A Room of My Own: Hazy Crescent Haiku

again her smile fades...

I awaken to the silence

of a hazy crescent

FYI: My haiku below could be read as its prequel and sequel respestively 

her empty bed ...

get-well cards catching

winter sunlight

"Modern Haiku," Under the Basho, 2014

And

hazy day moon 

alone, awake with the weight

of memory

PoemHunter, February 16, 2013

Added: Politics of Distraction, VI:

Make America Great Again

After the failed peace talks, leaning over the Resolute Desk toward the camera lights, the man vows with a meaty smile, "I'll block ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz."

block the blockade

to break the blockade ...

in the briefing room

silence broken only

by a buzzing fly

FYI: Time Magazine, April 12, 2026: Trump Says U.S. Will Blockade Strait of Hormuz After Iran Peace Talks Fail

Added:

peace talks stalled

I hold onto the long half

of a wishbone

Added:

home from work

the opening door spills

darkness 

Added:

moonlit wave

after wave after wave 

the ocean 

grows louder with her 

gone a year now

Added:

coloring the morning breeze cherry blossom rain

Added: No More Fairy Tales, LII

El Niño pulses ... 

war is peace, peace is war

circled red

FYI: The New York Times, March 12 2026: Odds Rise That El Niño Will Soon Bring Weather Extremes

The climate pattern known for intense heat, floods and drought is likely to develop this summer, raising questions about disaster preparedness.

Scientists at the Climate Prediction Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had raised their estimate for an El Niño event this summer from 60% to about 80%.... Forecasters now predict that the coming El Niño -- a warming of the Pacific Ocean that deeply affects global weather patterns -- is likely to be as severe as the one in 2023-2024, which triggered severe flooding and prolonged heatwaves around the world.

Added:

green-leafed breeze

my mind and lungs filled 

with skylark song

Butterfly Dream: Doe and I Haiku by Michele Root-Bernstein

English Original

evening hush

the doe and I

in one regard

Modern Haiku, 43:3, Autumn 2012

Michele Root-Bernstein 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

傍晚的靜謐

一隻母鹿和我

沉寂不動

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

傍晚的静谧

一只母鹿和我

沉寂不动

Bio Sketch

Michele Root-Bernstein appears in A New Resonance 6; the 2016 chapbook, Scent of the Past…Imperfect; Haiku 2014; Haiku 2016; and on three rocks in Ohio. She is co-author with Francine Banwarth of The Haiku Life, What We Learned as Editors of Frogpond and facilitator of a Michigan haiku study group. 

Butterfly Dream: Vow of Silence Haiku by Jenny Mattern

English Original

new moon

another vow

of silence

Jenny Mattern

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

新月

另一個靜默

的誓約

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

新月

另一个静默

的誓约

Bio Sketch

Jenny Mattern is a poet, a crafter of stories, and a cake-for-breakfast enthusiast living in Montana. She has poems published in The Poetry Pea Anthology, Cold Moon Journal, The Solitary Daisy, The Dirigible Balloon, the 2025 One Art Haiku Anthology, and Tranquility: An Anthology of Haiku.

Butterfly Dream: Midnight Silence Haiku by David He

English Original

midnight silence ...

my wife opens the curtains

to let in moonlight

David He

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

午夜的寂靜…

我妻子打開窗簾

讓月光照進來

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

午夜的寂静…

我妻子打开窗帘

让月光照进来

Bio Sketch

David He has been working as an Advanced English teacher for 35 years in a high school in China. So far he has published  twenty short stories in English. In recent years he has published haiku and tanka in print journals and e-zines, including Acorn, The Heron’s Nest, Frogpond, Ribbons and Cattails.

A Room of My Own: Penetrating Silence Tanka

Yellowing Memories, I:

Father's long stare

and penetrating silence

before he walks away ...

under piles of my textbooks

a new copy of Playboy

FYI: Yellowing Memory is my new writing project, and its first entry is stirred by and written in response to Playboy Enterprises's Jan. 23 announcement: "The reimagined PLAYBOY magazine will arrive on Barnes & Noble newsstands nationwide on February 10, 2025. "

The new issue features: Cover Model Lori Harvey, Playboy interview with comedian and actress Nikki Glaser, and the Playmate of the Year.

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

at high noon I see

a woman pulling down

her windblown white dress ...

Marilyn Monroe's smile

held my young self each night

NeverEnding Story, July 17, 2015

Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, XVII

written in response to the heated exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Convicted Felon Donald Trump and his lackey J.D. Vance at the White House.

the barrage 

of blaring lies and shit-words

from his meaty mouth ...

between Trump's pauses 

Vance's thunderous echo-fart

FYI: The noun shit-word has been obsolete since its recorded usage only in  the Middle English period (1150—1500) (shit-word entry, Oxford English Dictionary). However, during today's "meeting" at the White House, the Convicted Felon and his lackey "Make Shit-Word Great Again." 

Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, XVIII

white house blowout...

this man-child's meaty smile

in the window

as southern magnolias explode

with a mob of ravens

 

FYI: Among the [symbolically rich] trees on the White House Grounds, the oldest ones, southern magnolias, were planted by Andrew Jackson in 1829.

And PopMatters, Feb.9, 2017: The Spoiled Little Man-Child They Made King: Celebrity, Richard II, and Donald Trump.

Did Shakespeare predict Donald Trump? No. He just wrote a play about a thin-skinned, petty, self-aggrandising narcissist whose poor leadership drove an empire to ruin. 

Added: Yellowing Memories, II:

the ringing

of faraway church bells ...

my ex's smile

lingers in my mind

a shadow I can't escape

Added:

to stay or to go?

I walk through the snowstorm

looking for a sign

in the midnight sky, and yet

there is none, just snowflakes

Added:

a tapestry

of summer clouds

the rocking chair

covered in dust

on grandma’s porch

A Room of My Own: God, Rid Me of God

slanted sunlight

through stained glass windows

as I pray hard ...

finally tired of me

Time leaves me alone

jab by jab

right hook after left hook

at its head

I shadowbox with God

in my last Bible study

unshackled

from my childhood beliefs

I'm a passing thought

in the mind of God

who forsook his son on the cross

tired and alone

in the sunlit pew in a church

by the roadside ...

for hours my heart-to-heart

with the Angel of Silence

FYI: The title is a paraphrase of German theologian, philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart's prayer.

Added:

I find church boring ...

my Christian friend responds

in dappled shadow

his tough-as-nails-on-the-Cross

account of fighting cancer

Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, XV

Living in the Land of Promise

just a dream, and yet ...

the mountain lion roaring

to flocks of sheep,

once elected as your King

I'll be vegetarian

a dictator

on his "first day only" ...

in misty dark

the ghost of tomorrow whispers

Trump Forever, Trump Forever

the people of Trump

                  by the people of Musk

                  for the people of the SuperRich ...

sun-bleached stars and stripes

atop the Capitol fencing

surge after surge

of woke mind virus ...

wearing a crown

the Convicted Felon alone

in an Oval Office window

FYI: The Telegraph, Feb., 7: Let’s celebrate: Donald Trump is vaccinating the West against the woke mind virus

Whether it’s gender ideology or border control, the president has torn through years of bizarre, divisive groupthink in a matter of weeks

Rolling Stone, Feb. 19: Trump on Himself: 'LONG LIVE THE KING'

The White House’s official X account also shared an image of a fake cover of Time magazine depicting Trump in a golden crown, with the headline “LONG LIVE THE KING.” 

And ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people...We must stay in community. We must help the vulnerable. We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future

Jane Fonda, Feb. 23, 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards speech

Added:

one inch less 

of sunlight

winter solitude

Biting NOT Barking: Honored Dead Haiku by Cor van den Heuvel

English Original

after the speeches

the honored dead return

to their silence

Dark, 1982

Cor van den Heuvel 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

演講結束後

褒揚的死者回到

他們的沉默

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

演讲结束后

褒扬的死者回到

他们的沉默

Bio Sketch

Cor van den Heuvel (March 16, 1931 - September 12, 2024) authored hundreds of haiku and haibun, including one of the most controversial works of the 20th century, one-word haiku: tundra. In addition to more than a dozen collections, he edited or co-edited a number of influential anthologies, most notably three editions of The Haiku Anthology, as well as Baseball Haiku. He also won three Merit Book Awards from the Haiku Society of America, a World Haiku Achievement Award at the World Haiku Festival, and the Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Prize.

A Room of My Own: Here And There, Yet

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXVIII: "bloodied baby"

written in response to Reuters, July 15: Israel launches new Gaza strikes after weekend attack kills scores in safe zone

the corner

of an Israeli soldier's eye

a bloodied baby

breaking Gaza news

a newborn pierces the silence 

of this West Bank family

rubble-strewn ghost town

my baby's life ends, not the war

and no one hears 

FYI: Haaretz, July 15: "Why Has Gaza Become Dispensable?" Arabs and Palestinians Decry Inaction Over Israeli Targeting of Hamas Commander in "Safe" Zone

Weeks into the war in Gaza, the Israeli army designated the area of Al-Mawasi a humanitarian safe zone, instructing Gazans to evacuate there. Soon, the 16 square-kilometer strip along southern Gaza's coast became the only safe area for over 380,000 displaced Palestinians.

Nine months into the war, the Israeli army launched a military attack on Al-Mawasi, killing at least 90 Palestinians and injuring 300 others, including, according to the IDF, the commander of Hamas' Khan Yunis Brigade, Rafa'a Salameh.

And Al Jazeera, July 15: UNRWA headquarters in Gaza "flattened"

The head of UNRWA [The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] said the organization’s headquarters in Gaza has been destroyed in another “blatant disregard of international humanitarian law."

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXIX: "life and death"

this moment

between life and death in Gaza

smoldering remains ...

Added:

summer drizzle

on a barbed-wire fence

droplets of blood

Added:

child migrant's stare

a world beyond

this border fence

Added:

exit ramp

this last-mile journey

to the churchyard

One Man's Maple Moon: Meditation Camp Tanka by Kala Ramesh

English Original

meditation camp ...

ten days of silence

broken,

my thought-ridden mind

finds its loudspeaker again

Cattails, Spring 2024

Kala Ramesh 

Chinese Translation (Traditional) 

冥想營 ...

十天的沉默

打破了, 

我的萬千思緒

再次找到了它的擴音器

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

冥想营 ...

十天的沉默

打破了,

我的万千思绪

再次找到了它的扩音器

Bio Sketch

Kala Ramesh is the Founder and Director of Triveni Haikai India, the Founder and Managing Editor of haikuKATHA Journal, an anthologist, and an external faculty member of Symbiosis International University Pune, where she taught a 60-hour haikai course from 2012 to 2021 — a first in India. She has organised eight major haiku festivals and to bring haiku into everyday spaces, Kala has initiated several successful projects in India.

Butterfly Dream: Sumi-e Painting Haiku by Brendon Kent

English Original

sumi-e painting 

a crow breaks

the snow’s silence 

First Place, 2022 Polish International Haiku Contest

Brendon Kent 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

日本水墨畫

一隻烏鴉打斷

大雪的寂靜

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

日本水墨画

一只乌鸦打断

大雪的寂静

Bio Sketch

    

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

One Man’s Maple Moon: Silent Apartment Tanka by Laryalee Fraser

English Original

cold rain

drips on the windowsill --

the distance

between our goodbyes

and this silent apartment

Winner, Tanka Splendor Awards, 2005

Laryalee Fraser 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冰冷的雨

滴在窗台上 --

在我們的告別

和這間安靜公寓

之間的距離

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冰冷的雨

滴在窗台上 --

在我们的告别

和这间安静公寓

之间的距离

Bio Sketch

A resident of British Columbia, Canada, Laryalee Fraser was actively engaged in online poetry forums from the mid-1990’s until her death in 2013. Her poetry has been widely published in haiku and tanka journals, and  in 2006, she compiled an online anthology of haiku, "a procession of ripples."

Butterfly Dream: Fawn Haiku by Veronika Zora Novak

English Original

twilight ...

a fawn sipping

silence

Autumn Moon Haiku, 6:2,  Spring/Summer 2023

Veronika Zora Novak 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

黎明 ...

一隻小鹿啜飲

寧靜

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

黎明 ...

一只小鹿啜饮

宁静

Bio Sketch

Veronika Zora Novak resides in Toronto, Canada.  She studied Medical Office Administration at George Brown College and graduated with honours in 1999.  She has been writing haiku and tanka since 2012 and has been published in acclaimed journals such as Under the Bashõ, Chrysathemum, Failed Haiku, Hedgerow, Prune Juice, Bleached Butterfly and many others.

Poetic Musings: Solitude Tanka by Hifsa Ashraf

interweaving 

the strings of silence 

with moonlight 

until this solitude 

becomes a symphony 

Take 5ive, 1, 2021

Hifsa Ashraf

Commentary: Enhanced by the effective use of metaphors (interweaving/weaving "together;" moonlight, Buddhist metaphor for enlightenment; strings of (meditative) silence), Hifsa's tanka builds, line by line, to a thematically significant and multi-sensorily effective ending that reveals the theme of a "symphony of silence."

Her thought-provoking tanka reminds me of the following passage on the difference between loneliness and solitude:

Loneliness is small; solitude is large. Loneliness closes in around you; solitude expands toward the infinite. Loneliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nobody answers; "solitude has its roots in the great silence of eternity..."

"In solitude silence becomes a symphony." Time changes from a series of moments strung together into a seamless motion riding on the rhythms of the stars. Loneliness is banished, solitude is in full flower, and we are one with the pulse of life and the flow of time...

-- Kent Nerburn, Simple Truths

And it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of my tanka below where the "mythological art of weaving" as a "writing metaphor" is explored:

this winter mist ...

like Penelope I weave

and unweave

a shroud of words

to ward off loneliness

Special Feature: Myths and the Creative Imagination, Atlas Poetica, 2015

FYI: The ancient art of weaving is a profound "metaphor for recognizing health and wholeness as the primary state, and overcoming the blockages of seemingly broken connections."

Butterfly Dream: Empty Sky Haiku by Marilyn Humbert

English Original

empty sky

after the storm

silence

 

Autumn Moon Journal,  3:1, Autumn/Winter 2019-2020

Marilyn Humbert

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

空曠的天空

暴風雨過後

的靜默

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

空旷的天空

暴风雨过后

的静默

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.

Butterfly Dream: Mountain Haiku by Patricia Donegan

English Original

halfway

up the mountain --

the silence

Haiku Studio, 1991

Patricia Donegan 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

爬到

一半的山路 --

這靜默

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

爬到

一半的山路 --

这静默

Bio Sketch

Patricia Donegan (1945 -- 2023) led a life of creative exploration, meditation, writing, translating and teaching haiku, and teaching haiku. Three of her most famous books of haiku Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion & Remembrance (co-translated with Yoshie Ishibashi), Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart, and Chiyo-ni Woman Haiku Master (co-translated with Yoshie Ishibashi). In 2017 she was named the honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives.

A Room of My Own: That's It

Canada Day

through wildfire smoke

the squawk of gulls

fireworks over ...

the distance between stars

and our silence 

FYI: CNBC, Climate, June 30: Four North American cities now near worst air quality in the world

Key Points:

1 New York; Washington, D.C.; Montreal; and Toronto have some of the worst air quality in the world, according to an AQI tracking service.

2 Canadian wildfires have sent smoky air around much of North America over the last few weeks.

3 The effect of the wildfires has been significantly worsened by climate change, researchers have found.

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

firework-lit sky

my veteran friend sleeps 

with a gun

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

our football team

lines up for O' Canada

in the center

a Black player looks up

at the sky, endless blue

Added: This Brave New World, XCII

a rowdy white man

held face down on the airport floor

by policemen

he screams, you’re treating me

like a fucking black person

A Room of My Own: Father Haiku

The day after Father's Day

pre-dawn silence

thoughts of my father

in the past tense

Note: This haiku is a sequel to my haiku sequence below:

A Man of Few Words

(A haiku sequence for my father who was born in mainland China, lived most of his adult life in Taiwan, died and was buried there in 2022)

a lone star

Father's dreamworld becomes

his hospice window

the slanted beam

of a winter sun ...

Father's last smile

morning chill

a part of me lowered

with Father's coffin

sleepless again

I hear Father crying out

Mama, I'm coming home

this dream loop:

Father rides on my shoulders

into the Taiwan Strait

Father waving his hand

just before I wake up ...

this false dawn

Firelies' Light, 27 2023

Added:

Pacific sunrise --

alone after a storm

I listen 

to the flat calm 

of my inner world

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

one by one

friends leave me in Toronto

for small towns 

they fancy a house with a lawn,

a backyard pool and dogs

FYI: Toronto Star, Oct. 22, 2022: ‘An exodus of families’: Toronto’s decline in children should be an election issue: We are all familiar with dystopian narratives of societies where children are scarce. Toronto is in danger of becoming such a place.

As Ontario’s population ages and relies on immigration for expansion, children represent a shrinking percentage of the overall total. Some critics have summed up the failures in a single word: housing. As in there simply isn’t enough for families, neither in suitable forms nor at attainable prices.

A Room of My Own: Burden of Silence Haiku

Three Hundred and Sixty-First Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written in response to The Independent, April 26: Arcturus: the new Covid variant XBB.1.16 strain detected in 34 countries so far and driving up infection rate in India

covid patients

in room 13, the burden

of silence

FYI: The Times of India, April 27: India records 9,355 new coronavirus cases in last 24 hours.

And Yahoo!News, April 28: ‘Arcturus’ COVID variant shows threat of new wave of death, warns WHO

...The leader of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned coronavirus is still capable of causing mass death....“An estimated one in 10 infections results in post-COVID-19 conditions,” he added, “suggesting hundreds of millions of people will need longer-term care. 

Added: This Brave New World, LXXX

in dim light

every dead person shot 

from the neck up ...

Honduran women lay 

over the little children

FYI: Associated Press, April 29: Man kills 5 in Texas after Honduran family complained about gunfire

A Texas man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbors, killing an 8-year-old and four others inside the house, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday.

Added:

in the workshop

green, focussed and wired

on energy drinks 

salesmen repeat loudly, there's gold

behind each door of distrust!

FYI: For more example, see To the Lighthouse: Character/Persona Tanka

Butterfly Dream: Deaf-Mutes Haiku by Juanito L. Escareal

English Original

the silence shifts

from fingers to fingers ...

two deaf-mutes

The Silence Within: Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, and Free Verse, 2018

Juanito L. Escareal

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

沉默從手指

轉移到手指 ...

兩個聾啞人

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

沉默从手指

转移到手指 ...

两个聋哑人

Bio Sketch

Juanito L. Escareal's haiku have been published in on-line journals and other publications. He has won awards, including notably the Vancouver Cherry Blossoms Festival Haiku Invitational (2007) and the Hekinan Genkissu! Spirits Up! Word Wide Contest (2005). His tanka won an award in the 7th Hoshi-to-Mori Tanka Contest (2005).

A Room of My Own: bangbangbang Haiku

bangbangbang

followed by eerie silence ...

the night deepens

FYI: for more about onomatopoeia and haiku noir, see my "To the Lighthouse" posts, "A Rhetoric Device, Onomatopoeia" and "Haiku Noir"

Added: 

alone in the TV's light

fade-out

before each ad

Added: This Brave New World, LXII

COP27:

in this resort city

on the Red Sea 

hundreds upon hundreds

of jumbo jets touch down

FYI: From 6 to 18 November, Heads of State, CEOs, ministers and negotiators, along with climate activists, civil society representatives will meet in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh for the largest annual gathering on "climate action." 

And CBC News, Nov. 5: Climate activists stop private jets from leaving Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport

The environmental group says Schiphol is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12 billion kilograms annually.

This tanka is a sequel to the following poem:

The End (of COP26)

This Brave New World, XXIX

written in response to The Hill's Nov. 10 News : Nancy Pelosi defends "America's moral authority" on climate action and The Washington Post's Nov. 11 News: U.S. and China issue joint pledge to slow climate change

   Ame      rica 

i    s    a    l    l    i    n

with arms linked

young activists chanting

blahblahblah, clean up your mess

a pundit ranting

beneath slate-grey skies

during this decade

there will be talk after talk

between the US and China

NeverEnding Story, November 12 2021