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.

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…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. 

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

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

Cafe Haiku, March 10, 2025

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

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

"Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz," 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

NeverEnding Story, November 19 2025

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

The New Verse News, November 9 2025

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 2026: What 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

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 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

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.

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.

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

外国語短歌佳作, 富士山大賞2025

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.

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, 2025: Israel’s Zones of Denial

Tel Aviv's beach party

the faint boom, boom, boom

from Gaza

NeverEnding Story, July 30 2025

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

NeverEnding, November 15 2025 

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

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

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. 

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.

Butterfly Dream: Mind and Woods Haiku by Jack Galmitz

English Original

   can’t

      be

   out

     of

    yr

  mind

   woods

 near

   by

Yards & Lots, 2012

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.

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

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 

The One That Flies Back,  2015

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.