Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Butterfly Dream: Dead Cat Haiku by Michael McClintock

English Original

dead cat ...
open-mouthed
to the pouring rain

The Haiku Anthology, 1986

Michael McClintock


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一隻死貓 ...
它的嘴巴張開
朝向傾盆大雨

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一只死猫 ...
它的嘴巴张开
朝向倾盆大雨


Bio Sketch

Michael McClintock's lifework in haiku, tanka, and related literature spanned over four decades. His many contributions to the field included six years as president of the Tanka Society of America (2004-2010) and contributing editor, essayist, and poet for dozens of journals, anthologies, landmark collections and critical studies. McClintock lived in Clovis, California, where he worked as an independent scholar, consultant for public libraries, and poet. Meals at Midnight [tanka], Sketches from the San Joaquin [haiku] and Streetlights: Poetry of Urban Life in Modern English Tanka, were some of his recent titles.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

One Man's Maple Moon: Childhood Home Tanka by Marilyn Humbert

English Original

my childhood home
framed by river redgums --
I stumble
over exposed roots
and family scandals
 
First Place, UHTS Fleeting Words Tanka Competition, 2021

Marilyn Humbert


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我童年房子的景色
被一大群河畔紅桉樹框住
我走過絆倒了
因為它們過度暴露的根部
以及家庭的醜聞

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我童年房子的景色
被一大群河畔红桉树框住
我走过绊倒了
因为它们过度暴露的根部
以及家庭的丑闻


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.

Monday, March 25, 2024

Butterfly Dream: Winter Confinement Haiku by Lucy Whitehead

English Original

winter confinement
cockleshells
collecting moonlight

Blithe Spirit, 30, 1,2020

Lucy Whitehead


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬季禁閉
一排海扇殼
聚集月光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬季禁闭
一排海扇壳
聚集月光


Bio Sketch

Lucy Whitehead writes free verse and haiku. Her haiku have been published in various international journals and anthologies including AcornAkitsu QuarterlyAutumn Moon HaikubonesFrogpondhedgerowModern HaikuPresencePrune JuiceThe Heron's Nesttinywords, and The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2018 and 2019. Twitter @blueirispoetry.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Butterfly Dream: Plough Moon Haiku by Natalia Kuznetsova

English Original

Plough Moon ...
stretching across farm fields 
the front line

Haiku Dialogue, March 8,2023

Natalia Kuznetsova


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

犁月...
橫跨一大片農田
軍事前線

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

犁月...
横跨一大片农田
军事前线


Bio Sketch

Living in Moscow, Russia, Natalia Kuznetsova is an assistant professor of English and freelance interpreter. Before discovering the haiku world, she wrote poetry in Russian. She started writing tanka and mostly haiku in English several years ago, and participated in numerous competitions worldwide and won some awards. She now contributes regularly to World Haiku Review, Mainichi DailyAsahi Haikuist NetworkShiki Kukai and other traditional and on-line publications. She was included on the list of "European Top 100 Most Creative Haiku Authors" from 2010 to 2013.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

A Room of My Own: Sound of Surviving

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XVIII

I deliver
four rapid jabs, then a right
at my rival ...
the blood dripping off
my shadow on the wall

another
defeat by greedflation
and rent hike ...
I yell out, I want to feel
alive in this broken world


FYI: The last two lines allude to the following poem, “Invitation” by Mary Oliver

it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.


Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XIX

brick bungalows
with sea-green roofs and skylights
now gut-renovated ...
three blocks away, migrants move 
in and out of rooming houses


AddedRe-Homing in the Maple Land, XX

this riot
of colorful blooms ...
at the corner
of my neighbor's garden
a sign: backyard suite for rent


(Note: XIX and XX are integrated into the following tanka sequence:

O Canada! Our home and native land!

this riot
of colorful blooms ...
at the corner
of my neighbor's garden
a sign: backyard suite for rent

brick bungalows
with sea-green roofs and skylights
now gut-renovated ...
three blocks away, migrants move 
in and out of rooming houses

clothes flap on the line
and whales breach through blue waves ...
four new temps
in the second-story window 
of a saltbox house

wave upon wave 
of prairie grass cascading
over the hillside
a rented cabin, my new home
in this promised land 


FYI: In Feb., 2022, a new ruling made it officially legal for Toronto residents to build "backyard or garden suites" (a little bigger and more furnished than the outdoor/yard sheds one can buy in The Home Depot) as a "form of housing" (because of the crisis of affordable rental housing)

And usually built between 1800 and 1850 in Newfoundland and Labrador, a saltbox house has two stories in the front but one in the back,  giving it an uneven roof that is steeper one side).


Added: Game Show, 2024, XLI

chants of USA!
listen, repeat after me
ge-ron-to-cra-cy


FYI: Pew Research Center, 118th Congress (with only 10% -- 20% approval ratings) of the Oldest democratic country: The Senate’s median age is 65.3 years and the House's median age is 57.9 years. And in total, 98% of all incumbents were re-elected; most Big Shot Politicians are close to or over 80-year-old.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Butterfly Dream: Anonymity Haiku by Jackie Chou

English Original

field of daffodils
the anonymity
of belonging


Jackie Chou 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

水仙花田
歸屬感
的匿名性

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

水仙花田
归属感
的匿名性


Bio Sketch

Jackie Chou is a poet residing in sunny Southern California.  She sometimes gets her inspirations from common city birds and flowers.  Her works have been published in Atlas PoeticaSkylarkRibbonsthe cherita journalmoonbathingephemerae, and others.  

Thursday, March 21, 2024

To the Lighthouse: Definition Haiku and Tanka

A definition haiku or tanka, a subgenre of definition poetry, begins or ends with a short statement or phrase, followed or preceded by a description of the statement or phrase in concrete imagery. The visually and emotionally suggestive power of a definition haiku or tanka is NOT rooted in the explanatory relationship between its two parts, but in the "dialectical relationship" between them.

For example,

spring day mural:
green paint sprayed across the wall
behind leafless trees

The two parts of this "spring day mural/L1" haiku offers at least two contrasts, visual and symbolic (artistic/man-made: "replication of the absent leaves" of trees in L 2 vs natural/diseased or dying/dead in L3; "spring day" in L1 vs "leafless trees" in L3) and one environmentally significant and emotionally poignant question: why these trees, a synecdoche used to refer to Nature, leafless during springtime, i.e. lifeless.


Another example

mayor's office:
"Yes, We Can"  hangs in a frame 
above the black desk
and reed orchids languish
in a dusty corner

Every pundit of any kind, of whatever political stripe emphasizes that a politician's, in this case of the tanka above, the mayor's, office interior design (L1) reflects his or her political ideals/policy focus (in Ls 2&3) [the political side], aesthetic preferences (L4) or personal traits (L5) [the personal side].

The political call-to-action slogan, "Yes, We Can" [formerly bold now almost cliched], is the policy or storytelling's focus of the mayor, and its   power or impact is weakened by the failure of taking care of these most adaptive /least maintenance office plants, "reed orchids,"  the plants that bring a riot of colorful blooms year-round.


And one more example, the first tanka of the following tanka set:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXXVII: "Promised Land"

The War Shrinks Our World

past suffering
spills into the present war
of fireballing rage
which shapes future kamikazes:
Promised Land of blood and honey

Free the Hostages
the yellowing sign hangs limp
on my neighbor's fence ...
from the street corner the chants
of Free, Free Palestine ring out



Ls 1-3 depict the (at least perceived) cause and bloody response of what has been happening between Israel and the Palestinian people, and L4 foreshadows the scariest future one can imagine in L4.

L5, "Promised Land [given by "Yahweh, an ancient Levantine deity, and national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah"] of [present] blood and [hopefully future] honey," defined by the description of Ls 1-4,  is in sharp contrast with the "land of Israel'/Promised Land described in Tanakh (The Hebrew Bible, "Deuteronomy," 31:20), “a land flowing with milk and honey.” 


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXXVIII: "Israeli strikes"

dating profile photo:
a smiling twentysomething
with a M4
in front of mushroom clouds
from Israeli strikes in Gaza


FYI: Haaretz, March 24: 'We're Not Only Here to Fuck Hamas': How Israeli Militarism Took Over Online Dating: Why are Israeli soldiers uploading photos of themselves inside Gazan homes or with Palestinian detainees to their dating profiles? Beyond the 'uniform effect' which turned U.S. firefighters into heroes after September 11, some experts say the violent militarism seen on dating apps is leading to disturbing trends in Israeli society – online and off

And the American M4 and the Israel Tavor (in various guises) are the primary weapons of the IDF.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

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

English Original

cabin fever ...
bored out of my mind,
i pluck stars
from the sky and
eat them ... one by one

Modern English Tanka, 1:2, Winter 2006

Robert D. Wilson


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

幽居病 ...
無聊讓我心煩意亂
我從夜空中
摘下星星
一顆又一顆 ... 吃掉它們

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

幽居病 ...
无聊让我心烦意乱
我从夜空中
摘下星星
一颗又一颗 ... 吃掉它们


Bio Sketch

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

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Poetic Musings: Dead Child's Stare Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXVI: "aid airdrops"

                     aid
out of reach            air            ops
                                       dr 

and a dead child’s stare


Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: This concrete haiku is divided into two parts (as indicated by "and" in the last line): one about the Palestinians struggling for Survival and the other about a dead child without closing his/her eyes. And the spilt between "dr" and "ops" is used to show the disintegration of this most expensive and dangerous aid delivery method. The concrete formatting works to heighten the message:

Each airdrop from each plane stirs anxiety and chaos, and it's unpredictable and devastating for anyone who is hungry and in need. 


FYI: CBC News, March 18: Gaza aid drops: risky and inefficient where aerial shots are used to this ineffective aid delivery. And The Guardian, March 8: Five killed and 10 injured in Gaza aid airdrop when parachute fails to open: Package ‘fell down like a rocket’ on roof of house near al-Shati refugee camp where people were waiting.

And Haaretz, March 20: Israel at War, Day 166

In Rafah, where more food arrives, relative to northern Gaza, the proportion of malnourished children had risen from 5 percent to 10 percent by the end of February, while those with severe wasting increased from 1 percent to 4 percent 

And  EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels, March 18

In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people... This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.

And Haaretz, March 24: UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said that Israeli Authorities informed the UN that they will no longer approve any UNRWA food convoys to the north of Gaza, adding that this was done "to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine."

Monday, March 18, 2024

Butterfly Dream: Winter Sky Haiku by Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

English Original

winter sky
the painter's downstroke
at a snail's pace

Akitsu, Winter, 2020

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬天的天空
畫家以蝸牛的速度
的下筆

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬天的天空
画家以蜗牛的速度
的下笔


Bio Sketch

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi, a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma, is currently working in a pharma company in Hyderabad, India. His haiku are regularly published in all the leading haiku journals

Sunday, March 17, 2024

A Room of My Own: Hostages Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXXIV: "hostages" 

the hostages stuck
between Israel's total victory
and Hamas' demands ...
protesters lock themselves
in cages on the highway



FYI: This tanka is a sequel to the following:

This Brave New World, CX

Kidnapped
pasted over Occupier
pasted over Kidnapped
above the photo of a man ...
this battle for perfect victims


And Haazetz, March 12: Why Israel's New Nationalistic Judaism Doesn't Care About the Hostages in Gaza: For Israel's rising jingoistic, messianic religious right, the war in Gaza is about recovering pride and projecting power. Desperate hostages held by Hamas don't fit their narrative

A fundamental ideology is at work here, according to which the war in Gaza is the ultimate national drama, a rare opportunity to recover national pride and a sense of invincibility. In this narrative, the hostages are a source of collective weakness.


AddedAgainst the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXXV: "Promised Land" 
(expanded into a tanka set below)

The War Shrinks Our World

past suffering
spills into the present war
of fireballing rage
which shapes future kamikazes:
Promised Land of blood and honey

Free the Hostages
the yellowing sign hangs limp
on my neighbor's fence ...
from the street corner the chants
of Free, Free Palestine ring out


FYI: One of the best-recognized descriptions of the "land of Israel'/Promised Land is “a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Deuteronomy, 31:20)


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXXVI: "see us, hear us"

Ramadan Message
a magic realist tanka set written in response to NPR, March 16: "Netanyahu approves plan to invade Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering"


blood-stained children
stand barefoot with their backs
to the reporters ...
do you see us, hear us now
to clicking of cameras

children with lanterns
walk into the far distance
their last words
we shall return, and overcome
linger in the smoky darkness


FYI: The fanous lantern has been a symbol of Ramadan for hundreds of years. For Muslims, it represents the light guiding the way.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXXVII: "death toll in dispute"

death toll in dispute
a crow's last caw fades
to winter wind

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Poetic Musings: Prize Quilt Tanka by Carmen Sterba

an Amish woman
dressed in grey
her heartsong
in the vivid colours
of her prize quilt

Eucalypt, 8, 2010

Carmen Sterba

Commentary by Jan Foster: On the surface, a simple tanka, traditional in shape and expression but, like all the topnotch tanka, a layering of thoughts which provide a wealth of concepts for the reader to come back to many times over. In the true tanka tradition, it begins simply, each line adding to the thought, growing to a crescendo in the final line, where the whole theme is laid before the delighted reader... 

-- excerpted from Tanka Appraisal Reports by Bowerbird Members

Friday, March 15, 2024

Butterfly Dream: Tug of War Haiku by Adjei Agyei-Baah

English Original

tug of war
a child and the wind
in a kite pull

Tales of the Kite, 2023

Adjei Agyei-Baah


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一場拔河比賽
一個孩子和大風
拉扯飛翔的風箏

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一场拔河比赛
一个孩子和大风
拉扯飞翔的风筝


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. 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

One Man's Maple Moon: Final Glance Tanka by Sonam Chhoki

English Original

a final glance
through rain-splatttered screen
my ancestral home
so much left behind
so much carried with me

Atlas Poetica, 9, Summer 2011

Sonam Chhoki 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

透過雨滴濺濕的紗窗
的最後一瞥
我的祖屋
留下這麼多東西未帶走
我仍然帶走這麼多東西

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

透过雨滴溅湿的纱窗
的最后一瞥
我的祖屋
留下这么多东西未带走
我仍然带走这么多东西


Bio Sketch

Sonam Chhoki finds the Japanese short form poetry resonates with her Tibetan Buddhist upbringing.  She is inspired by her father, Sonam Gyamtsho, the architect of Bhutan's non-monastic modern education and by her mother, Chhoden Jangmu, who taught her: “Being a girl doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.” She is the principal editor, and co-editor of haibun for the United Haiku and Tanka Society journal, cattails.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Hot News: New Milestone, 1.9 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story reached a new milestone last night: 1.9 M pageviews (FYI: OJanuary 22, 2023, it crossed 1.5 M view mark

I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of this poetry journey. 


writer's block?
Oh, I don't have time for that ...
this moonless night
becomes darker and heavier
with rent hike and snowfall

three lines
into the first tanka
of this dark night ...
I pause and listen
to the void in my life


A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. 
-- Thomas Mann

And 

Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write
-- Elie Wiesel

musing, I cram
thoughts of being a poet
into five lines ...
this man's face, his silver-hair 
ripple in the lake of my mind
(for Sanford Goldstein, the father of tanka in English)

Ribbons, 19:3, Fall 2023

Chen-ou Liu


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. 


Look forward to reading your haiku and tanka (see haiku and tanka submission guidelines)

Happy Writing    😎

Chen-ou