Stone Heart Tanka

this cold night
I reach deep inside
loneliness
and pull out
my heart of stone

Bamboo Hut, 4, 2014

Occupy Central Tanka

for Hong Kong's Occupy Central Pro-Democracy students

Hong Kong's Central:

lines of students stand firm

in clouds of tear gas

facing off 

with the riot police

NeverEnding Story, September 29 2014

Note: Hong Kong's main financial district is known as Central.

The Years of Living Consciously

baking
in the summer heat
I wonder
how to pronounce
my new name, Chen-ou Liu

no more migrants
chanted in Bible-belt rhythm ...
I tell him,
I am Taiwanese,
a "legal alien"

maple leaves
gleam and darken
on the tree
should I stay
or should I go?

a red light
flashing at the crossroad ...
I've been living
too long for a single dream
echoes in the winter air

NeverEnding Story, September 5, 2014

Always the Moon

written for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

empty driveway
and maple leaves ...
harvest moon rising

the harvest moon
lends me a shadow ...
party of three

NeverEnding Story September 9, 2014

Ghosts Tanka

my bed
crowded with ghosts
one tanka
after another
making love in it

A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

Old Swing Tanka

a winter gust
riding the old swing
in the backyard ...
my childhood sweetheart
in and out of my thoughts

A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

First Light Haiku

first light
snowflakes treading
the silence

A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

Chinese New Year Haiku

Chinese New Year ...
the rain tonight
too quiet

A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

Hair Haiku

summer moonlight on my cheek a lock of her hair

Brass Bell, 6, September 2014

Nightingale Song Haiku

nightingale song flowing down the river thoughts of my ex

Brass Bell, 6, September 2014

Side by Side Haiku

hercatmydog resting side by side herbackmyback

Brass Bell, 6, September 2014

Pine Breeze Haiku

what's left undrawn ...
the sound of the pine breeze
in his brush painting

Revision, Wednesday Haiku, #190, September 3, 2014

Midnight Moon Haiku

midnight moon...
one long howl
and then no more

Shamrock, 29, 2014

War Haiku

Gaza in smoky twilight
a long scream cut off

Revision NeverEnding Story, August 31, 2014

"This is not the way these tales end," Calliope Says Firmly

A Tanka Sequence

the muse
crowned with moonlight ...
I stand
naked and daunted
in her shadow

latest volley
in my diplomatic spat
with the muse ...
the words in my tanka
morph into dead cockroaches

the muse
hooded in black ...
clichés
cursing through
my veins

I wrestle
with the ghostly muse
until daybreak
my words of longing
spill onto the page

robins tweeting
on the first day of spring
I cross out the lines:
before time was
poetry was written

Whispers, August 17 2014

A Portrait of the Poet as an Immigrant

Drunk on moonlight from Taipei I stand alone under the Toronto sky.

My mind is schizophrenic, but my hand is steady as I pursue a would-be poem on this wintry night.

my anguish

crumpled into a ball...

I keep writing

as the wastebasket waits

for another throw

Sunlight drifts through the window and settles on the worn cover of A New Practical Chinese-English Dictionary. My heart, that lonely hunter, seeks the page where the odor of words is strongest.

every day

tastes a little

different

my hunger for words

to picture a poet

Haibun Today, 8:3, September 2014

I Am a Poet Nevertheless

if you die poor and young,

your poems may be worth something ...

her dimpled smile

After she left me for a man with a 9 to 5 job, I say to myself, at least I have two loyal readers: my drunken shadow and the black hooded man holding a scythe.

Haibun Today, 8:3, September 2014

A NeverEnding Story, A Tanka Prose

in dreams

her hand touches

my body...

warm one day

stone cold the next

Every time I sketch a sex scene in a poem, my ex sits on my conscience as if she is tugging at my elbow and yelling, "Stop."

NeverEnding Story, August 21 2014

Morning Breeze Haiku

morning breeze ...
sipping the sunlight
from my tea cup

Honorable Mention, Shintai Haiku, World Haiku Review, August 2014

Book Launch Tanka

after attending
the four-person book launch
my shadow and I
pass a street sign that reads
Miryang, Secret Sunshine

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Revolving Door Tanka

an old man
in ragged clothes
engaging
in cagy combat
with a revolving door

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Snow Moon Tanka

the snow moon
in a corner of the window  . . .
something moist
about this caged darkness,
our entwined bodies

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Icy Sidewalk Tanka

a man sleeps
on the icy sidewalk
everyone
getting off the bus
walks around him

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Parrot Tanka

I sit alone
on New Year’s morning
the parrot
articulating
the snowy silence

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Traffic Tanka

meeting
in the middle
of morning traffic . . .
my old pit bull
and my ex’s black cat

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Email Spam Tanka

bombarded
by Hot Girls email spam . . .
I dwell on
writing love tanka
to my Facebook friend

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Mating Flies Tanka

two flies mating
on my bedroom window . . .
the TV host
talks himself
into a frenzy

Bright Stars, V, 2014

IKEA Catalogue Tanka

my classmate
used to sit in the bathroom
with Playboy . . .
now feasts his eyes on
the IKEA catalogue

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Prayer Cards Tanka

prayer cards pinned
to a wall-sized map of the world . . .
a stony silence
among the voices
of foreign students

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Wine Tanka

I raise a glass 
to my shadow on the wall
Drink fast! For tomorrow
you may be the one
with yesterday’s ghost

Bright Stars, V, 2014

Relics Tanka

on Easter Night
relics of my past
resurrected --
the drip drip of the faucet
into this dark silence

Ribbons, 10:2, Spring 2014

Faucet Tanka

after she's gone
sometimes I murmur to myself
it's OK . . .
the faucet still drips
after I turn it off

Ribbons, 10:2, Spring 2014

Covering the Middle East

A Haiku Set for Edward Said, author of Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World


the flurry of white
between minarets
a scream cut short

If it bleeds, it leads
scrawled on a reporter's note
pinpoint bombings

NeverEnding Story, August 4 2014

Dragon Kite Tanka

a dragon kite
stretching towards the sun
by the string
my nephew holds
the sky and his dream 


Serbian Translation

zmaj
isteže se prema suncu
uzicom
moj nećak drži
njegov san i nebo

Honorable Mention, 2014 Diogen Spring Tanka Contest

Butterfly Kite Haiku

above the attic
where the boy died
a butterfly kite


Serbian Translation

iznad tavana
gdje umro je dječak
zmaj- leptir

Honorable Mention, 2014 Diogen Spring Haiku Contest

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXVII

my New Year poem,

writing is making love

to the muse ...

a raw primal pleasure

coming in wave after wave

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Note: The tanka above is the last poem in my 27-tanka sequence, Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker , and the tanka below is the opening poem:

I am not

into her anymore

but I promise

to make her live forever

in my love poetry

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXVI

first sunlight
slanting through the window...
I realize
my ex's shadow and my own
will never meet again

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXV

walking alone
with my old shepherd
on Christmas day
the tumultuous crowding
of memories

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXIV

a purple rose
tattooed on my ex's bosom
we used to sing
California dreamin'
on such a winter's day

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXIII

my poetic mind
emptied
by snowy loneliness --
I'm hungry
for passion fruit

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014

Note:  Passion fruit originated in Brazil and was introduced in Taiwan by the Japanese in 1901 during Japan's colonization of the island. In Taiwan, passion fruit can be harvested from June to December.

Calliope/My Ex: Love/Trouble Maker, XXII

the past
like a headless ghost ...
this ache
in my heart
keeps me awake

Atlas Poetica, #18, 2014