Glimpse of A Floating World: A Haibun

A gray-haired man slumps behind the makeshift counter displaying a flat screen TV, toys, CDs, dishware, pots, and clothing. Kids chase after each other across an unkempt lawn. His wife sits exhausted amidst the haggling bargain finders.

sun-baked piles
of This Old House --
one dollar each

Notes From the Gean, #8

Note: This Old House is the companion magazine to a PBS home improvement and remodeling television show of the same title.

A Haiku

budding white rose...
did Sophie cling to the rope
God threw her?

World Kigo Database (Sophie Scholl)

Note: Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans. As a result, they were both executed by guillotine.

Since the 1970s, Scholl has been celebrated as one of the great German heroes who actively opposed the Third Reich during the Second World War. For further information, please read the Wikipedia entry entitled Sophie Scholl.

A Haiku about St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day
to be or not to be Irish
is that the question?

World Kigo Database (St. Patrick's Day)

Winter Haiku

a dried lotus leaf
in Tibetan Book of the Dead...
winter dusk


Third Place, 2010 World Haiku Competition

A Life in Four Seasons: A Haiku Sequence

I write her
one poem every day
spring dewdrops

a butterfly
tattooed on her buttock
summer heat

autumn dawn
before the mirror I count
gray hairs

snow on snow
thoughts of her emerge
one at a time

Frogpond, 34:1, winter 2011

A Tanka about Writing

the garbage bin
overflows with crumbled balls
of poetry...
looking out the window
I see autumn stars blinking

A Handful of Stones (Feb.22, 2011)

A Haiku about Politics

killing protesters
house by house in Tripoli
crimson skies

Wordl Kigo Database (Tripoli)

Autumn Haiku

my shadow
one step ahead of me
autumn dusk

Mu, #1

A Haiku about Lantern Festival

not one lantern
under the Toronto sky...
one more bowl of yuanxiao

Wordl Kigo Database (Lantern Festival)

A Haiku about Lantern Festival

Yuanxiao Festival
soaring lanterns light up
the Taipei sky

Wordl Kigo Database (Lantern Festival)

Note: The fifteenth day (Feb. 17, 2011) of the Chinese lunar new year is traditionally called Yuanxiao Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival. It is celebrated by the Chinese around the world. On this day, all the family members gather together to have bowls of yuanxiao or tangyuan (glutinous rice balls brewed in a sweet soup) right after dinner, and walk the streets carrying lanterns or launching sky lanterns.

For further information, read the Wikipedia entry entitled Lantern Festival.

Taipei is the largest city in Taiwan and has been the capital of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 1949.

A Haiku about Politics

fleeting clouds
bullet-wounded men limp
toward Pearl Square

World Kigo Database (Bahrain)

A Haiku about Kigo

morning moon
Kigo still lingers
on his breath

World Kigo Database(Shoochuu Liquor)

Note: A shochu from Miyasaki prefecture called KIGO. The name is taken from the season word for haiku. It’s made from sweet potatoes, a mix of three different kinds of original schnaps.

A Haiku about Politics

winter light
upon their bloodstained faces
Pearl Square

World Kigo Database (Bahrain)

Note: The poems posted today were written for the courageous people of Bahrain.

A Haiku about Politics

crimson sunset
riot police storm through Pearl Square
firing bullets

World Kigo Database (Bahrain)

A Haiku about Politics

Pearl Square news --
my nephew knocks over
the first domino

World Kigo Database (Bahrain)

Note: Ls 2&3 allude to the domino theory promoted by the U.S. governments during 1950s to 1980s. The theory speculated that “if one land in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.”

During an April 7, 1954 news conference, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower put the theory into the following words:

“Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.”

For further information, please read the Wikipedia entry entitled Domino Theory.

Snow Haiku

blizzard…
reciting Basho in a world
of one color

2011 Haiku Canada Anthology

A Haiku about Politics

marching students
shout it out loud, Black Is White
wintry skies

World Kigo Database (George Orwell)

Note: L2 refers to a Newspeak word called Blackwhite, which is defined as follows:

“ ...this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink."

A Haiku about Politics

the glow
on facecrime suspect's face...
low-hanging cold moon

World Kigo Database (George Orwell)

Note: Facecrime is described in the following passage from Part 1, Chapter 5 of 1984:

It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.

A Haiku about Politics

There are known knowns...
Orwell’s Newspeak lingers
in my mind

World Kigo Database (George Orwell)

Note: L1 refers to the opening words of a statement made by Rumsfeld on February 12, 2002 at a press briefing where he addressed the absence of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups.

[T]here are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

For further information, read the Wikipedia entry entitled There are known knowns.

A Tanka about Urban Life

driving on
the 401 in rush hour
a blur
of red brake lights
the sun sinks behind the horizon

A Handful of Stones (Feb. 17, 2011)

Snow Haiku

snow deepening…
Fire and Desire
fills my attic

for Teena Marie, Motown's Ivory Queen of Soul

Haiku News (Feb. 16, 2011)

Christmas Haiku

Silent Night
drifting in from the neighbors --
I relearn Chinese


Second Place in The North Carolina Poetry Society Lyman Haiku Award (2011); forthcoming in Pinesong

Comment by Judge Roberta Beary: This haiku contrasts two images: hazy holiday relaxation and the study of a difficult language. Perhaps relearning Chinese is a resolution for the New Year or perhaps not. A good haiku leaves something to the reader's imagination. Reading aloud the poem reveals the subtle link between its first two words and its last. The mixture of auditory and visual images makes this a prize-winning haiku.

A Haiku about Religion

Bonhoeffer Lecture…
can I find God of the gaps
among summer stars?

World Kigo Database (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Note: As a founding member of the Confessing Church that opposed the ideology of the Nazi regime in its entirety, Dietrich Bonhoeffer not only talked the talk, but also walked the walk.

In 1933 lecture, “The Church and the Jewish Question,” he spoken about the possibility that the church, “not just bandage the victims under the wheel, but rather break the spokes of the wheel itself.”

He was jailed in April 1943 for plotting to kill Hitler, and was subsequently hanged in April 1945, 23 days before the Nazis' surrender.

Bonhoeffer's life as a pastor and theologian who lived as he preached has influenced Christians of different denominations and generations, and his view of God of the gaps, one that sees God as existing in the gaps or aspects of reality, has evoked the heated debates among Christian theologians and scholars in sociology of religion.

For further information, read the Wikipedia article entitled God of the Gaps.

Valentine's Day Haiku

Valentine’s night
eating chocolate hearts
from my e-lover

World Kigo Database (Valentine's Day)

A Senryu about Religion

home invasion...
the Laughing Buddha sits
by the front door

Haiku News (Feb. 13, 2011)

Valentine's Day Haiku

Valentine's Day
she finds out where he hid
Playboys

World Kigo Database (Valentine's Day)

Valentine's Day Haiku

Valentine's Day
bamboo shoots emerge
from the ground

World Kigo Database (Valentine's Day)

Valentine's Day Haiku

Valentine's Night
he curls up
in bed

World Kigo Database (Valentine's Day)

A Haiku about Art

42nd Street
the sign Uncle Vanya sheds
light on me

World Kigo Database (Anton Chekhov)

Note: My haiku alludes to Louis Malle's 1994 film, Vanya on 42nd Street, an "intimate, interpretive performance of the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov based on the English translation by David Mamet." This film has been well received among Chekhov's readers.

Moon Haiku

moonlit night
reading between the lines
of Li Po's poem

World Kigo Database (Li Po)

Note: This haiku alludes to one of Li Po's (or Li Bai's ) most famous poems, Drinking Alone in the Moonlight. For further information, read "Li Bai drinking alone (with the moon, his shadow, & 42 translators)".

Snow Haiku

wiping away
thoughts about homecoming ...
snow on snow

World Kigo Database (KOAN and Haiku)

Note: Wiping off thoughts alludes to a famous story about the third patriarch of Zen, Sosan:

Sosan approached Master Hui-ko (the second patriarch) and said to him: “My mind is possessed by thoughts. I beg you, Master, wipe away these thoughts.”

Hui-ko appeared surprised and Sosan away saying, “Go. Find your thoughts and bring them to me, then I’ll wipe them away for you.”

Sosan went outside. After some time he returned and said, “Although I’ve looked for my thoughts, I can’t find them.”

To this Hui-ko replied, “It seems then that I’ve done a good job ofwiping away your thoughts.”

-- an excerpt from The Book of Nothing, p.13

Spring Haiku

spring breeze
the little boy on her back
waves his hand

World Kigo Database (body parts, back)

Incense Senryu

incense smoke
curls around his bald head
zazen

World Kigo Database (incense)

A Haiku about Egypt

Tahrir Square
F-16s fly over a sea
of human heads

World Kigo Database (Egypt)

A Haiku about Egypt

Egypt uprising
Seven Nation Army
on the radio

World Kigo Database (Egypt)

urban Haiku

window shopping
one face looks in
while ten others look out

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

A Senryu about Religion

Jesus' narrow road
once again, reading Hans Küng
on being Christian

World Kigo Database (Hans Küng)

Note: Reverend Father Hans Küng, born March 19, 1928, is an internationally-acclaimed theologian and Emeritus Professor of Ecumenical Theology at the University of Tübingen. In 1962, along with his colleague Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), he was appointed as an expert theological advisor to members of the Second Vatican Council. Over the decades, he had constantly run into conflicts with the Roman Catholic Church on some doctrinal issues, which resulted in the Vatican's rescinding his authority to teach Catholic theology.

L1 alludes to Matthew 7:13-14:

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Ls 2&3 refer to Küng's well-known, bulky (720-page long) book On Being a Christian.

Summer Haiku

summer dream:
Heidegger and Laozi chit chat
over wulong tea

World Kigo Database (Martin Heidegger)

Note: Heidegger once spent time attempting to translate the Tao Te Ching (or Dao De Jing, whose authorship is attributed to Laozi) into German, working with his Chinese student Paul Shih-yi Hsaio. Professor Hsaio detailed this experience in his essay entitled "Heidegger and Our Translation of the Tao te Ching," which was collected in Heidegger and Asian Thought (pp. 93-104)

A Haiku about Art

my Irish friend weeps
before The Potato Eaters ...
An Gorta Mor

World Kigo Database (Museum Art and Haiku)

Note: the Irish phrase An Gorta Mor literally means the Great Hunger. It refers to a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration between 1845 and 1852. Outside of Ireland , it’s also known as the Irish Potato Famine. For further information, see the Wikipedia entry entitled Great Famine Ireland.

A Haiku about Art

at the urinal
I remember a found art:
Fountain

World Kigo Database (Museum Art and Haiku)

A Haiku about Cherry Blossom

cherry blossoms falling...
Heidegger's Being and Time
emerges in my mind

World Kigo Database (Martin Heidegger)

Note: Best-known for his "existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being, '" Martin Heidegger was one of the most influential German philosophers. And his Being and Time, is often regarded as one of the foundational texts for 20th-century philosophy. The book is "an exploration of the meaning of being as defined by temporality. . . It is an analysis of time as a horizon for the understanding of being."

A Haiku about Art

The Scream...
the urge to clap my hands
over my ears

World Kigo Database (Museum Art and Haiku)

Note: The first line alludes to Edward Munch's The Scream.

A Haiku about Music

Stravinsky's The Rite
the scent of Chanel drifts
through the theater

World Kigo Database (Igor Stravinsky)

Note: Named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky was a Russian-born naturalized American composer. In addition to his outstanding achievement in music composition, Stravinsky also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, mainly at the premieres of his works. One of his famous works The Rite of Spring, premiered on Thursday, May 29, 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, provoked one of the most famous classical music riots in history due to its intensely rhythmic score and primitive scenario. Pioneering French fashion designer Coco Chanel attended this "scandalous performance" and was impressed by his work. Later, she fell in love with him and financially supported his family and musical performances. Their story was made into a film entitled Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, and was chosen as the Closing Film of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

A Haiku

reading The Tin Drum --
I have a powwow solo
in the attic

World Kigo Database (Günter Grass)

Note: The Tin Drum, first book of Danzig Trilogy, is one of the most highly acclaimed novels by Gunter Grass. It’s about a boy named Oskar who refuses to grow older, and who constantly lashes out at anything he dislikes with screams and poundings on his tin drum.

A Haiku

Gunter Grass's tears...
peeling the onion off
one layer at a time

World Kigo Database (Günter Grass)

Note: The poem alludes to Gunter Grass’s 2006 memoir entitled Peeling the Onion. In the book, he shocked Germany and the readers around the word by confessing that “as a youth, late in World War II, he had served in the Nazi Waffen SS.”

The image of peeling the onion also makes a thematic allusion to Chapter 42, The Onion Cellar, of Grass’s most-read novel, The Tin Drum.

Autumn Haiku

autumn clouds...
reading Remembrance of Things Past
during the flight

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

Love Haiku

love poetry reading
I wonder where the moon was
when I went inside

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

Wealth Kyoka

the skylight

sparkling with stars ...

alone in a room

with wall-to-wall bookshelves 

I weigh my wealth

Revision, Presence, 43

A Haiku

X on Lecture Notice:
reading and misreading
Schlink's The Reader

World Kigo Database (Bernhard Schlink)

Note: The Reader is a novel written by German jurist and novelist Bernhard Schlink. The book portrays how the post-war German generations wrestle with wartime past, confronting the generation who participated in or witnessed the atrocities against the Jews. Shortly after its publication in the mid-1990s, The Reader became an instant bestseller both in Germany and the USA, and it has been translated into 37 languages. In 2007, it was adapted into a film of the same name. The film was nominated for several major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Urban Haiku

gazing
into his eyes, the woman
wearing niqab

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

A Haiku about the Great Wall

Great Wall
resting in autumn moonlight
the shadow and I

World Kigo Database (Berlin Wall and Walls)

A haiku

reading Günter Grass...
I see a boy scurrying
backward and forward

World Kigo Database (Grass Gunter)

Note: Ls 2&3 allude to Günter Grass's 2002 novel, Crabwalk. The book is a compelling account of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in January of 1945, the deadliest maritime disaster in history. The title, described by Grass as "scuttling backward to move forward, refers to both the necessary reference to various events, some occurring at the same time, the same events that would lead to the eventual disaster."

Urban Haiku

Speakers’ Corner
he stands alone gazing
at a cold moon

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

A Kyoka about Religion

a homeless man
leans against the sidewall
of a church…
the priest and his elders
argue about God’s will

Haiku News (Feb. 4, 2011)

The Passion Triangle: A Tanka Sequence

what is
on your mind, in your heart
she stares at me --
I keep dreaming of myself
standing at the edge of the world

talking in her sleep 
do you love me ...
I remember
the farewell photo of you
amid forget-me-nots
 
you have never
completely let me in
she yells out
while on top of me...
you're in and out of my mind

she laments 
my knight in shining armor
turns out
to be a frog...
a lump in my throat

sand castle
built in that shining summer
for three of us --
now all that remains
is my footprints in new snow

anthologized in Butterfly Away (Magnapoets Anthology, #3)

Urban Senryu

recession...
my Campbell's Soup Cans
is stolen

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

Note: Campbell's Soup Cans 33 x 24 print, a work of art produced by Andy Warhol.

Urban Senryu

Sunday sermon . . .
gazing at the cross that hangs
between her breasts

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

Seimei Haiku

what was my face
before my forefathers were born?
Seimei Festival

World Kigo Database (Seimei)

Note: Ls 1&2 allude to the Zen Buddhist concept of the original face.

Seimei Haiku

Seimei Festival
rain on the grave site I visit
for the first time

World Kigo Database (Seimei)

Note: The Seimei Festival starts on April 5. The relatives gather in front of the graves, say prayers and then have a feast, including traditional dishes and the loved "awamori" liquor. After the feast it is time for shamisen music and dance. The relatives have two weeks to perform the rituals. Sometimes the bones are taken out of the graves and washed. Washing the bones is a custom of China, where floods would flush the bones out of the graves.

-- An Excerpt from World Kigo Database (Season of spring)

Rainbow Haiku

rainbow at dusk
a crack line through our hearts
carved in a tree trunk

January / February 2011 "heart(s)" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Relationship Haiku

hazy winter moon...
the scent from the chocolate heart
under her foot

January / February 2011 "heart(s)" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook (Editor's Choice)

Karina Klesko's comment; This puzzles me a bit...is it under-foot as if like a hunter following the prey, or under 'her' foot as it suggests in the first line hazy, unsure, not sure-footed, or broken?

Bernard Gieske's comment: In this next poem by Chen-ou, a peaceful and inviting scene is set up. Nothing unusual is expected except hazy might be a hint of something out of the ordinary. The ending was a surprise and actually increased the power of the scent from the chocolate heart. This happening under her foot was nothing accidental but provoked. Since this involves a heart, there is a story.

Love Haiku

my body
blanketing hers
heartbeats

January / February 2011 "heart(s)" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

New Year Haiku

Chinese New Year's Eve
steam rising from Genghis Khan Stew
for one

World Kigo Database (Genghis Khan)

Moon Haiku

English Original:

the harvest moon
caught between two highrises
overflowing dumpsters

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

Portuguese Translation by Henrique Pimenta

A Lua está cheia
entre dois arranha-céus,
lixeiras lotadas.

Christmas Haiku

starless night
a giant Christmas tree lit up
in Town Hall Square

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

A Haiku about Genghis Khan

grassy fields . . .
Genghis Khan rode his horse
over barren sands

World Kigo Database (Genghis Khan)

Note: The poem is inspired by an article entitled Genghis Khan: environmentalist?, in which the reporter states that "[Genghis Khan's] Mongol invasion was partly environmentally friendly, according to new research."

Christmas Haiku

Christmas dinner
the couple eat
quietly

Haiku News (Feb. 1, 2011)

A Haiku

Reading the Book of Changes . . .
Ezra Pound's Make It New
lingers in my mind

World Kigo Database (Ezra Pound)

Note: Ezra Pound (1885-1972), the originator of the slogan "Make It New," who lived in Europe, greatly influenced the development of modern literature.

His In a Station of the Metro has been endlessly researched by scholars, literary critics, and poets alike…In his most widely-read book, The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku, William Higginson rightly emphasizes that Ezra Pound's metro poem is the "first published hokku in English" and "very important to its author`s development" – an excerpt from my essay entitled Three Readings of Ezra Pound's "Metro Haiku'"

The Yijing, also known as the Book of Changes, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts.

Summer Haiku

the smell
of damp summer grass
her moonlit face

November/December 2010 issue of Sketchbook

A Haiku

those eyes
of a cornered dog...
starry night

November/December 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Dream Senryu

same old dream:
men in black hammer the nails
into my coffin

Haiku News (Jan. 30, 2011)

Urban Senryu

New Year cleanup
she finds used condoms
under her son's bed

World Kigo Database (Urban Haiku and Senryu)

Poet's Dream

failing
to be a hunger artist
I stumble
around the mansion of words
from room to room
hunting poems to eat

crawling
out of the boarded up window
I am lucky to find
a thousand blank verses
dangling on the lower tip
of a crescent moon

Shot Glass Journal, 3

Blue Moon: A Cherita

a crow grips a bare branch

shards of whiteness
drift through the window

the scent of winter
blankets my gray body
time passes in the sounds of snow

Shot Glass Journal, Issue #3