A Room of My Own: Another Day, Another Fight

a long walk home

after my first AA meeting

a neon sign

brings the flavour of beer

to the tip of my tongue

I repeat to myself

a day of sobriety

is wavelike ...

each one comes forward

with its own up and down

all I want

is to drink one beer (or two)

and pat my dog ...

alone at the crosswalk

a traffic light turns yellow

Added:

flowers wilting

in my front yard garden

a morning breeze

                 lets loose

a petal song for autumn

FYI: It might be interesting to do a comparison reading of the following tanka:

in a world

of green

one branch

burning

into Autumn

NeverEnding Story, September 22, 2017

Kris Lindbeck‏

Added:

a street preacher talks

over a line of pro-choicers --

his arguments

frothy as soapsuds

get big ... and bigger

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXIX: "between reality and the vision"

Between Reality and the Vision

Yom Teruah

this Jewish day of blasting ...

from Gaza 

the faint boom, boom, boom

fueling the fire of revenge

a dream, and yet ...

dry bones in Gaza's graves

reshaped

into skeletons, filled out with flesh,

standing on their feet, alive

FYI: Yom Teruah, also known as Rosh Hashanah or the Feast of Trumpets, is a Jewish holiday marking the beginning of the Jewish New Year and the High Holy Days. Its name translates to "day of blasting" or "day of sounding the shofar" (ram's horn). The central element of Yom Teruah is the sounding of the shofar, which consists of 100 blasts during a traditional Rosh Hashanah service. The teruah sound itself can mean an alarm, a signal, or a shout of joy.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LVIII

written in response to the Convicted Felon's hourlong "your countries are going to hell" rant

Donald Trump is right

about everything, everything

echoes, echoing ...

in the gathering dark

the psych ward hallway

FYI: CNN News, September 23 2025: Trump’s ‘your countries are going to hell’ UN speech, annotated

Butterfly Dream: Midnight Banter Haiku by Adjei Agyei-Baah

English Original

midnight banter

the drunken farmer

and a scarecrow

Scaring Crow, 2022

Adjei Agyei-Baah

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

午夜開玩笑

醉酒的農夫

和稻草人

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

午夜开玩笑

醉酒的农夫

和稻草人

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. 

A Room of My Own: Years-Old Game Tanka

night walk

from drizzle to sleet to snow --

this years-old game

of would have, could have, should have

with my drunken shadow

Added:

talk of divorce

on the long way home

for an hour

her silence speaks louder

than the sound of a blizzard

Added:

Glimpses of Light

burnt houses

the fruit of a charred citrus tree 

clings to its branches 

smoldering ruins

an etched mural stands alone

at the temple 

FYI: This is a sequel to the following haiku:

No More Fairy Tales, XLIII

a stairway

what remains of a burned house ...

Pacific Coast sunset

Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, IX

the White House

pronounces, only two sexes...

trans youth trapped

between black-and-white Kansas

and rainbow-colored Oz

FYI: In 2021, President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility. And the first International Transgender Day of Visibility was held on March 31, 2009.

A Room of My Own: Thanksgiving Emails

reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXXX

Subject: thanksgiving alone

To: my self [stuck in life] 

From: me

Date: November 23

at daybreak flickering birdsong

Re.: thanksgiving alone

To: my [drunken] self

From: me

Date: November 24

alive in this broken world

FYI: This is the first set of English language tanka written in the form of an email.

Added: This Brave New World, CXI

Now, This Promised Land

written on the 50th day of the Israel-Hamas War

the blood drips

from his big dirty hands

Netanyahu lookalike 

Hostages Square

a girl's candle flickers

in the cold air

FYI: Demonstration at what has become known as "Hostages Square," in Tel Aviv, near the Ministry of Defence, marked 50 days since Hamas attack on Israel...Hamas delayed the release of the second group of captives, accusing Israel of violating the truce, which started on Friday and is expected to last for four days... excerpted from Al Jazeera, Nov. 25: Tens of thousands rally in Tel Aviv amid delay in release of [second group] of captives.

And the following tanka could be read as its sequel:

This Brave New World, CX

Kidnapped

pasted over Occupier

pasted over Kidnapped

above the photo of a man ...

this battle for perfect victims

NeverEnding Story, November 18 2023

Added: This Brave New World, CXII

this hazy night

before the ceasefire ends

shortness of breath

Added: This Brave New World, CXIII

between his teeth

a piece of hummus-stuffed bread ...

maimed orphan's last meal

FYI: Haaretz (founded in 1918, the longest running and most progressive newspaper with with an "exposure rate of 4.7%" in Israel), Nov. 28: Gaza's Unfolding Disaster: When Humanitarian Aid Is Your Last Meal... Orphans are multiplying in the streets, the bombing survivors are traumatized and once the truce ends, everybody knows death may fall again from the sky at any moment.

...a representative of Save the Children stated, “Every ten minutes, a child in Gaza is killed by a bomb and every five minutes, a child is wounded, in an asymmetric warfare situation that testifies to the failure of international law, whose aim is to protect civilian lives.”

And Reuters, Nov. 28: WHO warns disease could be bigger killer than bombs in Gaza

WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris on Tuesday said the agency is already seeing a dangerous surge in diarrhea in Palestinian children.

“We saw a very high number of cases of diarrhea among infants and again, no, there’s no treatment available for them. You know, if you have a child with diarrhea you need to give them re-hydration in order to keep them going until they get better and if you’re not able to do that, they can die very quickly from dehydration.”

A Room of My Own: Heartbreak Tanka

alone again

with my drunken shadow

at the edge of night ...

my friend died from heartbreak

and I am still alive

Added: written in response to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Netflix Docuseries

before I went to the UK

most people didn't treat me

like a Black woman ...

a Jamaican turns off the TV

then get stains off the diner floor

FYI: Yahoo! Entertainment, Dec. 8: Meghan Markle on meeting Prince William and Kate Middleton: "The formality on the outside carried through on the inside."

"A friend of ours actually suggested that we document ourselves through this period of time," Harry explained. "With all of the misinformation that was going on out there, especially about us and the departure, it seemed like a really sensible idea."

Added Markle, "The past six years of my life, books are written about our story from people I don't know. Doesn't it make more sense to hear our story from us?"

And Rolling Stone, Dec. 8: Most Shocking ‘Harry & Meghan’ Revelations So Far, From Nazi Costumes to Hushed Racism

The Royal Palace Silenced Meghan and Harry When It Came to Racism

Before her relationship with Prince Harry went public, and months after they began dating, Markle says she wasn’t often treated like a Black woman. “It’s very different to be a minority, but not be treated as a minority right off the bat,” she explained. When press headlines and commentary made the Black element of her biracial identity the centerpiece of their grievances against her, the Prince added, the palace issued clear instructions to them both: “Don’t say anything.”

And The New Yorker, Dec. 15: Meghan and Harry’s Netflix Fairy Tale by  Rebecca Mead

...the newly released Netflix documentary series, Harry, the Duke of Sussex, uses a similar, if less pithily expressed, formula to characterize his own sense of having been squeezed by an unwelcome triangulation: that between himself, the Palace, and the press. Harry describes a summit with other senior members of the Royal Family that was held, early in 2020, at Sandringham, one of the Queen’s country homes, to discuss what, if any, future role he and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, might play within the institution of the monarchy. “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father say things that simply weren’t true,” Harry said. “I think, from their perspective, they had to believe that it was more about us, and maybe the issues that we had, as opposed to their partner, the media, and themselves in that relationship that was causing so much pain for us.”

Royals exist to be seen. No longer regarded as divinely authorized, and for centuries deprived—thank goodness—of meaningful legal power, the monarchy has only one real function: visibility. To be a working royal is to show up and be looked at, whether it’s attending the openings of hospital wings or factories, or arriving at galas and state ceremonies...

One Man's Maple Moon: Tire Swing Tanka by H. Gene Murtha

English Original

getting drunk

while i think of you

who almost lived

i cut down the tire swing

then the oak it hung from

Biding Time: Selected Poems 2001-2013, 2013

H. Gene Murtha 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

喝醉了

當我想到你

幾乎存活下來的時候

我砍下輪胎做的鞦韆

然後砍倒掛在其上的橡樹

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

喝醉了

当我想到你

几乎存活下来的时候

我砍下轮胎做的秋千

然后砍倒挂在其上的橡树

Bio Sketch

H. Gene Murtha, a naturalist and poet, sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, NJ., for the Virgilio Group, of which he was a lifetime member. He was widely published for his work in haikai literature from the USA to Japan.

A Room of my Own: Trading Blows Tanka

to Ernest Hemingway who remarked, Write hard and clear about what hurts.

trading blows

with my drunken shadow

on the wall

as if I could expel pain

from the inside out

Added: Three Hundred and Seventeenth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

stealth omicron ...

I tune up the volume

of Lennon's imagine

FYI: The Independent, February 21: A more contagious version of the Omicron variant has been spreading in US: ‘We’re all on the edge of our seats’

BA.2 is considered a “stealthier” version of Omicron because particular genetic traits make it somewhat harder to detect.

Danish scientists reported this week that preliminary information suggests it may be 1.5 times more contagious than the original variant.

Added: Three Hundred and Eighteenth Entry

shelter in place

I count strays passing

beneath the window

Poetic Musings: Walking Meditation Tanka by John Quinnett

walking meditation

putting one foot in front

of the other

I pass

the sobriety test                                          

Dance into the World, 2020 

John Quinnett

Commentary: John's tanka builds line by line to an unexpected yet thematically significant and visually funny turn in the last line, which effectively shifts the focus from walking meditation (L1) to the close call on getting charged for driving drunk (L5). Written in the spirit of kyoka, John's tanka is a good example of tanka that surprise readers with the turn of their concluding lines.