Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Saturday, December 27, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Christmas Morning Haiku by Ernest J. Berry

English Original

Christmas morning
toys on his windowsill
wrapped in sunrise

World Haiku Review, 2:2, July 2002

Ernest J. Berry


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

聖誕節早晨
窗台上擺著玩具
沐浴在日出的陽光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

圣诞节早晨
窗台上摆着玩具
沐浴在日出的阳光


Bio Sketch

Ernest J. Berry was born in 1929 in Christchurch, New Zealand. After a decade of shepherding, he spent several years in business before retiring to a beach in Mexico where he rediscovered his boyhood love of poetry. He un-retired in 1993 and settled in Picton. After founding Picton Poets in 1994, he started teaching haiku in workshops, secondary schools  and haiku meetings. Two of his haiku books were honoured with Merit Book Awards from The Haiku Society of America. 

Friday, December 26, 2025

A Room of My Own: Christmas Rain Haiku

Christmas rain ...
a girl’s muffled cries follow
wrong number


Added:

the faint smell
of Christmas leftovers ...
snow, ice, rain mixed


Added: 

Boxing Day sales
snowprints of a homeless teen 
who slept by the store


Added: 

Arctic snap
in a world of white on white
the sound of keystrokes


FYI: Toronto Star, December 30: Arctic blast brings snow and wind to the Great Lakes and Northeast

A surge of Arctic air brought strong winds, heavy snow and frigid temperatures to the Great Lakes and Northeast on Tuesday, a day after a bomb cyclone barreling across the Midwest left tens of thousands of customers without power.

Thursday, December 25, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on "One Christmas, Worlds Apart"

(Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXII: "a bridge of bones"
written in response to Al Jazeera, December 25: Palestinian charity single "Lullaby" tops UK Christmas charts, raising funds for Gaza

Gaza’s night sky
lighted with streaks of red…
a voice in shadow,
I wish my bones could form a bridge
and carry you to our home


FYI: Watch Together For Palestine's Lullaby (official music video). Filmed in the Strip and occupied East Jerusalem, “Lullaby” reimagines a traditional resistance song: 

Yamma, sing for me, mama, 
Mama, sing to the wind

I wish my bones could form a bridge
And carry you to the other side
To our home, our homeland; to our pride ...

The song ends with the following lines:

They tried to bury use;
They didn't know we were seeds


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXIII: "freezing rain and wind gusts"

freezing rain and wind gusts  ...
the length
of another Gazan night

)



This Brave New World, CXXXII
written in response to Palestinian Pastor Munther Isaac's Christmas sermon, 2023: “Christ in the Rubble”

In these last two months, the psalms of lament have become a precious companion to us. We cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Gaza? Why do you hide your face from Gaza?”

my God, my God
why have you forsaken me?
bloodied Jesus
trapped under Gaza rubble
in the Christmas cold



This Brave New World, CXXXIII
written in response to Issa's "Hell haiku" (motto of Czeslaw Milosz," whom the Swedish Academy called in its 1980 Nobel Prize citation a writer who "voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts."

this world of rockets
this world of missile flashes ...
yet a Christ thorn plant



FYI: Issa's Hell haiku is included in Czesław Miłosz's free verse poem, titled "Reading the Japanese Poet Issa (1762–1826)," (functioning like a poetic commentary/reflection on three of Issa 's haiku)

In this world
we walk on the roof of Hell
gazing at flowers

And "the Christ 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."


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXIII: "Christ's thorn"

dew clings
to Christ's thorn leaves
                 each drop
                         a window
to the war-torn sky



Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXLII: "blood stained wooden Jesus" 
inspired by Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac's Christmas sermon, 2024: “Christ is Still in the Rubble”

Christmas Eve
blood stained wooden Jesus 
still in Gaza's rubble



Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLVIII: "fairyland reindeers and Gaza mules"

a dream and yet ...
Rudolph guides Santa Claus's sleigh
through smoky skies
then past Gaza mules hauling
a flatbed cart of bodies


FYI: Reuters, December 25, 2025: In first Christmas sermon, Pope Leo decries conditions for Palestinians in Gaza

Leo, the first U.S. pope, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had "pitched his fragile tent" among the people of the world.

"How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?" he asked.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLIX: "a skeletal house"

jagged pieces of sky
in a skeletal house
Gaza's smoky twilight

reprinted in Triya, Basant, 2026

Hindi Translation

छिन-भिन्न आसमान
कंकाल सा खड़ा घर
गाज़ा की धुंधली शाम 


FYI: Middle East Eye, December 25 2025Israeli strikes and demolitions reported in north and south Gaza


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

thin as paper  
a baby's chest rises  
then falls …  
ceasefire exists on the news  
as the sky turns smoky gray


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLX: "a skeletal house"

Gaza news on mute
blood-red dots spattered
on my canvas


FYI: Haaretz, December 25, 2025: Defense Minister Again Vows Gaza Settlements, Says Israel 'De Facto' Annexing West Bank

Israel Katz said IDF bases and a yeshiva should be established in northern Gaza, despite a flip-flop on the issue earlier this week after a similar statement. Katz also hailed Israel's West Bank policy as 'de facto annexation' – expanding settlements while expelling Palestinians from 'terror camps'

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Christmas Eve Haiku by Larry Kimmel

English Original

Christmas eve 
across the snow-hushed town
St. Mary's chimes ...

Alone Tonight, 1998

Larry Kimmel


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

聖誕節前夕
在白雪皚皚寂靜無聲的小鎮上
聖瑪麗教堂的鐘聲響起 ...

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

圣诞节前夕
在白雪皑皑寂静无声的小镇上
圣玛丽教堂的钟声响起 ...


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).

Thursday, December 26, 2024

One Man's Maple Moon: Christmas Season Tanka by Michael Dylan Welch

English Original

Christmas season --
a year later
in the glove compartment
a tissue packet
from the funeral home

Eye to Eye, 2023

Michael Dylan Welch

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

聖誕季節 --
一年之久
在汽車手套箱裡
來自殯儀館
的一包紙巾

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

圣诞季节 --
一年之久
在汽车手套箱里
来自殡仪馆
的一包纸巾

 
Bio Sketch

Michael Dylan Welch is the founder of the Tanka Society of America (2000), and co-founder of Haiku North America conference (1991) and the American Haiku Archives (1996). In 2010 he also started National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo), which takes place every February, with an active Facebook page. His personal website is www.graceguts.com, which features hundreds of essays, reviews, reports, and other content, including examples of his published poetry.

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Butterfly Dream: Christmas Morning Haiku by Garry Eaton

English Original

Christmas morning
the house full
of the scent of pine

tinywords, December 25, 2015

Garry Eaton


Chinese Translation (Traditional) 

聖誕節早晨
整個房子充滿了
松樹的香氣

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

圣诞节早晨
整个房子充满了
松树的香气


Bio Sketch

Garry Eaton was a Canadian poet from British Columbia. He started writing haiku in 2006 and was published occasionally in the major haiku magazines. He volunteered as the digital librarian for The Haiku Foundation Digital Library.

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Biting NOT Barking: Advent Calendar Haiku by Helen Buckingham

English Original

Advent Calendar
the final window
a refugee mother

Noon: Journal of the Short Poem, 23, March 2023

Helen Buckingham 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

降臨節日曆
最後一個視窗是
一位難民母親

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

降临节日历
最后的一个视窗是
一位难民母亲


Bio Sketch

Helen Buckingham lives in Wells, England. Her work has been placed in awards, journals and anthologies throughout the world, among the latter: 'Haiku in English: the first hundred years' (Norton, 2013). Her collections include water on the moon (Original Plus, 2010) and Sanguinella (Red Moon Press, 2017), both shortlisted for the Touchstone Award.

Friday, December 29, 2023

One Man's Maple Moon: Love and Peace Tanka by Lorraine Pester

English Original

sketched in the air
and brought alive
with Christmas lights ...
wire line-drawings
shape love and peace

Lorraine Pester


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

素描在天空中
並且被聖誕彩燈
賦予了生命 ...
這些電線圖畫
形塑愛與和平

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

素描在天空中
并且被圣诞彩灯
赋予了生命 ...
这些电线图画
形塑爱与和平


Bio Sketch

Being curious and staying open to possibility is Lorraine Pester’s way of keeping her haikai fresh. She shies from no topic that presents itself. Her deliberate interactions with birds while dog walking is a frequent theme. She lives with her husband and  Abbey schnauzer in south Texas. 

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Butterfly Dream: Christmas Cactus Haiku by Elliot Nicely

English Original

newly divorced  --
on the Christmas cactus
a lone bloom

Acorn, 45, 2020

Elliot Nicely


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

最近才離婚 --
聖誕仙人掌上
一朵孤單盛開的花

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

最近才离婚 --
圣诞仙人掌上
一朵孤单盛开的花


Bio Sketch

Elliot Nicely is the author of The Black Between Stars (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017) and Tangled  Shadows: Senryu and Haiku (Rosenberry Books, 2013). He resides in Lakewood, Ohio.

Monday, December 25, 2023

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Christmas

                                                                                                  This Brave New World, CXXXI                                                                                    
                                                                                                  a girl whispers
                                                                                                  Santa*, can you stop the war?
                                                                                                  his finger to his lips

                                                                                                  Chen-ou Liu


My Dear Friends:

On this Christmas day in the shadow of both wars and tough economic times, I would like to share with you a set of Christmas poems, written in different themes and moods, for your imagination and reflections 


Advent Calendar
the final window
a refugee mother

Helen Buckingham

toll booth lit for Christmas --
from my hand to hers
warm change

Michael Dylan Welch

Christmas lights . . .
the ambulance flashing
in all the windows

David Serjeant

Christmas songs
deepening
the loneliness

Pamela A. Babusci

birdsong gone
as the snowfield darkens
I stand in awe
this Christmas eclipse
with the Neanderthal

Guy Simser

gazing
at snow crystals on the skylight
this Christmas morning
how small and how large
my world without you

Chen-ou Liu

Christmas night
the silence behind
the wind

Jerry Kilbride 

sip after sip
of all-you-can-drink coffee 
Boxing Day blues

Chen-ou Liu

boxing day
the flapping of plastic bags
caught on a branch

Elliot Nicely

an old argument
untangling
the Christmas lights

Ben Moeller-Gaa


Happy Reading and Merry Christmas

Chen-ou


Note: Issa Kassisieh, Israel’s only certified Santa Claus, works for the Santa’s House of "Ho Ho Holy Land" in the Christian Quarter, East Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. 

For more, Haaretz, Dec. 24: "What This Jerusalem Santa Tells Kids When They Ask Him to Stop the Gaza War"

Reuters, Dec. 25: In Christmas Day message, pope decries Gaza's 'appalling harvest' of civilian deaths

I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims, and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by an opening to the provision of humanitarian aid.

And Business Insider, Dec. 25: The Pope prayed for peace in Gaza and called children devastated by war the 'little Jesuses of today'


Added: This Brave New World, CXXXII
written in response to Palestinian Pastor Munther Isaac's Christmas sermon:

In these last two months, the psalms of lament have become a precious companion to us. We cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Gaza? Why do you hide your face from Gaza?”


my God, my God
why have you forsaken me?
bloodied Jesus
trapped under Gaza rubble
in the Christmas cold

FYI: Democracy Now, Dec. 26: Watch Palestinian Pastor Deliver Powerful Christmas Sermon, “Christ in the Rubble”

Sunday, December 24, 2023

One Man's Maple Moon: White Christmas Tanka by Keitha Keyes

English Original

to watch the snow fall
I turn the globe upside down
. . . remembering
my first white Christmas
and a time you still loved me

Eucalypt, 30, 2021

Keitha Keyes 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

看雪花飄落
我把地球儀顛倒過來
... 想念
我的第一個白色聖誕節
和你仍然愛我的日子

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

看雪花飘落
我把地球仪颠倒过来
... 想念
我的第一个白色圣诞节
和你仍然爱我的日子


Bio Sketch

Keitha Keyes lives in Sydney, surrounded by antique irons and ship models. She enjoys writing  tanka, haiku, senryu, cherita and related genres. Her work is published in many journals and anthologies in Australia and overseas.

Sunday, December 25, 2022

A Room of My own: Joy to the World Tanka

Joy to the World
drifting in from my neighbor ...
alone in the room
I've almost nothing,
yet everything


Added:

Christmas Sale!
a teen with an oversized hood
in the mall window


Added:

snowonsnowonsnow ...
shopperssleepinaWalmart


AddedNo More Fairy Tales, VII
written in response to this brutal Christmas storm

a bomb cyclone
sweeping across the country ...
snowed in for days
I play Russian roulette
with my drunken shadow


AddedNo More Fairy Tales, VIII

gathering dark ...
row upon row of houses
encased in ice

FYI: Sky News, Dec. 27: US snow storm covers houses in ice as people struggle to dig out after deadly blizzards.

An icy white blanket - which from a distance looks like icing on a cake - covers the entire front of the Fort Erie properties.

At least 65 people have died as a result of the extreme weather, with the region in and around Buffalo, New York state, emerging as ground zero for an Arctic deep freeze.

Large parts of North America have been battling a huge bomb cyclone – the deadliest US storm for at least two generations – since last week.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Special Feature: Selected Haiku for Christmas Holidays

                                                                                                     the tail of a plane 
                                                                                                     behind the wall of snow ...
                                                                                                     Christmas Eve

                                                                                                     Chen-ou Liu

My Dear Friends:

Bells are ringing and everyone is shouting out, It's Christmas.

I would like share with you a set of selected Christmas haiku written in different tones and moods.

almost Christmas
riding home
on father's shoulders

Rachel Sutcliffe

toll booth lit for Christmas --
from my hand to hers
warm change

Michael Dylan Welch

first snowflakes
on the puppy's nose
Christmas eve

Barbara Tate

an old man
stares into the bar mirror ...
jingle bells

Marion Alice Poirier

at Christmas
ham and family gossip
recycled

Keitha Keyes 

an old argument
untangling
the Christmas lights

Ben Gaa

ever decreasing
christmas list
snow falling

ai li

boxing day
the flapping of plastic bags
caught on a branch

Elliot Nicely 


Happy Reading

Chen-ou

Butterfly Dream: Christmas Eve Haiku by Nika

English Original

Christmas Eve
a bag lady drops a dime
in the kettle

Outsiders, 2022  

Nika

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

平安夜
無家可歸的女人丟一毛錢
到捐贈壺裡面

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

平安夜
无家可归的女人丢一毛钱
到捐赠壶里面

 
Bio Sketch

Nika is the pen name of Dr. Jim Force, a retired educator. Jim has been writing haiku and related works since the early 1990s. Jim's work has been widely published around the world. He lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife Colleen and their two cairn terriers. 

Monday, November 21, 2022

A Room of My Own: Santa Claus Parade Tanka

in morning chill
the Santa Claus Parade kicks off
the Christmas season
around the corner lineups
crowded at a food bank


Added:

the manager's look
at these half-empty shelves ...
the food bank's doorbell rings

FYI: CBC News, Oct. 27: More Canadians are turning to food banks than ever before, new report says

The annual report from Food Banks Canada said there were nearly 1.5 million visits to food banks in March, 15 per cent more than the same month last year and 35 per cent more than in March 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Fixed-income groups like seniors and employed but low-income people such as students have been hit harder because their paycheques can't keep up with inflation, Beardsley said.

The report also said that around 500,000 food bank clients — about one-third — are children, who make up around 20 per cent of the country's total population.

"Behind each one of these numbers is a person who is struggling too much to get by" -- Kirstin Beardsley, the CEO of Food Banks Canada.


Added: written in response to Inaugural poet and activist Amanda Gorman's remark: The truth is, "one nation under guns."

At the End of the Day

Club Q mass shooting ...
the same headwind on the way
back home from a party 

neighbor's home remodelling:
the No Trespassing sign
with a rifle-scope motif

FYI: for further discussion of this senseless mass shooting, see The New Yorker, Nov. 22:  "The Meaning of the Colorado Springs Attack" by Masha Gessen

"The essential precondition for mass violence is not guns or hate but a culture of terror, a common imaginary that includes the possibility of a mass shooting. It may be most useful to think of a politics of terror. People—and states—carry out terror for the sake of terror. The senselessness is the point, even as our brains desperately seek to make logical connections and find explanations.

Saturday, December 25, 2021

A Room of My Own: Merry (Omicron) Christmas

Two Hundred and Ninety-Fifth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

a pile of gifts 
under the mistletoe 
we air-kiss

the masked smile
of triple-vaxxed Grandma
Joy to the World ...


My Dear Friends:

Merry Christmas! May your happiness be large and your bills be small.

Stay safe and well

Chen-ou


Added: Two Hundred and Ninety-Sixth Entry

a sandwich man
at a corner of the mall
singing loudly
the pandemic isn't over
even though you're over it 

FYI: A sandwich man is a person who wears a sandwich board. The human billboard is the cheapest and sometimes most effective/personalized walking advertisement.


Added: Two Hundred and Ninety-Seventh Entry

Boxing Day Deals
in the mall a busker singing
jingle jabs, jingle jabs ...


Added: Two Hundred and Ninety-Eighth Entry

Trump's praise of vaccine
booed, booed, booed by MAGA fans ...
omicron surge

Notes:

1 The Week, Dec. 23: Trump pushes back on Candace Owens: "People aren't dying when they take the vaccine."

the vaccines work, but some people aren’t the ones. The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected

-- Donald Trump, Interview with conservative media personality Candace Owens

2 . Daily Beast, Dec. 24: TrumpWorld Becomes Unglued Over Trump’s Praise of Vaccine and Booster Shots: The former president is losing hardcore supporters over his support for COVID-19 vaccines

3 The Week, Dec. 27Trump takes on the fringe?

It may be one of the few things he and I agree on..."People with booster shots are highly protected. Join them. Join us.

-- Joe Biden, White House speech

Trump has made a political career out of stretching the Overton Window to its breaking point. It was the source of his appeal to MAGA Republicans and the reason most everybody else disliked him. It's also why demagogic loudmouths like him usually burn out: Their shtick loses its novelty, and the crowd wanders off, either bored and ready for something less intense, or numbed to the usual outrages and needing ever-higher doses of vitriol to maintain their enthusiasm. With his new vaccine pitch, it's possible Trump is finally becoming a victim of the second dynamic.

That would be a stunning development. Trump has held on to his support by never apologizing, never letting anybody else on the political stage appear more ferocious, more ready to fight, more alpha than him. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) once articulated the phenomenon to the Washington Examiner. Right-wing voters who supported Massie and similar politicians like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) "weren't voting for libertarian ideas — they were voting for the craziest son of a bitch in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class, as we had up until he came along."

Friday, December 24, 2021

Butterfly Dream: Jingle Bells Haiku by Marion Alice Poirier

English Original

an old man
stares into the bar mirror ...
jingle bells

Marion Alice Poirier


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一位老人
凝視酒吧的鏡子...
聖誕鈴噹響
    
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一位老人
凝视酒吧的镜子...
圣诞铃当响


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.

Friday, December 25, 2020

A Room of My Own: Under the Mistletoe Haiku

One Hundred Sixty-First Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

under the mistletoe 
we air-kiss each other 
Christmas moonlight

Added: 

a cracked display window
of the American Dream Store --
Trump's pardon spree

FYI: This store is in this famous "American Dream Mall," a retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The mall has 450 stores and 33ooo parking spaces and was shut down during the first wave of Covid19. And I published this haiku below (the third haiku of the 4-haiku sequence, Reality Show Host (the Seventh Entry), where every L1 of all the haiku are words quoted from the "President."):

Relax, it all will pass ...
this infectious silence
of the American Dream Mall
 
Added: 
 
in dim light
their Christmas wreath
hangs askew --
a renoviction notice
falling onto the doormat

Added:

a street kid
stares at the reflection
in a Christmas window ...
a gingerbread monolith
on the San Francisco hilltop  

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Butterfly Dream: Covid Christmas Haiku by Marion Alice Poirier

English Original

Covid Christmas
nothing but snow
in Santa's sleigh

Marion Alice Poirier


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冠狀病毒聖誕節
在聖誕老人的雪橇上
除了雪什麼都沒有
    
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冠状病毒圣诞节
在圣诞老人的雪橇上
除了雪什么都没有


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, December 20, 2020

A Room of My Own: Today's Daily Bread: First Isolation, 12:20 - 1:3

One Hundred Fifty-Eighth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

In front of a wall of giant maple leaf flags, the silver-haired retired general, who will be heading up the province's vaccine distribution task force, pauses for a while, takes a close look around the conference room, and finally rests his eyes on the youngest reporter. Then he speaks in a low, firm tone, 

"People are tired and some of them even say, 'Oh, my goodness! we can't carry on.' Well, guess what --each and every one of you can! Please remember this: it is not the first time in our history that we have faced these seemingly insurmountable challenges and gotten through. Our grandfathers could storm the 50-mile stretch of Normandy coast three-quarters of a century ago. Today, we definitely can stay at home, away from everybody else for just two more weeks."

no body
loves holiday gatherings
more than covid ...
I murmur to myself
and my beagle on the couch

Added: One Hundred Fifty-Ninth Entry

like E.T.
he puts forth his finger
to touch my son's ...
the maskless mall Santa
inside the giant snow globe

Added: One Hundred Sixtieth Entry, written in response to Donald Trump's conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell pick for special counsel investigating voter fraud, The Guardian, Dec. 19 

Donald Trump
dragged kicking and screaming
out of the White House
a mask-free Santa Claus
in my Christmas dream