Hot News: New Milestones, 7 M Pageviews & Adding 1 M Pageviews in 15 Days; Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached new milestones late last night: 7 M pageviews—adding 1 million pageviews in 15 days (FYI: On September 7, 2026, it reached 6 M pageviews).

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka submissions. 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 (5 following; 5,295 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

—Thomas Mann

At 6 a.m., a film of cold grease has formed over my untouched coffee.

I add three words

revise them then kill the line ...

paper-white dawn

And a gentle reminder:

Every time a poem is written, every time a short story is written, it is written not by cunning, but by belief. The beauty, the something, the little charm of the thing to be, is more felt than known.

-- Robert Frost

The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.

—Dylan Thomas

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

—paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Look forward to reading your poetry

Happy Writing

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, 6 M Pageviews & Adding 1 M Pageviews in 25 Days; Call for Submissions

(FYI: Pageviews, September 7: 81, 385)

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone mid-afternoon yesterday: 6 M pageviews—adding 1 million pageviews in 25 days.(FYI: On August 12, 2026, it reached 5 M pageviews; yesterday's pageviews: 70, 283).

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka submissions. 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 (5 following; 5,287 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write.

—Anaïs Nin

HOWEVER 😏

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

—Thomas Mann

Try Again and Fail Better

My fingers strike the keyboard with rhythmic force; my eyes sting, rimmed with red, but something keeps carrying me forward like a surging current beneath the skin.

another

false dawn while robins call

I add three words

backspace them, write five more

then delete the whole line

(FYI: The title alludes to the famous quote about trying and failing:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. 

-- Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho,"  a radical, minimalist prose text that strips language down to its barest essentials to explore decrepitude, memory, the limits of expression, and the stubborn human compulsion to keep going despite inevitable defeat).

And a gentle reminder:

The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.

—Dylan Thomas

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

—paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Look forward to reading your poetry

Happy Writing

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, Highest Monthly Pageviews, "1,489, 445" and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone yesterday at midnight: the HIGEST monthly pageviews: 1,489, 445 (FYI: On August 12, 2026, it reached 5 M pageviews and added 1 M Pageviews in 21 days; Yesterday's pageviews: 43,338)

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka submissions. 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 (5 following, 5,280 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. —Thomas Mann

a transient glow

before another sunrise

the cursor blinking

while I'm alone with a mind—

all its windows closed

FYI: Ls 1&2 refer to a "false dawn," a transient light that precedes the rising of the sun by about an hour.

My fingers click-clacking — hail against the window.

what's left unsaid

between words and lines ...

alone at false dawn

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t QUIT. 😎 —Richard Bach

robins chirp

to a faint glow in the sky —

carving out

showy verbs and fatty nouns

I hold the poem's bare bones

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

― paraphrasing Margaret Atwood, "Spelling"

Look forward to reading your poetry

Happy Writing

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestones, 5 M Pageviews & Adding 1 M Pageviews in 21 Days; Call for Submissions

(FYI: Pageviews, August 12: 66, 023)

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late last night: 5M pageviews—adding 1 million pageviews in just 21 days. (FYI: It reached 4M pageviews on July 21, 2026; Yesterday's pageviews: 59,409)

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that bite hard.

Politics of Distraction, XXI

aftermath ...

questions amid camera clicks

before Trump

yet the lingering smell

from this catering truck

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 (5 following, 5,260 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

—Thomas Mann

my face lit 

by the glare of a screen ...

no words come 

except a murmur

a dreamer, not yet a poet

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t QUIT. 😎

—Richard Bach

A cup of cold coffee holds a skin of dust.

blinking cursor ...

the silence between me

and a word to come

And a gentle reminder:

The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.

—Dylan Thomas

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

—paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Look forward to reading your poetry

Happy Writing

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, the Highest Monthly Pageviews, 483,191 and Call for Submissions

(FYI: Pagaviews, August 1: 49, 308 😂)

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone yesterday at midnight: the HIGEST monthly pageviews, 483,191 (FYI: On JULY 21, 2026, it reached 4 M pageviews ; as of now, August 1, pageviews: 4,322, 398) 

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that bite hard.

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCII: "peace and pieces"

Inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky's remark in his book, Sculpting in Time:

Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality.

And also in response to Donald Trump's Gaza "Peace Plan"

day to night to day

smoke columns climb without end

Israel wants peace: 

piece by piece from Palestine

through Lebanon, Syria ...

(Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCIII: "biggest crime scene"

not a "strip"

but the world's biggest crime scene ...

amid the rubble

a Gazan boy, unmoving

stares at the smoke-smeared moon)

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 (5 following, 5,242 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write.

—Anaïs Nin

the clock stares back

before robinsong rising

my mind snow-white

I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and look at it, until it shines.

― (widely attributed to) Emily Dickinson who echoed this exact sentiment in her poem "A Word is Dead," 

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

Poems: Third Series, 1896

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

― paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Look forward to reading your poetry

Happy Writing

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, 4 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late yesterday afternoon: 4 M pageveiws (FYI: On January 30, 2026, it reached 3 M pageviews) 

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that bite hard.

Yellowing Memories, IX

surging Pacific ...

on its other shore Mom waved

I wave back in dreams

(FYI: This could be read as a sequel to my tanka prose below:

The Point of No Return

On the day of my emigration to Canada, a land of maple leaves and snowflakes that will eventually bury my past.

a parting

of summer clouds

mother

lets go of my hand

. . . and of my heart

Ribbons, 16:1, Winter 2020)

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 (5 following, 5,242 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and look at it, until it shines.

― (widely attributed to) Emily Dickinson who echoed this exact sentiment in her poem "A Word is Dead," 

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

Poems: Third Series, 1896

Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality.

― Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

― paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Look forward to reading your poetry

Happy Writing

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, 3. 75 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone early this morning: 3.75 M pageveiws (FYI: yesterday's pageviews: 20, 710; last month's pageviews: 173,514; and on May 24, 2026, it reached 3.5 M pageviews) 

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that bite hard.

No More Fairy Tales, LIV

sky tinged gray

a heron high-stepping

through plastic

It seems to me that one should only read [poems] that bite and sting you. If the [poems] we read don't wake us up with a fist to the skull, what’s the point of reading them?

-- paraphrasing Franz Kafka 

And

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

-- Emily Dickinson

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 (5 following, 5,211 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

-- Thomas Mann

all-night wrestle

with this blinking cursor curse —

alone

at morning’s lightfall

I glimpse a swift's skywriting

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t QUIT. 😎

-- Richard Bach

Finally, the muse knocks me out 😂

Politics of Distraction, XVII

In the land of the free, dreaming ...

To American midterm-election voters

The poor and middle class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the super-rich pay lawyers, and the ultra-rich pay politicians.

smell of muggy noon —

the Reflecting Pool's blue sky

turns algae green

Trump news on mute ...

in the soup kitchen mirror

a twentysomething's stare

FYI: CBS News, June 22: Company owned by Trump donor won $1.7 million no-bid Reflecting Pool cleaning contract

Politics of Distraction, XVIII

American “Carnage”

A 15-million-dollar resurfacing—pool reborn in flag-blue paint. It peels at once, thin skins of coating unthreading into the water.

No Trespassing

in the lingering smell

of muggy noon

a chain-link fence around

the Reflecting Pool’s green sky

Microbes revise the budget in silence. A 1.7-million-dollar, no-bid cleanup contract follows, awarded to a company owned by a Trump donor.

A super El Niño presses toward Independence Day.

FYI: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed El Niño conditions in mid-June, with a “super” event expected to develop over the summer and peak in the fall.

And The Atlantic, June 26 2026: Trump’s Peeling Green Gift to America

The Reflecting Pool fiasco says everything about how the Trump administration operates.

Donald Trump, trying to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for America’s 250th birthday and, instead, scoring a tax-payer-funded, $14 million-over-[close to $15 million-dollar] budget own goal in the form of a cracked and peeling, green-algae-riddled, potentially duck-killing militarized zone in the nation’s capital. One of the firms hired for the renovation is named Greenwater Services.

Look forward to reading your poetry.

Happy Writing

Chen-ou

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

summer sunlight

pours through atrium walkways ...

flicker and flicker

on tired faces of back-alley youth

at the photo exhibit

FYI: This is a sequel to the following:

reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XCII

in held silence

the newbie bares, I used to 

love getting high...

until a certain point

a roomful of heads bowed low

NeverEnding Story, December 20 2025

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCVIII: "settler's silhouette"

billows of smoke 

against olive-grove sunset

settler's silhouette

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

June 23, 2026: Undoing History

A revolution is taking place in the northern West Bank. A decades-long settler project is becoming a reality – fast. Settler representatives in the Israeli government are reaping political gains, while the IDF enables and supports the effort on the ground.

Investigation, June 23: The Israeli Far-right's West Bank Land Grab and Why It's a Ticking Time Bomb

Hot News: New Milestone, 3. 5 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late yesterday afternoon: 3.5 M pageveiws (FYI: On January 30, 2026, it reached 3 M pageviews) 

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that 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 (5 following, 5,185 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

-- Thomas Mann

I mutter

nothing much to write about…

the blank screen

looks into me deeper

than my unfinished life

However,

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. 

-- Richard Bach

And

These days, it’s easy to feel that we’ve fallen out of connection with one another and with the earth and with reason and with love. I mean: we have. But to read, to write, is to say that we still believe in, at least, the possibility of connection.

George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life, 2021.

Look forward to reading your poetry

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, 3. 2 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late last night: 3.2 M pageveiws (FYI: On January 30, 2026, it reached 3 M pageviews) 

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that bite hard.

My belief is that art should not be comforting; for comfort, we have mass entertainment and one another. Art should provoke, disturb, arouse our emotions, expand our sympathies in directions we may not anticipate and may not even wish.

-- Joyce Carol Oates, who views art as a form of exploration and, at times, a transgression:

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 (5 following, 5,090 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

-- Thomas Mann

A cursor blinks in the white of my screen.

darkness pools around stars

words I never said

words I never sent

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. 

-- Richard Bach

And

Every time a poem is written, every time a short story is written, it is written not by cunning, but by belief. The beauty, the something, the little charm of the thing to be, is more felt than known.

-- Robert Frost

Look forward to reading your poetry

Chen-ou

Added: I just found this "reading, writing and human connection" remark:

These days, it’s easy to feel that we’ve fallen out of connection with one another and with the earth and with reason and with love. I mean: we have. But to read, to write, is to say that we still believe in, at least, the possibility of connection.

George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life, 2021.

Hot News: New Milestone, 3 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone early this morning: 3 M pageveiws (FYI: On "August 20," 2025, it reached 2.5 M pageviews) 

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared this poetry journey. NeverEnding Story now seeks haiku and tanka with teeth—poems that bite hard.

[Poetry] should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

Our Republic and its [poetry] will rise or fall together. 

-- paraphrasing Joseph Pulitzer, prominent journalist, newspaper publisher and creator of the Pulitzer Prizes

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 (4 following, 5,060 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

-- Thomas Mann

coffee gone cold

as the cursor blinks

all night long

I stare out at snowflakes

that never settle

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. 

-- Richard Bach

coffee ring on ring ...

I type five lines, five lines

then delete all

start again as robins sing

sing up the morning sun

And

Every time a poem is written, every time a short story is written, it is written not by cunning, but by belief. The beauty, the something, the little charm of the thing to be, is more felt than known.

-- Robert Frost

Look forward to reading your poetry

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.8 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone this morning: 2.8 M pageveiws (FYI: On "August 20," 2025, it reached 2.5 M pageview) 

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 (5 following, 5,008 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

Share with you my latest gembun:

Writing like the morning sun held in a drop of dew, or at most the sudden flash of lightning.

a poet's headstone

this long dash

between illegible dates 

Then, I would like to ask you, my dear fellow poets,  one simple yet important question: why write poetry?

The following is the link to a thought-provoking Psychology Today piece, titled "Jane Hirshfield: Why Write Poetry?"

Poetry is a release of something previously unknown into the visible.

FYI: Jane Hirshfield is the author of seven books of poetry, including most recently Come, Thief, and the classic collection of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. 

Look forward to reading your poetry

Chen-ou

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

Hot News: New Milestone, the Highest Monthly Pageviews, 221, 461 and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone yesterday at midnight: the HIGEST monthly pageviews, 221,461 (FYI: it reached 2753, 250 pageviews at midnight and 2.5 M pageviews on August 20, 2025) 

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 (5 following, 4,954 followers).

drenched 

in sweat and hot tears 

I push, pushing 

the last line of my tanka 

out into this October light 😅

And

The proper response to a poem is another poem. 😉

-- Phyllis Webb

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.

-- Anaïs Nin

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Look forward to reading your poetry

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.6 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone last night: 2.6 M pageveiws (FYI: On "August 20," 2025, it reached 2.5 M pageviews; yesterday's pageviews: 6689 and this month so far from 1st-14th, 11 am: 74457) 

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 (3 following, 4,935 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

We write to find out what we didn’t know we knew. We write to know deeper and truer. We write to connect the dots: a whole new constellation.

-- Carolyn Coman

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.

-- Anaïs Nin

The proper response to a poem is another poem.

-- Phyllis Webb

To conclude today's post, I would like to share with you the following haiku about writer's block 😓:

midnight barking ...

my page still remains

white as the snow

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.5 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late this morning: 2.5 M pageveiws (FYI: On June, 13 2024, it reached 2 M pageviews) 

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 (4 following, 4,922 followers).

on the windowsill

two canaries singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

NeverEnding Story  😋

In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, "poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty." 

-- Seamus Heaney

And

What poetry can, must, and will always do for us: it complicates us, it doesn't "soothe."

-- Jorie Graham 

I would like to conclude today's "Hot News" post with the following latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXVII: "'relocation plan'"

written in response to Haaretz, Aug. 20,2025: Defense Minister Approves Plan to Conquer Gaza City; 130,000 IDF Reservists to Be Mobilized

"Relocation Plan"

summer odors  ...

nowhere to go, no way

to get pieces of bread

ghost town

a Gazan's mind a labyrinth

of dead bodies

FYI: Haaretz, August 22, 2025: 'Gates of Hell Will Open': Israel's Defense Minister Vows to Level Gaza City After IDF Takeover Plan Approved

And Haaretz, Oct. 9 2025: In One Month, Israeli Fire Killed Over 130 People in 'Safe Zones' Designated by the IDF

Despite designating some refugee camps in central Gaza as 'safe zones' for residents evacuating Gaza City, the IDF has continued attacking them on an almost daily basis, killing at least 130 people

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXVIII: "bloodied keffiyeh"

a single sneaker

amid the twisted rebar

a bloodied keffiyeh

FYI: For many Palestinians, the keffiyeh symbolizes their yearning for freedom and serves a nod to their history. For some non-Palestinians, it's a show of solidarity. 

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.4 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone late last night: 2.4 M pageveiws (FYI: It reached 2. 3 M pageviews on April 20, 2025)

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 (5 Following; 4,862 Followers).

Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.

-- Audre Lorde

Defy the law! –

Write the heartbroken

poetry of the World!

(often attributed to) Jack Kerouac 

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVII: "loose skin over bone"

this dull-eyed baby 

with loose skin over bone ...

a Gazan boy

scrapes the bottom of a cracked pot 

for leftover grains

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Chen-ou 

FYI: Defense for Children International - Palestine, June 24 2025: “Starving a Generation” report indicts Israel for weaponizing starvation as a tool of genocide

Defense for Children International - Palestine, in collaboration with Doctors Against Genocide, published a report today asserting Israeli authorities have deliberately weaponized starvation as a method of genocide, resulting in the preventable deaths and suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza that will carry negative impacts for generations to come.

“Starving a Generation: Israel’s Famine Campaign Targeting Palestinian Children in Gaza” documents 33 cases of child starvation collected by DCIP’s field researchers in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023, and May 21, 2025. In nine of these cases, the child died. These children, all of whom died of malnutrition, ranged between the ages of one week and 10 years old. Of the other 24 cases, documenting children still suffering from the effects of starvation, 14 are under one year of age, five are toddlers, and five are school age. Five of the children are suffering from chronic diseases. These cases represent only a small fraction of the true toll, as Israel’s continued bombardment, siege, and obstruction of aid have made comprehensive documentation impossible.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVIII: "this pain that words can't carry"

in a heat haze

murderaftermurder

of crows hovering

over bodies amid ruins ...

this pain that words can't carry

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz," June 27: 'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid

IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes.

June 28: U.S.-backed  Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, GHF Urges Probe Into Israeli Army Fire on Gaza Aid-seekers Following Haaretz Expose

Editorial, June 29: Israel Turned Gaza's Aid Centers Into Death Traps. The Killing Has to Stop

June 30: Senior Israeli Army Officers Admit 'Uncalculated' Fire on Gaza Aid Seekers After Haaretz Expose

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.3 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone this morning: 2. 3 M pageveiws (FYI: NeverEnding Story reached 2. 2 M pageviews on March 4, 2025)

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 (6 Following; 4,777 Followers).

Defy the law! –

Write the heartbroken

poetry of the World!

(often attributed to) Jack Kerouac 

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXVI: "armless boy's stare"

inspired by 2025 World Press Photo of an armless Gazan boy,  9-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour with his arms missing just below each shoulder

calm between fireballs 

in the slanted moonlight

an armless boy's stare

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Chen-ou 

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz," April 20: Khan Yunis, Gaza's City of Slaughter

Over the past 120 years, the Kishinev pogrom, on Easter Sunday of 1903, has become a myth that shaped Jewish consciousness forever. There is no child in Israel who has not heard about it. But The Kishinev riots are part of an ordinary day for people in Gaza .

Hot News: New Milestone, the Highest Daily Pageviews, 23, 802 and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone yesterday at midnight:

the HIGEST daily page views, 23, 802

We read to know we're "not alone."

-- The character of C.S. Lewis in William Nicholson's play, "Shadowlands" 

The proper response to a poem is "another poem."

-- Phyllis Webb 

I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of this poetry journey. And look forward to reading your haiku and tanka (see haiku and tanka submission guidelines)

on the windowsill

two bluebirds singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

"NeverEnding Story" (most-read haiku and tanka poetry blog) 👍

And most importantly, 

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent. This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.

-- Toni Morrison, "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear"

Trump Empire, Inc., XVII

Against Trumpinator

patho-cracy ...

my ESL teacher whispers

then puts her finger 

to her mouth as USA! chants 

grow sharp and darker outside

wecan'twaitfor 

$5, 000 made-in-USA

iPhones. iPhones now ...

flanked by a spray of flags

red-hattedTrumpists shouting

 

tariffs, a tax cut 

for working Americans

louder from TV

in gathering dark, he mutters

my 401K, now 401

Land of the Crazed --> USA

Canada <-- Home of the Brave

a giant road sign

at the corner near the border

as flocks of geese fly north

in Toronto sunshine

with the scent of early spring

and freedom

two Americans meet and part:

one draft dodger, one Trump evader

Hands Off Rally:

chant after chant of fried truth

eggflation

scrambled justice, poached rights,

cracked democracy... Trump, Fuck Off

(FYI: Trumpinator,  Donald Trump as the Terminator, is a MAGA codeword. ESL stands for English as a Second Language. The Polish psychiatrist Andrew Lobaczewski coined this term, "pathocracy," to describe a type of governance by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society. And a 401(k) is a retirement savings plan in the US)

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Look forward to reading your work

Chen-ou

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XVIII

White House news on mute

shaft after shaft of sunlight

through rainclouds

Added: the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXIII: "15 aid workers executed"

aid workers bound and shot

the s t  r   e  t   c    h of silence

after silence

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XIX

the stocks rocketing

downward, upward, downward ...

Trump brags, kissing my ass

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.2 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone this morning: 2. 2 M pageveiws (FYI: NeverEnding Story reached 2. 1 M pageviews on November 25, 2024)

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 (6 Following; 4,762 Followers).

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent. This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.

-- Toni Morrison, "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear"

Defy the law! –

Write the heartbroken

poetry of the World!

(often attributed to) Jack Kerouac 

I write as fast

as a downhill skier

then backtrack

revision by revision ...

my gaze turns to the hilltop moon

Chen-ou Liu

(FYI: For more about revisions, see To the Lighthouse: Revision, Revision, and Revision 😅)

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Chen-ou

Hot News: New Milestone, 2.128 Million Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

Launched on the first day of 2013, NeverEnding Story crossed the 2.128 million view mark this morning (FYI: NeverEnding Story reached 1. 826 Million pageviews on January 1, 2024)

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 (5 following, 4,754 followers).

And I'm here to to announce I will not be moving to Bluesky or another friendly social media/platform.

It's because 

On #ElonMusk's X, one of the things a #Twitter #Poet is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions, especially the ones regarding #ConvictedFelon #DonaldTrump

-- paraphrasing Salman Rushdie #quote #writing #FightBack

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent. This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.

-- Toni Morrison, "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear"

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

To conclude today's new year post, I would to like share with you the latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIII: "Jimmy Carter"

in memory of Jimmy Carter, a bluntly honest man of Faith who follow[ed] the Prince of Peace in the New Testament (The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024)

these worn pages

of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

in snowlight

Carter's word-bombs bunker-bust

IDF's tunnel-deep lie-mines

Happy New Year, 2025! Peace on Earth

Chen-ou

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIV: "new year of the same fate"

A New Year of the Same Fate

alone, lost

in the calm between fireballs

this Gazan boy's gaze

a two-thousand-yard stare

at the Great Beyond ...

with lifeless eyes

cast to Gaza's ashy skies

this girl's face

summons a grief 

as old as Time

FYI: The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024: Remembering a Visit to Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia

Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin spent thirteen days secluded near Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain and produced a peace treaty that has endured for forty years. It was Jimmy Carter’s signature accomplishment and one that has never been matched in the region, despite decades of strenuous attempts.

...on his first day in the Oval Office, in January, 1977, he stunned his Vice-President, Walter Mondale, by saying that his first priority was to bring peace to the Middle East. Carter later told me that he believed God had put him into the Presidency for that very reason.

...So why do you think God wants peace in the Holy Land?” I asked. “Because we follow the Prince of Peace in the New Testament,” he responded.

In retrospect, Carter’s priorities in the White House—the environment, energy conservation, peace, health care—were remarkably prescient, and certainly his personal qualities offer a dismaying contrast to so much of the present state of American politics. Perhaps his piety soured the American public on him. Other qualities—his doggedness, earnestness, sincerity, blunt honesty—were in sharp contrast to those of Reagan, who proved irresistible to the public.