A Tanka about Night Life

the ceilings
are yellowed with grease
the air
heavy with it . . .
smells of Shilin Night Market

Atlas Poetica, #10, Fall 2011

Night Haiku

a shooting star
across the inky sky --
lightning bug

Fall 2010 issue of Haiku Ramblings

Nightlife

looking out the car window
you gaze across the glittering city
someone is watching you drive by
from a dark street corner
neon lights flash by your window
your realm is someone else’s dream

Summer 2009 issue of Concise Delight Magazine of Short Poetry

Night Haiku

night deepening
the office secretary adjusts
her low-cut top

Notes from the Gean, Issue 5

Autumn Night (Tanka Sequence)

one by one
drops from this middle-aged face
soak the page
I have nothing to offer
but sweat, tears, toil, and blood

I feel something
inside me fraying
something I've draped
my dreams in --
the chill of autumn dusk

as night deepens
dark secrets emerge
and gnaw at my heart
I cut it open
with the scalpel of words

nothing
in the inner chambers
of my heart
except scattered memories
and Lego blocks of words

gazing up
at the full moon
I offer a full cup
to entice her --
this autumn has come to me alone

February 2010 issue of LYNX

Cricket Haiku

dappled dusk
the chirping of crickets
breaks bell-notes

Sep/Oct 09 issue of Sketchbook

Night Tanka

night deepens
with piercing cries
of a cat —
I hear
my heart throbbing

Summer 2009 issues of Modern English Tanka

Indigo Night

a V of wild geese
soar into the sky

voices dripping with grief
drive me to walk

the rising harvest moon
weeps in silence

the cold mouth of night
utters no single word

Spring issue of Rust+Moth

Summer Haiku

crickets chirp
on a midsummer night
blinking stars

Spring Issue of Haiku Ramblings