Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXI

the muse’s face
in the lake of my mind
I fish for words
rippling
from our ancient past

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XX

Fan Lee's face
blurring into my ex...
in the attic
the cold air sucked in and out
with my shadows

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXIX

Fan cries out, 
Your ex stands between us ...
water stains
on my first chapbook,
The Border as Fiction

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XVIII

the muse rising
from a sea of words
covers her breasts ...
I am pregnant
with verses of longing

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XVII

Fan and my ex
carve out their spaces
in my thoughts
the harvest moon hangs high
over the Taiwan Strait

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XVI

Madame Bovary
divided by Fan's bookmark
will our dreams
be overlapping
on this midsummer night?

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XV

a tanka
the site of a struggle
for meaning ...
is my dispute with the muse
cloaked in clichéd images ?

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Ferguson Police Haiku

Ferguson at twilight ...

Walking While Black

painted in black and white

PoemHunter, August 26 2014

Note: "Walking While Black," WWB, is a phrase that describes African-Americans' demoralizing harassment by the police in Ferguson

Michael Brown Funeral Tanka

in memory of Michael Brown whose funeral was held yesterday

a baseball cap
on his gold-and-black coffin...
a silent cry
from the bloodstained ground
no justice, no peace

PoemHunter, August 26 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XIV

sex is sex,
nothing more and nothing less ...
I comb
through Fan's words
in search of nuance

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XIII

artistic
masturbation!
when I remember
my ex's cutting remark
something shrinks

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XII

La petite mort
rolling off her tongue ...
for me now
there is no separation
between sex and poetry
(for Roland Barthes)

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XI

awash
in Summertime
and moonlight
Fan Lee whispers
my tanka of longing

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, X

trapped for hours
in a labyrinth of words
the muse and I
stand facing each other
under the blazing sun

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, IX

Oh, you are
a published writer
Fan Lee
sounds like my ex ...
alone with the muse

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, VIII

the chill air
this Easter morning ...
Miss Lee,
my ex and the muse
morph into one

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, VII

for a week
writing poems for my blind date
the muse and I
like two mice with our legs
caught in a glue trap

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

A Tanka for "Michael Browns"

the row upon row
of armored police
in broad daylight
black teenagers chanting
We Are All Michael Brown

PoemHunter, August 20 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, VI

first sunrise ...
I keep rehearsing
Hi! Miss Lee,
nice to meet you
before the old mirror

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Ferguson Protest Tanka

for Protesters in Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson in twilight ...
a black boy walks in a line
with 30
other men and women
chanting, no justice, no peace

PoemHunter, August 19 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, V

the red line set
and my credibility
on the line:
every snowy night
just one dream with my ex

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, IV

Medusa
on top in the sex scenes
of a movie ...
my ex does the same
in my winter dreams

 Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, III

our laughter
and conversation
penetrate
this winter night's silence ...
the shadow and I

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, II

revising
for hours in dim light
the muse and I
straddle the thin line
between pleasure and pain

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, I

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, a 27-tanka sequence, was written on October 25th, 2013, 42nd anniversary of the expulsion of Taiwan (Officially the Republic of China) from the United Nations

                                                             

I am not

into her anymore

but I promise

to make her live forever

in my love poetry

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

A Book of Poetry Yet to Be Published, A Tanka Prose

A man shaped like a Henry Moore sculpture lies at the foot of the Toronto skyline. Red and black slashes cut the sky above him. A Meeting Place of Minds is printed in small letters at the top of the book. My Chinese signature scrawls across a water-stained map of Taiwan at the bottom.

the muse screams

but waves of nostalgia

are much louder ...

the blank page's stare

intimidating me

NeverEnding Story, July 27 2014

Note: The origin of the name "Toronto" comes from the Huron word toran-ten, which literally means meeting place.

Summer Heat Haiku

an old woman
with her dog dyed bright pink
summer heat

Brass Bell, 5, August 2014

"Hands up, Don't Shoot" Haiku

for Michael Brown and Ferguson, Missouri Protesters

men and women chanting
hands up, don't shoot
the courthouse at dusk 

PoemHunter, August 14 2014

My Captain Tanka

for Robin Williams

shoe prints
on a classroom desk
echoing
in my mind
oh captain, my captain

NeverEnding Story, August 12 2014

"Good Morning, Vietnam" Tanka

for Robin Williams

awake alone
with Good Morning, Vietnam
echoing in my mind
the ghost I keep
under the pillow

NeverEnding Story, August 12 2014

Cold Night Haiku

a raven's call
this winter night I face
the drunken shadow

NeverEnding Story, August 1 2014

Reality Haiku

for Robin Williams

misty morning
Reality, what a concept!
scrawled on the window

PoemHunter, August 12 2014

Dirty Word Tanka

equal for all
drops from the mayor's lips
I remember
fuck is a dirty word
that comes out clean

NeverEnding Story, July 19 2014

Note: This tanka is written in the style of Onihishigitei (demon-quelling force), a style that is characterized by its “strong or even vulgar diction.” (Robert H. Brower, "Fujiwara Teika's Maigetsusho," Monumenta Nipponica, 40:4, Winter, 1985, p.406). Here are tanka examples:

I cut off

my goddamn finger

to numb

my goddamn pain

snow falling on snow ...

NeverEnding Story, May 8, 2013

using few words

I carve the long face

of my critic

with bleeding eyes...

this Good Friday night

Atlas Poetica, 15, July 2013

Life Haiku

winter drizzle ...
she murmurs, Life doesn't march
to a rhythmic drum

The Mustard Grain, 1:1, August, 2014

One-Line English Lesson Haiku

for my ESL teacher, Sylvia

first English lesson Iamyouareandheis

The Mustard Grain, 1:1, August, 2014

Spider's Web Haiku

tangled thoughts ...
a spider's web
laced with dew

6th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest
Selected Haiku Submissions Collection, July 2014

Winter Twilight Haiku

winter twilight...
the scarecrow's shadow
blends with mine

6th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest
Selected Haiku Submissions Collection, July 2014

Nightclub Haiku

New Year's fireworks...
bullet holes pockmark
a nightclub wall

The Mustard Grain, 1:1, August, 2014

Iraqi Children Haiku

spring dewdrops
cling to a blade of grass –
Iraqi children

Kamesan's World Haiku Anthology on War, Violence and Human Rights Violation, p.206

... haiku by commentators are of a high standard...

Paul Miller, "Haiku and War," Frogpond, 37:2, Spring/Summer 2014, p.101

Alley Dog Haiku

alley dog barking
intermittently
thoughts of my ex

The Mustard Grain, 1:1, August, 2014

Hot-Dog Man Haiku

the lingering smell
on his "hot-dog man" apron
winter sunlight

The Mustard Grain, 1:1, August, 2014

Definition Tanka about Translation

translation: not leaping
from one dictionary
to another
but rebuilding a city
from its ruins

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Mid-Aged Life Tanka

mid-aged life
a roll of paper towels:
the closer
it gets to the end
the more quickly it goes

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Message Board Tanka

M, 40,
poet, seeks a partner...
rusty staples
in the message board
tilted toward the window

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Word-Hungry Beast Tanka

a word-hungry
beast growing inside me --
I cover my mouth
afraid to eat too many
poems written by others
( for Ishikawa Takuboku)

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Steamed Bun Tanka

alone
by the frosty window...
one bite
of a steamed bun
at a time

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Life Tanka

for  Bree, protagonist of Transamerica

is life more
than the sum of its parts?
s/he stands
between the doors of
male and female restrooms

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Yellow Stream Tanka

I pee slowly
fingers like knotted roots
on the fly
it's thirty years today
my yellow stream crossed Father's

Bright Stars, IV, 2014