CN Tower Tanka

the harvest moon
rises above CN Tower
my muse and I
hunting for the word
whose odor is strongest

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Handprints Tanka

handprints
on the large front window
this winter
a foreclosed house
lamenting its story

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Book-Crammed Apartment Haiku

book-crammed apartment too full too empty
 
Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Drifting Snow Haiku

snow drifting . . .
all her colorful words
about love

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Shadow Haiku

book launch done
taking my shadow
to find the harvest moon

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Goldfish Haiku

let me stay
goldfish dart in and out
among stones

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Drifting Leaf Haiku

I was never
meant to be like this
drifting leaf

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Dirt Path Haiku

a dirt path
between makeshift shanties
winter stars

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Stargazing Haiku

stargazing…
the universe
in her eyes

Paper Wasp, 18:4, Summer 2012

Flamenco Tanka

I scan my heart
for that Don Juan spirit. .
a woman in red
dancing by moonlight
to a flamenco guitar

Presence, 47, 2012

Howl Haiku

distant howl
under the thread
of a winter moon

Presence, 47, 2012

Clocks Haiku

row upon row
clocks hang on my wall:
midsummer dream

Presence, 47, 2012

Relay Race Haiku

the butterfly makes dreaming a relay race

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

English as a Second Language Class Senryu

ESL class:
the Chinese have oral sex
with some consonants

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Note: ESL stands for English as a Second Language.

Thunder Haiku

lightning is the moon's silence  thunder its gibbering tongue

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Dewdrops Haiku

spring dewdrops
cling to a blade of grass –
Iraqi children

Kamesan's World Haiku Anthology on War, Violence and Human Rights Violation edited by Dimitar Anakiev

Mayan Doomsday Myth: A Haiku Sequence

for Mayan Doomsday non/believers

Doomsday Eve
I start counting last
autumn stars

snowy morning,
December 21...
reciting Basho

the day after...
a roof icicle holding
the morning sun

PoemHunter (Dec. 22, 2012)

Note: Dec.20 is the last day of Autumn.

Fig Tree Haiku

a mother crying
over her dead children
fig trees at dawn

Kamesan's World Haiku Anthology on War, Violence and Human Rights Violation edited by Dimitar Anakiev

Mission Accomplished Haiku

summer sweaty socks
on my mind --
memory of Mission Accomplished

Kamesan's World Haiku Anthology on War, Violence and Human Rights Violation edited by Dimitar Anakiev

Tragedy of Silence: A Haiku Sequence

Newtown morning
twenty black ribbons tied
around a bare tree
 
what happened, happened...
pit bulls bark
at the sickle moon

gun control debate
Pop! Pop! Pop! breaking
the noises

PoemHunter (Dec. 15, 2012)

Pond Haiku

rippling pond...
what's left
of his words

The Heron's Nest, XIV:4, December 2012

Rusty Cross Haiku

giant rusty cross in winter light my nipples erect

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

One Eye on the Road: A Poet's Vacation Message

Dear Mr. Reeder:

In the back of my mind echo his words, "Every day is a journey, and the journey itself home."

Later tonight, I'll embark on a journey through the land of melting clocks, and, hopefully, I'll be back in shape on July 4th.

If I get lost in the labyrinth of colors, please come find me somewhere outside the lines of my thought.

a spring dream:
one by one, rhinos
turn into poets

Best wishes,

Chen-ou Liu

May 11, 2012

AHA: The Anthology

Love Letters Tanka

love letters
I never sent her…
one by one
they morph into lilies
this Easter morning

AHA: The Anthology

Spring Drizzle Tanka

the smell
of a spring drizzle...
that place, that time
that woman in black
with warm breasts

AHA: The Anthology

Canada day Haiku

Canada Day fireworks…
the silence envelops me
and my shadow

AHA: The Anthology

Newtown Haiku

for survivors/victims of Newtown Tragedy

Newtown at dusk
a boy and a girl
cover their mouths

PoemHunter (Dec. 15, 2012)

Homeless Girl Haiku

a homeless girl leaves
her footprints in my words
October snow

AHA: The Anthology

Hungry Wolf Tanka

nostalgia
is a hungry wolf
with sharp teeth
howling at dusk...
one more bowl of rice
(for my mother)
 
AHA: The Anthology

Salmon Haiku

salmon wedge 
the Pacific Ocean
between mother and me

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Snowy Dawn Haiku

snowy dawn...
bits of yesterday
cling to today

Third Place, Inaugural Janice M Bostok International Haiku Award

Judges’ Comments (by Jim Kacian and Cynthia Rowe): This ties the natural world with the human -- we drag the dream world into the day with us, for a bit, even as our waking obscures that other “real” world we inhabit. At the same time, snow covers what we knew of the outside, but we recognizes it's still there, beneath the covering, evidenced by its shapes

Autumn Mist Gendai Haiku

olddogandiautumnmist

Finalist, Inaugural Janice M Bostok International Haiku Award

Raven Haiku

a raven
hops on one foot
crack of thunder

AHA: The Anthology

Pine Shadow Haiku

my dog and I
in the pine shadow
a road zigzags

AHA: The Anthology

Angst Tanka

everything I wrote
brought me to the bottom
of a wine bottle...
in the last drop from his glass
I catch a glimpse of myself

AHA: The Anthology

Bald Eagle Haiku

the wrinkled sea
under an bald eagle
crabwalks

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Old Dog Haiku

after a long yawn
her old dog licks its penis --
itching in my heart

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Father and Son Tanka

my home
is a low-hanging moon
tonight
as I become older
than my father

Notes from the Gean, 14, December 2012

A Transplanted Life: A Haibun

Since I opened the pages of Being and Time, his words, "Death is a way to be, which Dasein takes over as soon as it is," have lingered in the back of my mind for a week, like a silent check on my immigration dream: being a poet who can write in an adopted tongue and find his own way by moonlight.

At twilight, while walking on a wooden path around Lake Ontario, I hear the sound of the grass growing beneath my feet, and the air is filled with the scent of wild flowers. Just a stone's throw away, two seagulls take flight for the lake.

dewdrops on a leaf
the notes of an erhu
come from afar

Haibun Today, 6:4, December 2012

Black Swan Haiku

a black swan
my whisky glass emptied
into the moon

Honorable Mention, 14th HIA Haiku Contest
Sponsored by Haiku International Association
Supported by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, The Japan Times

Sparrows Visual Haiku

sparrowsonthepowerline

        autumn dusk

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Blood Moon Haiku

Basho, do you know
what a haiku smell like?
the blood moon

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Pin-Drop Silence Haiku

the I shifts from line to line  pin-drop silence

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Single-Edged Sword Haiku

the critic cutting my haiku with his single-edged sword

(for "Eric Liu," haiku editor of The NeverEnding Story)

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Glass Wall Haiku

a glass wall between the muse and me smell of darkness

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Jisei Haiku

reading jisei
my lamplit shadow
quivers

Every Day Poets (Dec. 2, 1012)

Wine Haiku

a gray hair
in my whisky glass
her floating face

Asahi Haikuist Network (Nove. 30, 2012)

War on Terror Haiku

two drones fly into the Tower of Babel -- war on terror

PoemHunter (Nov. 29, 2012)

Razor's Edge Haiku

the Word walking on a razor's edge

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Head Upside-Down Haiku

writing haiku
my head upside-down
upon a cloud

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Muse Haiku

I eavesdrop
on the Muse's dream
while writing haiku

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku