Urban Senryu

subway station...
all ears are covered
with headphone sets

Sketchbook, 6:2, March/April, 2011

Urban Senryu

guests long gone…
debating over the price
of the gift

Sketchbook, 6:2, March/April, 2011

Moon Senryu

again, he waits
in line to buy Super 7...
new moon

Sketchbook, 6:2, March/April, 2011

Relationship Tanka

standing alone
under our Chinese pine
I remember you . . .
its trunk forks out
and roots into the ground

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011 (Editor's Choice)

A Tanka about Writing

my tanka
take up their own lives
shamelessly
open on the page
leaving me uncovered

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011

A Tanka about Writing

the sun
slips in, sweeps, and leaves
the attic
day by day, month after month...
I'm still the man who writes

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011

A Tanka about Writing

too much noise!
is there someone knocking
on the other side
of my poem...
the snow keeps falling

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011

Relationship Tanka

for The Beatles

except my bed...
what yellow submarine
can I ride
into the dark sea
of your subconscious

Ribbons, 7:1, Spring 2011

Winter Tanka

sleepless winter night...
smashing the attic window
with my bare hands
I pick up
scattered pieces of myself

Ribbons, 7:1, Spring 2011

Loneliness Tanka

outside the attic
a cloudy winter sky
and inside,
the water-stained ceiling...
my thoughts float in between

Ribbons, 7:1, Spring 2011

Cherry Haiku

cherry petals
in the sunlight, I whisper
letting go

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011

Relationship Senryu

Family Pizza
as always, he sits
at a corner table

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011

Ten Thousand Things: A Haiku Sequence

For the people of Japan


Sendai earthquake...
the darkness pierced
only by flashlights

Fukushima plant --
the vending machines
still glowing

Ishinomaki:
a baby found alive
in wood and mud

a dog rescued
from drifting ocean debris --
the sun rising

radioactive scare
this a world of dew
and yet...

Sketchbook, 6:2, March/April, 2011
The Temple Bell Stops

Relationship Haiku

her blank stare...
the blinking of an airplane
in the night sky

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011

Butterfly Haiku

a black butterfly
tarnishes the pink rosebud
silent skies

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011 (Editor's Choice)

A Haiku

her knife
quick to slice red peppers
tangled thoughts

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011

Zen haiku

zazen...
the air conditioner
hums

Haiku Pix Review, #2, Spring 2011
(Editor's Choice)

Winner of the Haiku Chapbook Contest

Hi! My Fellow Poets and Blog Friends:

I was notified that I'm one of two ex-aequo winners of the Spring 2011 Haiku Pix Chapbook Contest, which was held by Haiku Pix Review.

I’ll share the US$200 award with another winner, Neal Whitman of Pacific Grove, CA, and my chapbook, Following the Moon to the Maple Land, will be forthcoming in July.

Many thanks to all of you for helping me improve my English writing skills and for your continued support of my writing.

Chen-ou

New Year Senryu

Chinese New Year
eating a Happy Meal
at McDonald's

Muse India, Issue 37, May/June 2011

Moon Haiku

harvest moon
an eviction notice
on the doorstep

Muse India, Issue 37, May/June 2011

Love Tanka

Valentine's night
one after another
I eat
chocolate hearts
from my Facebook lover

Muse India, Issue 37, May/June 2011

The Myth: A Tanka Sequence

I gaze
into the bedroom mirror
in the depth
of a winter night
nothing there, and yet...

Death
with half-opened eyes
glances at me --
I ponder if
poetry can redeem my life

my pondering
turns into the winter light
filling the sky...
snowflakes of words
fall and pile up on the page

page after page
my poems morph into crumbled balls
lying
pale by a garbage bin
to write or not to write...

it’s been said
nothing new under the sun --
I wage
one fight after another
against a poet’s loneliness

Chinese Translation:

神話：日本短歌序詩

在冬夜
的至深之處
我凝視
卧房的鏡子
空無一物，然而…

死亡
半睜開的雙眼
在瞄我 --
我懷疑
詩能否拯救我的生命

我的猜想
化為冬日之光
填滿了天空…
詩句像雪花般
飄落並堆積在紙上

一頁接一頁
我的詩句化為紙團
蒼白地躺
在字紙簍邊
繼續寫或不寫…

曾有傳言
太陽底下無新鮮事 --
我從事
一場接一場的戰役
對抗作為詩人的寂寞

Atlas Poetica, #8.

Winter Haiku

an old woman dead
after riding the carousel...
winter sky

Haiku News

Moon Haiku

talking to you again
under the moonlit night:
my shadow

Word Salad Online, Volume XVII, No. I, Spring 2011

Yet Again: A Gogyohka Sequence

moonlight
creeps in the door ajar
her heart
has been closed since
azaleas blanketed the mountain

misty morning
I open The Art of Loving
her letter
falls out
Dear John...

that starlit night
full of her promises...
a column of smoke
burning returned letters
I open our album

raining outside
I sit at a window
drinking coffee --
the youthful self walks into
the summer of 1967

Atlas Poetica, #8.

Note: The concluding tanka is anthologized in Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka Vol. 3 (2010).