Friday, December 25, 2015

A Room of My Room: Christmas Haiku / Haibun / Tanka

a map of Taiwan
stained with water marks
hangs on my attic wall --
Silent Night floats
from the Christmas parade

Gusts, 15, Spring/Summer 2012

Christmas Eve …
a wooden Jesus
and its shadow

Modern Haiku, 43:1, Feb., 2012

I Remember

those days when we were like sheep herded into church by missionaries and told to keep our heads down, backs straight, and hands folded.

"Our Father in heaven, …Give us this day our daily bread… deliver us from evil."

Christmas Eve --
I turn my back on Jesus
to face the moon

Multiverses,1, June 2012

Silent Night
drifting in from the neighbors --
I relearn Chinese

Second Place,  North Carolina Poetry Society Lyman Haiku Award (2011)
Anthologized in Pinesong
(Comment by Judge Roberta Beary:This haiku contrasts two images: hazy holiday relaxation and the study of a difficult language. Perhaps relearning Chinese is a resolution for the New Year or perhaps not. A good haiku leaves something to the reader's imagination. Reading aloud the poem reveals the subtle link between its first two words and its last. The mixture of auditory and visual images makes this a prize-winning haiku)

Silent Night
from the next-door neighbor
becomes louder . . .
I talk in circles
with my shadow on the wall

Atlas Poetica, 21, 2015

walking alone
with my old shepherd
on Christmas day
the tumultuous crowding
of memories

Atlas Poetica, 18, 2014

Christmas snow
can angels dance
on a pinhead?

Honourable Mention, Shintai Haiku Selection, World Haiku Review, January 2011

Christmas morning
my neighbor's kid cuts off
his snowman's head

Sketchbook,7: 2, March/April 2012

the TV beams
one war after another
into my room . . .
silent night, holy night
drifting through my mind

Atlas Poetica, 20, January 2015

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