Biting NOT Barking: Zombie Fires Tanka by Debbie Strange

English Original

zombie fires

come back from the dead ...

this wilderness

haunted by skeletons

and memories of trees

 

Blithe Spirit, 35:4, 2025

Debbie Strange

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

殭屍之火

死而復生

這片荒野

被骷髏和樹木的記憶

纏繞不止

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

僵尸之火

死而复生

这片荒野

被骷髅和树木的记忆

缠绕不止

Bio Sketch

Debbie Strange is a chronically ill Canadian short form poet, haiga artist, and photographer. Snapshot Press released her first full-length haiku collection, Random Blue Sparks, in 2024. It received 3rd Place honours in the 2025 Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards. An archive of awards and publications can be accessed at http://debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca/ and you are welcome to follow her @Debbie_Strange on X and @debbiemstrange on Instagram.

A Room of My Own: River of Mud and Waste Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVI: "winter storm"

Gazan sky tinged gray

a river of mud and waste

through patchworked tents

FYI: Haaretz, Jan. 6, 2026: 'We Saved the Child From Drowning': In Gaza, Winter Storm Makes Displacement Even Deadlier

Wind and rain are tearing apart Gaza's tents, collapsing buildings and flooding streets and shelters. With many winter supplies barred by Israel, black-market merchants are selling tents for up to $1,000. One Palestinian said, 'We don't know where we will sleep the next time it rains' 

And this haiku could be read as a sequel to the following:

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

freezing rain and wind gusts  ...

the length

of another Gazan night

NeverEnding Story, December 25 2025

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXX:

The Law Is King!

a few blocks

from George Floyd Square

Renee Nicole Good

shot dead by the ICE 

candlelights swell, then a sea...

the burning photo

of gold-crowned Donald Trump ...

the flame licks upward

then a Nenee Good lookalike

lights her cigarette

FYI: The title alludes to Thomas Paine's 1776 remark: "In America, the rule of law is king." And in October 2025, Donald Trump received a replica of a Silla dynasty golden crown from South Korean President.

And The New Yorker, Jan. 8 2026: Minneapolis Grieves, Again

It was Floyd’s murder, by Minneapolis police, that catalyzed an uprising for Black lives—the largest demonstrations in U.S. history. George Floyd Square still marks that moment, with grand sculptures of raised fists and graffitied murals. Now another death, another Minnesotan tragedy, has distilled the stakes of yet another form of state violence.

Added:

in drifting snowflakes

one peace candle flickers

another glows on ...

Added:

the mountain range

looms behind this new town 

half-obscured

by tiers of wooden houses ...

the fire leaps then the wind shifts

Added:

slanted moonlight

on this winding road of dream

to you, my love ...

my feet stiff, my heart restless

until it rests in you

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

at the edge 

of a winter dream

I reach for you ...

my love in white

there, but not there

Honorable Mention, 2019 World Tanka Contest

Added: This Brave New World, CXXVI

for fearless Iranian women

more sirens wail

one woman... then women

light their cigarettes 

with burning photos

of the stern Ayatollah

Butterfly Dream: Year of Famine Haiku by Fay Aoyagi

English Original

mountain fog 

the year of famine

on a tombstone

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, Mar 9, 2008

Fay Aoyagi

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

山霧

飢荒之年蝕刻

在墓碑的銘文

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

山雾

饥荒之年蚀刻

在墓碑的铭文

 

Bio Sketch

Fay Aoyagi （青柳飛）was born in Tokyo and immigrated to the U.S. in 1982. She is currently a member of Haiku Society of America and Haiku Poets of Northern California. She serves as an associate editor of The Heron's Nest.  She also writes in Japanese and belongs to two Japanese haiku groups; Ten'I (天為) and "Aki"（秋), and  she is a member of Haijin Kyokai (俳人協会).

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. 

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on UN-Declared Gaza Famine, A Famine on all of Our Watch

(FYI: +972 Magazine,  independent, non-profit media initiative, Israel-Palestine

August 21, 2025: In a joint investigation by Israel's  +972 Magazine and Local Call and UK's The Guardian, Yuval Abraham reveals that: "Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians")

My Dear Friends:

Democracy Now, August 22, 2025: U.N. Declares a Famine in Gaza, Where Over 500,000 Face “Starvation, Destitution and Death”

The U.N.’s top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, spoke from Geneva earlier today:

It is a famine in 2025, a 21st-century famine, watched over by drones and the most advanced military technology in history. It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war. It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this. The Gaza famine is the world’s famine.

smoky twilight ...

will starving babies in Gaza

heal the broken heart

of an Israeli mother

whose children were kidnapped

NeverEnding Story, November 18 2023

in memory of the philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt, author of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil 

word after word

squeezed out of the PM's mouth

in broad daylight

this daily "banality"

of dying, of death in Gaza

NeverEnding Story, August 8 2025

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

August 21, 2025: "Starvation Is Everywhere," Virtual Tours of Gaza Clinics Expose the Scale of the Horror

a dull-eyed baby

with loose skin over bone ...

red glow of Gazan skies

NeverEnding Story, July 21 2025

Reprinted in Haikuniverse, July 26, 2025

                      aid

out of reach            air            ops

                                       dr 

and a dead child’s stare

NeverEnding Story, March 5 2024

thousands of Gazans

pressed against one another ....

in the dusty air

one man cries, do I have to pay 

with my life for a sack of flour?

NeverEnding Story, June 9 2025

her gaunt face 

swollen and covered in burns ...

this one-legged girl

the luckiest one while others are

buried under the smoky rubble

NeverEnding Story, July 21 2025

And August 22, 2025: Starvation, Destitution and Death' | In First, UN Says Over Half a Million Gazans Suffering From Famine; Netanyahu: 'Outright Lie'

For the first time since the war in Gaza started, the UN food security agency's report found that residents of Gaza City and nearby areas are suffering from the highest level of hunger. Netanyahu rejected the report as a 'modern blood libel' and accused Hamas of 'stealing aid' and staging a 'starvation campaign'

To conclude today's "Special Feature" post, I would like to share the following latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXIX: "UN-declared Gaza famine"

a roadhouse

burnt-out and half ruined ...

under the roof

a patched tent and children

with thin arms and bloated bellies

FYI: The latest news about Israel's genocidal war against Palestinians:

Haaretz, August 22, 2025: Israel's Foreign Ministry Says West Bank Is Israeli Territory, Contravening International and Domestic Law

On Thursday, 25 countries – including the United Kingdom and France –issued a joint declaration against Israel's decision to approve construction in the E1 area, a plan designed to bisect the West Bank, calling the plan a "flagrant breach of international law" that would undermine the idea of a two-state solution. 

A Room of My Own: Smoky Silence Haiku

smoky silence

crater after crater

rainbowed with oil

Added:

elbows up, elbows down ...

the PM's mouth opens and closes

in summer heat

FYI: CBC News, August 22, 2025: Unfortunately, there may not be a hockey analogy for the challenge Canada faces: Are Mark Carney's elbows up or down? Does it matter?

"There is a time in a game, in a big game — and this is a big game — when you go hard in the corners with your elbows up. There's a time in the game when you drop your gloves in the first period and you send a message. And we've done that, pretty uniquely in the world," Carney responded, attempting to broaden the hockey analogy.

Added:

berry picking

I lick the stains

off her fingers

Added:

after our picnic

the heat comes on

between us

the honey melon juice

dripping off the table edge

A Room of My Own: Skin against Skin Tanka

Yellowing Memories, VIII

written in response to The Telegraph, August 15: Putin prepares nuclear missile tests in veiled threat to West

we ducked and covered

like Bert the Turtle at school

as sirens howled ...

decades later, I still feel the heat

of our skin against skin

FYI: "Duck and Cover" staring Bert the Turtle is a 1951 "Civil Defense film"/propaganda, as the cornerstone of the government's "duck and cover" public awareness campaign.

And January 28, 2025 Doomsday Clock Announcement: 89 seconds to midnight

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LII

written in response to The New Yorker, August 15, 2025: Trump’s Self-Own Summit with Putin

Even the puffery-prone President couldn’t alchemize his non-deal with Russia into Trumpian gold.

Staging/Self-Owning

on a red carpet

the Convicted Felon

and the War Crimial

shake hands with pats on the arm ...

both grin broadly to the World

President Putin

will you stop killing civilians?

with a dead-eyed look

he shrugs before entering

Trump's bulletproof Beast

FYI: Highly customized and heavily armored, the presidential limo, officially known as the presidential state car and nicknamed “The Beast” in 2001 by President George W. Bush, is more a tank than a limousine for the President.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LIII

warm handshakes 

on a red carpet 

and a joint limo ride

as fighter jets fly overhead ...

made-for-Fox-News non-event

FYI: Fox News, August 16: Putin ‘got away without doing anything’ at summit with Trump

The Daily Beast, August 14: Longtime Trump biographer Michael Wolff: Trump Circles Drop F-Bomb After Failure Trump-Putin Summit

And NPR, August 16: Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LIV

Epstein files news

the rasp, rasping

of cicadas

Added:

gathering dark

beyond the barbed wire fence

a shrill squealing

Added:

the long strip

of neon-lit roadside motels

a woman in red

A Room of My Own: Red, Rolling Flames Haiku

No More Fairy Tales, XLIV

the Prairies

mountain after mountain

of red , rolling flames

FYI: This could be read as a prequel to the following:

No More Fairy Tales, VI

tongues of forest fires 

there's no Plan[et] B, the rest

blah, blah, blah ...

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2022 

CBC News, June 7: Wildfires in the Prairies affecting air quality across Canada

Parts of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador were experiencing poor air quality and reduced visibility due to the wildfires, a situation expected to continue through Sunday.

The Watchers, June 7: Toronto recorded the worst air quality in the world on Friday, June 6, 2025, as wildfire smoke blanketed the city, prompting health warnings and disrupting daily life.

And CTV News, June 6: Montreal ranks 2nd for worst air quality in the world due to wildfires

Added:

alone

perched on this rocky peak

aided by my crutch

before the misty expanse

I murmur, so, is this it?

FYI: This tanka was inspired by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich's 1818 painting, "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog." For more about ekphrastic tanka, see To the Lighthouse: Ekphrastic Tanka

Added:

colorful blooms 

in my neighbor's garden

For Sale tilted

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCIV: "drone swarm"

smoky rubble

after smoky rubble

a swarm of drones 

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCV: "dead Gazan kids"

at Begin Gate

shouldertoshoulderprotesters

hold candles

and photos of dead Gazan kids ...

these eyes once warm with hope

FYI: Begin Gate is the entrance to Hakirya, the IDFs headquarters in central Tel Aviv 

"Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government (ranking 112th/180 in 2025 Reporters Without Borders index), Haaretz," June 9 2025: It Looks Like a Memorial Day Ceremony: The Israelis Protesting With Photos of Dead Gazan Children

What started out as an improvisation is now a portrait gallery installation at the weekly Saturday night protest in Tel Aviv. As more and more Israelis are standing silently holding photos, names and details of Palestinian victims of the war in Gaza, organizers are certain: 'It is trickling down to people'

And June 10: Polled by Hebrew University's aChord Center, 64 percent of Israelis believe that the local media's reporting on Gaza has been balanced and there is no need to present a broader picture regarding the situation of Gaza's civilians. 

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVI: "a sack of flour"

thousands of Gazans

pressed against one another ....

in the dusty air

one man cries, do I have to pay 

with my life for a sack of flour?

FYI: Haaretz, June 11: 'It's a Disaster': Gazans Describe Chaos, Violence at Food Aid Distribution Sites

A Room of My Own: Valley of Smoke Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, XL

the morning sun

choked out by columns of black ...

car after car 

driving through the valley of smoke

as tongues of fire leap behind

FYI: My haiku below could be read as a sequel:

No More Fairy Tales, VI

tongues of forest fires 

there's no Plan[et] B, the rest

blah, blah, blah ...

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2022 

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLI

morning sun barely seen street after street charred by the frames

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLII

tongues of flame

grow longer and wilder

with raging hate and lies ...

a raven's kraa-kraa-kraa

atop the Mar-a-Lago flagpole

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLIII

a stairway

what remains of a burned house ...

Pacific Coast sunset

FYI: The following haiku with a prefatory note could be read as a sequel: 

On my return from Tsukushi at the close of March, I found that my hut had been destroyed by fire. Looking at the ruins, I composed this verse.

violets here and there

in the ruins 

of my burnt house

Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart

Shokyu-ni

Added:

patches of fog

shroud this orphanage ...

un/knowing the past

FYI: This haiku could be read as a sequel of my haiku below:

jigsaw puzzle:

group-home kids piece together

“American Dream”

Touch of a Moth: 2012 Haiku Canada Members' Anthology

(Note: American Dream is FX Schmid's award-winning 750-piece jigsaw puzzle)

hand-me-down dream

twilight laughter drifting

from the orphanage

Whispers, Oct. 2015

A Room of My Own: Five Shekels Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLV: "five shekels" 

a telescope 

mounted on a hilltop ...

five shekels (FYI: 1.37 USD)

to see rubble after rubble

under Gaza's smoky skies

FYI: The Guardian, July 20,2024:Israelis gather on hillsides to watch and cheer as military drops bombs on Gaza

People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive

And Der Spiegel, Dec. 23, 2024: "Within a Year, We Will Be Living in Gaza"

The Israeli army is systematically destroying towns in northern Gaza and expelling the population. It is laying the groundwork for a military occupation - and for the possible construction of new Jewish settlements.

There is a telescope mounted on a hilltop outside the Gaza Strip. Here, on the outskirts of the Israeli city of Sderot, you can pay five shekels to watch the war at a magnification of 25x.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLVI: "war tourism" 

clouds of smoke and fire ....

through the telescope viewfinder

on a hilltop

Israeli tourists don't see the war

but vision a future of houses

FYI:  Der Spiegel, Dec. 23, 2024: "Within a Year, We Will Be Living in Gaza"

The Fenton family at the hilltop viewpoint near Sderot...When one detonation sends up a particularly large cloud of smoke, Fenton exults: "How beautiful! How beautiful! How beautiful! Thanks be to God!”

"The path we are being led down is one of conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing,” warned the former Israeli general, Netanyahu’s defense minister during the 2014 Gaza War, Moshe Ya’alon in an early December television interview. "There is no Beit Lahiya anymore, no Beit Hanoun, the army is intervening in Jabaliya, and in truth, the land is being cleansed of Arabs.” Israel is threatening to become a "corrupt and leprous fascist messianic state.”

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLVII: "Palestine sunbirds" 

the pause between fireballs ...

a burst of colors

Palestine sunbirds in flight 

FYI: The Palestine sunbird is the national bird of Palestine, a symbol of Palestinian resistance and freedom

Added:

Chinese fried dough

crumbled into black coffee ...

home away from home

A Room of My Own:Path of Milton Haiku

No More Fairy Tales, XXXIV

the path of Milton ...

a bunglow tied down by straps

bolted to the ground

FYI: The New Yorker, Oct. 8: Why Hurricane Milton Is a Sign of the New Abnormal

“We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis.” This assessment, co-authored by several of the world’s leading climate scientists, was published on Tuesday, in the journal BioScience. 

Milton, pretty much from its inception, has been an abnormal storm. “It is exceedingly rare for a hurricane to form in the western Gulf, track eastward, and make landfall on the Western coast of Florida,” Jonathan Lin, an atmospheric scientist at Cornell, explained to Vox. As Milton swirled over the Gulf of Mexico, it encountered water that was almost three and a half degrees hotter than usual for early October. 

The storm went from barely a hurricane to a Category 5 storm in less than twenty-four hours (FYI: CBS News, Oct. 10: Hurricane Milton makes landfall as Category 3 on Florida's west coast.) 

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, says that he’s “not a global-warming person.” Just a few months ago, he signed a bill that erased most references to the problem from state law. 

Added: Game Show, 2024, LXVI

written in response to ABC News, Oct. 7: More than 230 people have been killed from Hurricane Helene, which unleashed devastation across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

raging waters

tear through state after state

drill, baby, drill louder

FYI: KALW Public Media, Oct. 8: Donald Trump's "drill, baby, drill" policies will worsen the climate crisis. And MSNBC, August 8: Trump’s "drill baby drill" plan: The wrong answer to the right questions

Asked about his jobs plan, Donald Trump pointed to oil drilling. 

Asked about housing affordability, he again pointed to oil drilling.

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XXXV

bumpertobumper 

traffic on the 12-lane highway

as raging waters sweep

we'reallinthis

t o ge t   h  e    r   a gain

Added: Game Show, 2024, LXVII

my body, my choice 

penetrating the distant chants

of USA!

I gaze at Lady Liberty’s

forward-facing charge

A Room of My Own: Smoky Forest Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, XXXII

silhouetted

against the smoky forest

far away yet near ...

the Premier's mouth opens, closes

opens before cameras

FYI: This tanka could be read as a prequel to the following haiku

No More Fairy Tales, VI

tongues of forest fires 

there's no Plan[et] B, the rest

blah, blah, blah ...

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2022

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXXIX: "smeared sun"

anything new

under Gaza's smeared sun?

smoky rubble

beyond smoky rubble, and yet

again smoky rubble

FYI: Ls 1&2 make a tragically sarcastic allusion to the following Bible verse:

Ecclesiastes 1:9

What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

And this tanka could be read as a sequel to my tanka prose below:

it’s peaceful now

M-16 rifles are blooming, 2000-pound bombs singing, and Merkava tanks sweeping the streets.

Gaza is cleaner than ever, clean of blood-covered children. Yet, somewhere among the rubble the only moving thing is a boy’s eyes that look up to Heaven.

a mural

on the separation wall

of the West Bank:

in midair a girl grasps

a bunch of rainbow balloons

contemporary haibun online, 20:2, 2024

For more poems about the use of sarcasm, see To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Sarcasm

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XC: "just to be alive"

Just to be alive on this fresh morning 

almost, with eyes closed

to this shrapnel-filled world ...

a Gazan newborn

                                   |                          

a settler aims his gun | a child throws his rock

                                   |

Death to Jews

spray-painted over Death to Arabs ...

heat of Sheikh Jarrah's wall 

FYI: Reuters, May 10, 2021: East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah becomes emblem of Palestinian struggle

A Room of My Own: Unnamed Grief Haiku

aftermath of floods

the trail of this

unnamed grief

FYI: This is could be read as a sequel to the following haiku:

flashfloodallboundariesdissolve

Haiku Quarterly, 1:1, 1989

Marian Olson

And BBC News, June 17, 2024: How climate change worsens heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXVI: "Gaza's safe zone"

written in response to Associated Press News, July 3: Life and death in Gaza’s ‘safe zone’ where food is scarce and Israel strikes without warning

mule-drawn wagons

wind past one mound of rubble

after another ...

across the bottom of my screen

scrolls the text: from here to nowhere

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXVII: " flares and blasts "

to the likes of Takahama Kyoshi (1874 --1959), a student of Masaoka Shiki and the editor of the most influential haiku magazine, Hototogisu, during WWII, who claimed that "haiku was essentially the art of "singing about flowers and birds ..." 

Gaza's night sky lit

by the red glow of flares and blasts 

with news on mute

eyes closed and ears covered

the poet writes, skylark's trilling

Added: Game Show, 2024, LIX

written in response to NBC News, July 3: Joe Biden says he’s ‘in this race to the end’ amid growing calls to drop out

end-of-the-race dream

the earth at its farthest point

from the sun

FYI: July 5 marks the earth’s aphelion - farthest point from the sun, a big astronomical milestone called aphelion. 

And The New Yorker, July 3: This Is What the Twenty-fifth Amendment Was Designed For

If Joe Biden doesn’t willingly resign, there’s another solution, which would allow Democrats to unite around a new incumbent.

Butterfly Dream: Burnt-Out House Haiku by Carol Purington

English Original

edging

the path to the burnt-out house

scarlet tulips

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, September 5, 2016

Carol Purington 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

通往被燒毀房子的道路

的四週邊緣

猩紅色的鬱金香

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

通往被烧毁房子的道路

的四周边缘

猩红色的郁金香

Bio Sketch

Carol Purington used tanka to capture flashes of natural loveliness and psychological insight that drifted around her rural New England home. Her second collection of tanka, Faces I Might Wear, was published in 2013.

A Room of My Own: Raven Shadow Haiku

raven shadow

after raven shadow ...

blood-stained debris

FYI: This is the sequel to the following haiku:

collapse of mud houses ...

a girl closes her eyes at last

and the world ...disappears

NeverEnding Story, September 12 2023

Added:

a bomb crater ...

bits and pieces of clothing 

and patches of grass

FYI: This is the sequel to the following haiku:

spring counteroffensive ...

the buzzing sound 

of an old man's meat grinder

NeverEnding Story, May 22 2023

Added:

howl of the north wind ...

snow on snow on sunflowers

in a girl's drawing

FYI: This is the sequel to the following haiku:

bomb shelter wall

the girl draws a dove flying

to a field of sunflowers

NeverEnding Story, March 8 2022

Added:

aftermath ...

a girl's blood-smeared face 

in pixels

Butterfly Dream: Twin Towers Haiku by Bill Kenney

English Original

twin towers

repeating their absence

day after day

World Haiku Review, January 2007 

Bill Kenney

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

世貿中心雙子塔

日復一日

重複它們的消失不在

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

世贸中心双子塔

日复一日

重复它们的消失不在

 

Bio Sketch 

 

Born and raised in the Boston area, and living for over 50 years in New York City, Bill Kenney was a professor for many years in the English Department at Manhattan College. He started writing haiku in 2004, a month before his 72nd birthday, and became an active participant in the New York City Spring Street Haiku group. His haiku were published in numerous journals and anthologies. And his collection of haiku, keep walking, won the 2021 Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards.

A Room of My Own: Indictment&Vultures Tanka

This Brave New World, XCIX

another indictment 

stirs up more election deniers 

in this promised land

more property vultures

swoop on another fire-ravaged town.

FYI:Democracy Now, August 16: Hawaii Officials ID First 2 Victims of Maui Wildfires as Hawaiians Warn of Real Estate Vultures

Hawaii officials have started identifying victims of the historic Maui wildfires as the death toll reached 106, with hundreds more missing... Meanwhile, Hawaiians are sounding the alarm over outsiders who almost immediately started preying on survivors to buy up land and property around the historic town of Lahaina, which was all but decimated in the fires.

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XIX

The Choice?

an orange glow

over the mountain ridge ...

she mutters, stay or go?

a bank of dark clouds

one stand after another

of scorched trees 

her long stare 

in the rearview mirror

orange-tinted skies 

FYI: FYI: These orange-tinted skies are the result of smoke particles blocking some wavelengths of sunlight.

And CBS News, August 17: Evacuation of far northern Canadian city of Yellowknife ordered as wildfires approach

Air evacuations were to begin Thursday to move residents in the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories out of the path of wildfires that neared the city of 20,000 people.

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XX

wildfire warning ...

I take another large

black coffee

Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXXIII

this twentysomething

dot-com millionaire beams

this is America ...

I haha, living in this land

with an old immigrant soul

FYI: Democracy Now, June 28, 2023: Poverty 4th Leading Cause of Death in U.S. as Calls Grow for Third Reconstruction: Bishop Barber

And see recent findings in "Novel Estimates of Mortality Associated With Poverty in the US," JAMA Internal Medicine, 2023;183(6):618-619

A Room of My Own: Wind-Whipped Wildfires Haiku

No More Fairy Tales, XVI

wind-whipped wildfires

wave after wave of people fleeting 

into the ocean

FYI: NBC News, August 10: Maui fires live updates: At least 36 dead as thousands flee 'unprecedented' disaster: Crews continue to battle Maui and the Big Island fires, which have been fanned in part by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, a Category 4 storm.

And Democracy Now, August 11: Fire Expert Says Climate & Native Vegetation Changes Fueled Explosive Maui Wildfires

“This is something that is absolutely unprecedented,” says Clay Trauernicht, a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where he focuses on wildland fire management in Hawaii and the Pacific. He explains how colonial landscape changes to the islands — prioritizing monocrop agriculture and land use for tourism — paired with the worsening atmospheric effects of climate change have set the conditions that sparked the devastating wildfires and allowed them to rage indiscriminately.

This haiku is a sequel to the following one:

No More Fairy Tales, XV

wave after wave of heat

please press ?

for more Q&As

NeverEnding Story, July 31 2023

And This haiku is a sequel to the following one:

No More Fairy Tales, VI

for Greta Thunberg

tongues of forest fires 

there's no Plan[et] B, the rest

blah, blah, blah ...

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2022

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XVII

Day and Night Quest

he runs with dogs

in his shorts and flip-flops ...

cloud after cloud

of smoke and ashes billowing 

over once-white-sand beaches

fleeing with dogs

through blaze after blaze

in gathering dark

he climbs up to the clifftop

while leaving his future behind 

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XVIII

HR in red

scrawled on a half-burnt door ...

the barks 

of cadaver dogs

echo in smoky twilight

FYI: HR stands for human remains. And Associated Press, August 13: As the death toll from a wildfire that razed a historic Maui town climbed to 93, authorities warned that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages. The blaze is already the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, VI

with his beagle

an air-guitar busker 

singing out loud

shoulda, coulda, woulda

story of my vagrant life

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, VII

Billionaire Bunker

a man-made barrier island

in the Sunshine State ...

bathed in sweat, I ask my bunk-bed mate 

to turn off the TV and sleep

FYI: Fox Business, August 12: Jeff Bezos buys $68 million mansion in Miami's exclusive "Billionaire Bunker:"Jeff Bezos and fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, are expected to bulldoze the site and build a new mega mansion.

Butterfly Dream: Wildfire Haze Haiku by Robert Epstein

English Original

wildfire haze  --

I can pray all I want

for emotional rescue

Robert Epstein

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

野火陰霾 --

我可以隨心所欲地祈禱

只為了舒發情感

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

野火阴霾 --

我可以随心所欲地祈祷

只为了舒发情感

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

One Man's Maple Moon: Azalea Tanka by Marilyn Humbert

English Original

azalea flowers

a splash of colour

in the park

red as her painted lips

before self isolation

 

Frameless Sky, 12, 2020

Marilyn Humbert

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在公園裡

杜鵑花盛開

增添了一些顏色

紅得像她塗過口紅的嘴唇

那是在自我隔離之前

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在公园里

杜鹃花盛开

增添了一些颜色

红得像她涂过口红的嘴唇

那是在自我隔离之前

Bio Sketch

Marilyn Humbert lives in the Northern suburbs of Sydney NSW Australia. Her tanka and haiku appear in international and Australian journals, anthologies and online. Her free verse poems have been awarded prizes in competitions and some have been published.