Monday, May 30, 2022

Special Feature: Selected Haiku for Memorial Day

                                                                    for the soldiers who died in the longest war 
                                                                    in American history

                                                                    Memorial Day
                                                                    her only son's room
                                                                    quiet ... and quieter

                                                                    Chen-ou Liu

My Dear Friends and Readers:

Today's Special Feature post is inspired by and reflects on the following remark:

Times Leader's May 29 Editorial: This Memorial Day, the horrors of Ukraine remind us of ongoing risks

Most Memorial Days, the relentless carnage of that war seems a dusty memory, a century-old saga bearing scant relevance in our hi-speed Internet-of-things world with big data and all-on-demand. Surely such a global conflagration cannot happen again, we comfort ourselves, there is too much at stake for everyone.

But widespread war remains very much a beast barely caged, and this year we celebrate Memorial Day with immediacy of vigilance thrown in our faces thanks to the Russian war of choice unleashed in Ukraine.

No, our troops are not fighting, at least not formally (there are Americans serving among an estimated 20,000 people who have formed an “International Legion” in Ukraine’s defense). But we play a semantic shell game if we dismiss this horror as “not in our interest.”


war dead
exit out of a blue mathematics

Sugimura Seirinshi

only american deaths count the stars

Scott Metz

Memorial Day 
a layer of dust 
covers the urn 

H. Gene Murtha  

the road
to a war cemetery
morning glories

Chen-ou Liu

war memorial --
the silence in a hand
saluting

Carole Harrison

memorial day
the parade lengthens
by a new war

Gail Oare

news of war
wrapped on a fish --
the smell lingers

Carl Seguiban


To conclude today's special feature post, I would like to share with you the following haiku about the intense fighting in the Donbas region:

scattered sunflower seeds ...
busloads of children on the road
to the border

Chen-ou

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