Water Strider Haiku

alone at the pond ...

a water strider resets

the stars

The Mamba, 17, 2025

Clenched Fist Haiku

snowflakes ...

the clenched fist

of my baby

The Mamba, 17, 2025

Farm Gate Haiku

the clink, clunk

of a rusty farm gate ...

winter chill

The Mamba, 17, 2025

Holocaust and War on Gaza Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXVII: "Holocaust and War on Gaza"

written on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day

at 10 A.M

a two-minute siren blares 

across Israel ...

a skeletal house's shadow

darkens a Gazan's lined face

NeverEnding Story, April 24 2025

FYI: For more poems, see  Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day 

"Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz,"

April 24: Israel Commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day With Two Minutes of Nationwide Silence

In attendance at the Yad Vashem ceremony are PM Netanyahu, President Herzog and Holocaust survivors.This year's commemorative events center around the theme of '80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany'

 April 25: Beyond Jewish Suffering: Israel's Holocaust Education Finally Includes Other Victims of the Nazis

Sarit Zeibert, an Israeli academic who studies persecuted minorities in Nazi Germany, would like to remind everyone that the United Nations Charter calls for the commemoration of all minorities persecuted by the Nazi regime. "When you examine the media and the curricula in other countries, you do see reference to all groups of victims."

And April 24: Activists hang signs of Gazans harmed during war on eve of Yom HaShoah: 'Remembering the Holocaust means looking at reality'

Activists hung signs throughout Jerusalem on Wednesday night, showing the harm to residents of the Gaza Strip during the war. "As Jews, we feel that remembering the Holocaust means looking at reality directly and fighting against dehumanization," the activists who hung the signs said. "On this day, it is important to remember that 'never again' should be a message of responsibility that rests on the shoulders of all of us to oppose starvation, ethnic cleansing and genocide."

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXVIII: "just one pita"

just one pita

to split among our four kids 

for tomorrow ...

with news on mute, I feel bombarded

with questions of what's left unsaid

FYI: Haaretz, April 25: 'We'll Die Whether From Hunger or the Bombing': Gaza Faces Critical Food Shortage

The food shortage is the biggest challenge for most Gazans now. Eight weeks have passed since Israel stopped allowing aid into the Strip, and experts are warning of a sudden and rapid decline in health due to the shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

17-Year-Old Me Tanka

written for World Book Day

a photo slips

from The Catcher in the Rye

17-year-old me

not afraid of anyone

except myself

NeverEnding Story, April 23 2025

FYI: This tanka could be read as a sequel to mine below:

light in the eyes

of this familiar stranger

a photo

of seventeen-year-old me

reading The Outsider

Shot Glass Journal, 43, 2024

Faith and Action Tanka

in memory of Pope Francis, a man of Peace in Action

and to the Catholic Church and Christians around the world

faith and action rhyme:

Pope Francis's Easter message

ceasefire now

this longed-for tidal

wave of peace can rise up

NeverEnding Story, April 22 2025

FYI:

Palestine Chronicle, April 21: Pope Francis’ Passing: His Key Statements on Gaza and the Ongoing Genocide

In the final years of his papacy, he consistently spoke out about the war in Gaza, expressing concern for civilians and calling for peace and humanitarian access.

Since October 9, 2023, Pope Francis has been calling Gaza’s Holy Family Parish every evening—brief conversations at 7 PM, marked by simple, human questions: “How are you?” “What did you eat?” 

These nightly calls, as reported by Vatican News, offered a vital sense of connection and comfort to the more than 600 people, both Christians and Muslims, sheltering in the parish’s church and school. He always ended with a blessing, making the sign of the cross and saying, “Muchas gracias, grazie tante.”

Pope Francis, who passed away at 88, leaves behind a legacy defined by his steadfast calls for peace and justice in Gaza, persistently urging ceasefires, condemning violence, and advocating for the protection of civilians.

Investigation into ‘Genocide’

In a book released ahead of the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis called for an investigation into the unfolding genocide in Gaza, urging the world not to look away from the suffering of its people.

“I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” the pontiff wrote.

He went further, raising the alarm on the potential severity of the situation: “According to some experts,” Pope Francis noted, “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

Nativity Scene

On December 8, 2024, Pope Francis unveiled the Vatican’s annual nativity scene, which featured baby Jesus draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, according to Vatican News. 

This symbolic addition underscored the Holy Family’s connection to Bethlehem and served as a nod to the Palestinian struggle.

Easter Message

He expressed particular solidarity with the people of Gaza and the Christian community there, where “the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”

“I appeal once again,” he said, “for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.

The Pope urged the international community to take action and “come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.”

Added:

flanked by Swiss guards

Pope in a wooden casket ...

behind high walls

politicking over the successor

becomes intense and darker

FYI: The Guardian, April 22: Vatican power struggle: will an ‘anti-Francis’ pope emerge from conclave?

The death of Pope Francis will throw into sharp relief the internecine power struggle that has been a hallmark of his papacy

In the coming days, a ferocious battle for the future of the church will be played out with the highest of stakes within the sanctity of the Sistine Chapel.

And Conclave Movie Quotes

This is a conclave, Aldo, it’s not a war.

It is a war! And you have to commit to a side.

Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance.

Edge of Peace Haiku

ramadan moon

behind skeletal houses

the edge of peace

Third Place, The Solitary Daisy Annual Haiku Contest, 2025

Armless Boy's Stare Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXVI: "armless boy's stare"

inspired by 2025 World Press Photo of an armless Gazan boy,  9-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour with his arms missing just below each shoulder

calm between fireballs 

in the slanted moonlight

an armless boy's stare

NeverEnding Story, April 20 2025

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz," April 20: Khan Yunis, Gaza's City of Slaughter

Over the past 120 years, the Kishinev pogrom, on Easter Sunday of 1903, has become a myth that shaped Jewish consciousness forever. There is no child in Israel who has not heard about it. But The Kishinev riots are part of an ordinary day for people in Gaza 

No Message Haiku

the weight

of slate-gray clouds

no message

2025 ONE ART Haiku Anthology

Good Friday Haiku

Good Friday afternoon

the white church steeple's shadow

darkens a stray

NeverEnding Story, April 18 2025

FYI: This haiku could be read as a prequel to the following:

whitewashed church

on the street corner a black man

with a crown of thorns

NeverEnding Story, October 5 2022

FYI: Ls 2&3 allude to "Black Jesus."  Black theology envisions Jesus Christ as one who stands on the side of the oppressed people, blacks, and is one with them, over against the oppressor.

Last Bite of Bread Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXV: "last bite of bread"

last bite of bread ...

with eyes fixed on Heaven

a girl starts singing 

NeverEnding Story, April 17 2025

FYI: NeverEnding Story's Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on UN Statement: Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis at Its Worst Since War Began

The world that refused to lift your dead face from the ruins

was never interested in looking at it when it was alive

-- Mohammed Moussa

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXV: "armless boy"

pile after pile

of shattered concrete and rebar ...

silhouetted

against Gaza's red-tinted skies

an armless boy and his dog 

Promised Land Tanka

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XXXVIII

in this promised land

my immigrant life compressed

to hard working 

and light sleeping between jobs ... 

fresh morning in my broken world 

NeverEnding Story, April 16 2025 

FYI: L5 alludes to the following lines:

...

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you...

Mary Oliver, "Invitation," Red Bird, 2009

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XXXIX

stringing 

and unstringing this old erhu ...

My Hometown

the song I come to sing

remains sung in my heart

Added: 

a riot of colors

in my neighbor's garden

at its edge

Foreclosure tilted 

in breezy sunshine

Added:

a long lineup

at the recycling station

in his cart

empty bottles and cans 

taller than this street kid

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XXIII

shoulder to shoulder

protesters chant, Not Our King!

holding a giant banner,

Vladimir Putin walks

Donald Trump on a leash

Added:

in his $50,000 

three-bedroom ranch-style rental home

the Richest Man sneers

homeless men? Just drug zombies, 

needles and human feces on the street

FYI: Yahoo! Finance, April 4: Elon Musk sold his seven mansions for more than $100 million and now lives in a $50,000 three-bedroom ranch-style rental home in Boca Chica, Texas

The Independent, Dec. 13, 2024: Elon Musk calls homelessness a ‘lie’ and ‘propaganda’ — and Trump is listening

“Homeless is a misnomer. It implies that someone got a little bit behind on their mortgage, and if you just gave them a job, they’d be back on their feet,” he told former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson in October. “What you actually have are violent drug zombies with dead eyes, and needles and human feces on the street.”

The more money spent combating homelessness, “the worse it gets”, according to Musk.

And Los Angeles Times, April 20: Lancaster mayor's remedy for homelessness: 'Free fentanyl' and 'a purge'

Tunnel of Pink Blossoms Haiku

dappled sunshine

kid after kid through a tunnel

of pink blossoms

Romanian Translation by Editor Steliana Cristina Voicu

soare pătat

copil după copil printr-un tunel

de flori roz

Enchanted Garden, 11, 2025

Joy and Sadness Tanka

The Great Gatsby

turning 100 sparks joy

and sadness ...

my bookworm friend laments,

this desire for more, more, more

NeverEnding Story, April 14 2025

FYI: The Great Gatsby, which turned a hundred last week, is a novel about excess: about the glitzy, rowdy parties of the Jazz Age and the beautiful people that attended them; about vanity and class; and about the insatiable American desire for more ...( The New Yorker, April 9: "F. Scott Fitzgerald's Life in Drinks") 

And the following tanka could be read as an example of this insatiable American desire for more articulated in The Great Gatsby:

alone 

by the penthouse window

my friend repeats 

this is America

why settle for pretty good? 

NeverEnding Story, September 19 2022

Patch of Green Haiku

March sunshine

my old dog sniffs a patch

of green

Sense & Sensibility, March 2025

Relationship is not about continuing

"It's about re-inventing," I reassure myself. Always being at the brink of making something new.

I shaved my head

when her hair started falling out

and we weren't scared ...

five years later, our life bears

the weight of a question mark

I'm sleepless again as the moonlight slants through a gap in the bedroom curtains. And in her sleep, she seems to murmur something about a stable life.

It aches when I close my eyes and let myself glimpse, just for a moment, that there is an alternative life in reality, not just inside my mind: carefree and always on the move.

awake, alone

I look out the window

at early snowfall ...

what if this, what if that swirling

in a dark corner of my mind

Contemporary Haibun Online, 21:1, 2025

Marriage Life Tanka

in my mind

you shouldn't get married

loud and louder ...

we're like two vacuum cleaners

sucking at each other

Cold Moon Journal, February 14 2025

Life goes on behind the wall

the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXIV: "wall of indifference"

Life goes on behind the wall

written in response to Haaretz, Opinion, April 9: "This Intolerable Gap Between Jewish Memory and Palestinian Reality" and in memory of 15 executed aid workers

anything new 

on the other side of this wall

of indifference ...

15 aid workers bound

and shot at close range

the young medic 

with a penetrating gaze

at smoke-darkened skies ...

his last phone message: the path

I chose to help people

too much to ask you 

to see Gazans as humans? 

50, 000 deaths

silenced, forgotten, buried

under the weight of daily life

NeverEnding Story, April 10 2025

FYI: Listen to Harrteza's April 8 podcast interview with Nir Hasson: 'I Don't Know of Any IDF Soldier Who Paid a Price for Killing Innocents in Gaza'

Haaretz journalist Nir Hasson has been covering the war in Gaza for months. He has seen so many horrifying acts of war go unpunished and uninvestigated, that he was hardly surprised by the killing of 15 aid workers at the end of March.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XX

tariff after tariff ...

another food bank lineup curls

around the corner

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XXI

the garbage bin 

near the Fiction Section 

of a dollar bookstore

piles on piles of copies 

of Trump: The Art of the Deal

FYI: Yahoo! Finance, Oct. 13, 2020: As a businessman, Donald Trump ran 6 businesses that declared bankruptcy because they couldn’t pay their bills. 

We’re watching Trump’s 7th bankruptcy unfold

And CoinDesk, April 11: Donald Trump's Memecoin Faces Massive $320M Token Unlock Amid Record Low Price, having lost 83% of its value since Jan. 18.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XXII

"Kiss my ass!"

he brags, going with his gut 

and the world's forced to go along 

for this roller coaster ride ...

Trump’s 7th bankruptcy unfolds

Added: the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXIV: "Seder and mass grave"

an empty chair

at the Passover Seder

100 miles away

in a mass grave bodies found

in paramedic uniforms

FYI: This tanka could be read as a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LVII: "Passover"

headlines bleed

into this sunlit suburb

on Passover

chants of Free Hostages

mingle with Free Palestine

NeverEnding Story, April 23 2024 

Winter Ocean Haiku

wind-torn clouds

the surging winter ocean

between mom and me

Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2024/25 

Against Trumpinator

Trump Empire, Inc., XVII

patho-cracy ...

my ESL teacher whispers

then puts her finger 

to her mouth as USA! chants 

grow sharp and darker outside

wecan'twaitfor 

$5, 000 made-in-USA

iPhones. iPhones now ...

flanked by a spray of flags

red-hattedTrumpists shouting

 

tariffs, a tax cut 

for working Americans

louder from TV

in gathering dark, she mutters

my 401K, now 401

Land of the Crazed --> USA

Canada <-- Home of the Brave

a giant road sign

at the corner near the border

as flocks of geese fly north

in Toronto sunshine

with the scent of early spring

and freedom

two Americans meet and part:

one draft dodger, one Trump evader

Hands Off Rally:

chant after chant of fried truth

eggflation

scrambled justice, poached rights,

cracked democracy... Trump, Fuck Off

NeverEnding Story, April 8 2025

FYI: Trumpinator,  Donald Trump as the Terminator, is a MAGA codeword.

ESL stands for English as a Second Language.

The Polish psychiatrist Andrew Lobaczewski coined this term, "pathocracy," to describe a type of governance by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society. 

And a 401(k) is a retirement savings plan in the US

Note: My translation project, NeverEnding Story:First English-Chinese Bilingual Haiku and Tanka Blog,  reached a new milestone yesterday at midnight:

the HIGEST daily page views, 23, 802

on the windowsill

two bluebirds singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

"NeverEnding Story" (most-read haiku and tanka poetry blog) 👍

Now, it calls for haiku and tanka submissions. See the guidelines here.

We read to know we're "not alone."

-- The character of C.S. Lewis in William Nicholson's play, "Shadowlands" 

The proper response to a poem is "another poem."

-- Phyllis Webb 

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XVIII

White House news on mute

shaft after shaft of sunlight

through rainclouds

Added: the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXIII: "15 aid workers executed"

aid workers bound and shot

the s t  r   e  t   c    h of silence

after silence

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XIX

the stocks rocketing

downward, upward, downward ...

Trump brags, kissing my ass