A Room of My Own: Trump-Raged World Tanka

Trump Empire, Inc, LXII:

alone, putting

the Trump-raged world on mute

I take a sip

of morning black coffee

and listen to the snowfall

FYI: This is a sequel to the following poem:

One Year On

A notice pinned to the community library’s message board: The Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Section has been moved to Current Affairs.

Apocalypse Now

spine bent, margins yellowed …

on its last page

Trump 2028

inked in a shaking hand

NeverEnding Story, November 2 2025

(FYI: The Independent, Nov. 5 2025: Eric Trump doesn’t rule out dad running for president again in 2028

President’s son also hints he would consider mounting a campaign himself ‘if there was no other choice and it got so bad that you had to do it’)

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLII: "'ceasefire' strikes"

heavenward

                    rising

fireballs

               fireballs

                              falling

heavenward

FYI: This could be read as a sequel to the following:

War Is Peace

pyramid

after pyramid of rubble ...

again "ceasefire" strikes

fireball by fireball ...

the length

of a Gazan night

smoky twilight

a cry sinks into the sound

of a gunshot

skeletal houses

these layers of silence

upon silence

The New Verse News, November 9 2025

Chen-ou Liu

Haaretz, Nov. 19 2025: Israeli Strikes Across Gaza Kill 28, Including Women and Children, Officials Say

And Socialist Project, Oct. 28, 2025: The Illusion of a Ceasefire: Gaza Still Under Continuous Genocide

Despite the announcement of a deal between the Palestinian resistance movement and the Israeli regime, the latter continues to violate the ceasefire provisions. The world treats the ceasefire as if the genocide has ended, but the reality on the ground tells a different story: Gaza is in ruins; and starvation, displacement, and death continue as deliberate tools of genocide. This so-called ceasefire exists only in rhetoric; genocide continues while diplomatic actors debate who allegedly broke the deal.

Added:

my drunken voice

fading further

into the hush of night

I wait, as ever

with Loneliness

Added:

childhood river's edge

a gray-haired man 

jumps into himself

Poetic Musings: Plainclothes Cop Tanka by Lorraine Pester

boy's deck shoes

a paisley tie, pink and torn

compression socks

thin legs wrapped in loose capris

a plainclothes cop in the ladies' room

NeverEnding Story, November 2, 2024

Lorraine Pester

Commentary: Juxtaposed with the detailed description of one's dressing style through a list of items, "deck shoes, torn pink paisley tie, compression socks, loose capris" in Ls 1-4, L5 changes the register from image-based description to a declarative statement: a "plainclothes cop in the ladies' room." 

This surprising, even startling statement about a plainclothes "cop" (one of the "most masculine" professions for men) in the "ladies' room," shows something about his sexual orientation or "gender performance/role." It can carry charged implications, and it means the tanka will be interpreted through cultural lenses, such as privacy, gender, surveillance ...

This list tanka also works well as a character/persona tanka. What's left unsaid is at least as potent as what's stated.

FYI: For more about list tanka, see "To the Lighthouse: List Tanka." 

Butterfly Dream: Burst of Sunshine Haiku by Joanna Ashwell

English Original

chaffinch call

a brief burst

of sunshine

Autumn Moon Haiku Journal, 3:2, Spring/Summer 2020

Joanna Ashwell

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

金翅雀

的鳴叫聲

短暫的燦爛陽光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

金翅雀

的鸣叫声

短暂的灿烂阳光

 

Bio Sketch

Joanna Ashwell, a writer from the North East of England. Has been a tutor, pharmacy dispenser and administrator.   Enjoys reading and writing various Japanese poetry forms and is a member of many linked organisations.  Has been published in Blithe Spirit, Stardust, Ribbons, Eucalpt, Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, Atlas Poetica, The Cherita Journal  and others. 

Butterfly Dream: Autumn Clouds Haiku by Rachel Sutcliffe

English Original

wild mushrooms

all the shades

of autumn clouds

tinywords, October 27 2014

Rachel Sutcliffe

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

野生菇

秋天雲朵的

種種色彩

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

野生菇

秋天云朵的

种种色彩

Bio Sketch

Rachel Sutcliffe had suffered from a serious immune disorder for over 16 years; throughout  this time writing had been her therapy, and it kept her from going insane! She was an active member of the British Haiku Society and has been published in various journals including  Prune Juice, Failed Haiku and Hedgerow.

One Man's Maple Moon: Vow of Love Tanka by Fumiko Nakajo

English Original

close to death

for me an everlasting

vow of love

in a requiem song

has begun to ring

Breasts of Snow, 2004

Fumiko Nakajo 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

瀕臨死亡

對我而言是永恆的

愛的誓言

在安魂曲聲中

已開始迴響

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

濒临死亡

对我而言是永恒的

爱的誓言

在安魂曲声中

已开始回响

 

Bio Sketch

Fumiko Nakajo (中城ふみ子, 1922-54) was a strong-willed woman who lived a tragic life. She died from breast cancer at the age of 32, just few months after her first collection of 50 tanka, titled Chibusa Soshitsu (The Loss of Breasts), won the first prize in a nationwide contest sponsored by a major magazine. She is, though almost unknown outside of Japan, considered to be the third in the three most famous Japanese female poets in the last century, right up there with Akiko Yosano and Machi Tawara.

Special Feature: Selected Poems on Jewish Terrorism in the West Bank

"Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

Nov. 13 Podcast: How a "Perfect Storm" of IDF-backed Attacks and Israel's Extremist Government Is Terrorizing the West Bank

Olive harvest season has become a flashpoint in the West Bank in recent years as extremist Israeli settlers regularly threaten and physically harm Palestinian harvesters, but this year, "the situation on the ground is out of control," Anton Goodman of Rabbis for Human Rights said on the Haaretz Podcast.

"We have never seen anything like this," Goodman emphasized, noting that in the past, "We've seen settler attacks, and we've seen unnecessary army aggression and restrictions, but we've never seen such a peak moment of violence affecting so many communities."

Goodman described the situation as a "perfect storm" with "extremists at the heart of the Israeli government, who have sent clear policy recommendations to the police" to refrain from arresting violent settlers so that "the rule of law is totally diminished."

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIX: "olive harvest in the West Bank"

the sun glints

on a settler's M-16 ...

olive harvest

NeverEnding Story, October 22, 2024

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVI: "military watch"

burning olive groves ...

the weight of thick gray and black

blanketing

over the West Bank families

under military watch

NeverEnding Story, March 11 2025

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXX: "reality check"

family

house and olive-lined village

all lost in fireballs ...

even in dreams can she find

an escape route from West Bank 

NeverEnding Story, September 27 2025

Nov. 14,  Analysis: Jewish Terrorism in the West Bank Has a Clear Plan

The IDF officers on the ground [in the West Bank] don't suffer from political naivety. They realize that this Jewish terrorism [by settlers against Palestinians] is operating as it is because the perpetrators believe that the messianic right in the governing coalition has its back. The three years of this government, especially the two years of the war, have been the best ever for the settlement project in the West Bank. The takeover there by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also has a brief at the Defense Ministry, has been total.

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCV: "the entire town encaged"

the West Bank town

encaged with barbed wire ...

the red glow

of a soldier's Marlboro

against the borderless night sky

NeverEnding Story, July 21 2025

It’s peaceful now

M-16 rifles are blooming, 2000-pound bombs singing, and Merkava tanks sweeping the streets.

Gaza is cleaner than ever, clean of blood-covered children. Yet, somewhere among the rubble the only moving thing is a boy’s eyes that look up to Heaven.

a mural

on the separation wall

of the West Bank:

in midair a girl grasps

a bunch of rainbow balloons

contemporary haibun online, 20:2, 2024

Contemporary Haibun Anthology 20

And according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since October 7, 2023, Israeli settlers have killed 33 Palestinians in the West Bank and wounded more than 1,400 others. October 2025 saw over 260 attacks, an average of eight per day — the highest monthly tally since OCHA began documenting such incidents in 2006... +972 Magazine, Nov. 11 2025

To conclude today's "Special Feature" post, I would like to share with you the latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLVIII: "a Mina plush doll, blood-stained and headless"

West Bank on mute  

a Mina plush doll blood-stained

and headless

And the following remarks on silence:

There comes a time when silence is betrayal.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIX: "patchworked tents"

rain pitter-pattering  

on rows of patchworked tents ...

a Gazan child

stares out at the puddle

with rippling gray skies

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCL: "a Palestinian doll"

twisted rebar heap

a Palestinian doll's eyes

jammed open

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLI: "Sde Teiman"

crimson twilight

at the edge of Sde Teiman 

a scream snaps in two

FYI: +972 Magazine, Independent Journalism from Israel-Palestine, NewsLetter, Nov. 18, 2025:

Torture, neglect, and starvation: new data reveals 98 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody

Read the full report on +972 Magazine. 

A Room of My Own: Epstein Email Gembun

In a 2011 email to Ghislaine Maxwell, “… that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.”

a pink-haired girl

seen through a telescope

of age-spotted hands 

FYI: CNN News, Nov. 12 2025: Takeaways from the new Epstein emails mentioning Trump

‘I know how dirty Donald is’: Several suggestions about what Epstein knew about Trump

In one 2018 email, Epstein remarked amid a discussion about Trump’s possible impeachment: “you see , i know how dirty Donald is. my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. What it means to have your fixer flip.” (That last part was apparently a reference to Michael Cohen, who flipped on Trump.)

And 

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.

-- Ayn Rand, novelist and advocate of a philosophy, “the virtue of selfishness”

FYI: The Guardian, April 10, 2017: The new age of Ayn Rand: how she won over Trump and Silicon Valley

Her novel The Fountainhead is one of the few works of fiction that Donald Trump likes and she has long been the darling of the US right. But only now do her devotees hold sway around the world...

Added: 

the kettle whistles ...

my rented attic room

fills with its sound

as I look out at something

or nothing in the snowfall

Added:

snow on snow

the nursing home hallway

stretches into silence

Added:

another rent hike

a crescendo of rain

on the skylight

Added:

The Prime Minister's mouth opens, closes — yak, yak, yak, blah, blah,  blah ...

breadlines lengthen

in the Sunday morning chill

bare branches snap

FYI: Food Banks Canada's 2025 HungerCount report shows that Canada is facing a food bank crisis with record-high usage, as food bank visits in March 2025 were nearly double those in March 2019. This report indicates that monthly visits reached 2.2 million in March 2025, a new record.

To the Lighthouse: Ju Roku, a Haiku/Tanka Inspired Form

Ju Roku is an invented form that Steve Wilkinson, editor of The Bamboo Hut, developed a few years ago. "It is a succinct form limited to 16 syllables or less with no restriction on subject matter or line length. The only restriction is the limited number of syllables. It can reflect the characteristics of haiku, senryu, tanka, ryuka, doditsu or aphorism." The October, 2025 issue was a special feature of Ju Roku only. Here are some fine examples: 

Selected Ju Roku:

every now and then

the road ragged mist

Bryan Rickert

his words, a storm

carried by the wind’s snarl

Marilyn  Humbert 

autumn stroll

by the river

i feel co(l)d

Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

                             kite

                        cloud

                      g

                 n

             i

                r

            t

         s

mind

Eric Sundquist

bent over

in ankle-deep water ...

a rice-planting song

no end to star(v)ing

harvest supermoon

Geethanjali Rajan

Cathedral reflections

the bells echo

across the river

Steve Wilkinson

a spiral of apple peel

(this longing)

snail track

the meander of thoughts

on life

river's edge ...

drowning the self

in myself

Chen-ou Liu

Butterfly Dream: Bison Haiku by Jack Galmitz

English Original

Inside of me

Bison are stampeding

Across caves

For a Sparrow: Haiku, 2007

Jack Galmitz 

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我內心深處

一群野牛奔騰

穿過洞穴

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我内心深处

一群野牛奔腾

穿过洞穴

Bio Sketch 

 

Jack Galmitz was born in NYC in 1951. He received a Ph.D in English from the University of Buffalo.  He is an Associate of the Haiku Foundation and Contributing Editor at Roadrunner.  His most recent books are Views (Cyberwit.net, 2012),  Letters (Lulu Press, 2012), yards & lots (Middle Island Press, 2012), not-zero-sum (Impress 2015) and Takeout (Impress, 2015).  He lives in New York with his wife and stepson.

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Remembrance Day

war is peace: the war to end all wars, news rolling

Remembrance Day

the parade lengthens

by armless vets

(FYI: Originated as an idealistic slogan during World War I, "The War to End All Wars" now is a sarcastic term for this Great War. And according to Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law, "today, it monitors more than 110 armed conflicts ... Some of them started recently, while others have lasted for more than 50 years."

And for more about gembun, see To the Lighthouse: Gembun, Untitled Minimalist Haibun)

1984

spine broken, margins yellowed ... 

"war is peace" in red 

Chen-ou Liu

watercolor poppies

blowing across the field . . .

why

is it so hard

to learn from history

Honorable Mention,  2020 Tanka Society of America Tanka Contest 

Rebecca Drouilhet

To conclude today's Special Feature post, I would like to share with you the following tanka, written by by the most famous Buddhist monk-poet Saigyo’s (1118–1190 AD), with the longest prefatory note:

In the world of men it came to be a time of warfare. Throughout the country -- west, east, north, and south -- there was no place where the war was not being fought. The count of those dying because of it climbed continually and reached an enormous number. It was beyond belief! And for what on earth was this struggle taking place? A most tragic state of affairs 

There's no gap or break

In the rank of those marching

Under the hill:

An endless line of dying men,

Moving on and on and on ...

FYI: This lengthy and sociopolitically conscious prefatory note establishes the thematic and emotive context of the poem while the tanka visually enhances the tone and mood. Saigyo's use of repetition in the last line adds extra emotional weight and psychological depth to the poem... (For detailed comments, see "To the Lighthouse: Joshi (Prefatory Note) as a Poetic Device" and "Poetic Musings: Dying Men Tanka by Saigyo Hoshi.")

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

-- Albert Camus, written in August 1945, the day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

in the gathering dark

one candle kindles another:

peace vigil

NeverEnding Story, October 5 2025

Chen-ou Liu

Butterfly Dream: Flock of Cranes Haiku by Nikolay Grankin

English Original

letting go

of my grandson’s hand

a flock of cranes

 

Honorable Mention, 2021 Japan Fair Haiku Contest

 

Nikolay Grankin 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

放開

我孫子的手

一群鶴

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

放开

我孙子的手

一群鹤

Bio Sketch

Nikolay Grankin was born in 1964 in Tuapse, Russia; he now lives in Krasnodar in the south of Russia. He is keen on learning English and writing haiku. He has been writing haiku for about eleven years, three of which were spent writing haiku in English.  His haiku have appeared in online and print journals in both Russian and English. His haiku has won several awards in several haiku contests. 

One Man's Maple Moon: Evening of Life Tanka by Fumi Saito

English Original

a husband paralyzed

my old mother blind

on both sides

this evening of life

I enter autumn

White Letter Poems, 1998

Fumi Saito

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

丈夫癱瘓了

老母親雙眼失明

雙方親戚都是如此

生命的這個夜晚

我步入秋天

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

丈夫瘫痪了

老母亲双眼失明

双方亲戚都是如此

生命的这个夜晚

我步入秋天

 

 

Bio Sketch

Daughter of a military officer who was noted for his verse-writing talent, Fumi Saito began writing poetry in the traditional 31-syllable tanka form in her early teens. Her first book of tanka, Fish Songs, published in 1940, immediately established her as a brilliant young poet. She was inducted into the Japan Art Academy in 1993 and invited to serve as meshiudo (a position similar to the Poet Laureate's) at the Imperial Palace in 1997.

A Room of My Own: First Trillionaire Haiku

This Brave New World, CXXVI

first trillionaire ...

my son counts on his fingers

the zeros 

FYI: Times of India, Nov. 7 2025: Path to world’s first trillionaire: Tesla clears $1,000,000,000,000 pay package for Elon Musk

And The Guardian, Nov. 7, 2025: ‘Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk’ – why investors are happy to pay him $1trillion

Making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire appears to fit a US investment culture of backing high-flying innovators

Added:

the front porch

bathed in autumn sunset glow

between us, not a word

FYI: This is a sequel to my haiku below:

hillside maples

the sunset glow redder

... and redder

NeverEnding Story, October 27 2025

Added:

a raven's cry 

stretched across the sky

cloud avalanche

Added:

edge of the dog park

a teen and her beagle

in a cardboard tent

Added:

another cup

of black coffee ...

first snowfall

Biting NOT Barking: Explosion and Echo Haiku by Natalia Kuznetsova

English Original

explosion

of autumn colours ...

echo of war

 

Under the Basho Journal, 2022

Natalia Kuznetsova

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

短暫卻又絢爛

的秋色 ...

戰爭的迴響

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

短暂却又绚烂

的秋色 ...

战争的回响

Bio Sketch

Living in Moscow, Russia, Natalia Kuznetsova is a teacher of English and freelance interpreter. Before discovering the haiku world, she wrote poetry in Russian. She started writing tanka and mostly haiku in English in 2007, and participated in numerous competitions worldwide and won some awards. She contributes regularly to World Haiku Review, Asahi Haikuist Network, Daily Haiku, Poetry Pea and other traditional and on-line publications. She was included on the list of "European Top 100 Most Creative Haiku Authors" from 2010 to 2023.

Poetic Musings: Collapsed School Wall Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

collapsed school wall

a butterfly

in shades of charcoal

First Place, 2025 Porad Haiku Award

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary by the judge, Jacquie Pearce: The poet approaches this heavy topic carefully, with concrete details and restraint. The “collapsed school wall” could be a bombed school in Gaza or Ukraine, and it could also represent other types of attacks on schools, learning, and children’s feelings of safety, even in North America. For me, the image of the butterfly also alludes to nature overlooked as human acts of destruction are carried out (the poem also takes on the visual shape of a butterfly when it’s centered). The butterfly, presumably drawn by a child, contrasts poignantly with the medium of charcoal scavenged from ashes and applied to a collapsed wall, as does the adult world of war/politics/destruction and the child’s natural inclination to play and create. We feel a vulnerability and fragility in the image of the butterfly and the alluded-to child. Yet we also sense resilience, bravery, and hope.

Author's Note: The bombed school is located in Gaza. This haiku could be read as a sequel to my haiku below:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXXIV: "Palestinian poppies"

slanted moonlight

on a half-collapsed school wall

chalk poppies bloom

NeverEnding Story, August 3 2024

reprinted in 2025 HSA Membership Anthology

FYI: "The Palestinian poppy (Anemone coronaria) is a non-official but more recognizable national symbol of Palestine. It's red, with black center and green leaves, evoking the primary colors of the Palestinian flag. And it symbolizes the relationship between Palestinians and their land, the bloodshed they have endured, as well as their resistance against Israeli occupation."

United Nations Press Release, April 18, 2024: UN experts deeply concerned over ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza

And Democracy Now, Jan.6, 2025: American Historical Association Votes Overwhelmingly for Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza

The American Historical Association, the oldest learned society in the United States, has adopted the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,” condemning Israel’s “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.” 

Added:

War Is Peace 

pyramid

after pyramid of rubble ...

again "ceasefire" strikes

fireball by fireball ...

the length

of a Gazan night

smoky twilight

a cry sinks into the sound

of a gunshot

skeletal houses

these layers of silence

upon silence

The New Verse News, November 9 2025

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLVII: "blood-stained Christ's thorns"

a skeletal house

amidst debris and shards of pots

blood-stained Christ's thorns

FYI: "Euphorbia milii, the Christ's thorn , also known as the crown of thorns, is a pretty succulent plant that can bloom almost year-round, even indoors. According to a religious legend, the crown of thorns worn by Jesus Christ at the crucifixion was made from the stems of this plant, therefore its common name...It thrives in bright light, requires minimal watering, and is highly drought-tolerant, making it easy to care for."