Yawp of "USA!" Tanka

a lament for Walt Whitman's America

to cameras

no, more wars! the chant

echoes, echoing

around the Congress chamber

swelled with the yawp of USA!

NeverEnding Story, March 11 2026

FYI: The joshi (prefatory note), “a lament for Walt Whitman's America,” serves as the thematic anchor of the tanka. By invoking the “barbaric yawp” from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman, the tanka establishes a pointed irony: what Whitman envisioned as a raw, soulful cry of individual liberation and democratic vitality has here been transformed into a partisan, nationalistic roar.

And For more about the use of "joshi," see "To the Lighthouse" post, "Joshi (Prefatory Note) as a Poetic Device."

Writing Gembun

written for Richard Bach and Robert Frost

A cursor blinks in the white of my screen.

darkness pools around stars

words I never said

words I never sent

NeverEnding Story, March 11 2026

FYI: Below are two of my favourite remarks on writing:

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. 

-- Richard Bach

And

Every time a poem is written, every time a short story is written, it is written not by cunning, but by belief. The beauty, the something, the little charm of the thing to be, is more felt than known.

-- Robert Frost

Added: I just found this "reading, writing and human connection" remark:

These days, it’s easy to feel that we’ve fallen out of connection with one another and with the earth and with reason and with love. I mean: we have. But to read, to write, is to say that we still believe in, at least, the possibility of connection.

George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life, 2021.

Coal-Soot Haze Haiku

No More Fairy Tales, XLIX

coal-soot haze hangs 

over a field of farmhouses

Four More Years crooked

NeverEnding Story, March 10 2026

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

clean coal billboard ...

a fork-tongued thought 

darkens the night

Plum Tree Tavern, January 21, 2023

Added: No More Fairy Tales, L

rows of wind turbines

a field of prairie grass

bends in twilight

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

No More Fairy Tales, XLVIII

COP30:

more fossil fuels

or green energy?

a question smeared in ash

from the burned Amazon

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2025

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXVI

in gold-color

Trump holds Epstein’s stretched arms

from behind

on the National Mall:

King of the World Statue

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXVII

the peanut-brained man

behind the Resolute Desk

grins to cameras,

"just a little excursion"

oily clouds over Tehran

Added:

billows of smoke

from Beirut neighborhoods ...

the war chief vows,

we will take the territory 

block by block, street by street

FYI: Haaretz, March 13 2026:  Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday morning that he had "warned" Lebanese President Joseph Aoun following Hezbollah fire toward Israel. "I warned the president of Lebanon that if the Lebanese government cannot control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern communities and firing at Israel – we will take the territory and do it ourselves," Katz said. 

Added: Politics of Distraction, I

oil-dark clouds

hang heavy over Tehran —

reporters squint

at row after row of black bars

in Epstein’s redacted files

FYI: Politics of Distraction is my new writing project. The title is taken from Al Jazeera: February 26, 2026: Epstein and the politics of distraction

Scandal individualises corruption, creating a spectacle that redirects anger away from structural power.

Neon Motel Sign Haiku

neon motel sign

the sound of a bottle kicked

down the rain-washed road

hedgerow, 150, 2025

Other Side of Mother Haiku

written for International Women's Day

a box of letters

beneath the attic lamplight

other side of Mother

NeverEnding Story, March 8 2026

FYI: For more poems about International Women's Day, see "Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Many Faces of Womanhood"

Grandfather Clock Haiku

chiming, chiming

of the grandfather clock

silence of missing home

Time Haiku, 63, 2025

Blossom Rain Haiku

why this, why that ...

my three-year-old daughter

in blossom rain

Time Haiku, 63, 2025

Breaking the Fast Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXVI: "breaking the fast"

buzzing of drones

over a bomb-scarred alley

a family 

breaks their fast with a cracked pot

of lentils and rice,  and dirt

NeverEnding Story, March 5 2026

FYI: In line 5, the comma acts as a terminal caesura and serves multiple purposes:

Final Blow Effect: The comma isolates “and dirt”, forcing the reader to pause after the domestic imagery of food. This sudden intrusion mirrors how war penetrates even the most private, intimate spaces.

Rhythmic Disruption: It acts as a metrical “cut,” breaking the expected flow of the meal. This mirrors the brokenness already evoked by the “cracked pot” and the “bomb-scarred alley.”

Slowing the Pace: The pause allows the shocking image to sink in. The reader cannot skim past “dirt”; instead, its weight—the ultimate tragedy of the scene—is fully felt.

For more about terminal caesura, see  "To the Lighthouse: Terminal Caesura"

"No, More Wars" Senryu

Trump Empire, Inc, LXXX

the man's meaty smile

behind his Resolute Desk

no, more wars: I ran

NeverEnding Story, March 4 2026

FYI: This could be read as a prequel to my senbun below:

Peace Is War

The butcher pushes more red meat through steel teeth. The wall-mounted TV blares “Operation Epic Fury” between discount ads. 

war after war ...

a white-haired man's gaunt face

in the window glare

The New Verse News, March 1 2026

And my tanka below could be read as the sequel to the haibun above:

a MAGA pin

on this old man's breast pocket ...

his patience 

stretched to the limit

by a breadline blocks ahead

NeverEnding Story, July 13 2023

FYI: University of California, Riverside/UCR study, April 17, 2023: [Cumulative] Poverty is the 4th greatest cause of U.S. deaths: Only heart disease, cancer, and smoking were associated with a greater number of deaths.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXI

written in response to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement about Isreal's war plans

Op. Epstein Fury:

Israel yanking the leash

of the Trump bulldog

FYI: The official name is "Operation Epic Fury." L1 works both a deliberate satirical jab at the administration's past associations and a mockery of Trump's "political distraction strategy."

Al Jazeera: February 26, 2026: Epstein and the politics of distraction

Scandal individualises corruption, creating a spectacle that redirects anger away from structural power.

March 4, 2026: Analyst says interest in Epstein files plummeted after war on Iran launched

And Democracy Now, March 3 2026: Secretary of State Marco Rubio Says Israel’s War Plans Compelled U.S. to Join Assault on Iran

Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “The president made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXII

No, More Wars

     dripping

     oil

reprinted in smols, March 7 2026

FYI: This is a prequel to my smols below:

White House entrance

         No Parking 

Smols, January 21, 2026

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXIII

            Netanyahu

fireballs     on       Iran

                  

              Trump

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXIV

   White House

oiled with blood

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXV

War Is Peace Is War

a visual 3-smol sequence

             No, More Wars

                 dripping

                 oil

          Netanyahu

fireballs    on     Iran

             Trump

           White House

        oiled with blood

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXVII: "sniper's gun"

headlines on Iran --

sun glints on the sniper’s gun

aimed at a Gazan

Added:

rain to sleet to snow

at last sunlight through clouds

war in early March

Added:

this morning sky

tinged with layers of gray ...

that's the question

to get up to work or not

as ticker headlines flash red

Garden Tea Time Haiku

garden tea time

with a crowd of one ...

sunrise, rose-scented

Acorn, 55, 2025

Moonlit Snow Geese Tanka

flock after flock

of moonlit snow geese ...

again, this urge

to leave this promised land

to find another

Quail Eggs, 2, 2025

Peace Is War

The butcher pushes more red meat through steel teeth. The wall-mounted TV blares “Operation Epic Fury” between discount ads. 

war after war ...

a white-haired man's gaunt face

in the window glare

The New Verse News, March 1 2026

A Passage

a pause

before the doctor's reply ...

my wife's hand in mine

the day she's gone ...

her smile in the wedding photo

with brown edges

sleepless again

I hold her empty pillow

tight ... and tighter

as if my late wife's hand

caressed my wrinkled face ...

first blossom rain

Frogpond, 48:3, 2025

The Gilded Drone

Trump Empire, Inc, LXXVIII

an extremely short senbun written in response to the 2026 State of the Union—the longest in history, lasting 1 hour and 48 minutes

Castro-length blah, blah, blah …

state of the union

the air grows thick as my heart

races slow

NeverEnding Story, February 27 2026

FYI: Fore more about senbun, see "To the Lighthouse: Senbun: A Satirical Haikai of Humanity"

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXIX

flanked by stars-and-stripes

he puffs his chest, juts his chin

of wrinkled jowls

crows to the TV cameras

we're in a golden age

Fence Haiku

morning glories

and the fence two feet higher ...

what's left between us

NeverEnding Story, February 26 2026

FYI: This is a sequel to my haiku below:

new neighbor

morning glories spill

over our fence

NeverEnding Story, May 16 2025

white picket fence

both sides of silencing

the silent

NeverEnding Story, May 22 2025

Added:

distant thunder

crow after crow explodes

bare birch trees

Added:

one mangy dog

mounting another …

winter rain

hammers corrugated roofs

while blue tarps shudder

Added:

traffic lights 

from green to red, red to green

loom for miles

no cars, no one walking 

in the sound of cold snap

Added: 

yellow crane arms

frozen against the sky

in a cold snap

skyscrapers blur and sink

into gathering dark

Added:

snowy road home

footsteps echo behind

as night darkens

Added:

on the way home

my shadow sways in silence …

laid off again

Added:

my dog takes me

for a morning stroll ...

first snowdrops

Peace Talks Haiku

this ache of tears

burdened by a loon's call...

peace talks stall

Asahi Haikuist Network, Nov.7 2025

Grinding on ...

the wind moans

through snow-laden branches

shadows on their cheeks

white-haired Ukrainians peer

behind shelter windows

in the cold snap

a neon-lit billboard

above Kursk's mall:

men in work suits hold AKs

framed against tricolors

NeverEnding Story, February 24 2026

FYI: Kursk is a city in southwestern Russia near the Ukrainian border. For more about poems on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, see "Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on the Fourth Anniversary of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine"

And my tanka below could be read as its sequel:

the butcher

throwing more meat

into his grinder 

the wall-mounted TV blasts

war after war ...

Ribbons, 20:1, Winter 2024

Added:

Journey, Not Here and Now

Donbas teen's gaze

at a row of church spires ...

sunrise tinged gray

Behind him, the roofline sinks lower with each step, until only the cross atop the church shows above the trees. Ahead, the road bends where he cannot see.

what ifs …

beneath shadowed skies

the border pass

FYI: The vast majority of the Ukrainian region, the Donbas, is now occupied by Russia

Scars Inside Haiku

Remembrance Day

a white-haired veteran wears

his scars inside

Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, Oct. 6 2025

Wing-Worn Geese Haiku

wing-worn geese ...

exiled, I carry

my home inside

The Wee Sparrow Haiku Nook, October 2025

Care Home Haiku

care home

all quiet except

for footsteps

Pulse, Nov. 28 2025