Summer Haiku

tanabata stars
a lock of her hair
in Love, Poetry


Published in World Kigo Database (Star Festival, Tanabata)


Note: Love, Poetry is written by Paul Eluard, who is widely considered to be one of France's most important poets

Summer Haiku

our eyes locked
under a blazing sun
caged cobra and me


published in World Kigo Database (Blazing Sky, Enten)

Autunm Haiku

crowded
in my whisky glass
autumn stars


third prize in the Haiku Section of the New Zealand Poetry Society’s 2011 International Poetry Competition; anthologized in Ice Diver

Judge's Report (Judge: Joanna Preston)

A lovely classical haiku, entirely bound into the image and the moment. Key here is the play of the images, and the shift of focus. Crowded - a human scale, combining a certain amount of confinement with an awareness of (occupied) space. Glass - small, intimate, vulnerable. And then autumn stars - opening out into the vast expanse of the night sky. You can feel the person looking into their glass, than raising their gaze upwards. Feel the whirling sensation of the alcohol matching the giddiness of the depths of space. The colour of the whisky and the golden hues of autumn, and the way stars seem brighter and more numerous then than at any other time of year. Are the stars also ice cubes in the whisky? The light reflecting from the glass as it is raised? Or from the liquid itself? It's pure moment, and a very accomplished ‘ahhh'.

Moon Haiku

a crow's cry ...
I whisper to the moon
in my mother tongue


Commended in the Haiku Section of the New Zealand Poetry Society’s 2011 International Poetry Competition; anthologized in Ice Diver

Tanabata Haiku

tracing our names
carved in the tree trunk
tanabata stars
　

Published on the Asahi Haikuist Network (July 29, 2011)

The Same Moon Li Po and Du Fu Drank to?: A Haibun

I hold the glass to the light, and then tip it, checking color and density as it thins out towards the brim.

I take a deep drink, letting it surge through my mouth and send out the waves of loneliness across my shoulders and down my spine as I look out the window.

autumn moonlight
drips between the leaves...
another glass of wine


Published in Sketchbook, 6:3, May/June 2011


Note: Li Po and Du Fu have been regarded as two of the greatest Chinese poets. Li Po was part of the group called the "Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup", as mentioned in a poem by Du Fu.

Ilha Formosa?: A Haibun

Sendai earthquake...
the darkness pierced
only by flashlights

The news about Japan's tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant saddens and frightens me. I worry so much about the long-term health risks for Japan and its neighbors that I find myself tossing and turning at night, knowing my homeland, Taiwan, is one of the closest.

Fukushima --
the vending machines
still glowing

I remember one day during the late 1990s at the height of the anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan, someone handed me a flyer on the street. It listed all the important instructions on how to survive a nuclear disaster. The last one on the list said: "When driving away in the rescue convoy, please remember to look back, because that will be your last sight of Taipei."

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


Published in Sketchbook, 6:3, May/June 2011


Note: In 1544, a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it "Ilha Formosa," which means “Beautiful Island.” Taipei is its capital.

Moon Haiku

the autumn moon
drifting downriver -
I’m still here


Published in Mu, #2, July 2011

Winter Haiku

memories ...
a blizzard survives
my dream


published in Simply Haiku, 9:2, Summer 2011

Winter Haiku

winter dawn
a butterfly wakes up
in my dream


published in Simply Haiku, 9:2, Summer 2011

Moon Haiku

Moon Festival
I turn my other cheek
to the light


published in Simply Haiku, 9:2, Summer 2011

New Year Haiku

New Year's dawn
Icarus in my dream
waving his wings


published in Simply Haiku, 9:2, Summer 2011

Frog Haiku

moonlit pond...
a frog penetrates
itself


published in Simply Haiku, 9:2, Summer 2011

Shadow Tanka

the dog runs
in circles chasing its tail
under a blazing sun
the shadow and I look
into each other's eyes


published in Simply Haiku, Vol 9:2, Summer 2011

Autumn Tanka

autumn twilight
I stand against the wall ...
one inch lonelier
than when I first became
a poet in exile


published in Simply Haiku, Vol 9:2, Summer 2011

Relationship Tanka

three words
you murmur into my ear
fill up the hole
I've had inside my heart
since that crescent moon night


published in Simply Haiku, Vol 9:2, Summer 2011

Valentine Senryu

taking off clothes, she
talks about The Art of Loving
Valentine’s night


published on Asahi Haikuist Network (2010/03/05)

Recession Senryu

recession...
the care giver he hired
doubles as a mistress


published in Prune Juice, #6

A Senryu

hearing
my cry in her cries...
lottery results


published in Prune Juice, #6

Poetics of Re-homing: A Haibun

where are you from?
maple leaves drifting
here and there

Where is my home? Taipei, the capital of Republic of China (aka Taiwan), with its towering glass office buildings, where I was born and raised, the place I used to complain about? Or County of Mount Dragon in Hunan province, People’s Republic of China, a small town surrounded by waterfalls, mountains, and valleys, my father's home that I've never set foot in?

Taiwan’s moon
caught in Lake Ontario . . .
geese gone south

Or is my home Ajax, Ontario, a bedroom suburb of row upon row of indistinguishable bungalows and front gardens in the richest province of Canada? Here I have a piece of property and continue to struggle with a life in transition and translation.

treading on
my white neighbor's shadow --
illegal alien

Where then is my home?

published in Simply Haiku, Vol 9:2, Summer 2011 (Editor's Choice)

Loneliness Senryu

alone in the attic --
reading Joy for Dummies
late into the night


published in Prune Juice, #6

A Kyoka about Writing

for Ishikawa Takuboku

how will you
get food on the table?
she stares at me --
as always
I boil poems to eat


published in Prune Juice, #6

Nostalgia Tanka

lone shadow
on the attic floor --
Taipei moon
hangs high
in the Ajax sky


published in Haiku Pix Review, #3, Summer 2011

Moon Tanka

crows cawing
as I bury dead poems
in the trash --
a glint of moonlight
on the broken wine glass


published in Haiku Pix Review, #3, Summer 2011

Attic Haiku

home alone
two shadows flicker
on the attic wall


published in Haiku Pix Review, #3, Summer 2011

Relationship Haiku

stirring the stew –
to say or not to say
those three words


published in Haiku Pix Review, #3, Summer 2011

Rainbow Haiku

last day of school
a double rainbow arches
above our silence


6th place, May / June 2011 "Rainbow" Kukai Contest held by Sketchbook

Rainbow haiku

writing her name
on the attic window...
rainbow


published in May / June 2011 "Rainbow" Kukai Thread of Sketchbook

Under the Gaze of Time: A Haibun

New Year's Eve
the waning crescent and I
left alone

I have spent the day doing the shopping, making meals, cleaning, reading, and writing up to this moment. While going about the daily routine, days can slip away. That is the true king of terrors. With the end of the year in sight, I try to make sense of what I was, and of who I am now.

As I reflect on the past year, it seems I've achieved little beyond existing and I've charged through life in a kind of panic. Yet I'm haunted, still, by the conviction that everything is either preordained or accidental.

first dawn
singing Let It Be
to the attic wall

I walk
down the yellow brick road
morning mist ahead


published in Frogpond, 34:2, Spring/Summer issue 2011

Moon Haiku

not only I
but also the autumn moon --
falling into the ditch


published in Presence, #44

Butterfly Haiku

back from Taiwan
my butterfly dream paces
around the house


published in Presence, #44

Sound of the Wind: A Haibun

I remember the day I left for Canada.

My parents were virtually silent. My older brother and his wife told me to take good care of myself, and my nephew kept begging me to buy toys for him. I waved goodbye to them as I walked toward the Airport Departure Entrance. My parents didn’t wave back.

nine autumns past...
my parents and I speak
different tongues


published in Presence, #44, June 2011

Beach Tanka

under a moonless sky
beach bonfires
erupt
one flame after another
the sounds of night


published in Magnapoets, #8, July 2011

Moon Haiku

wolf moon…
with monosyllabic words
she answers the question


published in Magnapoets, #8, July 2011

Loneliness Tanka

sunrise
loneliness sings
in sleep
on the lake of my mind
time starts curling back on itself


published in Magnapoets, #8, July 2011

Summer Haiku

Leda and the Swan
is our midsummer kiss
a real one?


published in the The Haiku Foundation Kukai Thread

There Is No There There: A Haibun

Canada geese
crisscrossing the sunset sky --
alone in the attic

Tonight I sleep in Taipei, but wake up in Ajax. My mind is winged by a yearning after things not yet lost. I dream in Chinese, but I awake and become Eric.

unbirthday morning
yet still I see father's face
from the mirror

My mind can’t find a resting place except writing poetry – the only way I can manipulate the reality of my life in Canada.

anything new
under the autumn sun?
reading jisei

twilight
my shadow faltering
under a bare maple


The original version of the poem published in Contemporary Haibun Online, 7:2, July 2011

Life Goes on: A Haibun

Before opening the laptop and having a sip of my Latte, I see that same old look on Mary's face. I ask cautiously, "What's the matter?"

“My husband's having a mid-life crisis, and my oldest daughter is dating a punk rock boyfriend. My youngest daughter thinks she is now a teenager and her older brother wishes he was. And look,” she leans towards me, “there are red spots on my face. Maybe I’m beginning menopause. And my car broke down again .....”

No new emails
spring rain pitter-pattering
against the window


Published in Contemporary Haibun Online, Vol. 7, No. 2, July 2011

Rainbow Haiku

double rainbow
after a summer shower
alone by the lake


Published in Asahi Haikuist Network (July 1, 2011)

Immigration Tanka

for Samuel Beckett

speaking before
native English speakers
I am
the mouth in Not I
opening and closing


published in the June 2011 issue of Red Lights