A Room of My Own: "No, More Wars" Senryu

Trump Empire, Inc, LXXX

the man's meaty smile

behind his Resolute Desk

no, more wars: I ran

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

Peace Is War

The butcher pushes more red meat through steel teeth. The wall-mounted TV blares “Operation Epic Fury” between discount ads. 

war after war ...

a white-haired man's gaunt face

in the window glare

The New Verse News, March 1 2026

And my tanka below could be read as the sequel to the haibun above:

a MAGA pin

on this old man's breast pocket ...

his patience 

stretched to the limit

by a breadline blocks ahead

NeverEnding Story, July 13 2023

FYI: University of California, Riverside/UCR study, April 17, 2023: [Cumulative] Poverty is the 4th greatest cause of U.S. deaths: Only heart disease, cancer, and smoking were associated with a greater number of deaths, 

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXI

written in response to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement about Isreal's war plans

Op. Epstein Fury:

Israel yanking the leash

of the Trump bulldog

FYI: The official name is "Operation Epic Fury." L1 works both a deliberate satirical jab at the administration's past associations and a mockery of Trump's "political distraction strategy."

Al Jazeera: February 26, 2026: Epstein and the politics of distraction

Scandal individualises corruption, creating a spectacle that redirects anger away from structural power.

March 4, 2026: Analyst says interest in Epstein files plummeted after war on Iran launched

And Democracy Now, March 3 2026: Secretary of State Marco Rubio Says Israel’s War Plans Compelled U.S. to Join Assault on Iran

Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “The president made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXII

No, More Wars

     dripping

     oil

FYI: This is a prequel to my smols below:

White House entrance

         No Parking 

Smols, January 21, 2026

Added:

this morning sky

tinged with layers of gray ...

that's the question

to get up to work or not

as ticker headlines flash red

Reading More and Writing Better: Thoreau’s Gravesite Haiku by Bruce Ross

Thoreau’s gravesite:

the smell of woodsmoke

on the cold spring air

Among Floating Duckweed, 1994.

Bruce Ross

Commentary by Paul Scherschel: First of all, I think this haiku is wonderful. Throeau, who went to the woods to find himself, can also show this connection between Self and Nature. People tend to disconnect themselves when they do not realize they are a part of nature. As Thoreau did, people need to discover nature. Also, we need to enter into the nature conveyed in Ross’s haiku. The haiku written above shows the connection between life and death. Ross wrote to me that writing haiku should have, “Honesty of feeling. Connection with nature. Linking two aspects of the world in an "absolute metaphor." Evoking beauty, joy, sadness, insight, etc.” We can smell the woodsmoke, visualize the gravesite, and feel the coolness. The gravesite can represent death, but spring represents birth. This haiku by Ross includes the Zen principle of oneness to combine the reader with the haiku, and the nature expressed in that haiku.

FYI: Below is excerpted from To the Lighthouse: "Found Haiku:" Walden by Haiku

Ian Marshall's Walden by Haiku (University of Washington Press, 2009) is the first collection of found haiku that won a award (2010 Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit Book Awards for Best Criticism) for its opening up new insights into haiku and its source text, Walden. Ian Marshall distills Henry David Thoreau's musings on nature and the world around him, chapter by chapter, down to 293 "haiku moments." Each chapter ends with an explanation of the specific haiku aesthetics or principles that fit the theme, such as juxtaposition, wabi, sabi, yugen, resonance, and impermanence. In the introduction, Ian Marshall speaks of his threefold purpose in writing the book: "to offer a primer on haiku, to provide fresh insights into Walden, and to demonstrate the pertinence of haiku aesthetics as a theoretical basis for understanding the nature-writing tradition in English” (p. xvi),  and he also emphasizes that 

Thoreau’s aesthetic principles and his relationship with the natural world do turn out to have a great deal in common with haiku. Let us count the ways: an emphasis on simplicity, a respect for worn and humble and familiar things (wabi), a sense of aloneness (sabi), a reliance on paradox, and the use of humor, especially in the form of puns …. in trying to see the world as it is, to come to know it through direct experience, to inquire into the meaning and value of a natural fact, to wonder what it means ‘to live deliberately,’ Thoreau indeed had to have in mind (some of) these intentions and to have pursued them deliberately, in a way that suggests some convergent evolution between Thoreau at Walden and the writer of haiku… Thoreau's senses and intuition become his primary means of engaging with the world around Walden Pond, much like renowned Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Basho's experience at "The Old Pond.” … I contend that the haiku moments are latent in the text [Walden], waiting to be "found" or unearthed or brought to our attention, and I contend that haiku aesthetics can help us better understand what is going on in Walden . . . I suggest that a whole vein of American-nature writing tradition may be similarly compatible with the aesthetics of haiku, and so literary ecocritics might find a long-standing body of aesthetic theory useful in reading and understanding their subject (pp. xv, xvi, xvii, xx, xxviii).

Selected “Found Haiku” by Henry David Thoreau

a borrowed axe

returned

sharper

where a forest was cut down

last winter

another is springing up

much published, little printed

     the rays which stream

         through the shutters

huckleberries

the bloom rubbed off

in the market cart

Butterfly Dream: Ancient Eyes Haiku by Marian Olson

English Original

from the temple

of her beggar’s shawl

ancient eyes

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, May 22 2014

Marian Olson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

來自她的乞丐披肩

充當神廟

古老的眼睛

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

来自她的乞丐披肩

充当神庙

古老的眼睛

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: Wisp of Hope Tanka by Christine L.Villa

English Original

pink clouds

behind skeletal trees ...

nothing stirs

as I still wait

for a wisp of hope

The Bluebird’s Cry, 2016

Christine L. Villa

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在枯樹之後

粉紅色的雲朵 ...

萬籟俱寂

我仍在等待

一絲希望的曙光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在枯树之后

粉红色的云朵 ...

万籁俱寂

我仍在等待

一丝希望的曙光

Bio Sketch

An animated story teller and an artist by nature, Christine L. Villa dabbles in children's writing, Japanese short-form poetry, and photography. She is the founder and editor of Frameless Sky -- a video journal showcasing poets, artists, and musicians in collaborative projects. She blogs her haiku, tanka, and haiga at Blossom Rain.

Butterfly Dream: Half-Heart Haiku by Al Fogel

English Original

winter solitude

a tarnished half-heart

in the jewelry box

Third Place,  2011 Haiku Pen Contest

Al Fogel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬日孤寂

在首飾盒裡

黯淡的半顆心

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬日孤寂

在首饰盒里

黯淡的半颗心

Bio Sketch

Al Fogel, 79, began his haiku journey about 14 years ago and has been writing haiku, senryu, tanka and haibun ever since. Some of his work has appeared in leading haijin journals around the globe. He has recently published two books: So Little Time and  Holding Hand-helds

To the Lighthouse: Senbun: A Satirical Haikai of Humanity

Senbun is a haikai genre that blends prose with senryu, focusing on human nature and society, often in a satirical tone. It can be seen as a playful, critical counterpart to haibun.

For example, the following extremely short senbun responds to the 2026 State of the Union—the longest in history, lasting 1 hour and 48 minutes:

Trump Empire, Inc, LXXVIII

The Gilded Drone

Castro-length blah, blah, blah …

state of the union

the air grows thick as my heart

races slow

This senbun demonstrates a thematically effective “triple-threat” structure:

1. Title: Intellectual/Historical framing

The Gilded Drone evokes historical irony, recalling the corruption and excess of the Gilded Age, while simultaneously hinting at the monotonous drone of the speech itself.

2. Prose: Casual/Dismissive satire

The four-word prose, “Castro-length blah, blah, blah …”, uses sharp historical hyperbole to deflate the event’s self-importance, employing casual, modern irreverence to comedic effect.

3. Senryu: Visceral/Internal physicality

The senryu captures a sense of “stagnant panic,” with the oxymoronic phrase “races slow” conveying a heart struggling under a suffocatingly dull atmosphere.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXIX

flanked by stars-and-stripes

he puffs his chest, juts his chin

of wrinkled jowls

crows to the TV cameras

we're in a golden age

A Room of My Own: Fence Haiku

morning glories

and the fence two feet higher ...

what's left between us

FYI: This is a sequel to my haiku below:

new neighbor

morning glories spill

over our fence

NeverEnding Story, May 16 2025

And a prequel to my haiku below:

white picket fence

both sides of silencing

the silent

NeverEnding Story, May 22 2025

Added:

distant thunder

crow after crow explodes

bare birch trees

Added:

one mangy dog

mounting another …

winter rain

hammers corrugated roofs

while blue tarps shudder

Added:

traffic lights 

from green to red, red to green

loom for miles

no cars, no one walking 

in the sound of cold snap

Added: 

yellow crane arms

frozen against the sky

in a cold snap

skyscrapers blur and sink

into gathering dark

Added:

snowy road home

footsteps echo behind

as night darkens

Added:

on the way home

my shadow sways in silence …

laid off again 

Added:

my dog takes me

for a morning stroll ...

first snowdrops

Butterfly Dream: Miso Soup Haiku by Margaret Chula

English Original

cubes of tofu

float in my miso soup

winter deepens

Winter Deepens, 2018

Margaret Chula 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

豆腐塊

漂浮在我的味噌湯裡

冬日漸深

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

豆腐块

漂浮在我的味噌汤里

冬日渐深

Bio Sketch

 

Margaret Chula has published two collections of tanka: Always Filling, Always Full and Just This. She has promoted tanka through her one-woman dramatization, “Three Women Who Loved Love”, which traveled to Krakow, New York, Boston, Portland, Ottawa, and Ogaki, Japan. And from 2011 to 2015, Maggie served as president of the Tanka Society of America.

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on the Fourth Anniversary of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

The Governor General, Canada:

Four years ago today, Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, bringing devastation, heartbreak and senseless loss of life.

Every day since, the courage and determination of Ukrainians defending their homeland have continued to inspire people around the world. I have had the honour of meeting refugees who left everything behind to seek safety in Canada, and I am continually inspired by their resilience and strength.

Independence 

"Dear Chen-ou, I hope this email finds you well. Share with you my family photo, which was taken this glorious morning." 

In the photo, my friend, his wife and two daughters, wrapping themselves in the flags of blue and yellow, stand with arms linked before a row of rusty Russian tanks on Liberation Square. 

My friend used to be a Surrealist poet, known for his purposeful use of "obscure and unwieldy verbiage." He sent me the following poem at the end of his lengthy and furious email a week after the Russian invasion.

in smoky twilight

the head of I cut off

the roof of M falling through --

I paint poetry with screams, 

the last phase of lyricism

His emails now are short and straight to the point, and often attached with photos to speak for his mood or state of mind, like the one he sent me today. Under his family photo, there is a caption that reads:

If Russia stops fighting, there will be no more war.

If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no more us.

no man's land 

between barbed wire fences

the kraa-kraa-kraa 

of ravens scratching 

at the soldiers' hearts

Ribbons, 19:3, Fall 2023

Pushcart Prize Nomination by the Tanka Society of America

every day

passes in an endless stream

of breaking news

in a huddle of children

the blind boy quiet ... quieter

Gusts, 36, Fall/Winter 2022

BBC News Live: 

Volodymyr Zelensky says Vladimir Putin "has not achieved his goals" and Ukraine will do everything to achieve peace and justice, on the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion

It has been a long, hard and deadly four years. Ukraine is under pressure from Trump’s America to give up strategic land that Russia has failed to capture despite sacrificing thousands of its troops.

At least 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since 24 February 2022 according to Zelensky, but the toll is likely to be higher. BBC analysis estimates Russian military deaths could range from 243,000 and 352,000...

my Kyiv friends and I

tiptoe around the jagged edge

of sorrow

at last the silence

envelopes each of us

NeverEnding Story, February 23, 2024

To conclude today's Special Feature post, I would like to share with the following tanka set:

Grinding on ...

the wind moans

through snow-laden branches

shadows on their cheeks

white-haired Ukrainians peer

behind shelter windows

in the cold snap

a neon-lit billboard

above Kursk's mall:

men in work suits hold AKs

framed against tricolors

FYI: Kursk is a city in southwestern Russia near the Ukrainian border. And my tanka below could be read as its sequel:

the butcher

throwing more meat

into his grinder 

the wall-mounted TV blasts

war after war ...

Ribbons, 20:1, Winter 2024

Added:

Journey, Not Here and Now

Donbas teen's gaze

at a row of church spires ...

sunrise tinged gray

Behind him, the roofline sinks lower with each step, until only the cross atop the church shows above the trees. Ahead, the road bends where he cannot see.

what ifs …

beneath shadowed skies

the border pass

FYI: The vast majority of the Ukrainian region, the Donbas, is now occupied by Russia

Biting NOT Barking: Shelter Tanka by Marion Alice Poirier

English Original

under the shelter

of a weeping willow tree

she sleeps at last

on damp earth and newspapers --

a haven, for one night

Marion Alice Poirier

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一棵垂柳

的蔭蔽之下

躺在潮濕泥土和報紙上面

她終於睡著了 --

一個避風港, 僅僅一晚

    

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一棵垂柳

的荫蔽之下

躺在潮湿泥土和报纸上面

她终于睡着了 --

一个避风港, 仅仅一晚

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: Scarecrow Haiku by Adjei Agyei-Baah

English Original

empty field --

scarecrow watches

scarecrow

Scaring Crow, 2022

Adjei Agyei-Baah

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

空曠的田野 --

稻草人注視著

稻草人

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

空旷的田野 --

稻草人注视着

稻草人

Bio Sketch

Adjei Agyei-Baah (June 29, 1977 -- December 18, 2023) was the co-founder of the Africa Haiku Network and The Mamba and author of afriku: haiku and Senryui from Ghana, 2016, Finding the Other Door, 2021 and Scaring Crow, 2022. 

Poetic Musings: Trade War News Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

trade war news

a spiderweb on the eaves

sagging with raindrops

Prize Winter, 27th Haiku International Association/HIA Haiku Contest

Chen-ou Liu

Judge's Commentary: The first line is clearly topical, a concern of the moment, while what follows is natural, observed. The spider’s web is, I imagine, on the eaves outside the poet’s house, where the heavy raindrops gather and threaten to destroy it. The web is the spider’s lair and means of existence, yet one that may soon give way. Our lives too are delicately wrought, and may be easily disrupted. In the meantime we can admire the light refracted in the glittering raindrops, before they fall. I note the syllable count of 3-7-5.

Analysis: The haiku opens in abstraction—economic conflict, media chatter, global tension—impersonal and distinctly contemporary. It then pivots from headline-scale urgency to intimate observation. The spiderweb “on the eaves” grounds the haiku in a specific domestic space, an image of fragility fastened to shelter.

The raindrops’ weight becomes an unstated metaphor. The web, strained by accumulated water, quietly echoes global economic systems under mounting pressure, without ever declaring the parallel. The haiku’s strength lies in this restraint: the small, rain-soaked scene absorbs and reflects the larger unease of geopolitical tension.

A Room of My Own: Jagged Ramadan Moon Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXIII: "jagged Ramadan moon"

skeletal houses

jagged Ramadan moon

in each window

Note: My haiku below could be read as its prequel and sequel respectively:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXX: "Al-Aqsa" 

distant boom, boom, boom ...

the first sliver of the moon 

over Al-Aqsa

NeverEnding Story, March 11 2024 

FYI: Al-Aqsa is the compound of Islamic religious buildings that sit atop the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Ramadan moon

behind skeletal houses

the edge of peace

Third Place, The Solitary Daisy Annual Haiku Contest, 2025

Added: to Joyce Carol Oates, who views art as a form of exploration and, at times, a transgression:

“My belief is that art should not be comforting; for comfort, we have mass entertainment and one another. Art should provoke, disturb, arouse our emotions, expand our sympathies in directions we may not anticipate and may not even wish.”

is it possible

to turn this jagged pain

into words?

the blank screen stares back

lit with my reflection

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXIV: "howls of orphans"

Gaza skies tinged red …

the howls of orphans carried

from age into age

through one life to the next

while the baton never falls

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXV: "revenge, price tag"

dusk cloaks the West Bank

"revenge, price tag' red-scrawled

on mosque walls, torched

FYI: Haaretz, February 23 2026: West Bank Mosque Torched in Suspected Settler Attack

Last week, Israeli settlers shot and beat a 19-year-old Palestinian-American, who died the next day. As of January, the Israeli military had recorded a total of 1,720 settler attacks on Palestinians since October 7, 2023

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXVII

eighty-five seconds 

to midnight of Human Fate...

the Doomday Clock

on your life, mine and the rest

ticks, ticking in the cold snap

FYI: the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight on January 27, 2026—the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe.

This January 27th, however, with nine countries now having nuclear weapons (and more undoubtedly in the offing), and our world in increasing turmoil...  the [US]'s spending $87 billion on its nuclear arsenal this year alone, while creating a future "Trump class" of warships that will be armed with nuclear missiles

To the Lighthouse: The Impact of an Allusive Title

The Winter of Our Discontent

Its edges browned with age, another photograph, long buried beneath piles of boxes, has come to light in recent days.

His eyes meet the camera head-on. His hand rests at the curve of a young girl’s hip.

the man, once a prince

hid behind purple curtains ...

now cuffed in cold steel

This sociopolitically conscious haibun is inspired by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, being arrested by UK police over Jeffrey Epstein ties.

The title, "The Winter of Our Discontent," is a famous allusion to the opening lines of William Shakespeare’s Richard III. It adds several layers to the piece: 

Themes of Villainy: 

In Shakespeare, the phrase is spoken by a character who resolves to be a "villain" because he feels excluded from a peaceful world. This subtly labels the man in the photograph as a predator or villain.

Moral Decay: 

The title also alludes to John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name, which explores the erosion of ethical standards and personal integrity. This aligns with the theme of a hidden, dark past coming "to light".

Irony and Timing:

Shakespeare’s original line (Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York) refers to the end of a dark time. Using it here suggests that the "winter" of secrecy and suffering for the victim is finally over because the perpetrator is now "cuffed"

For more about titling, See my "To the Lighthouse" posts: "The Title of a Poem Should Never Be Ignored,"  "The Art of Titling," and "Effective Use of a Run-on Title"

FYI:  See The New York Times, Feb. 19 2026: Live Updates: Former Prince Andrew Arrested in Britain Over Epstein Ties

And "The Winter of Our Discontent" is a sequel to my gembun below:

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

NeverEnding Story, November 14 2025 

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXVI

inspired by a viral social media prompt:The U.K. just arrested a royal. Is the U.S. capable of the same?

The Next One

My boy lines the dominoes along the coffee table’s edge, their lacquered backs blinking ivory in the lamplight, and nudges the first with his forefinger.

In the armchair, I grip the remote, the blue glare of the television flickering against my tired eyes as a news ticker scrolls the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

King Charles III’s words, “the law must take its course,” hang in the air like dust in the living room as I switch off the TV. I stand for a moment, facing the window, where the last of the light thins along the fence line.

the White House

shadowed against the sky

crow after crow ...

Butterfly Dream: Spirit Bodies Haiku by Jane Reichhold

English Original

spirit bodies

waving from cacti

plastic bags

Frogpond, 23:3, Autumn, 2000

Jane Reichhold

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

靈體

從仙人掌中舞動

塑膠袋

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

灵体

从仙人掌中舞动

塑胶袋

 

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