughts & Moon Haiku by Marian Olson

English Original

thoughts of other nights

              somewhere for you too

this moon

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, May 16, 2014

Marian Olson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

想念其他的夜晚

        也有適合你的地方

今晚這個月亮

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

想念其他的夜晚

        也有适合你的地方

今晚这个月亮

Bio Sketch

Marian Olson, non-fiction writer and widely published international poet, was the author of nine books of poetry, including the award winning haiku in Songs of the Chicken Yard, Desert Hours, Consider This, and Moondance. Published in 2017, The Other and Kaleidoscope were her first books of tanka.

One Man's Maple Moon: October's Woods Tanka by Kirsty Karkow

English Original

darkly golden

through October’s woods

a small stream

catches then carries

lost leaves to the sea

Shorelines, 2007

Kirsty Karkow

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

暗金色

的一條小溪

穿過十月的樹林

接住然後攜帶

一片片落葉進入大海

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

暗金色

的一条小溪

穿过十月的树林

接住然后携带

一片片落叶进入大海

Bio Sketch

Kirsty Karkow lived in Waldoboro, Maine, where she wrote haiku, sijo, tanka, and other short forms. Lyrical, poignant, and spare, her poetry reflected a rich and deep sense of place and spirit. Her haiku have won the Mainichi and the R.H Blyth Award and placed in other contests. And she had two best-selling books in print: water poems: haiku, tanka and sijo and shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka , published by Black Cat Press.

Butterfly Dream: Migrant Moon Haiku by Jan Benson

English Original

migrant moon ...

walking from weeds

into weeds

Failed Haiku, 37, Jan. 2019

 

Jan Benson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

遷徙的月亮 ...

從一叢雜草中跋涉

進入另一叢雜草

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

迁徙的月亮 ...

从一丛杂草中跋涉

进入另一丛杂草

Bio Sketch

Jan Benson was a Pushcart Prize nominated haiku poet. Her haiku were published in many of the world's leading haiku journals and magazines. Jan was a member of The World Haiku Association and Poetry Society of Texas. Jan's profile can be found on The Haiku Foundation "Poet Registry" and online at The Living Haiku Anthology.

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

To the Lighthouse: Mood Haiku & Tanka

Mood haiku and tanka are the sub-genres of mood poetry, a type of poetry with the focus on moods, which are created by the poet for the readers and to evoke certain feelings in them. Mood is sometimes described as the “emotional landscape” of the poem. It is the feelings that the reader gets from reading the poem as a whole.

Selected Mood Haiku:

tiny sips

to make it last

autumn twilight

Bill Kenney

night chill

rearranging the order

of canned soups

Fay Aoyagi

falling leaves ...

reading the same line

over and over

Brendon Kent 

house clearance

room by room by room

my mother disappears

Alan Summers

living alone

telling one cry of a crow

from another

Elmedin Kadric

the news on mute ...

I'm quiet and quieter

as my old dog sleeps

Chen-ou Liu

                                                                 to be continued ...

Selected Mood Tanka:

at dawn

on a mountain pass

in the drifting fog

almost imperceptible

the smell of green tomatoes

Kenji Miyazawa 

into a pair of stars

we will turn—till then

let us never recall

autumn’s voice

we heard in the same bed

Akiko Yosano 

with each quiver

it is laying an egg

a white moth

why did it enter my mind

this frosty night?

Samio Maekawa

dusk gathers

with the alchemy

of ravens . . .

alone, in a clearing

my heart picked clean

Robin Anna Smith

and when 

the sand runs out? 

the stillness 

of the hourglass 

and I are one

Denis M. Garrison

a drizzly day,

with yellow leaves pasted

to wet black pavement --

returning the library books

she left behind

Larry Kimmel

migrant

detention

sunset

ladders

the sky

LeRoy Gorman

New Delhi draped

in layers of toxic haze

this sense of dread

as October rolls around

chokingly dark... and darker

a girl

sticks her tongue out

at snowflakes

her mother's smiling face

in the shelter window

Chen-ou Liu

                                                                 to be continued ...

A Room of My Own: War Crime News Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CIX: "war crime news"

war crime news on pause

the rise, fall and rise again

of my newborn's chest

FYI: Israel's Oldest Daily, Haaretz Opinion, Oct. 15: Israel Has Shelved the Rule of Law in War and at Home

Wild conduct by soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza, destruction of property, using Palestinians as "sniffer dogs" and indiscriminate killing of civilians have become accepted norms that draw their legitimacy from being an inseparable part of the holy war in which all is permitted.

The Times of Israel, Oct. 15: US warns Israel that weapon supply at risk if Gaza aid crisis not addressed in 30 days

Middle East Monitor, Oct. 14: Ireland says attack on northern Gaza is a war crime:

 

Micheál Martin, Ireland’s Tánaiste (deputy prime minister), described the scenes in Jabalia as “horrific” in a statement on Sunday, adding:

An offensive by the Israel Defence Forces, backed by tanks and air strikes, has left dozens of civilians dead, many close to starvation, and access to humanitarian aid extremely curtailed. An entire population is being encircled and forced out, with nowhere for them to go...

Haaretz, Oct. 6: Al Jazeera Documentary Uses Israeli Soldiers' Social Media Footage to Accuse Them of War Crimes: Names and identifying details of soldiers who served in Gaza are used in the film, alongside footage they posted of their own misconduct throughout the war.

ICJP Panel: Israeli soldiers document their own war crimes online

On Wednesday 9th October 2024, The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), hosted a documentary screening of Al Jazeera’s documentary film titled Gaza, followed by a panel discussion featuring eyewitnesses of the war crimes.

And this haiku could be read as a sequel to my tanka prose below:

A Corner of This Broken World

After a long pause, her voice cracking on the phone, my Israeli friend tells me, "I don't know how to calm my two girls. We're near the border, and they're frightened by the piercing sound of fighter jets constantly flying over our community. Sometimes, they can hear the boom, boom, boom from a distance just minutes after fighter jets fly past our house. I can only comfort them by saying that these are good booms. I feel guilty, I... " My friend hangs up the phone.

the sunset

in a blaze of orange and red

across the sky ...

Gazan children's faces raw

with fear of the unknown

Ribbons, 20:2, Autumn/Winter 2024

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CX: "one way"

written in response to Crime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remark: "In the Middle East, without the sword there is no forever." 

one way forwar(d)  fireballafterfireball

FYI: Haaretz, Oct. 10: "We Won't Be Forgiven for Weakness": Golda Meir's Warning Revealed in Declassified Yom Kippur War Tapes

Fifty one years after the Yom Kippur War, the IDF archive releases a recording of a November 1973 cabinet meeting in which there was total consensus: There is no chance for genuine peace with the Arabs

"We'll be forgiven for many things, all but one – and that's weakness. The moment we are marked as weak – it's over. This is an unforgivable sin."

These words, spoken by Prime Minister Golda Meir, were recorded at a cabinet meeting that took place 51 years ago, right after the Yom Kippur War. 

The unequivocal conclusion of the meeting was bleak: There is no chance for real peace with the Arabs.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXI: "two deaths, Palestinian and Israeli "

One War Story and Two Deaths

a head

severed from the body

grits its teeth ...

moonlight luster on the faces 

of young Israeli soldiers 

back from Gaza

Ezra couldn't stop the war

in his head ...

our father holds his shroud tight

as he is being buried

FYI: National military service is mandatory for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18. 

CNN News, Oct. 21: ‘He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him’: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide.

CNN News, Oct. 24: The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say

The Israeli military has forced Palestinians to enter potentially booby-trapped houses and tunnels in Gaza to avoid putting its troops in harm’s way, according to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier and five former detainees 

And a Jewish burial shroud is a simple hand-made garment that has no buttons, zippers, or fasteners of any type.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXII: "still alive"

a clay oven

made from mud and straw

a generator

assembled from machine parts ...

a Gazan's X post: Life goes on

Added: Game Show, 2024, LXVIII

the TV blasts

from fine people on both sides

to the enemy within ...

ten feet higher the fence 

between my neighbor and me

Butterfly Dream: Tundra Haiku by Cor van den Heuvel

English Original

                     tundra

The Window-Washer’s Pail , 1963

Cor van den Heuvel 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

                    苔原

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

                   苔原

Bio Sketch 

Cor van den Heuvel (March 16, 1931 - September 12, 2024) authored hundreds of haiku and haibun, including one of the most controversial works of the 20th century, one-word haiku: tundra. In addition to more than a dozen collections, he edited or co-edited a number of influential anthologies, most notably three editions of The Haiku Anthology, as well as Baseball Haiku. He also won three Merit Book Awards from the Haiku Society of America, a World Haiku Achievement Award at the World Haiku Festival, and the Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Prize. 

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on No/Thanks(Giving) during Hard times [for Whatever Reason]

My Dear Friends:

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada (occurring on the second Monday in October and six weeks earlier than Thanksgiving Day in the USA)

Share with you a set of haiku and tanka (with which you can re-tell your stories) about the mixed emotions  toward this Thanksgiving long weekend:

a colleague wishes me

Thanksgiving cheer --

but I have

a desk full of dark

anniversaries unspoken

M. Kei

Thanksgiving drive

after the bustle

quiet fields, deep shadows

Harriet S. Bates 

thanksgiving

our latest argument

to eat in or out

the blue shrouded mountains

hold the sunset so easily

Thomas Martin

Thanksgiving dinner

between mouthfuls and refills

this hushed silence

Chen-ou Liu

thanksgiving leftovers

all the things we

didn’t say

Sondra Byrnes