Butterfly Dream: Moonglow Haiku by Debbie Strange

English Original

moonglow

a thousand jellyfish

in an ocean of sky

A Year Unfolding, 2017 

Debbie Strange

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

月光

千隻水母在倒映天空

的汪洋大海

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

月光

千只水母在倒映天空

的汪洋大海

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.

Poetic Musings: Mother and Ocean Haiku by Kobayashi Issa

mother I never knew,

each time I see the ocean,

each time --

The Essential Haiku, 1995

Kobayashi Issa 

Commentary: L1 establishes both the emotional atmosphere and the biographical context: Issa’s mother died when he was only two or three years old. The phrase translated as “each time” in Ls 2&3 comes from the Japanese "miru tabi ni," which Issa repeats in the original text (naki haha ya / umi miru tabi ni / miru tabi ni). This repetition conveys an unending, recurring sense of longing. The ocean in L2 also functions powerfully as a metaphor for the mother he never knew—vast, deep, and ultimately unreachable.

My haiku below may be read as a counter poem to Issa’s:

wind-torn clouds

the surging winter ocean

between mom and me

Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2024/25

Where Issa’s ocean evokes yearning for an absent mother, mine suggests emotional distance and estrangement. The “surging winter ocean” becomes not a symbolic connection, but a barrier separating mother and child, while the “wind-torn clouds” reinforce the haiku’s atmosphere of turbulence and fracture.

One Man's Maple Moon: Haze Tanka by Susan Constable

English Original

ocean salt

spatters the windows

by winter’s end

I peer through a haze

of might-have-beens

The Eternity of Waves, 2017

Susan Constable

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

海鹽

濺落在窗戶上

到了冬末

透過一層薄霧我凝視

那些可能發生卻未發生的事情

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

海盐

溅落在窗户上

到了冬末

透过一层薄雾我凝视

那些可能发生却未发生的事情

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.

Poetic Musings: Haze Tanka by Susan Constable

in memory of Susan Constable

an early supporter of NeverEnding Story, who passed away on the evening of March 18.

ocean salt

spatters the windows

by winter’s end

I peer through a haze

of might-have-beens

The Eternity of Waves, 2017

Susan Constable

Commentary: This tanka follows the classic structure beautifully, beginning with a sharp, physical image in Ls 1-3 before shifting into an emotional realization in Ls 4&5. The transition in L 3, “by winter’s end,” is both thematically and emotionally effective. It moves the reader from the external, cold grime of the world into the internal reflection of the self.

The choice of “ocean salt” as the metaphor for the haze of regrets is tactile and resonant. Salt is both abrasive and preserving, adding depth to the concept of “might-have-beens.” It's a fitting symbol for regret: something that wears down but also lingers, much like the residue of the past.

And while the phrase “might-have-beens” can sometimes verge on cliché, it feels earned here. Grounded in the image of the dirty window, it resonates with the specific end-of-winter lethargy—where everything feels slightly blurred and stagnant, and the weight of what could have been lingers in the cold, quiet air.

One Man's Maple Moon: Winter Dusk Tanka by Marion Alice Poirier

English Original

in winter dusk

an ocean flows between us ...

I play our song

and wonder, can you hear it

beneath the sickle moon?

Marion Alice Poirier

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬日黃昏

我們之間隔著一片海洋 ...

我彈奏我們的歌

不禁思忖, 在那鐮刀月光下

你是否聽得到?

    

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬日黄昏

我们之间隔着一片海洋 ...

我弹奏我们的歌

不禁思忖, 在那镰刀月光下

你是否听得到?

Bio Sketch

Marion Alice Poirier is a lifetime resident of Boston, MA. She began writing haiku in 2001 and eventually began to teach haiku in workshops on Poetry Circle and Emerging Poets. She also write short poetry and have been published in on-line haiku and short poetry journals like Tinywords, Hedgerow and The Heron's Nest.

Butterfly Dream: River and Sea Haiku by Elmedin Kadric

English Original

from monologue

to dialogue

the river enters the sea

light packing, 2020

Elmedin Kadric 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

從獨白

到對話

河流匯入大海

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

从独白

到对话

河流汇入大海

Bio Sketch

Elmedin Kadric was born in Novi Pazar, Serbia, but writes out of Helsingborg, Sweden. His first collection, buying time (2017), was published by Red Moon Press.

Butterfly Dream: Ocean Roar Haiku by Al Fogel

English Original

ocean roar

a toddler lifts a seashell

to his mouth

Honorable Mention,  2011 Haiku Pen Contest

Al Fogel

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

大海的咆哮聲

一個蹣跚學步的孩子舉起貝殼

放到他的嘴邊

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

大海的咆哮声

一个蹒跚学步的孩子举起贝壳

放到他的嘴边

Bio Sketch

Al Fogel, 79, began his haiku journey about 14 years ago and has been writing haiku, senryu, tanka and haibun ever since. Some of his work has appeared in leading haijin journals around the globe. He has recently published two books: So Little Time and  Holding Hand-helds

One Man's Maple Moon: River and Sea Tanka by Kirsty Karkow

English Original

I think I am

one with the river 

growing broader 

quieter as it flows 

toward the endless sea

Eucalypt, 32, 2022

Kirsty Karkow

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我覺得自己

與河流融為一體

當流向無盡的大海

它愈發寬闊

並且愈發寧靜

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我觉得自己

与河流融为一体

当流向无尽的大海

它愈发宽阔

并且愈发宁静

Bio Sketch

Kirsty Karkow lived in Waldoboro, Maine, where she wrote haiku, sijo, tanka, and other short forms. Lyrical, poignant, and spare, her poetry reflected a rich and deep sense of place and spirit. Her haiku have won the Mainichi and the R.H Blyth Award and placed in other contests. And she had two best-selling books in print: water poems: haiku, tanka and sijo and shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka , published by Black Cat Press.

Poetic Musings: Exile Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

tenth year in exile ...

wave after wave rinsing

my shadow

Fourth Prize, New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition 2025

Chen-ou Liu

Comment by the Judge, Scott Mason: The persistent “otherness” commonly felt by an exile finds a poignant natural correlate in this poem. As the years come and go, the beach waves continually advance and recede; yet they can never wash away the protagonist’s physical shadow, nor the felt sense of a shadow existence when separated from one’s “true” home—perhaps a home located on the other side of the ocean from where he or she now stands. [I’m reminded here of Dante: “You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man’s bread” (Paradiso XVII)]

And my haiku below could be read as its prequel:

a beach stone

streaked with rust ...

years in exile

Cattails, April 2020

One Man's Maple Moon: Waves Tanka by Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo

English Original

sitting

with my toes curled

in the sand ...

alone not yet alone

I travel with the waves

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

坐在沙灘上

把腳趾蜷縮

在沙裡 ...

獨自一人, 卻不孤單

我隨波逐流

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

坐在沙滩上

把脚趾蜷缩

在沙里 ...

独自一人, 却不孤单

我随波逐流

Bio Sketch

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo is a self-published Filipino author of Twin deLights: Haikuna Matata and Hainaku! It's Pundemic! I am Balot. Acovida dito. Her poetry has been published in anthologies and journals like The Haiku Foundation, Presence, Mainichi, ESUJ-H, and Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

Butterfly Dream: Beach Haiku by Hortensia Anderson

English Original

a day at the beach --

all of the sunglasses


fill with clouds

Honorable Mention, 7th Mainichi Haiku Contest, 2003

Hortensia Anderson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

海灘上的一天 --

所有的太陽眼鏡

填滿了雲彩

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

海滩上的一天 --

所有的太阳眼镜

填满了云彩

Bio Sketch

Hortensia Anderson is the author of numerous chapbooks as well as a volume of poetry, Trust. Her work has been published in many oneline and print magazines. Her awards and other honors include: Best of 2002: Haiku in English, The Mainichi Daily News; 5th Annual Suruga Baika Winner; Honorable Mention, Mainichi Contest (2003); Tanka Splendor Awards (2003 and 2004); and Third Prize, Kusamakura (2004).

Butterfly Dream: Red Twilight Haiku by Djurdja Vukelić Rožić

English Original

floating

in red twilight

the seagull and the sea

Azami, 38, Japan 1996

Djurdja Vukelić Rožić 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

漂浮

在紅色的暮色中

海鷗和大海

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

漂浮

在红色的暮色中

海鸥和大海

Bio Sketch

Djurdja Vukelic Rozic  was born on April 6, 1956, and now lives in Ivanić Grad, Croatia.  Editor in chief of bilingual haiku magazine IRIS, and deputy editor for haiku at Diogen pro cultura magazine, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She publishes humorous sketches, short stories, and poetry. For her work she received a number of awards and commendations in Croatia and abroad.

Butterfly Dream: Reincarnation Haiku by Martha Magenta

English Original

reincarnation

each raindrop

lost at sea

Haiku Commentary, June 21 2016

Martha Magenta 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

轉世投胎

每一滴雨

迷失在滄海

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

转世投胎

每一滴雨

迷失在沧海

Bio Sketch

Martha Magenta lived in England, UK. Her haiku and tanka has appeared in a number of journals, and anthologies. She was awarded Honourable Mentions for her haiku in The Fifth Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku  Awards, 2017, and in the 71st Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest, 2017, and for her tanka in UHTS  “Fleeting Words” Tanka Contest 2017.

Butterfly Dream: Ebb Tide Haiku by Peggy Heinrich

English Original

ebb tide

turning to look back

at my footprints

Issa's Untidy Hut, July 23, 2010

Peggy Heinrich

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

退潮

回首注視

我的足跡

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

退潮

回首注视

我的足迹

Bio Sketch

Peggy Heinrich's haiku have appeared in almost every haiku journal both nationally and internationally and in many anthologies. Awards include Top Prize in the Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest in both 2009 and 2010. Peeling an Orange, a collection of her haiku with photographs by John Bolivar, was published in 2009 by Modern English Tanka Press. Forward Moving Shadows, a collection of her tanka, with photographs by John Bolivar, was published in 2012.

One Man's Maple Moon: Shanties Tanka by Robert D. Wilson

English Original

I listen

to autumn speak

through waves ...

thinking of young girls

birthing in shanties

Jack Fruit Moon, 2009

Robert D. Wilson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

透過一波波海浪

我傾聽

秋天的細語

想念著年輕的女孩

在棚戶區分娩

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

透过一波波海浪

我倾听

秋天细语

想念着年轻的女孩

在棚户区分娩

Bio Sketch

Robert D. Wilson is Co-Owner of Simply Haiku.

Biting NOT Barking: Arabian Sea Haiku by Isabella Mori

English Original

the soft curl

of  the Arabian Sea ...

an aircraft carrier

Isabella Mori

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

柔軟捲曲

的阿拉伯海浪 ...

一艘航空母艦

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

柔软卷曲

的阿拉伯海浪 ...

一艘航空母舰

Bio Sketch

Isabella Mori lives on the unceded, traditional, ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, is the founder of Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize, and the author of three books of and about poetry, including Not So Pretty Haiku. They write pretty much everything that’s not nailed down.

A Room of My Own: A Writer Blocked Inside

in a seaside cafe

alone, listening ...

summer night breeze

waiting for the Muse ...

the seaside cafe tables

fill and empty

from a sea of words

the Muse rises with breasts covered 

awake ...not yet awake

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XCVI: "fireballs"

as if

there is no tomorrow ...

fireballs over Gaza

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XCVII: "evacuation"

after Jane Reichhold

Gaza evacuation

bombed-out ruins

                             after

                                     bombed-out ruins

FYI: The prefatory note refers to the following classical haiku:

coming home

flower

           by

               flower

San Francisco Haiku Anthology, 1992

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, an Irish poet, playwright and translator who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Added:

an old woman

claps her raised hands

twice ...

where the Shinto shrine

once stood ten years ago

Added: Game Show, 2024, LXVI

Presidential "Debate" 

this deafening, deadly sound

of spit-drop silence

Added:

this unseasonal heat ...

two motorcycles race past me

and weave through

the rush-hour traffic, later

a third... a sixth one speeds by

Poetic Musings: Wild Sea Haiku by Basho

Japanese Original

araumi | ya | Sado | ni | yokotau | amanogawa

wild-sea | - | Sado | to | lay | River-of-Heaven (the Milky Way)

English Translation

a wild sea --

stretching to Sado Isle

the Milky Way

Basho

Comment: This haiku is framed by the natural landscape, a "wild sea" (L1) and the "Milky Way" (L3) through Basho's effective use of inversion (in both the Japanese original and the English translation). Sado Isle, functioning as utamakura (poetic place name) known for its long history of political exiles, surrounded by a wild sea and lying under the Milky Way, comes to "embody the feeling of loneliness, both of the exiles at Sado and of the poet himself. The poem has a majestic, slow-moving rhythm, especially the drawn-out "o" sounds in the middle line (Sado ni yokotau), which suggests the vastness and scale of the landscape" (Haruo Shirane, Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho, pp. 242-3)

FYI: For more about utamakura, see To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Utamakura (Poetic Place Names)

Poetic Musings: Ocean Fog Haiku by Marian Olson

ocean fog --

in a patch of blue

an island drifts by

Sketches of Mexico, 2012

Marian Olson

Commentary: In this cinematic haiku, L1 functions like an establishing shot, an extreme wide shot used to set up the context for the scene ahead (Ls 2&3) that informs the audience where the action will be taking place.

And Ls 2&3 act like a pan shot, a ["slow," in the case of this haiku as indicated in the concluding words, "drifts by"] horizontal camera movement where the camera pivots left or right while its base remains in a fixed location.

This is a visually and emotionally evocative imagist haiku not in or for the moment, but for a state of mind or mood.

FYI: For more about cinematic haiku, see "To the Lighthouse" post, Arranged Marriage of Haiku and Cinema and "Dark Wings of the Night" post, Sergei Eisenstein's View of Haiku as Montage Phrases/Shot Lists

Butterfly Dream: Ocean Fog Haiku by Marian Olson

English Original

ocean fog --

in a patch of blue

an island drifts by

Sketches of Mexico, 2012

Marian Olson

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

海霧 --

在一片藍色的霧氣中

一座島嶼漂過

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

海雾 --

在一片蓝色的雾气中

一座岛屿漂过

Bio Sketch

Marian Olson, non-fiction writer and widely published international poet, was the author of nine books of poetry, including the award winning haiku in Songs of the Chicken Yard, Desert Hours, Consider This, and Moondance. Published in 2017, The Other and Kaleidoscope were her first books of tanka.