Friday, January 23, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Vacant House Haiku by Theresa A. Cancro

English Original

vacant house ...
light snow shrouds
the eaves

Theresa A. Cancro


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

空屋 ...
薄雪覆蓋
屋簷

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

空屋 ...
薄雪覆盖
屋檐


Bio Sketch

Theresa A. Cancro has been writing modern English-language haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, and tanka prose since 2012. Dozens of her poems have been published in print and online journals as well as numerous anthologies. Theresa is currently a THF board member and Second Vice President of the Tanka Society of America. She resides in Wilmington, Delaware.

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Dewpoint Haiku by Michele Root-Bernstein

English Original

past midnight the story reaches dewpoint

Frogpond, 48:2, 2025

Michele Root-Bernstein 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

午夜過後故事達到露點

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

午夜过后故事达到露点


Bio Sketch

Michele Root-Bernstein appears in A New Resonance 6; the 2016 chapbook, Scent of the Past…ImperfectHaiku 2014Haiku 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. 

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Special Feature: One Year in Poems: Trumperica, Revisited

My Dear Readers:

I would like to share with you my published poems below for reflections on the impacts of one year of Trumperica:


I Before American Carnage

Election Campaign:

just a dream, and yet ...
the mountain lion roaring
to flocks of sheep,
once elected as your King
I'll be vegetarian

my pitbull
chasing her Siamese cat ...
Trump on TV blasts
If you go after me
I'm coming after you!


Election Victory:

USADecides:
TheSecondDumbing 
theredhotheadline
morphsintomarching
phalanxafterphalanx


II Trumpocalypse Now!

Post-Election

Trump this, Trump that ...
with this news-punched mind
I sound-bathe in silence

Trump news blackout
the calm between us holds
a world unspoken

trapped in the nightmare
of four more years of this man-child ...
we wake each morning
as if we're living
the Groundhog Day loop


Inauguration

the downward tilt
of his chin and forehead
and the knitted eyebrows ...
Convicted Felon's official portrait
[l]awfully like his mug shot


Day One Promises and Crimes

American dream
somewhere over the rainbow
detention camps

this man-child fullmouths
frack and drill, baby, frack and drill
with a meaty smile ...
I turn off the TV, gazing
at cracked corners of my world

No more climate alarmist talk.

flashfloodingweareallinthistogether
floodafterfloodweareallinthis t o ge t h e r a gain

the White House
pronounces, only two sexes...
trans youth trapped
between black-and-white Kansas
and rainbow-colored Oz

the people of Trump
                  by the people of Musk
                  for the people of the SuperRich ...
sun-bleached stars and stripes
atop the Capitol fencing

one, big, beautiful bill ...
a hushed silence
sweeps the briefing room
then a loud fart 
echoes, echoing

trade war news
a spiderweb on the eaves
sagging with raindrops

sleepless again ...
I count Trump's crimes backwards
into oblivion

think, feel and act
while they're still "legal"
chant after chant
no more DOGEy business
drop this small dick(tator)

tariffs today
TACO tomorrow ... in heat
a stray chases its tail 

in red twilight
one stray trying to outbark
the other ...
the Trump-Musk feud grows
loud, louder and dark, darker

at the steps 
of the Statue of Liberty
each of these names
of the disappeared read out loud...
a breath, a wound, and a warning

Epstein files news
the rasp, rasping
of cicadas

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

the footfalls
of MAGA intruders
stir clouds of dust ...
the Wall of Free Speech in twilight
sentineled with talk show hosts

in dim light
staring at the TV talk show
Donald Trump holds 
a remote control with buttons:
Power, Pause, Mute, Sack, Deport

ka-kis-to-cracy ...
my English teacher's voice
quivering
as U-S-A! chants get louder
from the crowd outside the school
(FYI: The first part of kakistocracy comes from the Greek kákisto(s), meaning “worst.” Therefore, kakistocracy means “government by the WORST.”)

No Kings Protest:
chant after chant of fried truth
eggflation
scrambled justice, poached rights,
cracked democracy... Trump, Fuck Off

in gathering dark
the entrance to Mar-a-Lago
No Parking Any Time  😎

the burning photo
of gold-crowned Donald Trump ...
the flame licks upward
then a Nenee Good lookalike
lights her cigarette


Foreign Policies:

Land of the Crazed --> USA
Canada <-- Home of the Brave
giant road sign
at the corner of the border
as flocks of geese fly north

in Toronto sunshine
with the scent of early spring
and freedom
two Americans meet and part:
one draft dodger, one Trump evader

the Don posed 
behind the Resolute Desk
with fingers cocked
for the cameras' rapid fire ...
a map crossed with red X’s


Russian Invasion of Ukraine:

the barrage 
of blaring lies and shit-words
from his meaty mouth ...
between Trump's pauses 
Vance's thunderous echo-fart

wave after wave
of blue-and-yellow flags
in bitter cold
atop the White House Fencing
a hand-drawn sunflower


Gaza Genocide

the man who bombed kids
gives a golden dove statue
to the man
who sent him planeloads of bombs:
war is peace, peace is war ...

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 ink barely dry on the paper, and Phase Two of the ceasefire plan announced to the clicking of cameras.

these dark blue lips
as cracked window frost thickens
Gazan sky tinged red


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


Reflection

alone, putting
the Trump-raged world on mute
I take a sip
of morning black coffee
and listen to the snowfall


To conclude today's "Special feature" post, I would like to share with you the latest entry of Trump Empire, Inc, LXXI: 

a gembun written in response to Mark Carney's Davos speech on the first anniversary of the Convicted Felon sitting behind Resolute Desk:

Clapping of hands and thumping of feet to the claim: "If we're not at the table, we're on the menu."

my black cat returns
with a bloodied bird in mouth
drums of a trade war


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXII

Canada lives
because of the US, Trump claims 
fart on fart in Davos


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXIII

In the end, we have only whistles and the ICE agents have guns.

freezing cold ...
snapped from school to trap parents
five-year-old as bait

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

A Room of My Own: Mountain Sunrise Haiku

mountain sunrise
I forget for a moment
this fleeting life


FYI: It might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of my haiku below:

Grand Canyon sunrise ...
learning to love
here and now



Added:

war news on mute
a gnat’s smudge
on my forearm


Added:

snow on snow ...
my footprints deep and deeper
under the slate-gray sky

Monday, January 19, 2026

To the Lighthouse: Selected Poems for Reflections on Phase Two of the "Ceasefire" Plan

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

Analysis, January 18, 2026: Beneath the Bombast, Trump's Cease-fire Plan in Gaza Is on the Rocks

U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed last week, with characteristic bombast and ham-fistedness, that the Gaza cease-fire arrangement had advanced to its second phase.


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

heavenward
                    rising
fireballs
               fireballs
                              falling
heavenward



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


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



On Saturday, the president named the first members of the Board of Peace, which will ostensibly oversee the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. (Heads of state may join, according to the organization's charter, for the price of $1 billion; additional members are slated to be announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos this week).


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXI: "Phase Two"

The ink barely dry on the paper, and Phase Two of the ceasefire plan announced to the clicking of cameras.

these dark blue lips
as cracked window frost thickens
Gazan sky tinged red


FYI: Haaretz, Jan. 19, 2026: Trump Invites Putin to Board of Peace, EU States to Decline Invitation, Diplomats Say

Jan. 19, 2026: 'Gaza Is Ours': Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich Calls to Cancel Trump's Board of Peace, Israel to Resettle Gaza

And Jan. 20 2026: Trump: If France Doesn't Join Board of Peace, 'I'll Put 200% Tariff on Wine and Champagne'


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXII: "Gazan newborn"

a young woman
gazing long at her newborn
but his eyes
never open to the light—
Gaza's morning frost thickens


FYI: Haaretz, Opinion, Jan. 19 2026What Is Happening to Mothers and Babies in Gaza Should Leave Us Deeply, Collectively Ashamed

As maternal mortality surges in post-war Gaza, and newborns face cold, infection and malnutrition, pregnancy and childbirth are daily fights for survival. Women and their babies, universally noncombatants, are suffering disproportionately – and serve as a measure of our moral failure

Sunday, January 18, 2026

One Man's Maple Moon: Fire and Ice Tanka by Jane Reichhold

English Original

fire and ice
in the obsidian
the memory
of flowing lava
under new-fallen snow

Ardea, 5, 2015

Jane Reichhold

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

黑曜石中
的火與冰
新的積雪之下
熔岩流淌
的記憶


Chinese Translation (Simplified)

黑曜石中
的火与冰
新的积雪之下
熔岩流淌
的记忆

 
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 ForumGeppo, 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

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Hero’s Monument Haiku by Dimitar Anakiev

English Original

beneath the foot
of the hero’s monument
the tourist’s shadow

Frogpond, 23:3, 2000

Dimitar Anakiev


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

英雄紀念碑
的腳下
遊客的影子

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

英雄纪念碑
的脚下
游客的影子


Bio sketch

Dimitar Anakiev (aka Kamesan 亀さん, b. 1960 in Belgrade) poet, writer and filmmaker, began to write and publish poetry at the age of 13, and began writing haiku in 1985. He is the “father“ of many Balkan haiku projects such as Haiku Novine (Serbia) and Prijatelj and Apokalipsa haiku edition (Slovenia). He is a co-founder of World Haiku Association and co-editor of Knots: An Anthology of Southeatern European Haiku Poetry. His awards include the European Award: The Medal of Franz Kafka, The Museum of Haiku Literature Award, Haiku Society of America annual Merit Book Award and prizes from Mainichi Daily News, Daily Yomiuri (both Tokyo) and Azami (Osaka). He has also won several film awards, including the National Slovenian Award for best documentary film.

Friday, January 16, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Blue Winter Sky Haiku by Bruce Ross

English Original

blue winter sky
the little peck holes
up a pine tree

Summer Drizzles, 2005

Bruce Ross


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬日藍天
一棵松樹上
啄出的小洞

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬日蓝天
一棵松树上
啄出的小洞


Bio Sketch

Bruce Ross, Ph.D., former president of the HSA, was the editor of anthologies such as the seminal Haiku Moment and, more recently, co-editor of A Vast Sky. He was the founding editor of the online Autumn Moon Haiku Journal, and He has authored many collections of haiku and haibun.

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Poetic Musings: Ulysses Butterfly Tanka by Chen-ou Liu

shadowing
a Ulysses butterfly
to this mountain trail
of many twists and turns ...
at last Time leaves me alone

Honorable Mention, 2025 Fujisan Tanka Contest

Japanese Translation:

幸運の瑠璃蝶追いて山道をゆけども時間にとり残されて

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: The tanka frames pursuit as a meditative act, with the speaker “shadowing” a Ulysses butterfly whose vivid, elusive flight draws attention away from the self and into motion. The butterfly’s name invokes Odysseus, subtly transforming the mountain trail’s “many twists and turns” into a miniature odyssey shaped by wandering rather than destination. As the trail mirrors both the butterfly’s erratic path and a life’s nonlinear course, time stretches and loosens through sustained attention. The ellipsis marks a pause of duration and effort, allowing the reader to feel the long following before the poem’s quiet turn. When “Time leaves me alone,” the moment reads as a hard-won release, achieved through immersion in beauty, movement, and myth-inflected presence.

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

A Room of My Own: Tel Aviv’s Sunset Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVII:  "Israelis leaving in record numbers"

I turn, turning back 
to see Tel Aviv’s sunset
for the last time ... 
this new neighbor’s words fade
in Toronto's snowfall


FYI: +972 Magazine, January 7 2026: Why Israelis are leaving in record numbers
Over 150,000 citizens have left the country in the past two years alone — many of them with a one-way ticket and no plans of returning.

And this tanka is a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXI: "beach party and booms"
written in response to The New Yorker, July 28, 2025Israel’s Zones of Denial

Tel Aviv's beach party
the faint boom, boom, boom
from Gaza



Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVIII: "incarceration crisis"

hands starfished
against detention windows --
candlelights swell


FYI: Haaretz, January 14 2026: Mass Arrests With Nowhere to Hold Them: Overcrowding Deepens Israel's Incarceration Crisis

A growing number of Palestinians suspected of illegal entry are being held in police custody in overcrowded cells, even told to 'defecate on each other.'

And this is a sequel to the following:

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, 2025Torture, neglect, and starvation: new data reveals 98 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXIX: "smoky moon"

from charred trees
to ruins of empty houses
smoky moon over Gaza


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXX: "the yellow line"

a ponytailed girl
holds her brother’s hand
to search for firewood ...
"pop, pop" near the yellow line
take out the hidden threat


FYI: Haaretz, Jan. 15 2026: Three Months Into Gaza Cease-fire: Israel Expands Control and Razes Neighborhoods


Added:

still-born birthday
the sparkling window frost
in her nursery


Added:

for "Heated Rivalry" stars Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander

hockey stars
fight each other on the ice 
then burn red-hot 
elsewhere -- eyes after eyes
glued to the screen, sparkling

Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Shaved Head Haiku by Susan Bonk Plumridge

English Original

shaved head 
making friends 
with the wind 

Failed Haiku, 7: 77, May 2022

Susan Bonk Plumridge 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

剃光的頭
與風
做朋友

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

剃光的头
与风
做朋友


Bio Sketch

Susan Bonk Plumridge has been writing haiku since 2018. She keeps a record of what has been published on her blog www.plumbonkers.blogspot.ca Susan enjoys long walks in the woods near her home in London, Canada. 

Monday, January 12, 2026

One Man's Maple Moon: Winter Dusk Tanka by Marion Alice Poirier

English Original

in winter dusk
an ocean flows between us ...
I play our song
and wonder, can you hear it
beneath the sickle moon?

Marion Alice Poirier


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬日黃昏
我們之間隔著一片海洋 ...
我彈奏我們的歌
不禁思忖, 在那鐮刀月光下
你是否聽得到?
    
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬日黄昏
我们之间隔着一片海洋 ...
我弹奏我们的歌
不禁思忖, 在那镰刀月光下
你是否听得到?


Bio Sketch

Marion Alice Poirier is a lifetime resident of Boston, MA. She began writing haiku in 2001 and eventually began to teach haiku in workshops on Poetry Circle and Emerging Poets. She also write short poetry and have been published in on-line haiku and short poetry journals like Tinywords, Hedgerow and The Heron's Nest.

Sunday, January 11, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Mind and Woods Haiku by Jack Galmitz

English Original

   can’t
      be
   out
     of
    yr
  mind
   woods
 near
   by


Jack Galmitz 

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

     你
不可能
  把附近
     的
   樹林
忘得
   一
  乾
 二淨

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

      你
 不可能
   把附近
       的
     树林
忘得
    一
    干
   二净


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.

Saturday, January 10, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Early Morning Chill Haiku by Kanchan Chatterjee

English Original

early morning chill …
a billow of smoke rises
from the fresh pyre

Ceatrix, 53, June 2021

Kanchan Chatterjee


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

清晨的寒意 ...
一縷青煙
從新燃的火堆中升起

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

清晨的寒意 ...
一缕青烟
从新燃的火堆中升起


Bio Sketch

Kanchan Chatterjee writes haiku, tanka and haibun, and has won several international awards. He has been published regularly in various online haiku and other poetry journals. His haiku appeared regularly in NHK’, Japan's "Haiku Masters." His poems were featured in a few Indian poetry anthologies, such as Beyond the Fields. His first book of haiku, Scattered Leaves, was published in January, 2020

Friday, January 9, 2026

One Man's Maple Moon: Cat Tanka by Barry George

English Original

in frangipani breezes
along the white-walled
Key West street
a cat moves and with it
part of the night 


Barry George 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在瀰漫雞蛋花香的微風中
沿著白牆環繞
的基韋斯特街
一隻貓在走動隨它而來
是夜色的一部分

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在弥漫鸡蛋花香的微风中
沿着白墙环绕
的基韦斯特街
一只猫在走动随它而来
是夜色的一部分
  

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.