Special Feature: Halloween Haiku

My Dear Readers:

It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare. -- Brackett, "Halloween," 1978

gathering dark

the masked Grim Reaper's eyeballs

bulge out of his skull

Chen-ou Liu

pointed hats dip

into black inked sky

a constellation of witches

Karen A VandenBos

a skeleton

rattles the door ...

autumn wind

Neena Singh

trick-or-treating

the warmth

of the skeleton's hand

Michelle Schaefer

dripping sweet

the vampire fangs

wax candy

Richard L. Matta

All Souls Day

so many masks

left behind 

David McKe

To conclude today's "Special Feature" post, I would like to share with you the following haiku sequence:

Three Hundred and Fifty-Second Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written in response to CBC News, Oct. 27: "How to celebrate Halloween safely this year with COVID-19 and other viruses lurking: Infectious diseases expert says exposure may put strain on overburdened health network

The Safest Halloween Ever 😅

Halloween eve

a new wave of lockdowns

in China

subvariants surging ...

a gang of grim reapers

double masked

trick or treat ...

Reese's Cups, M&M's and a box

of rapid tests

Added: written in response to the South Korea Halloween stampede

two red handprints

on Happy Halloween ...

150 deaths

Added: written in response to USA Today, Nov 3: Seoul, South Korea Halloween stampede leaves over 150 dead

row upon row of shoes

with name tags to be filled out ...

Halloween stampede 

FYI: The New Yorker, Nov.2 : In Itaewon, Another Betrayal of Young Koreans.

The nation’s abiding emotion is, understandably, grief. But there is also a blood-boiling rage...Why have politicians and bureaucrats, of both major parties, failed so radically at the basic provision of public safety?

Butterfly Dream: First Trick and Treat Haiku by Barry George

English Original

first trick or treat ...

the toddler reaches 

for her mother’s face

Third Prize, 2005 The Betty Drevniok Award

Barry George 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

第一次不給糖就搗蛋 ...

蹣跚學步的孩子伸手去摸

她媽媽的臉

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

第一次不给糖就捣蛋 ...

蹒跚学步的孩子伸手去摸

她妈妈的脸

Bio Sketch

Barry George is the author of Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku and The One That Flies Back, a tanka collection. A regular contributor to haiku and tanka journals, he has won numerous short-form competitions, including First Prize in the Gerald R. Brady Contest. He lives and teaches in Philadelphia. 

A Room of My Own: Omicron Strains and Halloween Skeletons Tanka

Three Hundred and Fiftieth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

immune-evasive

Omicron strains are coming ...

skeletons

hang from an oak tree

in Halloween dusk

FYI: Yahoo News, October 12: WHO issues new warning over winter flu surge and COVID wave.

And CNBC, Oct. 28: Omicron subvariants resistant to key antibody treatments are increasing every week in the U.S.

The subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now represent 27% of infections in the U.S., a significant jump from the week prior when they made up about 16% of new cases, according to CDC data published Friday.

Added: Three Hundred and Fifty-First Entry

cold and flu season

with covid19 in the mix ...

layers of dark clouds

FYI: The Washington Post, Oct. 28: So far, this flu season is more severe than it has been in 13 years 

And Democracy Now, Oct.27: Children’s Hospitals See Surge in RSV as Experts Warn of Winter "Tripledemic" of Respiratory Illness

Public health experts in the United States are warning of a possible "tripledemic" of respiratory illness this winter: an increase in COVID cases, an early flu season and a surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). 

Added: This Brave New World, LXI

written on the Day of Halloween and in response to Amanda Gorman's tweet, "One Education under Desks"

Attack of Fright

this unspoken weight 

of a plantation ghost story 

clomp! clomp! clomp! ...

gunshots outside 

under the teacher's desk

two skeletons

FYI: The following is the full text:

Schools scared to death.

The truth is, one education under desks,

Stooped low from bullets;

That plunge when we ask

Where our children

Shall live

& how

& if 

Butterfly Dream: Writer's Block Haiku by LeRoy Gorman

English Original

writer's block

first the panic 

then the blowflies

Haiku Canada Review, 16:1, February 2022

LeRoy Gorman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

寫作時大腦閉塞

首先是恐慌

然後一大群蒼蠅集聚

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

写作时大脑闭塞

首先是恐慌

然后一大群苍蝇集聚

Bio Sketch

LeRoy Gorman lives in Napanee, Ontario. His poetry, much of it minimalist and visual, has appeared in publications and exhibitions worldwide. He is the author of two dozen poetry books and chapbooks. He is also the winner of the 2017 Dwarf Stars Award

One Man's Maple Moon: Desert Road Tanka by Carole Johnston

English Original

two days alone

driving the desert

road on the map

thin gray line to nowhere

I'm fasting on dust

Journeys: Getting Lost, 2014

Carole Johnston

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

整整兩天單獨

駕駛在地圖上顯示

的沙漠道路

灰色的細線引向死胡同

我只好禁食吃塵埃

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

整整两天单独

驾驶在地图上显示

的沙漠道路

灰色的细线引向死胡同

我只好禁食吃尘埃

Bio Sketch

Carole Johnston has been writing Japanese short form poetry for twelve years and has published haiku and tanka in various print and online journals. Her first chapbook, Journeys: Getting Lost, was published  in  2015 by Finishing Line Press. Retired from teaching, she drives around writing poems about landscape. Visit her on Twitter (@morganabag) to read more of her poetry.

Butterfly Dream: Snore Haiku by Nike

English Original

afterward ...

the deepness

of his snore

Nika

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

之後 ...

他的深沉

打呼聲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

之后 ...

他的深沉

打呼声

 

Bio Sketch

Nika is the pen name of Dr. Jim Force, a retired educator. Jim has been writing haiku and related works since the early 1990s. Jim's work has been widely published around the world. He lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife Colleen and their two cairn terriers. 

One Man's Maple Moon: Origami Box Tanka by Pamela A. Babusci

English Original

folding up her heart

into a neat

origami box

careful not to spill

out the brokenness

A Solitary Woman, 2013

Pamela A. Babusci

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

折疊好她的心

並放入一個

整齊的摺紙盒

小心不要溢出

它的碎片

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

折叠好她的心

并放入一个

整齐的折纸盒

小心不要溢出

它的碎片

 

Bio Sketch

Pamela A. Babusci  is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon Competition (Aust) tanka category,  First Place Kokako Tanka Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival Haiku Contests (Japan).  Pamela has illustrated several books, including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US.

Butterfly Dream: Autumn Twilight Haiku by Bill Kenney

English Original

tiny sips

to make it last

autumn twilight

keep walking, 2021 

Bill Kenney

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

小啜幾口酒

而且這是最後一次

秋暮

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

 小啜几口酒

而且这是最后一次

秋暮

 

Bio Sketch 

 

Born and raised in the Boston area, and living for over 50 years in New York City, Bill Kenney was a professor for many years in the English Department at Manhattan College. He started writing haiku in 2004, a month before his 72nd birthday, and became an active participant in the New York City Spring Street Haiku group. His haiku were published in numerous journals and anthologies. And his collection of haiku, keep walking, won the 2021 Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards.

A Room of My Own: White People First Haiku

written on the eve of Ontario's municipal elections

White People First

scrawled on a campaign sign

frost alert

FYI: CBC News, Oct., 22: Ontario municipal candidates face "organized hatred" as campaign nears close.

And POV, CBCDocs, White nationalism and right-wing extremism aren’t new to Canada. 

White supremacists, anti-immigrant organizers, and Holocaust deniers in Canada have been actively organizing here for decades. “Old wine, new labels.” When it comes to the alt-right, that’s the phrase that comes to mind for Dr. Barbara Perry. A hate crime researcher for almost 20 years... 

Added: written on the day of Ontario's municipal elections

White People First

staked into a neighbor's lawn ...

under the sign

my dog cocks his leg as I muse

on how smelly the day is

FYI: TVO, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Oct. 21, 2022: Why are Acclamations on the Rise in Ontario?

More and more municipal elections in Ontario are going uncontested. According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, 548 candidates were acclaimed in this year's municipal election. That means no door-to-door canvassing, no debates and more importantly no competition. And 32 mayors and entire councils have all been acclaimed this year.

Added: 

online trolling ...

behind my back these whispers

of slanted eyes

FYI: Bloomberg, "MAY 7 2021": This Is the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital of North America: A surge of attacks in one of Canada’s most multicultural cities during the pandemic is surfacing long-simmering racial tensions.

Last year, more anti-Asian hate crimes were reported to police in Vancouver, a city of 700,000 people, than in the top 10 most populous U.S. cities combined. With almost 1 out of every 2 residents of Asian descent in British Columbia experiencing a hate incident in the past year, the region is confronting an undercurrent of racism that runs as long and deep as the historical links stretching across the Pacific. 

And Toronto Star, "MARCH 29, 2022": Anti-Asian racism is soaring in Canada. These numbers tell the story, representing a 47 per cent increase from the previous year.

Butterfly Dream: Rain and Ground Haiku by Michele Root-Bernstein

English Original

somehow rain

somehow ground

somehow us

Wind Rose, 2021

Michele Root-Bernstein 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

不論下雨

不論地面

不論我們之間

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

不论下雨

不论地面

不论我们之间

Bio Sketch

Michele Root-Bernstein appears in A New Resonance 6; the 2016 chapbook, Scent of the Past…Imperfect; Haiku 2014; Haiku 2016; and on three rocks in Ohio. She is co-author with Francine Banwarth of The Haiku Life, What We Learned as Editors of Frogpond and facilitator of a Michigan haiku study group. 

To the Lighthouse: A Rhetoric Device, Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a literary device where a word mimics the actual sound one hears. For example, the following words in quotes are onomatopoetic

The "buzzing" bee flew away, or the books fell on the table with a loud "thump." 

Onomatopoeia is used to "create a heightened experience for the reader. And onomatopoetic words are descriptive and provide a sensory effect and vivid imagery in terms of sight and sound." 

Selected Haiku and Tanka (whose lines in quotes are onomatopoetic):

at four p.m.

my spirit drops down

like the sun

but then an old friend calls

"chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee"

red lights, January 2014

Neal Whitman

harvest morn

"rat-a-tat-tat" of olives

on our tarp

Stardust Haiku, 69, September 2022

Roberta Beach Jacobson

at typewriter

backspacing to a typo

"ra ta ta ta tat"

my anti-war muse

machine-gunned dead

Honourable Mention, Third International Tanka Competition

Guy Simser

"nee-naw, nee-naw ..."

a cloud of doves in flight

dripping blood

Chen-ou Liu

FYI: Nee-naw Entery, Wiktionary: Imitating the sound of a siren on a vehicle used by emergency services. And for more about haiku noir, see my "To the Lighthouse" post, Haiku Noir

Added: 

crows "caw-caw-caw"

in the front yard maple ...

ten years of my tongue

acclimating to the way

my white neighbor speaks English

Added:

men link arms in lines

chanting olay, olay, olay ...

a football in midair

FYI: Olé/Olay is a Spanish interjection used to cheer on or praise a performance

Butterfly Dream: Red Leaf Haiku by Sankara Jayanth

English Original

the flicker

before its fall ...

a red leaf

Sankara Jayanth

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

墜落之前

的搖曳 ...

一片紅葉

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

坠落之前

的摇曳 ...

一片红叶

Bio Sketch

Sankara Jayanth is passionate about what haikai poetic forms allow a writer to do. Basho's haiku inspire him to look closely at nature. Issa's inspire him to appreciate all life with sensitivity. To one day write like these great Japanese masters is a life-long goal that he intends to pursue.

Poetic Musings: Snapshot Tanka by Kirsty Karkow

a snapshot

of me and the girl --

between us

handsome as ever

is my only son

Eucalypt, 2, 2007

Kirsty Karkow

Commentary: ... A tanka written by Kirsty Karkow appeals to me for its simplicity of words, yet covert in suggestion. An innocent snap-shot at first glance, as a proud mother holds out a photo to us and points out her son. 

When layers are peeled away questions arise. Why does the mother refer to her son’s, assumed friend, as the girl leaving her nameless? 

And then the following lines : 

between us

handsome as ever

is my only son 

The phrase ‘handsome as ever’; does this insinuate the girl is not the perfect one?

The son centred between them as in a tug of war hints at a level of jealousy and that word ‘only’ implies to me she is not giving him up easily. 

A difficult emotion to portray, presented in the visual medium of a photograph, which disguises hidden complexities . Karkow does it very well... excerpted from the Bowerbird Tanka Group Meeting Report, written by M L Grace 

One Man's Maple Moon: Rainbow Tanka by Keitha Keyes

English Original

on this day

we share a rainbow ...

can we hold on

to the memory

in darker days to come

Gusts, 29, Spring/Summer 2019 

Keitha Keyes

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

這一天

我們共享一道彩虹 ...

在未來更黑暗的日子裡

我們能夠保住

這段記憶嗎

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

这一天

我们共享一道彩虹 ...

在未来更黑暗的日子里

我们能够保住

这段记忆吗

Bio Sketch

Keitha Keyes lives in Sydney, surrounded by antique irons and ship models. She enjoys writing tanka, haiku, senryu, cherita and related genres. Her work is published in many journals and anthologies in Australia and overseas.

A Room of My Own: Capitol Hill Tanka

This Brave New World, LVIII 

Inspired by Mike Pence's upcoming memoir, So Help Me God

armed to the teeth

MAGA patriots are here ...

in a cold sweat

he wakes up to the image

of gallows on Capitol Hill

FYI: Insider, October 14: Mike Pence says his relationship with Trump 'broke down' after the election and describes facing down the president's pressure campaign to overturn the 2020 results in new autobiography.

One report featuring comments from MAGA message boards where Trump supporters mapped out plans to derail Joe Biden's lawful win included a line about lawmakers only leaving the US Capitol one of two ways: "in a bodybag" or "after rightfully certifying Trump the winner."

Added: The Brave New World, LIX

written in response to Inaugural poet and activist AmandaGorman's remark

The truth is, "one nation under guns."

a cacophony

of horns and tire screeches ...

two fathers 

in a road-rage gunfight

shoot each other's daughters

FYI: The Independent, October 14: Two fathers shoot each other’s daughters in Florida road-rage gunfight

Added: Three Hundred and Forty-Ninth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

this chilly eve

of the Party Congress ...

over Sitong Bridge 

a red banner unfurls the words:

Freedom, Not Lockdowns

FYI: Sitong Bridge is located in Beijing's northwestern Haidian district, one of the busiest parts of the city. And Politics: China, DW News, Oct. 13: Banner in Beijing displays rare voices of dissent

"We want dignity, not lies. We need reform, no cultural revolution," the white banner continued in red letters. "We want to vote, not a leader. Don't be slaves, be citizens."

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

English Original

I am a speck

on this rock in this ocean

lost in endless space

but for this puppy I hold

I am a warm, breathing world

Gusts, 7, Spring/Summer 2008

Denis M. Garrison

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在這片海洋的岩石上

我是一個斑點

迷失在無盡的空間

但是對於我抱著的這隻小狗

我是一個溫暖, 散發氣息的世界

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在这片海洋的岩石上

我是一个斑点

迷失在无尽的空间

但是对于我抱着的这只小狗

我是一个温暖, 散发气息的世界

Bio Sketch

Denis M. Garrison, from Iowa, now lives in Maryland. 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: Harvest Morn Haiku by Roberta Beach Jacobson

English Original

harvest morn

rat-a-tat-tat of olives

on our tarp

Stardust Haiku, 69, September 2022

Roberta Beach Jacobson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

豐收的早晨

橄欖落在我們的防水布上

的噠-噠-噠聲音

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

丰收的早晨

橄榄落在我们防水布上

的哒-哒-哒声音

Bio Sketch

Roberta Beach Jacobson (http://www.robertajacobson.com) is a humorist from Iowa, USA. 

Poetic Musings: Calligraphy of Snow Geese Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

thinking of mom ...

the calligraphy

of snow geese

Third Place, 2015 Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary by the Judge, Michael Dylan Welch: It's uncommon for a haiku to succeed with an overt metaphor, but here's one that does. As we contemplate the patterns that snow geese make, we realize that the straight lines they make while flying differ from their wandering tracks on the ground. Calligraphy is full of loops and curls, so surely the calligraphy these geese make is on the ground. In the context of thinking of one's mother, one might find longing in those wandering tracks, as if the geese might soon be taking off for a flight far away.

Butterfly Dream: Shadowed Pond Haiku by Julie Constable

English Original

a glint of koi

in the shadowed pond

maple leaves drifting

Julie Constable

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

錦鯉的微光閃現

在陰影投射的池塘裡

楓葉漂流

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

锦鲤的微光闪现

在阴影投射的池塘里

枫叶漂流

Bio Sketch

Julie Constable loves walking around Corner Inlet and in the forest of the Strzelecki Ranges. Her haiku can be found online and in print journals and anthologies. 

One Man's Maple Moon: Like a Cat Tanka by Kirsty Karkow

English Original

she lived

in later years

like a cat

tiny meals, then naps

on a sofa in the sun

Gusts, 18, Fall/Winter 2013

Kirsty Karkow

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

她在晚年

過著像貓一樣

的生活

少量餐點後, 在陽光下的沙發上

打盹小睡

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

她在晚年

过着像猫一样

的生活

少量餐点后, 在阳光下的沙发上

打盹小睡

Bio Sketch

Kirsty Karkow lived in Waldoboro, Maine, where she wrote haiku, sijo, tanka, and other short forms. Lyrical, poignant, and spare, her poetry reflected a rich and deep sense of place and spirit. Her haiku have won the Mainichi and the R.H Blyth Award and placed in other contests. And she had two best-selling books in print: water poems: haiku, tanka and sijo and shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka , published by Black Cat Press.

A Room of My Own: Counter-Revolution, Here and Now

This Brave New World, LVII 

to the Persian poet Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi who wrote a millennium ago

The moment we have been waiting for has come. Politics fuelled by poetry.

with their backs

to the TV camera

a line of teens

pulling off their hijabs ...

United We Stand 

Woman. Life. Freedom. 

Death to the Dictator ...

a teen smiling

at the scattered pieces

of the Supreme Leader photo

on TV

her blood-dripping finger

points at each

and every one of us ...

Stand with Women of Iran

FYI: The New Yorker, October, 9: Iran’s Protests Are the First Counter-Revolution Led by Women

...Day after dangerous day, on open streets and in gated schools, in a flood of tweets and brazen videos, they have ridiculed a theocracy that deems itself the government of God. The average age of the protesters who have been arrested is just fifteen, the Revolutionary Guard’s deputy commander claimed last week. 

Iran’s protests may well be the first time in history that women have been both the spark and engine for an attempted counter-revolution. ... this is not just an upheaval involving women, it is an upheaval about women and women’s freedom, and that makes it very special...

... The protests challenge two core themes of the 1979 Revolution: the hijab reflects its ideology and moral code, and the refusal to recognize the United States has been a cornerstone of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy. Abandoning either source of identity would reflect the Revolution’s failure...

Added:

migrants come and go

early leaf fall

in this border town

Added:

migrants

silhouetted against twilight

harvest festival

French Translation by Serge Tomé

migrants

silhouettes sur fond de crépuscule ...

fête de la moisson

Special Feature: Haiku and Tanka Selected for Canadian Thanksgiving

My Dear Friends:

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada (occurring on the second Monday in October and six weeks earlier than Thanksgiving Day in the USA)

Share with you a set of haiku and tanka about mixed emotions of this Thanksgiving long weekend.

thanksgiving --

overflowing with children

of children

Susan Murata

a colleague wishes me

Thanksgiving cheer --

but I have

a desk full of dark

anniversaries unspoken

M. Kei

Thanksgiving drive

after the bustle

quiet fields, deep shadows

Harriet S. Bates 

thanksgiving

our latest argument

to eat in or out

the blue shrouded mountains

hold the sunset so easily

Thomas Martin

thanksgiving leftovers

all the things we

didn’t say

Sondra Byrnes

To conclude today's Special Feature post, I would like to share with you the following Thanksgiving tanka written in an understated tone:

first frost alert

this Thanksgiving morning

alone

I heat the tea kettle 

and wait for its whistle

FYI: For more about understatement, see "To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Understatement"

And the following tanka I wrote last year could be read as a sequel:

alone

to reheat leftovers ...

the memories

we didn't share but bury inside

on Thanksgiving night

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Chen-ou

To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Understatement

The key to haiku is understatement when describing our experiences. -- Peter Brady

An understatement,  the opposite of hyperbole, is a rhetorical device by which a "particular quality of a person, object, emotion, or situation is downplayed or presented as being less than what is true to the situation."

In his 2001 dissertation, titled Haiku in Britain: Theory, Practice, Context, Martin Lucas emphasizes:

Stripping out imaginative excesses and rhetorical flourishes is an ascetic practice which appears, for many, to go against the grain. The Western poetic palate tends to crave exotic flavours, whereas haiku is as understated as a bowl of boiled white rice. What succeeds in haiku, what startles, is honesty rather than innovation. As in Cor van den Heuvel’s

hot night

turning the pillow

to the cool side

What moves us is the unifying power of shared experience, presented so as to be immediately accessible. It is this quality of naked awareness which is the value, and the difficulty, of the art (pp. 346-347).

For example:

school bus

the same fertility symbol

at the driver's neck

Kokako, 21, 2014

Cynthia Rowe

In this deceptively simple and understated haiku, what's left unsaid is emotionally more significant than what's said. Just take the time to think about the following questions:

1) what's on the mind of the driver who drives kids to school daily?

2) what's on the mind of the narrator who just found out the "same" "fertility symbol" at the driver's neck?

Another example, 

New Year's eve --

the wind returns 

my old hat

Ardea, 5, 2015

Lavana Kray

L1 establishes the thematic context while a humorous twist in L3 not only provides a "scent link" (in Basho's sense of the phrase) to L1, but also prepares the reader to usher in the new year.

A understated haiku with an aesthetic focus on the "hai."

To conclude today's post, I would like share a haiku sequence , written in an understated tone, about this (supposedly happy) Thanksgiving long weekend:

As Usual

a cacophony

of horns and tire screeches

Thanksgiving trip

quiet dinner

except the clicking

of chopsticks

leftovers

between us all that

remains

Chen-ou

Added: Three Hundred and Fifty-Third Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

in memory of Patrick Henry who was known for his 1775 revolutionary war cry: Give me liberty or give me death

Covid curbs

blank sheets of paper waving

in the twilight dark

FYI: The Week Magazine, December 3, 2022: Patrick Henry in China

"Give me liberty or give me death." Protesters in cities throughout China were actually chanting Patrick Henry's revolutionary war cry from 1775 this week, as tens of thousands poured into the streets in defiance of the authoritarian regime in Beijing. The demonstrators, mostly young, chanted "We don't want emperors!" and held up blank pieces of paper to symbolize their inability to speak freely.

One Man's Maple Moon: Gold Watch Tanka by Anne Curran

English Original

father's gold watch 

sits unused 

in a top drawer ...

time ceases to matter 

in the dementia ward 

Unfinished Conversations, 2021

Anne Curran 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在最上面的抽屜裡

父親的金表

擺著未使用 ...

在失智症病房裡

時間不再重要了

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在最上面的抽屉里

父亲的金表

摆着未使用 ...

在失智症病房里

时间不再重要了

Bio Sketch

Anne Curran lives in Hamilton, New Zealand. She has been writing Japanese short verse forms for about  eleven years. She is grateful for the inspiration provided by editors, fellow poets and friends. Like a good wine she hopes only to improve her writing with age.

Butterfly Dream: Fragrance Haiku by Ellen Compton

English Original

whispers of a fragrance

my sister loved

evening in spring

First Prize, 2010 Betty Drevniok Award 

Ellen Compton

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

往昔我妹妹喜愛

的香水耳語

春天的傍晚

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

往昔我妹妹喜爱

的香水耳语

春天的傍晚

Bio Sketch

Ellen Compton was an award-winning haiku poet with a background in visual and theatre arts. Her haiku  collection, Gathering Dusk, received a Snapshot Press Book Award. And she was an editor emerita of The Red Moon Anthology series and a founding member of Towpath. Ellen credited her childhood in the Ohio River Valley for her deep love of the natural world and for her awareness of its fragility. 

One Man's Maple Moon: Tire Swing Tanka by H. Gene Murtha

English Original

getting drunk

while i think of you

who almost lived

i cut down the tire swing

then the oak it hung from

Biding Time: Selected Poems 2001-2013, 2013

H. Gene Murtha 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

喝醉了

當我想到你

幾乎存活下來的時候

我砍下輪胎做的鞦韆

然後砍倒掛在其上的橡樹

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

喝醉了

当我想到你

几乎存活下来的时候

我砍下轮胎做的秋千

然后砍倒挂在其上的橡树

Bio Sketch

H. Gene Murtha, a naturalist and poet, sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, NJ., for the Virgilio Group, of which he was a lifetime member. He was widely published for his work in haikai literature from the USA to Japan.

A Room of My Own: Whitewashed Church Haiku

reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XXVIII

whitewashed church

on the street corner a black man

with a crown of thorns

FYI: Ls 2&3 allude to "Black Jesus."  Black theology envisions Jesus Christ as one who stands on the side of the oppressed people, blacks, and is one with them, over against the oppressor.

Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XXIX

my friend

strips down to his underwear ...

in dim streetlight

this drug search lays bare

his scarred black body

Added: This Brave New World, LVI

Tehran twilight

a hijab-free teen on top

of a traffic pole

FYI: In Iran, the "hijab and chastity" law requires women and girls over the age of 9 to wear a headscarf in public.

Poetic Musings: Night Airplane Tanka by Gerald St. Maur

Just out of earshot,

the periodic blinking

of a night airplane,

not quite far enough away

to be as close as the stars

The Tanka Anthology, 2003

Gerald St. Maur

Commentary: In this poem, the first three lines could stand alone as a haiku, a feature that may be found in many contemporary English tanka. Such tanka combine the objective imagery of a haiku with a subjective response or personal reflection in the poem’s concluding lines; the order can also be reversed. It is the subjective element in a tanka that chiefly distinguishes it from most haiku, in addition to its greater length. Here, the concluding two-line component is a simple, personal reflection or response to the initial image, placing the silent aircraft in the context of a starry sky.  The twist in sense here—that the aircraft is the more remote, alien object—gives a postmodern slant to the traditional tanka theme of loneliness... -- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Introduction to The Tanka Anthology by Michael McClintock

Butterfly Dream: Colors of the Day Haiku by Jane Reichhold

English Original

evening wind

colors of the day

blown away

Frogpond, 23:3, Autumn, 2000

Jane Reichhold

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

晚風

當日的天色

被吹走了

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

晚风

当日的天色

被吹走了

 

 

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

One Man's Maple Moon: Village Life Tanka by Naomi Beth Wakan

English Original

reading 

of village life

I yearn ...

yearn for a time I never lived

and a thatched place I never saw

Gusts, 33, Spring/Summer 2021

Naomi Beth Wakan

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

閱讀

我渴望

的鄉村生活 ...

渴望一段我從未生活過的時光

還有一間我從未見過的茅草屋

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

阅读

我渴望

的乡村生活 ...

渴望一段我从未生活过的时光

还有一间我从未见过的茅草屋

Bio Sketch

Naomi Beth Wakan is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo (2014–16) and the Federation of British Columbia Writer’s Inaugural Honorary Ambassador. She has published over fifty books. Her most recent book of essays, On the Arts, came out in 2020 (Shanti Arts). Her trilogy, The Way of Tanka, The Way of Haiku, and Poetry That Heals was published by Shanti Arts in 2019. Wakan is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada, and Tanka Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, the sculptor Elias Wakan.

Butterfly Dream: Shadow Haiku by Margaret Rutley

English Original

snow-covered bridge ...

at the end

greeting my shadow

The Wanderer Brush, 2020

Margaret Rutley 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冰雪覆蓋的一座橋 ...

在橋的盡頭

問候我的影子

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冰雪覆盖的一座桥 ...

在桥的尽头

问候我的影子

Bio Sketch

Margaret Rutley had poetry published in journals and anthologies in Canada, the US, the UK, and New Zealand. She won second place for "The Last Resort," a haiku sequence published in Haiku Canada Review and first place for a Valentine's Haiku Contest. She was a member of Haiku Canada, the Haiku Society of America, and wrote with The Heron's Quill poetry group.