Life in Exile: A Tanka Sequence

as night falls
loneliness and nostalgia
come along
I see the Taipei moon
hang low in the Ajax sky

ghosts of the past
hammering on the door
of my heart
I lock myself
in the attic room

scooping the moon
from a river of memories
once more
I fill the wine cup
and look for her face

red morning light
after the ninth autumn...
my life so far
as I gaze
deeper into the mirror

the silence
that is in monotony
also there
in my empty heartbeats...
the sound of falling blossoms

Published in Red Lights, 8:2, 2012

Equinox Haiku

equinox...
an autumn butterfly dream
beyond the window

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

New Year Tanka

eating alone
on Chinese New Year's Eve
I remember
moonlight on Mother's hands,
the way she cuts a pineapple

Published in Paper Wasp, 18:2, Winter 2012

Star Haiku

awake among stars...
beneath a basement window
my single bed

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Winter Haiku

winter sunset
a line of women in black
holding up pictures

Published in Paper Wasp, 18:2, Winter 2012

Relationship Haiku

ice clinking
in my whisky glass
her face floats

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Death Haiku

winter light
my reflection
in his glass coffin

Published in Paper Wasp, 18:2, Winter 2012

Love Tanka

pressing my face
against the bosom
of memory…
for the first time I feel
how the hunger for love speaks
(for bell hooks)

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Winter Haiku Noir

winter solstice...
she cuts her hair off
in a hot bath

Published in Paper Wasp, 18:2, Winter 2012

Subway Tanka

hometown memories
lingering in a corner
of my mind --
a line of geese
on the subway mosaic

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Starlight Tanka

her last question
how can you make a life
out of mere words
reverberates in the dark…
starlight once in her eyes

Published in Contemporary Literary Horizon, 3, May/June 2012

Shadow Tanka

I'm tired
of hearing my own voice --
one howl
breaking many shadows
on this moonlit night

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Nostalgia Tanak

3 am
I wake to a thump
in the attic
where ghosts of the past
hold their powwow

Published in Contemporary Literary Horizon, 3, May/June 2012

Midsummer Tanka

you're a poet
with your head in the clouds
she gives me
the Bodhisattva look...
this starless midsummer night

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Good Friday Tanka

Good Friday night…
a teenage girl in red
lies motionless
on the sidewalk
facing the starlit sky

Published in Contemporary Literary Horizon, 3, May/June 2012

Soul Tanka

I listen
in the midnight
of my soul
to the sound of words
fighting against words

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

"Chinglish" Tanka

emasculated
by her "ABC, follow me"
the first time
he shouts out
the F-words in Chinglish

Published in Contemporary Literary Horizon, 3, May/June 2012

Nostalgia Haiku

nine autumns past...
puffy bags under my eyes
nights out
with Mother who lives
an ocean away

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

A Tanak about Evangelism

Amazing Grace
drowning in traffic noise...
bright sky silhouettes
the evangelist's profile
before the ship's mast

Published in Contemporary Literary Horizon, 3, May/June 2012

Homelessness Tanka

a pet morgue
opens on this sunny day --
few people attend
a memorial service
for John and Jane Doe

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Year in, Year Out: A Haiku Sequence

New Year's morning
on The Metamorphosis
slanted sunlight

April rains
I touch the face
in The Scream

summer stargazing
they do the cha cha cha
in my whisky glass

Georgian Bay
sipping the Taiwan moon
from my cupped hands

snow on snow
is my life a dream
within a dream

Published in Contemporary Literary Horizon, 3, May/June 2012

A Tanka about Writing

one by one
rejection emails arrive...
I watch
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
twice in one night

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Loneliness Tanka

The text will be posted here after 18 months

Published on Every Day Poets (June 15, 2012)

Relationship Haiku

blind date
she picks at her rice
grain by grain

published in Modern Haiku, 43:2, 2012

An Attic Poet: A Haibun

In exile, this black daylight, can I knock on a wall of silence to make the sound of protest?

in my throat
words just well up...
shrill of cicadas

Will the sky hold my thoughts? Looking out the window, I see a paper bag floating in the wind.

Published in Haibun Today, 6:2, June 2012

Loneliness Tanka

heavy snowfall...
her empty side of the bed
weighs down
the night meant to be
a world of our own

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

The Sign: A Tanka Prose

I watched her
getting smaller and smaller
all winter...
spring comes early, she walks
into the Garden alone

A thread of moonlight through the window. My dog-eared Bible on the coffee-stained desk.

Another sleepless night. Did Jesus die with a cry in despair, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Or did he expire with a look on his face that shows his serene confidence, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit?”

I remember the first time she walked into my attic room, seeing the walls lined with bookcases for biblical reference books. She turned to me and said, “My little Thomas, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." At every word,  her cheek dimpled into a smile.

her bony hand
grasped helplessly at the air…
the wooden cross
she gave me for my birthday
casts a long shadow

Published in Haibun Today, 6:2, June 2012

A Tanka about Writing

A poet is a person
who can find his own way
by moonlight,
I hiss through clenched teeth...
the look on her face

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Mother Tongue Haiku

Pacific shore...
a tidal wave speaking
my mother tongue

Published on Wednesday Haiku, May 30, 2012

Attic Monostich

opening my attic window against yesterday's sky

Published in Shot Glass #7, June 2012

North Tower

ink-dark smoke of a life jumping from the north tower

Published in Shot Glass #7, June 2012

Star Monostich

the space between winter stars my love one-poem ago

Published in Shot Glass #7, June 2012

Recession Tanka

a hazy skyline
filled with palm trees
towering over
dirt yards with broken fences...
the smile fixed on her face

Published on Poemhunter (June 11th, 2012)

Snowflake Monostich

before, after, and inside me snowflakes drifting

Published on PoemHunter (May 27th, 2012)

Summer Haiku

last day of summer
the warmth of a Monarch left
in her cupped hands

Published on PoemHunter (May 23, 2012)

Dream Monostich

under the sun a dragon dream chasing after my dog and me

Published on PoemHunter (May 27th, 2012)

New Year Haiku

a grain of rice
on the mayor's face . . .
New Year's Levee

Published in The Heron's Nest, XIX:2, June 2012

A Monostich about Writing

disemboweling my poetry with the critic's razor-sharp nose

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Memory Monostich

moonlight on the cracks in the wall of my hometown memories

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

American Dream Haiku

American dream
in each shop window
a different moon

Honorable Mention, the Betty Drevniok Award Competition 2012

Hippo Monostich

petals on petals I haven’t become a hippo

published in Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012