One Man's Maple Moon: Van Gogh Tanka by André Surridge

English Original

they made

Van Gogh want to dream

these stars ...

he’s there now amongst them

his smile thick with paint

Commended, 2009 Kokako International Tanka Competition

André Surridge

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

他們讓

梵谷想要夢想

這些星星 ...

他現在就在它們之中

他

的笑容濃重得像是塗了厚厚的顏料

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

他们让

梵谷想要梦想

这些星星 ...

他现在就在它们之中

他的笑容浓重得像是涂了厚厚的颜料

Bio Sketch

André Surridge was an award-winning playwright and poet who immigrated to New Zealand from Yorkshire, England in 1972. He was President of the Playwrights Association of New Zealand from 1998-2000. Widely published, some of his awards included: 1995 Minolta Playwriting Award,  2007 Elizabeth Searle Lamb Award, 2008 Tanka Splendor Award, and 2010 Jane Reichhold International prize. And his first collection of haiku and senryu, one hundred petals, was critically acclaimed in 2019.

A Room of My Own: Bigger Splash Tanka

In memory of David Hockney (9 July 1937 – 11 June 2026)

Inspired by "A Bigger Splash" (1967)

a cloud of droplets

from the blue swimming pool

and the diver gone ...

how long a life can linger

after the one who made it 

FYI: The New Yorker, June 16 2026: David Hockney’s Hidden Depths: Remembering a master of color and light who understood life’s shadows.

One of his best-known paintings, “A Bigger Splash,” which Hockney made in 1967 and which became part of the permanent collection of the Tate in 1981, shows a modernist house flanked by a pair of skinny palm trees, before which extends a brilliant-blue swimming pool equipped with a yellow diving board. There is no one in sight, but the surface of the water bursts with evidence of someone having just dived in, disappearing into the cool aqueous depths. The painting is suggestive of heat, with the palm trees offering no shade, and of a full-body relief from that heat: someone—probably male, probably young, almost certainly beautiful—is about to emerge from the pool’s sublimity, gasping with pleasure.

...what Hockney’s best works can make a viewer feel: the splash of water that, in reality, takes seconds to dissipate, captured over weeks of careful brushwork, then held in place forever on the canvas. Just as Hockney did, these works draw us in with their winning superficies only to hold us rapt with their enduring depths.

Added: Politics of Distraction, X

At an outdoor briefing, "military operation," "little excursion," "self-defense strikes" amid camera clicks in unseasonal heat.

smoky haze

war after war

of this wor(l)d

FYI: NBC News, June 11, 2026: Trump says U.S. will hit Iran ‘very hard’ tonight and take ‘total control’ of Iran’s oil industry.

And this gembun is a sequel to the following:

Politics of Distraction, IX:

blocking the blockade

to break the strait blockade ...

in gathering dark

a gin-soaked flight to nowhere

through the un/truth of this war

NeverEnding Story, April 18 2026

Added: Politics of Distraction, XI

the flat TV

mounted on the side wall

of a bookstore

blasting, a great deal! ...

layers of dust on Trump books

Added: Politics of Distraction, XII

flip-flopping

on the ceasefire deal

amid camera clicks --

a dove's feather caught spinning

in the White House's wire fence

Added: Politics of Distraction, XIII

this golfball-brained man

behind the Resolute Desk

loves inflation ...

a MAGA sign, Donald Trump

                              $20,28 per gallon

The New Verse News, June 12 2026

FYI: The Hill, June 10, 2026: Trump embraces May price spikes amid Iran war: ‘I love the inflation’

Added: Politics of Distraction, XIV

smoky haze ...

the 40th deal to end

the war of this wor(l)d

FYI: ABC News, June 16: US-Iran agreement confirms Trump trend on the art of the deal

The agreement between the United States and Iran fits with a pattern from Donald Trump where the signing of a deal appears to be the major goal and the details often seem a distant secondary consideration. 

Added:

thunder rumbling

his talk of war turns dark

then darker still

Added:

a skinny girl

drags her Disney Princess

by its hair ...

the doll’s eyeless face turns 

to the orphanage window

Added:

lying on her back

arms and legs splayed open …

a refugee dead

then the shelter left alone

with its rows of empty beds

Butterfly Dream: Belly Dancer Haiku by Susan Constable

English Original

belly dancer

the glitter of gold

in her navel

A Hundred Gourds, 1:2, March 2012

Susan Constable

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

肚皮舞孃

她的肚臍閃爍

金光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

肚皮舞娘

她的肚脐闪烁

金光

Bio Sketch

Susan Constable (1943–2026) was an award-winning Canadian poet whose haiku and tanka appeared widely in global journals. She authored the acclaimed collection The Eternity of Waves and served as tanka editor for A Hundred Gourds (2012–2016). Constable also co-edited multiple anthologies and judged numerous international short-form poetry contests.

A Room of My Own: Cinematic Fray Tanka

for the 98th Oscars ceremony

in dim light

battle after battle …

muffled cries

screams, laughter, clapping hands

in this cinematic fray

FYI: L2 is a thematic and emotional play on the title of Paul Thomas Anderson’s comedic political thriller, One Battle After Another, a major movie with 13 nominations and six wins including Best Picture.

Added: Politics of Distraction, II

The Czech Shopkeeper Story Re-told

A row of neon shop windows in Washington, D.C., each holding a full moon. Above the doorframe hangs a sign: "Prices are stable. Everything’s fine."

fireball-lit sky

the reach of winter night

over Tehran

FYI: The title alludes to the parable of the shopkeeper (or greengrocer) in Václav Havel's 1978 essay “The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe,” where a shopkeeper posts the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!” to signal obedience to the system; such everyday rituals help sustain political lies.

This is a sequel to the first entry of  Politics of Distraction

oil-dark clouds

hang heavy over Tehran —

reporters squint

at row after row of black bars

in Epstein’s redacted files

NeverEnding Story, March 10 2026

(FYI: Politics of Distraction is my new writing project. The title is taken from Al Jazeera: February 26, 2026: Epstein and the politics of distraction

Scandal individualises corruption, creating a spectacle that redirects anger away from structural power)

Added: Politics of Distraction, III

Ramadan moon

sliced by one jet's contrail

after another

ink-dark columns rising

from tankers near Hormuz

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXVII: "Ramadan sunset"

the last glow

of Ramadan sunset —

fingers lick hummus 

Added: 

Make Love, Not War...

candles in drifting snow

flicker, yet hold

FYI: "Make love, not war" is a legendary 1960s counterculture slogan advocating for peace, love, and sexual liberation over violence and conflict, primarily opposing the Vietnam War.

Added:

our street overflows

with dogs, laughter and snow balls

first day of March break

Added:

snow on snow ...

the shadow curls up

with me

Added:

a raven settles

on the burnt olive branch—

winter deepens

Added:

both sides

of a border crossing

honking geese

Reading More and Writing Better: Disembodied Mouth Tanka by Chen-ou Liu

History Often Rhymes, II: "disembodied Mouth"

written in response to the Convicted Felon's "state-of-the-nation address"

in flickering light

the disembodied Mouth drifts

rumbling

Make America Great Again...

the play runs minutes, then years

FYI: The disembodied Mouth in the tanka is a socio-satirical echo of Samuel Beckett’s Not I: a fragmented, rapid-fire monologue spoken by a brightly lit mouth suspended in darkness, recounting traumatic life events while frantically avoiding the first-person pronoun, “I.”

And Al Jazeera, December 18, 2025: Five key takeaways from Trump’s state-of-the-nation address

I   He blamed immigrants for the US’s problems

go back

where you came from ...

a yellow leaf

tossing and turning

with each gust of wind

II  He promised an ‘economic boom’ in 2026

a MAGA pin

on this old man's breast pocket ...

his patience 

stretched to the limit

by a breadline blocks ahead

III He claims he brought peace to the Middle East

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

IV He announced a ‘warrior dividend’ for US troops

V  He did not mention Venezuela tensions

the Don posed 

behind the Resolute Desk

with fingers cocked

for the cameras' rapid fire ...

a map crossed with red X’s

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.

One Man's Maple Moon: Sketch Tanka by Michael McClintock

English Original

from the waterfall

I brought home a sketch

of a small fern

that stood by the torrent

and taught me to draw

Earth: Our Common Ground, 2017

Michael McClintock

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

從瀑布景點

我帶回家一幅素描:

長在激流旁

小蕨類植物

教我畫畫

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

从瀑布景点

我带回家一幅素描:

长在激流旁

小蕨类植物

教我画画

Bio Sketch

Michael McClintock's lifework in haiku, tanka, and related literature spanned over four decades. His many contributions to the field included six years as president of the Tanka Society of America (2004-2010) and contributing editor, essayist, and poet for dozens of journals, anthologies, landmark collections and critical studies. McClintock lived in Clovis, California, where he worked as an independent scholar, consultant for public libraries, and poet. Meals at Midnight [tanka], Sketches from the San Joaquin [haiku] and Streetlights: Poetry of Urban Life in Modern English Tanka, were some of his recent titles.

A Room of My Own: Stick Figures Tanka

This Brave New World, CXX

spots of dried blood

in a soldier's diary:

a stick-figures sketch

shows recruits as "bait"

to shoot down a sniper drone

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLIX: "breaking news" 

breaking Gaza news

my friend's kin, far away

in death as in life

FYI: This is a sequel to the following entry, CXXII: "bombed schools"

a drift of olive leaves ...

my Gazan friend's kin living

in various bombed schools

NeverEnding Story, November 4 2024

France 24, Jan. 10, 2025: Gaza death toll 40 percent higher than recorded, Lancet study estimates

A study in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that 64,260 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which would mean the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip had under-reported the number of deaths to that point by 41 percent.

And Democracy Now, Jan.16: Israel Kills at Least 70 More Palestinians in Hours After Ceasefire Deal Announced

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLX: "the weight of winter rain"

pause between fireballs

the weight of winter rain

on ripped tents

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXI: "skeletal school"

silhouetted

against Gaza's ashy skies ...

a skeletal school

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

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXII: "raven after raven"

smoky ruins

raven after raven

circling

Added: Between Heaven and Hell, XXI

the downward tilt

of his chin and forehead

and the knitted eyebrows ...

Convicted Felon's official portrait

[l]awfully like his mug shot

Butterfly Dream: Zen Garden Haiku by Robert Epstein

English Original

zen garden

nothing

stands out

Checkout Time is Noon, 2022

Robert Epstein

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

禪宗花園

沒有什麼花草石塊

是脫穎而出

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

禅宗花园

没有什么花草石块

是脱颖而出

Bio Sketch

Robert Epstein, a psychologist and haiku poet/anthologist, lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has edited four anthologies:  The Breath of Surrender; Dreams Wander On; The Temple Bell Stops; and Now This.  He has written two books of haiku:  A Walk Around Spring Lake; and Checkout Time is Noon, as well as a chapbook titled, What My Niece Said in His Head:  Haiku and Senryu

Butterfly Dream: Long Line Haiku by Jack Galmitz

English Original

a long line

outside MoMA --

the realism of it

a place, 2024

Jack Galmitz 

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一條人龍排隊等待

在現代藝術博物館外面

它的現實性

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一条人龙排队等待

在现代艺术博物馆外面

它的现实性

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.

A Room of My Own: Guernica Exhibit Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXI: "Guernica"

for Pablo Picasso who claimed that "art is a lie that makes us realize the truth."

a keffiyeh-draped youth

gazes at grey-haired men in kippahs

Guernica Exhibit

 

FYI: Probably Pablo Picasso's most famous work, Guernica -- 11.5 feet tall by 25.5 feet long -- is an eye-catching, gigantic 1937 protest/"certainly his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War." (Pablo Picasso.org: Guernica, 1937)

Added:

scorching heat

grandpa remembers the smell

of wartime defeat

Added:

reading War and Peace ...

old neighbors' quarrel drifts

through my fence

Butterfly Dream: frograffiti Haiku by LeRoy Gorman

English Original

frograffitinsidecemberain

Modern Haiku, 46:2, Summer 2015

LeRoy Gorman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

青蛙塗鴉裡面十二月雨

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

青蛙涂鸦里面十二月雨

Translation resul

Bio Sketch

LeRoy Gorman lives in Napanee, Ontario. His poetry, much of it minimalist and visual, has appeared in publications and exhibitions worldwide. He is the author of two dozen poetry books and chapbooks. He is also the winner of the 2017 Dwarf Stars Award

Butterfly Dream: Aging Starlet Haiku by Margaret Rutley

English Original

aging starlet

lip-syncing

out of sync

Honorable Mention, 2022 HPNC Contest

Margaret Rutley 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

年邁的新星

對口唱歌

仍然不搭調

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

年迈的新星

对口唱歌

仍然不搭调

Bio Sketch

Margaret Rutley had poetry published in journals and anthologies in Canada, the US, the UK, and New Zealand. She won second place for "The Last Resort," a haiku sequence published in Haiku Canada Review and first place for a Valentine's Haiku Contest. She was a member of Haiku Canada, the Haiku Society of America, and wrote with The Heron's Quill poetry group.

Poetic Musings: Spring Day Mural Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

For Earth Day Reflections

spring day mural:

green paint sprayed across the wall

behind leafless trees

NeverEnding Story, March 21, 2024

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: The two parts of this "spring day mural/L1" haiku offers at least two contrasts, visual and symbolic (artistic/man-made: "replication of the absent leaves" of trees in L 2 vs natural/diseased or dying/dead in L3; And "spring day" in L1 vs "leafless trees" in L3) and one environmentally significant and emotionally poignant question: why these trees, a synecdoche used to refer to Nature, leafless during springtime, i.e. lifeless.

This ekphrastic haiku is stimulated by street artist Banksy's latest work of art, a mural featuring green paint behind a tree and a person holding a hose, and through describing and reflecting on this piece of art, the haiku amplifies and expands the meaning/significance of Banksy's work.

FYI: USA Today, March 18, 2024: New artwork from street artist Banksy spotted in London features environmental message 

And for more examples about ekphrastic poems, see To the Lighthouse: Ekphrastic Senryu and To the Lighthouse: Ekphrastic Tanka

One Man's Maple Moon: Theatre Curtain Tanka by Neal Whitman

English Original

in winter 

nightfall is much like

the dropping

of a theatre curtain ...

the show is over, go home

Eucalypt, 33, 2023

Neal Whitman

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬天

的夜幕降臨很像

劇場布幕

的下落 ...

演出結束, 回家吧

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬天

的夜幕降临很像

剧场布幕

的下落 ...

演出结束, 回家吧

Bio Sketch

Neal Whitman is a member of Tanka Society of America and is Vice President of United Haiku and Tanka Society. He lives in Pacific Grove, California, with his wife, Elaine, where walking along Monterey Bay helps them cope with the  pandemic. They wear masks out of respect for others.

Butterfly Dream: Winter Sky Haiku by Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

English Original

winter sky

the painter's downstroke

at a snail's pace

Akitsu, Winter, 2020

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬天的天空

畫家以蝸牛的速度

的下筆

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬天的天空

画家以蜗牛的速度

的下笔

Bio Sketch

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi, a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma, is currently working in a pharma company in Hyderabad, India. His haiku are regularly published in all the leading haiku journals

Butterfly Dream: Sumi-e Painting Haiku by Brendon Kent

English Original

sumi-e painting 

a crow breaks

the snow’s silence 

First Place, 2022 Polish International Haiku Contest

Brendon Kent 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

日本水墨畫

一隻烏鴉打斷

大雪的寂靜

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

日本水墨画

一只乌鸦打断

大雪的寂静

Bio Sketch

    

Brendon Kent lived in Botley, an old countryside village in Southern England (circa 890 A.D.) Born in the late 50's he had written poetry for many years preferring the "short forms." Brendon's haiku/senryu were published worldwide in many leading books and journals. He was a member of the British Haiku Society.

Butterfly Dream: Relief Sculpture Haiku by Jack Galmitz

English Original

my inner world --

      a relief sculpture

      of a civil war

yards & lots, 2012

Jack Galmitz 

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我的內心世界  --

        內戰

        的浮雕

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我的内心世界  --

        内战

        的浮雕

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: Roof Leak Haiku by Lakshman Bulusu

English Original

roof leak

streaks of silver

on my painting

Lakshman Bulusu

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

屋頂漏水

在我的畫布上

的銀色條紋

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

屋顶漏水

在我的画布上

的银色条纹

 

Bio Sketch 

 

Lakshman Bulusu is an international poet, author, and educator. He is published in over thirty poetry and haiku journals in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Taiwan, and India. He invented the STAR poem genre and MIRACLE STAR poem genre in 2016 and 2021 respectively. He is based in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. 

Poetic Musings: Strange Summer and Strange Town Tanka by Martin Lucas

Dali paintings 

on the café wall 

the door wide open 

to a strange summer 

in a strange town

The Tanka Anthology, 2003

Martin Lucas

Commentary: ... Nature is never far away; the imagery of tanka in English is in fact impossible without it. In these modern poems, the tanka poets revel in nature as they find it—which may be in New York’s Central Park as often as by a small stream in a mountain meadow. Martin Lucas's tanka is about a [surreal/Surrealist] nature peculiar to the twentieth century and an example of the kind of nature that tanka in English inhabit and compel us to witness... -- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Introduction to The Tanka Anthology by Michael McClintock