Poetry in the Moment: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

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

Red Lights, 8:2, 2012

Equinox Haiku

equinox...
an autumn butterfly dream
beyond the window

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Friday, June 29, 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

Paper Wasp, 18:2, Winter 2012

Star Haiku

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Winter Haiku

winter sunset
a line of women in black
holding up pictures

Paper Wasp, 18:2, Winter 2012

Relationship Haiku

ice clinking
in my whisky glass
her face floats

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Death Haiku

winter light
my reflection
in his glass coffin

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)

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Winter Haiku Noir

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

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Monday, June 25, 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

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Nostalgia Tanak

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

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 summer night

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Good Friday Tanka

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

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Friday, June 22, 2012

"Chinglish" Tanka

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

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Thursday, June 21, 2012

A Tanak about Evangelism

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

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Wednesday, June 20, 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

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Loneliness Tanka

she’s stretched out
in the pose of an odalisque
a farewell gift
on the wall of the room
I live in alone

Every Day Poets (June 15, 2012)

Relationship Haiku

blind date
she picks at her rice
grain by grain

Modern Haiku, 43:2, 2012

Monday, June 18, 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.

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

Sketchbook,7:2, March/April 2012

Sunday, June 17, 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

Haibun Today, 6:2, June 2012