Special Feature: Selected Haiku/Tanka for Father's Day

                                                                                               this misty night
                                                                                               I hold up a mirror
                                                                                               to myself ...
                                                                                               (what's the difference
                                                                                               between my father and me?)

My Dear Readers:

Today is Father's Day, I would like to share with you a set of selected haiku and tanka that  honor fathers and celebrate fatherhood and paternal bonds, and challenge readers to rethink the influence of fathers in society.

Selected Haiku and Tanka:

her tiny voice --
the apartment fills
with dad-dads

John Hawk

a toddler climbs
onto father's shoulders
to reach the kite

Goda V. Bendoraitiene

camp walk
the arc of Dad's flashlight
swings
from the pine path
to the stars

Barry George

Father wagging
his "obey me" finger
at ten-year-old me
in a dream, I climb
the ladder to the moon

Chen-ou Liu

my father's footsteps the size of every morning

S.M. Abeles

on a shelf
in her dining room...
the red truck
her father bought
hoping for a boy

Ken Slaughter

the ocean
roars relentlessly
in an empty conch
I never understood
my father’s rage

Luminita Suse

in attic webs
I find letters
from father
lost to the dark side
after his tour of duty

Marilyn Humbert

Father
in the nursing home
        ever smaller
               the circles he walks
               the circles of his thoughts

Irene Golas

snow upon snow
the layers of oblivion
in my father's mind

Dietmar Tauchner

Father's Day --
in her sleep my wife
calls me Dad

Kashinath Karmakar

father and I
sit under his avocado tree ...
he turns to speak
and I wake up wishing
it wasn’t a dream

Sonam Chhoki


Happy Reading

Chen-ou