A Room of My Own: One Extra Hour Tanka

daylight saving ends:

on this lazy new day

one extra hour

with a fly asleep

between the window and screen

Added:

fall time change

crows’ caws darkening

twilight

FYI: This could be read as a prequel to my haiku below:

a crow's cry

flies into darkness ...

alone with myself

VerseWrights, September 2015 

Butterfly Dream: Dark Moon Haiku by Adjei Agyei-Baah

English Original

dark moon

the shriek of an owl

unsettles a dream

afriku: haiku and Senryui from Ghana, 2016

Adjei Agyei-Baah

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

闇月

貓頭鷹的尖叫

擾亂夢境

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

暗月

猫头鹰的尖叫

扰乱梦境

Bio Sketch

Adjei Agyei-Baah (June 29, 1977 -- December 18, 2023) was the co-founder of the Africa Haiku Network and The Mamba and author of afriku: haiku and Senryui from Ghana, 2016, Finding the Other Door, 2021 and Scaring Crow, 2022. 

Special Feature: Halloween Haiku for Your Reading "Pleasure"

My Dear Readers:

All the spirits, good and evil, fairy and pixie, witch and wizard, on this night will sure be stirring. 

-- Arthur Peterson, “Halloween”

All Souls’ Eve  --

tipping the spirit level

this way & that

Sandra Simpson

halloween night

a thin veil

between two worlds

Bernadette O’Reilly

gathering dark ...

child zombies leapfrog laughing

through gravestones

Chen-ou Liu

pointed hats dip

into black inked sky

a constellation of witches

Karen A VandenBos

strays outbark each other

phalanx after phalanx

of dark grim reapers 

Chen-ou Liu

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

gembun: 

On this night, all the spirits stirring, jack-o’-lanterns grinning wider.

shrouded head to toe in red

a girl skims ghostlike

through the dark -- scything

Note: For more about gembun, see "To the Lighthouse" post, Gembun, Untitled Minimalist Haibun

Added:

clomp! clomp! clomp! 

in gathering dark a phalanx 

of Trump zombies

One Man's Maple Moon: Whispery Hush Tanka by Larry Kimmel

English Original

listening

to the whispery hush

of the woods

and thinking of you,

I embrace a birch

Alone Tonight, 1998

Larry Kimmel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

聆聽

叢林間低語

的寂靜

想著你的時候

我擁抱一棵白樺樹

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

聆听

丛林间低语

的寂静

想着你的时候

我拥抱一棵白桦树

Bio Sketch

Larry Kimmel lives quietly in the hills of western Massachusetts.  His most recent books  are shards and dust (cherita), outer edges (tanka) and thunder and apple blossoms (haiku).

Butterfly Dream: Nursing Home Haiku by Kelly Sargent

English Original

nursing home

rosy-cheeked

in the frame

Presence, 73, 2022

Kelly Sargent

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

養老院

一個相框裡

的紅潤臉頰

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

养老院

一个相框里

的红润脸颊

Bio Sketch

Kelly Sargent is a widely-published poet and the author of Bookmarks (Red Moon Press, 2023), a collection of haiku and senryu. Honors in 2022 and 2023 include: The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems (nomination),The H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryu Contest (honorable mention), Golden Haiku Poetry Contest (recognition), and The Mukai Haiku Festival Poetry Competition (winner).

Hot News: A Milestone, 5 000 X Followers and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a milestone this morning: 

NeverEnding Story Editor and Poet, Chen-ou Liu: @ericcoliu

5 following, 5, 000 followers  

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.

We write not to pretend the pain can be contained, but to keep the door slightly ajar between the world we inhabit and the world beyond the siege.

-- Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi, Palestinian writer, poet, and editor from Gaza

collapsed school wall

a butterfly

in shades of charcoal

First Place, 22nd annual Porad Haiku Award

Chen-ou Liu

(FYI: 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.”)

Look forward to reading your poetry and share with you the following writing remarks and my tanka about a Sisyphean struggle with writing:

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.

-- Dan Poynter

Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little.

-- Holley Gerth

midnight silence

as my cursor blinks nonstop

beneath the weight

of a writer's boulder ...

still I haul this thought uphill

(FYI: this tanka could be read as the prequel to the following:

drenched 

in sweat and hot tears 

I push, pushing 

the last line of my tanka 

out into this October light 😅

NeverEnding Story, October 1 2025)

You fail only if you stop writing.

-- Ray Bradbury

Chen-ou

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLVI: "skeletal houses"

thunderheads ...

a row of skeletal houses

heavy with silence

A Room of My Own: Street-Preach Chants Haiku

street-preach chants ...

clouds of breath weaving through

the Friday night crowd

FYI: The following could be read as its prequel:

a street preacher talks

over a line of pro-choicers --

his arguments

frothy as soapsuds

get big ... and bigger

NeverEnding Story, September 21 2025

Added:

twilight fog drifting ...

my shadow and I follow

no one

FYI: My haiku below could be read as its prequel:

snow geese

unzip the morning sky

my journey starts

Brass Bell, January, 2022

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LX

Read My Lips

"Canada is not for sale. You can kiss me where the sun doesn’t shine, and you can put a big 'C' in front of it," a grey-haired auto worker shouts out his defiant challenge to the people strolling along the opposite bank of the river, at least one mile away.

Alone at the edge of East Riverview Park, a patch of green overlooking the Detroit River, he continues his shouting for minutes until he hears the distant laughter drifting toward him

migrant kids

chase kids chasing rainbow balloons

Trump-Free Zone

Added:

hillside maples

the sunset glow redder

... and redder

Added:

sunset glow

a pink-haired girl wheels her chair

through leaf fall 

Poetic Musings: Small Girl and Shadows Haiku by Michael McClintock

a small girl ...

the shadows stroke

and stroke her

Maya, 1975

Michael McClintock

Commentary: This is one of the most disturbing haiku, by genre a haiku noir, I've ever read.

It explores a dark theme of "child sexual harassment (or even worse, abuse)" by a group of people (as implied from the shadowS repeatedly strok[ing] a small girl). 

Technically speaking, combined with visually and symbolically rich "shadows" (not explicitly men or people), the use of repetition, "stroke and stroke," not only enhances the poetic rhythm, but also adds emotional weight and psychological depth to the haiku. 

What's left unsaid/what will come next is far more poignantly potent than what's stated in the haiku.

FYI: For more about haiku noir, see "To the Lighthouse: Haiku Noir" 

One Man's Maple Moon: Obituary Tanka by Margaret Chula

English Original

one more time

I help Mother

write her obituary

wisps of fog

shroud the maples

Winter Deepens, 2018

Margaret Chula 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

再一次

我幫母親

寫訃告

縷縷薄霧

籠罩著楓樹

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

再一次

我帮母亲

写讣告

缕缕薄雾

笼罩着枫树

Bio Sketch

 

Margaret Chula has published two collections of tanka: Always Filling, Always Full and Just This. She has promoted tanka through her one-woman dramatization, “Three Women Who Loved Love”, which traveled to Krakow, New York, Boston, Portland, Ottawa, and Ogaki, Japan. And from 2011 to 2015, Maggie served as president of the Tanka Society of America.

Biting NOT Barking: Dragon-Shaped Cloud Haiku by Barbara Sabol

English Original

charred earth

a dragon-shaped cloud

breathes smoke

Under the Bashō , May 17, 2022

Barbara Sabol

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

燒焦的土地

龍形雲朵

噴吐著煙霧

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

烧焦的土地

龙形云朵

喷吐着烟雾

Bio Sketch

Barbara Sabol’s most recent collection, Connections: core & all, was published by Bird Dog Press in 2022. She is the associate editor of Sheila-Na-Gig online. Barbara conducts poetry workshops through Literary Cleveland. She lives in Akron, Ohio with her husband and wonder dogs. 

Butterfly Dream: Turtle Haiku by Robert D. Wilson

English Original

this turtle ...

heat weaving in and

out of rocks

The Living Haiku Anthology, February 14 2016

Robert D. Wilson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

這隻烏龜 ...

暑氣在岩石間

穿梭

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

这只乌龟 ...

暑气在岩石间

穿梭

Bio Sketch

Robert D. Wilson is Co-Owner of Simply Haiku.

One Man's Maple Moon: Sprays of Wisteria Tanka by Masaoka Shiki

English Original

sprays of wisteria

arranged in a vase --

the blossoms hang down,

and by my sickbed

spring is coming to an end

Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era, 1984

Masaoka Shiki

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一簇簇紫藤

插在花瓶裡 --

它們的花朵下垂,

在我的病床旁

春天即將結束

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一簇簇紫藤

插在花瓶里 --

它们的花朵下垂,

在我的病床旁

春天即将结束

 

 

Bio Sketch

Masaoka Shiki (October 14, 1867 -- September 19, 1902) was a Japanese poet and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku, and he also published articles on the reform of tanka. Some scholars and poets consider Shiki to be one of the four great haiku masters, the others being Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa.

A Room of My Own: The old war comes to "an end"

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLI: "the wars, old and new"

"Now we're trapped in a new war." An aid worker draws a breath and resumes in an uneven voice, "the battlefield is in the wounded bodies of survivors, in the broken hearts of mothers, in the hungry eyes of children, in the distant stares of elderly people. We're just fighting to live, simply to live, and we have nothing to do so..." Before the aid worker finishes her answer, boom, boom, boom interrupts the interview. The TV screen goes black.

chilly rain

stalks the edge of his dream

my Gazan friend

still waiting for the phone call

I know won't come

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLII: "on my hands and knees"

On My Hands and Knees

"I crawled through a crowd of hundreds to scavenge a small bag with scraps of food ..." The gray-haired man pauses for a moment to take a deep breath, then continues, "I had to gather whatever had fallen to the ground -- lentils, rice, chickpeas, even flour mixed with dirt. My bones ached and my heart beat fast; I almost collapsed due to exhaustion. However, in my mind the sound of my children's hunger grew louder and darker ..."

a sack of flour

on the muddy roadside

just beyond reach

of an old Gazan's hand

in a pool of blood

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIII: "the wounded land"

The Wounded Land

ceasefire for now ...

dew-drenched blades of grass

hold the sky

first rooster crow

on a bombless day

skeletal farmhouse

an old man's fajr

hangs in the dusty air ...

withdrawal line

bombshell shards 

glint at the morning sun

the edge of peace

Note: The fajr prayer is one of the five daily Muslim prayers, and it is performed between the break of dawn and sunrise. 

And the IDF physically marked the initial withdrawal line in Gaza, known as the "yellow line," to clearly delineate it and alert both Hamas and Gaza residents. The IDF has killed dozens of Gazans who crossed the line.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIV: "charred photo frame"

charred photo frame

my friend's Gazan ancestors

stiff faced, straight backed...

Added:

the Peace Wall patterned

with shifting leaf shadows

this world in flux

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLIV: "pyramids of rubble"

pyramid 

after pyramid of rubble ... 

again "ceasefire" strikes

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXLV: "mutilated bodies"

detainees

returned to Gaza

in gathering dusk

at least 135 

mutilated bodies

FYI: Haaretz, Opinion,  Oct.23 2025: Israel's Government Prides Itself on Sadism, Abuse and Torture

Biting NOT Barking: One-Legged Boy Haiku by Djurdja Vukelic Rozic

English Original

a stork in its nest

and a boy in the yard

standing on one leg

D.V. Rožić: Under the Wing of a White Stork, 2016 

Djurdja Vukelic Rozic

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一隻鸛鳥在巢裡

一個男孩在院子

只能單腳站立

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一只鹳鸟在巢里

一个男孩在院子

只能单脚站立

Bio Sketch

Djurdja Vukelic Rozic was born in 1956, lives in the town of Ivanic Grad, Croatia, edits the magazine IRIS, translates and writes poetry, humorous sketches, short stories, haiku and haibun. So far she has published twenty books and translated a number of collections and anthologies into English. And her poetry has received thirty awards.

Butterfly Dream: Moth Haiku by Larry Kimmel

English Original

alone tonight

a moth taps 

at the window

Alone Tonight, 1998

Larry Kimmel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

今晚獨自一人

一隻飛蛾

輕敲著窗戶

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

今晚独自一人

一只飞蛾

轻敲着窗户

Bio Sketch

Larry Kimmel lives quietly in the hills of western Massachusetts.  His most recent books  are shards and dust (cherita), outer edges (tanka) and thunder and apple blossoms (haiku).