A Room of My Own: Stock Ticker Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCVI: "stock ticker "

a bruised girl’s hand

clutches a slice of bread

in pixels—

a stock ticker flashes past

Lockheed Martin up red-hot

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

May 24 2026: Israel's Destruction of Gaza Mapped Using Digital Archive of Wartime Footage

Built from geolocated videos, photographs and social media posts, the website – called Genocide Live – compiles footage of Israeli airstrikes, military manoeuvres, and destruction from across Gaza, the West Bank and the wider regional war, including in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Qatar.

May 25 2026: Humanitarian Conditions in Gaza Deteriorating Again, Aid Groups Warn

The groups report a resurgence in malnutrition among Gazan children, as well as deaths resulting from a failure to provide medical evacuations, collapsing sewage systems, a spike in pest infestations and a serious shortage of medical equipment, among other problems.

And Kavout, Stock Analysis: Is Global Conflict Driving a New Era for Defense Stocks

Key Takeaways

Global defense spending, now at an estimated $3 trillion, is surging due to escalating geopolitical tensions, creating a robust tailwind for defense contractors and drone technology firms.

Lockheed Martin (LMT) offers investors a stable, blue-chip play on this trend, benefiting from strong demand for its established platforms and a substantial backlog, despite its premium valuation. 

Added:

in breezy sunshine

tulip bulbs tucked in the earth

last autumn

begin to murmur awake ...

will our hope for peace take root?

Hot News: New Milestone, 3. 5 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late yesterday afternoon: 3.5 M pageveiws (FYI: On January 30, 2026, it reached 3 M pageviews) 

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that bite hard.

The accepted haiku and tanka will be translated into Chinese and posted on NeverEnding Story and X. And you are welcome to follow me on X at @ericcoliu (5 following, 5,185 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

-- Thomas Mann

I mutter

nothing much to write about…

the blank screen

looks into me deeper

than my unfinished life

However,

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. 

-- Richard Bach

And

These days, it’s easy to feel that we’ve fallen out of connection with one another and with the earth and with reason and with love. I mean: we have. But to read, to write, is to say that we still believe in, at least, the possibility of connection.

George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life, 2021.

Look forward to reading your poetry

Chen-ou

Butterfly Dream: Corner Office Haiku by Joshua St. Claire

English Original

corner office

the slow unfurling

of a plastic fern

Joshua St. Claire

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

角落辦公室

一株塑膠蕨

緩緩展開

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

角落办公室

一株塑胶蕨

缓缓展开

Bio Sketch

Joshua St. Claire is an accountant from Pennsylvania. His haiku and related poetry has appeared in Modern Haiku, Mayfly, NeverEnding Story, The Heron's Nest, and Blithe Spirit, among others. He is slowly coming to terms with being a formalist.

Butterfly Dream: Sunrise Haiku by Julie Warther Schwerin

English Original

sunrise over the lake leaving the privy door open

Semifinalist, Art of Haiku, July 2021 

Julie Warther Schwerin

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

湖面上的日出讓廁所的門敞開

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

湖面上的日出让厕所的门敞开

Bio Sketch

Julie Warther Schwerin (she/her - Sun Prairie, Wisconsin) is an associate editor at The Heron's Nest and a member of the Red Moon Anthology Editorial team. She was instrumental in establishing several haiku installations in the Midwest, including, most recently, Words in Bloom: A Year of Haiku at the Chicago Botanic Garden which features the work of haiku poets throughout the garden. 

One Man's Maple Moon: (De)light Tanka by Lafcadio

English Original

(de)light

in a child's eyes

eclipses

the light

of the sun

Lafcadio

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

(喜悅)光芒

在孩子眼中

遮掩

太陽

的光亮

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

(喜悦)光芒

在孩子眼中

遮掩

太阳

的光亮

Bio Sketch

Lafcadio is a writer and poet living in eastern Tennessee. Her haiku, senyru, tanka and haibun have been exhibited in journals and anthologies.  During the full moon she dreams of rabbits.

Poetic Musings: Gazan Baby's Face Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

first frost ...

a Gazan baby’s face

in pixels

Commendation, 15th Polish International Haiku Competition 2025

Chen-ou Liu

Judge's Comment: The first sign of winter is juxtaposed with a baby in Gaza, likely seen under terrible circumstances. Pixels are the tiny units – or pieces (a shadow word, surely) – that make up a digital image. News is always to hand, refreshed continuously if we choose to look, but the devices we use can make us feel remote, less empathetic. The author’s intent (to me anyway) is unclear, which adds another layer of interest.

My Response:

The emotional force of this haiku depends largely on the relationship between Ls 2&3. Without L 3, “a Gazan baby’s face” functions as a direct image of suffering. But L 3 — “in pixels” — radically reframes the image. It reveals that the speaker is not physically present with the child, but encountering the face through a screen: a phone, livestream, news clip, or social-media feed. 

That shift opens several layers of meaning.

1. Mediation and distance

“In pixels” foregrounds the technological mediation of suffering. The child reaches the speaker only as digital light — fragmented image-data transmitted across distance. The haiku creates tension between intimacy and separation: the immediacy of a baby’s face contrasted with the remoteness of screen-based witnessing.

The haiku quietly asks what it means to experience catastrophe through technology rather than direct human contact.

2. Fragmentation and dehumanization

Pixels are the tiny units that collectively simulate reality. Ending on “pixels” subtly suggests how modern tragedy is consumed as image — fragmented, streamed, and reduced to visual information.

L 3 therefore carries an implicit critique of contemporary spectatorship: human suffering risks becoming just another flow of digital content.

3. The contrast with “first frost” in L 1

The juxtaposition with “first frost” is crucial. Traditionally, first frost evokes seasonal transition, stillness, delicacy, beauty, and coldness. Placed beside the image of a Gazan baby, the frost acquires moral and emotional overtones: emotional numbness, chilling distance, fragility of life, even the cold glow of screens.

The ellipsis after “first frost …” deepens this effect by creating a suspended pause before the intrusion of geopolitical reality.

4. Why “in pixels” works

The restraint of “in pixels” is precisely what gives the haiku its force. It avoids overt political rhetoric, graphic imagery, and explicit emotional instruction. Instead, L 3 quietly transforms the haiku from simple observation into a meditation on mediated witnessing in the digital age.

And this haiku is a sequel to mine below:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXVIII: "A Gazan baby"

written in response to Haaretz, May 20, 2025: Opposition MK Says Israel Risks Pariah Status, 'Sane State Doesn't Kill Babies as Hobby'

a Gazan baby

the glitter 

in a sniper's eye

NeverEnding Story, May 21 2025

A Room of My Own: Wind-Spun Petals Haiku

wind-spun petals

go back where you came from

brayed down the block

FYI: This haiku is a prequel to mine below:

the zigzag path 

of a yellow maple leaf ...

to stay or to go?

Mamba, 18, 2025

Added: 

fireball-lit skies

"ceasefire" for 45 days

inked on paper

FYI: BBC News, May 18 2026: Death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon passes 3,000, officials say

Added:

blossom-spun wind

against the chain-link fence

store foreclosure

Added:

rooftop pool

I float in the light

of stars

Added:

a row of beach chairs

in every pair of glasses

drifting clouds

FYI:  This haiku could be read as a prequel to mine below:

dream space

between our beach chairs

rippling sunset

Wales Haiku Journal, Summer 2022

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).

Reading More and Writing Better: Desert Mindscape Tanka by Chen-ou Liu

riding hard

with heels against the horse’s flanks

I race alone

across a desert mindscape —

Samarra’s walls in twilight

FYI: The transition in L 4 from a physical horse race to a "desert mindscape" is the emotional anchor of this tanka. It redefines everything the reader just read, transforming an adventure into a battle with loneliness or memory, and L5  invokes the famous literary tale "The Appointment in Samarra" (where a man rides hard to escape Death, only to meet Death at his destination), it infuses the tanka with a powerful sense of inescapable destiny.

The long dash leading into "Samarra’s walls in twilight" acts like a camera panning out. Readers can see the frantic, internal race, and then suddenly, the vast, quiet, ancient walls appear in the fading light. The tanka ends with a haunting image of imminent death.

This tanka was inspired by TomDispatch, February 22, 2026: America’s Date With Destiny: An Appointment in Samarra

Some tales can cross cultures, continents, and even centuries to arrive in our own era with their timeless truths pretty much intact. That’s particularly so for the immortal story of “an appointment in Samarra.” It first appeared in the fifth century in the Babylonian Talmud, that ancient repository of Jewish rabbinical wisdom. Then it crossed over into Islamic literature for reiterations in a thirteenth-century Persian version and a fifteenth-century Egyptian text, before popping up on the London stage in Act III of William Somerset Maugham’s 1933 play Sheppy.

In Maugham’s retelling, the tale is rich in irony. Once long ago, he wrote, there was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to shop in the market. But the servant soon returned home in a panic and told his master about a woman in the crowd there who stared at him angrily. “It was Death that jostled me,” the servant announced, pleading with his master for a horse to flee to the town of Samarra. There, said the servant, “Death will not find me.”

“That was not a threatening gesture,” said Death. “It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

More than anything else, that ancient tale testifies to the eternal human folly of trying to outrun fate. 

And my tanka below could be read as a counter poem:

in the moonlit dark

Death and I stare, unmoving

with thoughts miles apart ...

silence stretches between us

and who will blink first

Fireflies’ Light, 33, April 2026

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

English Original

mounted butterfly

hanging under hardened glass

floating over cork

just enough room for your dreams

meadow breeze ... a sapphire flash

Modern English Tanka, 1:3, Spring 2007

Denis M. Garrison

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

蝴蝶標本

懸掛在強化玻璃之下

懸浮於軟木之上

足以容納你的夢想

草地微風 ... 藍寶石般的閃光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

蝴蝶标本

悬挂在强化玻璃之下

悬浮于软木之上

足以容纳你的梦想

草地微风 ... 蓝宝石般的闪光

Bio Sketch

Denis M. Garrison was born in Iowa, USA, and 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.

Butterfly Dream: Laughing Buddha Haiku by Millicent Bee

English Original

Laughing Buddha

covered in pollens 

still still

tsuri-doro, 15,  2023 

Millicent Bee

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

歡喜佛

沾滿了花粉

依然靜止

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

欢喜佛

沾满了花粉

依然静止

Bio Sketch

Millicent Bee is a US-based haiku and senryu poet, First Frost Award winner, two-time Touchstone Award nominee, and author of The Haiku Foundation "Haiku of the Day" for December 1, 2025. Her work appears in top journals, including The Heron's Nest, Prune Juice, and tsuri-doro. 

Biting NOT Barking: Zombie Fires Tanka by Debbie Strange

English Original

zombie fires

come back from the dead ...

this wilderness

haunted by skeletons

and memories of trees

 

Blithe Spirit, 35:4, 2025

Debbie Strange

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

殭屍之火

死而復生

這片荒野

被骷髏和樹木的記憶

纏繞不止

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

僵尸之火

死而复生

这片荒野

被骷髅和树木的记忆

缠绕不止

Bio Sketch

Debbie Strange is a chronically ill Canadian short form poet, haiga artist, and photographer. Snapshot Press released her first full-length haiku collection, Random Blue Sparks, in 2024. It received 3rd Place honours in the 2025 Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards. An archive of awards and publications can be accessed at http://debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca/ and you are welcome to follow her @Debbie_Strange on X and @debbiemstrange on Instagram.

Butterfly Dream: Mother and Ocean Haiku by Kobayashi Issa

English Original

mother I never knew,

each time I see the ocean,

each time --

The Essential Haiku, 1995

Kobayashi Issa 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我從未謀面的母親,

每次我看到大海,

每次 --

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我从未谋面的母亲,

每次我看到大海,

每次 --

 

Bio Sketch

Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828) was a legendary Japanese poet known for his raw, compassionate haiku. After a childhood marked by his mother’s death and family conflict, he spent decades traveling as a lay Buddhist priest. His work famously captures the beauty in the small and humble—from common insects to crying children

A Room of My Own: 3 A.M. Crescent Haiku

3 a.m. crescent

in the bedroom skylight 

dust motes drift

FYI: This haiku could be read as a sequel to mine below:

again her smile fades ...

I awaken to the silence

of a hazy crescent

NeverEnding Story, April 12 2026

Added:

bed unmade

I lie down beside

the hidden self

Added:

mail on the table

I read it twice, once in mind 

a week ago

Added:

a baseball bat

beside chained tires in the yard 

foreclosure tilted

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

fence line 

crowded with baseball caps

World Series eve

NeverEnding Story, October 23 2025

crack of the bat

a roar of voices chasing

the sky-high ball

NeverEnding Story, October 27 2025

Added: Politics of Distraction, X:

waking in cold sweat

from dreams of a strait blockade:

the liar arrives

to save the strangled victim

by pressing down the pillow

FYI: Trump stated on Truth Social: If Iran did not agree to a deal, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before ... (BBC News, May10)

And his tanka is a sequel to the following:

Politics of Distraction, IX:

blocking the blockade

to break the strait blockade ...

in gathering dark

a gin-soaked flight to nowhere

through the un/truth of this war

NeverEnding Story, April 18 2026

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XCIII

the White House

shadowed against sunset skies

Four More Years askew

FYI: This is a sequel to the following:

Trump Empire, Inc, XCII

            Donald Trump

                 $20,28 per gallon

             America First

the MAGA-hatted man’s stare

bores holes through his lawn sign

One Man's Maple Moon: Haze Tanka by Susan Constable

English Original

ocean salt

spatters the windows

by winter’s end

I peer through a haze

of might-have-beens

The Eternity of Waves, 2017

Susan Constable

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

海鹽

濺落在窗戶上

到了冬末

透過一層薄霧我凝視

那些可能發生卻未發生的事情

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

海盐

溅落在窗户上

到了冬末

透过一层薄雾我凝视

那些可能发生却未发生的事情

Bio Sketch

Susan Constable’s haiku and tanka appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her tanka collection, The Eternity of Waves, was a winning entry in the 2012 eChapbook Awards. She served as tanka editor of A Hundred Gourds from 2012 to 2016, and co-edited two anthologies as well as judged haiku and senryu contests.