A Room of My Own: Toy Forest Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CC: "US-made bombs"

a toy forest

in his biscuit tin ...

the boy holds it tight

as US-made bombs drop

silencing the world below

FYI: The following entry could be read as its sequel

CLXXXI: "things hidden in ears"

inspired by Mosab Abu Toha's poem, "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear"

doctor, you may find

these things hidden in my ears

a boy murmurs ...

buzzing of drones, roar of fighter jets

screams of Gazans, living and dead

NeverEnding Story, May 6 2025

And FYI: The Guardian, March 29, 2024:‘Ecocide in Gaza’: does scale of environmental destruction amount to a war crime? 

Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory’s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s ecosystems has made the area unlivable.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCI: "green and red zones"

this shifting maze

of green and red zones in Gaza...

life and death 

measured in footsteps

across one rubble-lined "street"

FYI: The Nation, July 9, 2025: The Impossible Geography of Survival in Gaza

Israel has created “green zones” and “red zones” to distinguish between safe and dangerous areas. There’s little difference.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XLV

tariffs today

TACO tomorrow ... in heat

a stray chases its tail 

FYI: Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO), also known as the TACO Trade.

Biting NOT Barking: Rocket Launch Haiku by Deborah P Kolodji

English Original

rocket launch

where the vast blue

turns dark

Tug of a Black Hole, 2021

Deborah P Kolodji 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

火箭發射

浩瀚的藍天

轉為一片黑暗

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

火箭发射

浩瀚的蓝天

转为一片黑暗

Bio Sketch

Deborah P Kolodji was the California Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America and moderated the Southern California Haiku Study Group. Her first full length book of haiku, highway of sleeping towns, is available from Shabda Press.

Reading More and Writing Better: Cocked Rifle Tanka

life is so good

why am I dying for this?

on the hilltop

of the West Bank settlement 

he mutters with a cocked rifle 

Note: Ls 1&2 allude to the existential "question -- 'Existence is so good—why am I dying for this?'-- that reflects a sentiment often explored in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, particularly in the context of war and the characters' struggles with mortality and the meaning of life. It encapsulates the tension between the inherent value of life and the seemingly pointless sacrifice demanded by war. "

FYI: United Nations Press Release, March 18, 2025: Israel ramps up settlement and annexation in West Bank with dire human rights consequences

Haaretz, May 28, 2025: Israeli Cabinet Approves Construction of 22 New Settlements, Some Deep in West Bank

And +972 Magazine, June 19, 2025: With Iran war as pretext, Israel suffocates the West Bank

After striking Tehran, the army closed hundreds of gates to seal Palestinians inside towns and strand them on roads — proof of annexation in all but name.

The following tanka about Israel's genocidal war in Gaza could work as real life foreshadowing of what will happen to the doubting solider on the hilltop of the West Bank settlement:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LX: "suicide deaths"

the lingering smell

of blood-stained body parts

scattered everywhere

another soldier dies

by his own hand, and yet ...

NeverEnding Story, May 17 2024

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXI: "two deaths, Palestinian and Israeli"

One War Story and Two Deaths

a head

severed from the body

grits its teeth ...

moonlight luster on the faces 

of young Israeli soldiers 

back from Gaza

Ezra couldn't stop the war

in his head ...

our father holds his shroud tight

as he is being buried

NeverEnding Story, October 16 2024

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCIX: 'white coffin"

the white coffin

a gray-haired man balances 

on one hand ...

a child born after the war started

and buried  before it ends

Butterfly Dream: Copper Sun Haiku by Gareth Nurden

English Original

copper sun ... 

a different shade

of daisy

Gareth Nurden

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

古銅色的太陽 …

不同色調

的雛菊

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

古铜色的太阳 …

不同色调

的雏菊

Bio Sketch

Gareth Nurden was born in Newport, Wales and has had over one-hundred pieces published in fifteen countries worldwide since starting his Japanese micro-poetry journal.

One Man's Maple Moon: Dragonfly's Wings Tanka by Pamela A. Babusci

English Original

skimming

the pond's surface

a dragonflys' wings --

you never touch me

anymore

Simply Haiku, 1:2, August 2003

Pamela A. Babusci

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

蜻蜓的翅膀

飛掠過

池塘表面 ...

你再也不

觸摸我

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

蜻蜓的翅膀

飞掠过

池塘表面 ...

你再也不

触摸我

 

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: Twilight Campfire Haiku by Keitha Keyes

English Original

twilight campfire

spirits of the past

envelop us

Echidna Tracks, 11

Keitha Keyes 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

暮色營火

過去的幽魂

籠罩著我們

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

暮色营火

过去的幽魂

笼罩着我们

Bio Sketch

Keitha Keyes lives in a tiny house in Sydney, filled with her husband’s model ships and her many antique irons and trivets. She enjoys writing haiku, senryu, gembun, tanka, cherita, sequences and tanka prose. Her work is published in many print and online journals in Australia and overseas.

Butterfly Dream: Parade Route Haiku by Joshua St. Claire

English Original

parade route

the five fingers

of a shut-in

Joshua St. Claire

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

遊行路線

一個閉門不出的人

的五根手指在揮舞

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

游行路线

一个闭门不出的人

的五根手指在挥舞

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.

A Room of My Own: July 4th Reflection Tanka

(Added: No More Fairy Tales, VII

written in response to ABC News, July 9 2025: Texas flooding live updates: 95 dead in Kerr County, at least 110 dead in the state

in a heat haze

blah, blah, blah with fingers

pointing at others ...

beds, comforters, sneakers

and stuffed animals caked in mud

FYI: NBC News, July 9 2025: How a confluence of extreme weather, geography and timing created Texas' flood disaster

Texas leads the country in flood deaths. Steep hills, shallow soils and a fault zone have made Hill Country, also called "flash flood alley," one of the state's most dangerous regions.

And my haiku below could be read as its sequel:

aftermath of floods

the trail of this

unnamed grief

NeverEnding Story, July 4 2024)

not down in the gutter

or high in the cirrus clouds ...

at thirty

holding a cubicle job

I stare at the fireworks-lit sky

FYI: I was reminded of the following remarks on the everyday man while writing this tanka

Every man dies. Not every man really lives. 

-- William Wallace

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. 

-- Abraham Lincoln 

Added:

the staccato 

of July 4th fireworks ...

what's left unsaid

Added:

this ever-growing

wall between who is and isn’t 

deemed worthy

of an American life ...

alone after July 4th fireworks

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XLIV

written in response to Alligator Alcatraz: Trump's New Migrant "Holding Facility" in Florida

and for Jan. 21, 2029

caged in shadows

Trump and Trump-wannabes

wear jumpsuits

"Alligator Alcatraz: 

Make America Safe Again" [indeed!]

Added: This Brave New World, CXXIII

written in response to Elon Musk's July 5 X post: "Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom"

[New]  America

          a

        rope 

      bridge

    straddles 

the  false  dawn

FYI: Time Magazine, July 6, 2025: Musk Announces New ‘America Party Is Formed,’ Cementing Split From Trump and Republicans

“By a factor of two to one, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste and graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Musk said via his social media platform, X, on Saturday, a day after Trump signed the bill. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

The Tesla CEO had opened a poll on July 4, Independence Day, asking his more than 220 million followers if he should create the new political party. Over 65% of the more than 1.2 million respondents voted “yes.”

Added:

I'm  alone again 

and doomscrolling in bed ..

the summer gets cold

when the day grows old 

on full blast non-stop

Poetic Musings: Bloodied Man Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CL: "first casualty of war"

              the

           bloodied

             man

nailed to a wooden cross

               in

               a

             press

              vest

NeverEnding Story, December 28, 2024

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: 

Fist of all, the haiku's visual layout, the Cross, relates to its theme: the sacrifice (as implied from "bloodied" and "nailed" to a wooden cross) made by a wartime journalist, also known as a war correspondent (as indicated the bloodied "man in a press vest").  The words, typography, and arrangement of the haiku are integral to its meaning and impact. 

Secondly, the choice of action-packed verbs, "bloodied" and "nailed," shows that this is a target killing of a journalist for revenge, to warn other journalist (as implied from the act of being "nailed to a  wooden cross" for other journalists to see), or to conceal or suppress the truth ...  The intentional targeting of journalists is a WAR CRIME.  

Thirdly, sociopolitically speaking, the immediate consequence of this target killing of journalists is the DEATH of TRUTH.

The first casualty when war comes is truth.

-- Hiram Johnson, a reform governor of California (1911–17) and a U.S. senator for 28 years (1917–45)

FYI: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), June 16 2025: 

As of June 16, 2025, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 185 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

And last but not least, it's my intention to use the socio-religious symbol of the cross to spark the reader's emotions and reflection on why Israel's GENOCIDAL WAR on GAZA is still raging.

Notes:

1 This haiku is a sequel to the following: 

written in response to Democracy Now, "DECEMBER. 20, 2023:" [NewYork-based, American NGO] Committee to Protect Journalists: Israel Is Killing Media Workers at Unprecedented Pace

smoky rubble

a bullet-riddled helmet

marked PRESS

NeverEnding Story, December 22 2023 

Reprinted on My Haiku Pond, Nov. 23 2024

2 Israel's oldest and most progressive daily founded in 1918, Haaretz, was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

3 RSF's World Press Freedom Index, 2024: [so-called "first and only democratic country in the Middle East"] Israel, 101/180; Score: 53.23

(FYI: Reporters sans frontières'/Reporters without Borders' World Press Freedom Index aims to compare the level of press freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories)

4 Haaretz, July 2, 2025: Israel's Government Wants to Repress the Press at Home and Bury It in Gaza

One Man's Maple Moon: Ring Marks Tanka by M. Kei

English Original

ring marks 

in the swollen knuckle ... 

a little more

middle age

this morning

Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine, 2012-13

M. Kei

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

腫脹手指關節

的戒指環狀痕跡 ...

今天早晨

看起來更像是

中年男人

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

肿胀手指关节

的戒指环状痕迹 ...

今天早晨

看起来更像是

中年男人

Bio Sketch

M. Kei is a tall ship sailor and award-winning poet who lives on Maryland’s Eastern shore. He is the editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of World Tanka. His most recent collection of poetry is January, A Tanka Diary. He is also the author of the award-winning gay Age of Sail adventure novels, Pirates of the Narrow Seas. He can be followed on Twitter @kujakupoet, or visit AtlasPoetica.org.

Butterfly Dream: Graveyard Watch Haiku by Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

English Original

graveyard watch

the rhythm of winter

in the old man's teeth

Presence, 67,  2020

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

墓園視察

老人的牙齒隨著

冬天的韻律打顫

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

墓园视察

老人的牙齿随着

冬天的韵律打颤

Bio Sketch

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi, a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma, is currently working in a pharma company in Hyderabad, India. His haiku are regularly published in all the leading haiku journals

Butterfly Dream: Partial Eclipse Haiku by Giddy Nielsen-Sweep

English Original

partial eclipse 

a waning gibbous moon 

and the divorce 

Giddy Nielsen-Sweep

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

Translation result

偏食

一彎殘月

和離婚

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

偏食

一弯残月

和离婚

 

Bio Sketch

Giddy Nielsen-Sweep  was born in Brisbane, capital of Queensland, Australia, traveled and moved back there in 2010, learning to write Japanese genre poetry online. She writes about celestial subjects and the outdoors. After a forty-six year battle with M S, she founded Bombora, a Japanese genre poetry group to give her a place to practise its various forms. Now she teaches a group of friends.

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.4 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late last night: 2.4 M pageveiws (FYI: It reached 2. 3 M pageviews on April 20, 2025)

I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of this poetry journey. And NeverEnding Story now seeks the haiku and tanka that can bite and 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; 4,862 Followers).

Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.

-- Audre Lorde

Defy the law! –

Write the heartbroken

poetry of the World!

(often attributed to) Jack Kerouac 

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVII: "loose skin over bone"

this dull-eyed baby 

with loose skin over bone ...

a Gazan boy

scrapes the bottom of a cracked pot 

for leftover grains

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Chen-ou 

FYI: Defense for Children International - Palestine, June 24 2025: “Starving a Generation” report indicts Israel for weaponizing starvation as a tool of genocide

Defense for Children International - Palestine, in collaboration with Doctors Against Genocide, published a report today asserting Israeli authorities have deliberately weaponized starvation as a method of genocide, resulting in the preventable deaths and suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza that will carry negative impacts for generations to come.

“Starving a Generation: Israel’s Famine Campaign Targeting Palestinian Children in Gaza” documents 33 cases of child starvation collected by DCIP’s field researchers in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023, and May 21, 2025. In nine of these cases, the child died. These children, all of whom died of malnutrition, ranged between the ages of one week and 10 years old. Of the other 24 cases, documenting children still suffering from the effects of starvation, 14 are under one year of age, five are toddlers, and five are school age. Five of the children are suffering from chronic diseases. These cases represent only a small fraction of the true toll, as Israel’s continued bombardment, siege, and obstruction of aid have made comprehensive documentation impossible.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVIII: "this pain that words can't carry"

in a heat haze

murderaftermurder

of crows hovering

over bodies amid ruins ...

this pain that words can't carry

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz," June 27: 'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid

IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes.

June 28: U.S.-backed  Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, GHF Urges Probe Into Israeli Army Fire on Gaza Aid-seekers Following Haaretz Expose

Editorial, June 29: Israel Turned Gaza's Aid Centers Into Death Traps. The Killing Has to Stop

June 30: Senior Israeli Army Officers Admit 'Uncalculated' Fire on Gaza Aid Seekers After Haaretz Expose

A Room of My Own: Sultry Smell Tanka

the sultry smell

of grilled salmon and shrimp

our shoulders

close, closer to each other

and our wandering hearts, too

Added:

dappled trail 

a summer breeze humming

our sweet nothings 

Added:

after love

and her going back home

I take a shower

to wash away her trace

and another steamy night

Added:

pity? I murmur ...

these women in red

sail to my shore

even disembark, and yet

never reach my interior

Poetic Musings: Shift Change Haiku by Ignatius Fay

shift change

fried chicken and exhaust

on the warm breeze

DailyHaiga, 10 January 2017

Ignatius Fay

Commentary: This is a fine example of shasei (sketch from life) haiku, infused with multi-sensorily evocative imagery (smell of fried chicken mixed with musty and smoky exhaust on the warm breeze, Ls 2&3), about quick-pace drive-through window service (as implied from the juxtaposition of L1 and L2).

And this is also a good example of "less-means-more" haiku. What's left unsaid, such as negative impacts on worker health and well-being due to increased stress, physical strain, and potential for errors or injuries constantly occurring in a culture of speed,  at least as potent as what's stated/indicated in the haiku, such as "oily smell" of fried chicken mixed with "musty and smoky" exhaust.