Human, All Too Human

heated breaths

and tangled bedsheets

bodies and dreams . . .

the bittersweet burden

of this love affair

 

to Kintsugi Master

I lament, with gold glue

could you piece back

my shattered heart?

a cloak of silence falls

 

chance encounter

at a motel ice machine . . .

with eyes and hands

we undress each other’s armor

curling into a single dream

Ribbons, 22:1, 2026

Mind Snow-White Haiku

In response to Anaïs Nin's claim:

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write.

the clock stares back

before robinsong rising

my mind snow-white

NeverEnding Story, August 1 2026

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCII: "peace and pieces"

Inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky's remark in his book, Sculpting in Time:

Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality.

And also in response to Donald Trump's Gaza "Peace Plan"

day to night to day

smoke columns climb without end

Israel wants peace: 

piece by piece from Palestine

through Lebanon, Syria ...

War News on Mute Tanka

war news on mute …

the morning light spills

over garden beds

where herb seeds nudge the crust

seeking room to grow

Ribbons, 22:1, 2026

Gliding Kayaks Tanka

gliding kayaks ...

ripple after ripple

overlapping

summer stars that bridge

what words never could

NeverEnding Story, July 30 2026

Added:

the time it takes

for my aging beagle

to close his eyes—

crumbled dog-treat pieces

left in my jean pocket

FYI: My tanka below could be read as its sequel:

my neighbor’s dog

hit by a red sports car ...

after our walk

she tells me she  sees

his shape in the clouds

Bright Stars, VI, 2014

Added:

one tide cycle

after another and another

across the Pacific 

pulling out, returning anew ...

my heart still on the other shore

Added:

to stay or to go

I murmur to myself

again and again 

through the autumn wind 

each leaf zigzags its way down

Added:

all things must pass,

the seasons teach me this —

yet I still press

my face into her lingerie

forgotten in the basket

Lilac Breeze Haiku

lilac breeze

the bumblebees

crescendo

The Solitary Daisy, 68, 2026

Hospice Twilight Haiku

hospice twilight

the pull of Father's voice

before his words

Leaf Haiku, 9, 2026

Cockroaches Kyoka

Realm of Contagious Stupidity, II

In response to India's "cockroach" movement

what if 

all cockroaches come together?

punch after punch

stamp upon stamp

across The Metamorphosis

NeverEnding Story, July 27 2026 

FYI: Ls 1&2, "what if all cockroaches come together?," refer to the viral, youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement in India.

The structure of this politically satirical kyōka is built around a reversal of the premise of Kafka's The Metamorphosis. ... For more detailed comments, see "Reading More and Writing Better: Cockroaches Kyoka"

Lean Stray Haiku

a lean stray scratches

at its frosted shadow ...

end of the year

Leaf Haiku, 9, 2026

Dying Winter Light Haiku

the weight

of dying winter light ...

crow after crow

Leaf Haiku, 9, 2026

All the Feelings Tanka

(FYI: The following is the first installment of Realm of Contagious Stupidity, an ongoing series of contemporary, satirical kyōka examining modern culture and politics.

Realm of Contagious Stupidity, I

In response to Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Against stupidity we are defenseless."

at the gallery

a plane mirror with a sign:

the DUMBEST --

no one stands before it

except a Trump lookalike

FYI: The Guardian, Oct. 2 2025: A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0

If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might there be a way out?)

I was told

to hide all the feelings

once grown --

carrying this silver casket

I shed tears for her, and me

NeverEnding Story, July 24 2026

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

with each sob

his body convulses …

in the hospital

for the first time

I embrace a man

Ribbons, 7:4, Winter 2011

Added:

my brain humming 

with scraps of Sappho  

while Eros stirs ...

"I'll be a poet," I confess

to my river reflection

Added: This Brave New World, CXXVIII

another lineup

round the block near a foodbank

wall-mounted TV

blasting "sunlight on demand"

"orbiting data centers"

FYI: The Tyee, July 23 2026: 

Reflect Orbital's giant mirror to create “sunlight on demand” was just approved by the United States Federal Communications Commission, or FCC,

In February, SpaceX filed with the FCC for one million more satellites, for “AI data centers.”

Added:

dust motes  

in slanted moonlight—  

I settle  

into what remains

after bankruptcy

Train-Top Ride

train-top ride

a migrant boy weighs

dawn's early light

Modern Haiku, 57:1, 2026

FYI: L3 alludes to the opening lines of "The Star-Spangled Banner:"

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight

O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?

A loneliness business, and yet...

"Rage, rage against the birthing of this darkness of gaslit words..." I stop mid-sentence. The words harden on the screen. I let them sit while the night presses closer.

midnight moon

in snow-shrouded silence

the sound of keystrokes

I hit delete and take a deep breath. I remind myself that belief—not certainty, but something felt rather than known—starts a poem. I lean into the weight of this thought and push return.

paperwhite dawn

a robin's song in and out

of my writer's block

Contemporary Haibun Online 22:1, April 2026

Surging Pacific Haiku

Yellowing Memories, IX

surging Pacific ...

on its other shore mom waved

I wave back in dreams

NeverEnding Story, July 2026

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

wind-torn clouds

the surging winter ocean

between mom and me

Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2024/25

And This could be read as a sequel to my tanka prose below:

The Point of No Return

On the day of my emigration to Canada, a land of maple leaves and snowflakes that will eventually bury my past.

a parting

of summer clouds

mother

lets go of my hand

. . . and of my heart

Ribbons, 16:1, Winter 2020

Between Heaven and Earth

I'm soul-tired

before this wooden Jesus ...

Time is frozen

in St. Peter's Church

with frost flowers on the windows

What is Time?

alone and calm

before a leafy riot

of garden plants ...

my old friend and Time

are of the same race

If no one asks me, I know; if I need to explain it to one who asks, I don't know.

a mile-long lineup

of trucks at the checkpoint

in smoky sunset

inch by inch Time crawls through

the Kerem Shalom Crossing

What then is Time? In the present, the past presses forward; the future leans back toward me. I stand between them—no nearer to an answer than frost on glass.

Contemporary Haibun Online 22:1, April 2026

Detention Silhouette Haiku

detention silhouette

these faces then eyes

etched with age

NeverEnding Story, July 19, 2026

FYI: The emotional zoom-in technique is employed in writing this haiku. For a detailed analysis and more  examples, see "To the Lighthouse: Emotional Zoom-Lens Effect"

And it could be read as a prequel to the following haiku below:

On the Brink of Trumperica, V

written in response to Convicted Felon Donald Trump's proclamation: "On Day One, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history."

detention camp in shadow ...

between the guard and holding cells

dialects of silence

NeverEnding Story, January 20 2025

Added: Emotional Zoom-Out

one sunflower

in a patch of dandelions—

a Kyiv boy's gaze

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCI: "campsite of fireballs"

            fireball

a campsite of fireballs

  squadrons of drones

FYI: NBC News, July 15, 2026: Israel’s latest strikes kill a dozen people in Gaza, including police officers

A woman and six police officers were among those killed in an airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, hospital officials said.

War and Peace Haiku

leafing War and Peace

front to back, back to front

summer whiffle

NeverEnding Story, July 18 2026

Added:

hillside and valley

flecked with cloud shadows ...

smell of sunshine

Added:

farmers' market

tasting a strawberry

then her lips

Added:

the ripe tangle

of wild strawberries ...

an urge to love 

Added:

overlapping hearts

on a summer train window

our reflections

Added:

first outing

after the breakup

on the beach

I trip on a heart

made of stones

Added:

alone again

on the moonlit shore ...

my shadow

stretches closer, closer

to lapping waves

Added: No More Fairy Tales, LVI

What has been will be again

Acrid black columns choke the morning sun. Trapped in a valley of smoke, cars barrel past leaping tongues of fire. Across Northern Ontario, wildfires burn hotter, bigger, and deadlier than ever. More than one thousand miles away, their smoke casts an orange haze over New York's crawling traffic.

Meanwhile, silhouetted against smoky skies, the Premier’s mouth opens and closes for the camera lights, broadcasting word after word into the heat.

tongues of forest fire

there is no Plan[et] B, the rest

blah, blah, blah...

FYI: Canada’s climate-change-charged wildfires are becoming a horrific annual event. 

Over 800 wildfires are burning across Canada, with one entirely destroying the northern Indigenous community of Namaygoosisagagun. 

Back in 2023, Emma Paling reported that the same Indigenous communities that gave early warnings against burning fossil fuels are among the first to be permanently displaced by climate change.

The Breach, August 24, 2023: First Nations say they’re not wildfire evacuees, but climate refugees

Indigenous communities that first warned against burning fossil fuels are now facing permanent displacement caused by climate breakdown

To the Unknown

trapped alone

in the liminal space

between shifting present

and frozen past ...

I gaze up at departing geese

on my life journey

what might happen, what could be ...

this burden

of all the possibilities

as new snow falls on icy roads

Haiku Canada Review, 20:1, 2026

Light and Shadow Haiku

breeze through the willow

light and shadow at work

with a skylark’s song

Asahi Haikuist Network, April 3 2026

Caterpillar Cloud Haiku

caterpillar cloud ...

my autistic son’s eyes speak

a thousand words

Haiku Canada Review, 20:1, 2026

Time Haiku

Time stands still... 

I pirouette, pirouetting

in the first snowfall 

Haiku Canada Review, 20:1, 2026