Home, Sweet Home Haiku

home, sweet home ...

in my rear window snow geese

unzip the sunset glow

The Solitary Daisy, 64, 2025

FYI: "'Home Sweet Home" was first released in 1985 as a single from Mötley Crüe's third studio album, Theatre of Pain.

Old Love Haiku

rising alone

with the light of dawn

scent of an old love

Shadow Pond Journal, 6, 2025

Writing Gembun

The blank calendar; even thoughts paused like a frozen screen.

the cursor blinks ...

the weight of another

hazy day moon

NeverEnding Story, May 1 2026

FYI: My haiku below could be read as a sequel:

hazy day moon 

alone, awake with the weight

of memory

PoemHunter, February 16, 2013

Added: a gembun, about the precarious "work-life," for May Day:

The fan oscillates, its hum a steady heartbeat in the cramped dark.

dust motes

in the slanted moonlight

life between motels

Cherry Blossom Dawn Haiku

cherry blossom dawn

my beagle and I bathed

in the scent of light

NeverEnding Story 30 2026

Added:

breezy sunshine

bumblebees stitch gold threads

among blossoms

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

bumblebee flitting

among the meadow flowers

humming to itself

Haiga Moments: Pens and Lens, 2008

Ignatius Fay

Added:

pick-your-own farm

my toddler’s lips and fingers

blue-stained

Added:

garden hut

newborn kittens blink

into tulips

Added:

break of dawn

a wedge of geese honking

the northbound freight

Eyes and Minds Tanka

we walk quietly

from the doctor’s room

into an elevator

our eyes and minds escape

into panel numbers

Quail Eggs, 3, 2025

Mockingbird's Song Tanka

written for Harper Lee’s 100th birthday

I climb inside

my MAGA neighbor's head

to see his world ...

a mockingbird's song

snaps in two through half-sleep

NeverEnding Story, April 28 2026

Note: In Ls 1-3, the speaker’s attempt to “climb inside / of my MAGA neighbor’s head” mirrors Atticus Finch’s ethic of radical empathy: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it,” which the tanka re-stages as a dreamlike, unstable act of perception.

And the following remark is in contrast to Ls 1-3's allusive one:

People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for, and they have a right to subject their children to it...

Judge Taylor, Chapter 17

Lighthouse Searchlight Haiku

360 degrees

of a lighthouse searchlight ...

this darkness (in me)

Ink Sweat & Tears, Nov. 17 2025

Starlings Haiku

this fresh morning

so much like the others ...

yet starlings shape-shift

Ink Sweat & Tears, Nov. 17 2025

Silence of Farewell Haiku

the sound of raindrops

in our silence of farewell

eviction night

Ink Sweat & Tears, Nov. 17 2025

Late Night Shift Haiku

late night shift done

a stray’s barks lengthen

the way home

NeverEnding Story, April 24 2026

Added:

thunder and lightning

what's left between us 

half-spoken

Added:

cascading clusters, 

clusters of wisteria …

scent of sunshine

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCIII: "trapped echo"

the sound of drones 

in an armless boy's head

like a trapped echo

his mother's last scream 

drowns in the smoky dark

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

Opinion, April 24, 2026: Israelis' Thunderous Silence Enables Daily Atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank

In the Gaza Strip, the dead and wounded aren't "casualties," they are "collateral damage" – a dry technical term backed by artificial intelligence and legal permits. They aren't casualties, they are damage. Language itself has been recruited to cloud what happened, as if by swapping the terms, we could also swap our reality...

But the most chilling sound of all is silence. Israelis' thunderous silence was what enabled and continues to enable the atrocities we committed in Gaza and the ones we commit every day in the West Bank. 

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

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCII: "P/Crime Minister"

written on Israel's Independence Day

behind the shroud

of "our hero warriors"

the P/Crime Minister

spills the Castro-length 

blah, blah, blah on victory

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCIV: "fighter jets' trails"

Gazan sky tinged gray

fighter jets’ trails underline

a crescent moon

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCV: "bullets and blasts"

a hum

thickens into a roar ...

bullets and blasts

tear through brick walls and flesh

as dust and blood fill the air

Added:

makeshift clinic

a  Beirut boy blowing

on shrapnel wounds

Frost Crystals Haiku

frost crystals

on the hospital window ...

what's half spoken

The Solitary Daisy, 63, 2025

Streetlight Tanka

a girl in red

silhouetted against the glow

of a streetlight

the spark of her cigarette

deepens this winter night

Cold Moon Journal, Nov. 28 2025

Late Night Chill Tanka

in late night chill

these rusting staples

on a bulletin board

below the missing puppies

a missing pink-haired teen

Cold Moon Journal, Nov. 5 2025

Immigrant Heart Tanka

unpacking

boxes in a dusty corner

of the attic ...

faded photos buried deep 

in my immigrant heart

Cold Moon Journal, Nov. 5 2025

Cliche and Idea Kyoka

my mind

straddled between cliché

and half-baked idea …

suddenly a burst 

of skylark song

Cold Moon Journal, Nov. 28 2025

Past and Present, Then Ever

cherry blossoms 

always the same, and yet

ever new with you

pink blossom rain

the space where you used to be

pink blossom rain

NeverEnding Story, April 18 2026

Added: 

a riverside stroll

pink blossom rain on my face

on a homeless man

FYI: This could be read as a counter poem to my award-winning haiku below:

blossom rain

between earth and sky

somehow, us

Grand Prize, Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest, 2026

Added: 

midnight crescent

in a Beirut boy's eyes

buzzing drones

Added:

repeat after me

Trum pi no cchi o ...

the clown taps his nose

Added: Politics of Distraction, IX:

blocking the blockade

to break the strait blockade ...

in gathering dark

a gin-soaked flight to nowhere

through the un/truth of this war

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XCII

             Donald Trump

                $20,28 per gallon

             America First

the MAGA-hatted man’s stare

bores holes through his lawn sign

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

Law is the King

Trump Empire, Inc, XC

written for No Kings protests

just a dream, and yet ...

the mountain lion roars

to grazing sheep:

once elected as your King

I'll be vegetarian

the peanut-brained man

behind the Resolute Desk

grins to cameras,

just a little excursion...

oily clouds over Tehran

how much bullshit

can come out of one ass-hole

a veteran’s refrain

cracks and booms through iron bars

at the White House gate

the Capitol fence

shadowed against the sky

in twilight chill

lineups snake at the pumps

and at food banks too

chant after chant

of eggflation, fried truth

scrambled justice ...

a mutt's neck sign: I can poop

a better president

FYI: The title alludes to the famous quote from Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense: In America, THE LAW IS KING.

NeverEnding Story, March 28 2026

Added:

on the road to work  

I push through the white drift --

cold snap pressing in

Added:

to T.S. Eliot

curtains part

snow-wet roofs mirroring

April twilight

FYI: This could be read as a sequel my gembun below:

April is the cruelest month, I murmur to myself

drinking alone

the sound of snowfall

deepens

NeverEnding Story, April 6 2026

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCII: "P/Crime Minister"

written on Israel's Independence Day

behind the shroud

of "our hero warriors"

the P/Crime Minister

spills the Castro-length 

blah, blah, blah on victory

Added: No More Fairy Tales, LIII

written on War-Ravaged Earth Day

Hormuz twilight

one pond of oily black

after another

Between Earth and Sky Haiku

blossom rain

between earth and sky

somehow, us

Grand Prize, Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest, 2026

Commentary by the judge, Scott Mason: These eight words I find imbued with wonder and a palpable sense of gratitude. What could be more glorious than a shower of petals? Well, perhaps the miracle of our own improbable being and the gift of our capacity to appreciate not just blossoms but blessings. Here we stand in the best of both worlds: feet firmly planted on precious ground, heads and hearts in the sky. How this poem uplifts me!

Candlelight Dinner Senryu

her answer, yes... but

at our candlelight dinner

this smell of garlic

Romanian Translation by Editor Steliana Cristina Voicu

răspunsul ei, „da... dar”

la cina la lumina lumânărilor

acest miros de usturoi

Enchanted Garden, 14 2025 

Winding Way Home Haiku

I sing to myself

along the winding way home 

snow thinning to sleet

5-7-5 Haiku Journal, November 9 2025

Eviction Again Haiku

eviction, again

my old home travels with me

folded deep within

5-7-5 Haiku Journal, November 6 2025