A Room of My own: Black Man and White Cop Tanka

written in response to the Derek Chauvin trial verdict for the killing of George Floyd and Joe Biden's remarks

for a moment

our country can breathe without fear ...

until somewhere

some young black man collides

with the shadow of a white cop

FYI:  ... This can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America. Let’s also be clear that such a verdict is also much too rare... excerpted from Remarks by President Biden on the Verdict.

Butterfly Dream: Twilight Sun Haiku by Marian Olson

English Original

twilight sun

slips into another

dark world

The Heron’s Nest,  4:8 August 2002

Marian Olson


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

黃昏的落日

滑入另一個

黑暗世界

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

黄昏的落日

滑入另一个

黑暗世界

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: Perfect Arc Tanka by Thelma Mariano

English Original

no answers

in the darkening sky

only my awe

at the perfect arc

of this rainbow

Thelma Mariano

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

黑暗的天空

沒有現存的答案

關於彩虹

的完美弧線

我只有敬畏

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

黑暗的天空

没有现存的答案

关于彩虹

的完美弧线

我只有敬畏

 

 

Bio Sketch

Thelma Mariano is the author of Night Sky: a Selection of Tanka Poetry. She lives in Montreal and has published her tanka in literary journals as well as in various anthologies including Fire Pearls and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka.

A Room of My Own: A Bank of Dark Clouds Haiku

One Hundred Ninety-Fifth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

the wisps spread

into a bank of dark clouds ...

three-million mark

Added: One Hundred Ninety-Sixth Entry

thunderclouds

another coffin lowered

into a mass grave

Added: One Hundred Ninety-Seventh Entry

the mournful sounds

of a lone Scottish piper

echo off church walls ...

the masked Queen in black 

alone for the first time

FYI: Wilfred Frost, CNBC anchor and son of David Frost, said on Saturday morning that the queen's "bubble" was her husband prior to his death. He added her being alone at his funeral is quite poignant, saying, she will literally "have no shoulder to cry on," "Queen Elizabeth says goodbye to Prince Philip with a note laid on his casket," Today, April 17, 2021

Added: One Hundred Ninety-Eighth Entry

sharp spike in cases ...

through the hallway murmurs

of triage care

Butterfly Dream: Rosy Dawn Haiku by Debbie Strange

English Original

rosy dawn
our paddles stippled
with petals
 
Highly Commended, 2019 New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition

Debbie Strange 

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

透紅的曙光

我們的划槳蘸滿

花瓣

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

透红的曙光

我们的划桨蘸满

花瓣

Bio Sketch

Debbie Strange is an award-winning Canadian short form poet, haiga artist, and photographer. Keibooks released her second full-length poetry collection, Three-Part Harmony: Tanka Verses in 2018, and Folded Word published her haiku chapbook, A Year Unfolding in 2017. An archive of publications may be accessed at http://debbiemstrange.blogspot.com/

Poetic Musings: Dying Men Tanka by Saigyo Hoshi

In the world of men it came to be a time of warfare. Throughout the country -- west, east, north, and south -- there was no place where the war was not being fought. The count of those dying because of it climbed continually and reached an enormous number. It was beyond belief! And for what on earth was this struggle taking place? A most tragic state of affairs 

There's no gap or break

In the rank of those marching

Under the hill:

An endless line of dying men,

Moving on and on and on ...

Saigyo Hoshi

Commentary: This lengthy and sociopolitically conscious prefatory note establishes the thematic and emotive context of the poem while the tanka visually enhances the tone and mood. Saigyo's use of repetition in the last line adds extra emotional weight and psychological depth to the poem. "The irony is that we learn more about the times from this monk-poet who intentionally put distance between himself and what he called the ‘world’ than we do from the poetry of his contemporaries who went on living in the midst of the national capital, writing verses on set themes as if their society were not, in fact, falling apart” (William R. LaFleur, Mirror for the Moon : A Selection of Poems by Saigyo,  p. xiv)

-- -- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Joshi (Prefatory Note) as a Poetic Device"

One Man's Maple Moon: Hair and Thistles Tanka by Claudia Coutu Radmore

English Original

I want to polish you

with my hair

let strands all over your body

become part of you

like thistles caught in bark

fish spine picked clean, 2018  

Claudia Coutu Radmore

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我想用我的頭髮

擦亮你的身體

並覆蓋它

成為你的一部分

就像是被樹皮夾住的薊

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我想用我的头发

擦亮你的身体

并覆盖它

成为你的一部分

就像是被树皮夹住的蓟

Bio Sketch

Claudia Coutu Radmore is the author of  fish spine picked clean (2018, Éditions des petits nuages, Montreal, Canada),  and Your Hands Discover Me/ Tes mains me découvrent  (2010, Éditions du tanka francophone, Montreal). She is the  President of Haiku Canada, and has been proofreading, and selecting tanka, for Gusts.

Butterfly Dream: Pebble Beach Haiku by Mallika Chari

English Original

pebble beach

we count the countless

unspoken words

Frogpond, 43:2, Spring /Summer 2020

Mallika Chari

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

卵石海灘

我們數不勝數

不言而喻的話

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

卵石海滩

我们数不胜数

不言而喻的话

 

 

Bio Sketch

Mallika Chari, an artist and poet,  loves to give shape to her words in the form of paintings.

A Room of My Own: Sharp Spike and Slow Descent Tanka

One Hundred Ninety-Fourth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written in response to this "not-so-shocking" 😠 news: "Canada's COVID-19 case rate now tops U.S. rate," CBC News, April 12

a sharp spike

in covid variant cases ...

at twilight

the slow descent of a kite

severed from its string

Added:

in morning chill

a street dog with saggy balls

wandering

the eyes of an old man

leaning on the liquor store wall

One Man's Maple Moon: Empty Shells Tanka by Carole MacRury

English Original

gulls shriek,
the ocean shrugs over
empty shells
this fine line between
being alone and lonely

Editor’s Choice, Gusts, 25, 2017 

Carole MacRury 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

海鷗尖聲叫喊，

一片海洋聳肩越過

空的貝殼

孤獨和寂寞兩者之間

存在細微的界線

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

海鸥尖声叫喊，

一片海洋耸肩越过

空的贝壳

孤独和寂寞两者之间

存在细微的界线

Bio Sketch

Carole MacRury resides in Point Roberts, Washington, a unique peninsula and border town that inspires her work.  She is the author of In the Company of Crows: Haiku and Tanka Between the Tides (Black Cat Press, 2008, 2nd Printing, 2018) and The Tang of Nasturtiums, an award-winning e-chapbook (Snapshot Press 2012).  

Butterfly Dream: Spring Nap Haiku by Jane Reichhold

English Original

a spring nap

downstream cherry trees

in bud

Frogpond, 23:3, Autumn 2000

Jane Reichhold

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

春天午睡

下游的一叢櫻花樹

花朵萌芽待放

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

春天午睡

下游的一丛樱花树

花朵萌芽待放

 

 

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

A Room of My Own: Thoughts and Prayers & Traces of Blood Haiku

thoughts and prayers ...

the ground stained with traces of blood

three times in two weeks

FYI: The year-by-year list of mass shootings in the United States.

There's much more that Congress can do to help that effort. And they can do it right now, They've offered plenty of thoughts and prayers — members of Congress — but they've passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence...

Enough prayers. Time for some action.

-- Joe Biden, April 9, 2021

Added:

under a painting

of the Callaway plantation

the governor's name

inscribed in the ironclad

voting rights law

FYI: This poem is a sequel to the following tanka written for Black History Month, which is "celebrated" in North America in February

Emory President praised

the three-fifths compromise ...

on the sun-tanned backs

of a row of black students

This is 5/5 outrageous

NeverEnding Story, February 28, 2013

Butterfly Dream: Rain on the Tent Haiku by Julie Warther

English Original

rain on the tent ...
two sleeping bags
zipped into one

Acorn 43, Fall 2019

Julie Warther

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

帳篷外雨聲淅淅瀝瀝...

兩個睡袋壓縮拉上拉鍊

成為一個

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

帐篷外雨声淅淅沥沥...

两个睡袋压缩拉上拉链

成为一个

 

 

Bio Sketch

Julie Warther is an associate editor at The Heron's Nest and was instrumental in establishing The Forest Haiku Walk in Millersburg, Ohio and the Seasons of Haiku Trail at The Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio.

Poetic Musings: Rusted Zinnias Tanka by Geraldine Clinton Little

ah, summer, summer,

how quickly you fade. I cut

        rusted zinnias,

place them on a glassed table --

top, as if time could double.

The Tanka Anthology, 2003

Geraldine Clinton Little

Commentary: Also a poem of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables, this tanka is more complicated, having three parts and given momentum by the use of enjambment: “ah summer, summer / how quickly you fade” functions as the strophe, “I cut / rusted zinnias, / place them on a table- / top,” is the antistrophe, and the poem’s sliding to a rest on “as if time could double” functions as a kind of epode. The enjambed strophes and abrupt shifts generate tension and underscore the poet’s wistful contemplation of time’s evanescence. The reflected double-image of the zinnias on the glass tabletop is an especially powerful image, again showing the use of an objective correlative to convey both idea and emotion while preserving aesthetic distance.

 -- excerpted from "Introduction to The Tanka Anthology" by Michael McClintock

Note: You can read the full text here, "To the Lighthouse: Introduction to The Tanka Anthology by Michael McClintock" )

Butterfly Dream: Winter Moon Haiku by Shirley Johnson

English Original

beyond mountains

more mountains --

winter moon

    

Second Prize, 2019 Morioka Haiku Contest

Shirley Johnson 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

目光超越一群山脈

更多的山脈 --

冬月

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

目光超越一群山脉

更多的山脉 --

冬月

 

 

Bio Sketch

Shirley Johnson is a retired Canadian middle school teacher, who loved teaching haiku. She would keep the lessons in a special folder, saved for the days the school inspectors dropped by. Her other passions include calligraphy, book-making, travel and jazz.