Gazan Flutist Tanka

This Brave New World, CXIX

for Emad Soliman Robaya Robaya, a lifelong Rafah resident in Gaza who plays his flute to lift children's spirits and keep himself calm as the Israel-Hamas war rages on

sitting cross-legged

next to mounds of rubble

the flutist

breathes out what's inside him

to a circle of hungry kids

NeverEnding Story, December 5 2023

FYI: I have so many memories here... I can't leave this place. I feel at peace in it. If they bomb all of Gza, I won't leave it...I think playing music is a form of rebellion. I rebel with every song I play... What can we do. This is a test from God.

-- Emad Soliman Robaya Robaya, Dec. 4 interview with CBC News

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XXV

waves of lobbyists

swarm into the conference room ...

this smell of hot air

FYI: Democracy Now, Dec. 5 2023: Record 2,500 Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Descend on COP28 U.N. Climate Summit in Dubai

... there are at least 2,456 lobbyists at COP28, the U.N. climate summit in Dubai — nearly four times as many as last year — from companies like Shell, Total and ExxonMobil. The lobbyists outnumber the delegations of every country other than Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the summit, presided over by the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company, Sultan Al Jaber... 

Shared Values

This Brave New World, CXVI

corpse-men's contours

echoed in swirling lines 

of the blood-red sky ...

Biden embraces Netanyahu

in a bear hug

in broad daylight

Biden, Biden, you can't hide

loud and louder ...

the Washington apple 

cut in half,... this rotten core

NeverEnding Story, December 4 2023

FYI: The title alludes to U.S.-Israel Relations: Shared-Value Initiatives  (created since the 1980s)

1) The Nation, Nov. 4: Biden’s Bear Hug of Netanyahu is a Disaster: The renewed fighting between Israel and Hamas shows the incoherence of mixing humanitarian WORDS and bigger BOMBS.

2) Reuters, Oct. 21: 'I am a Zionist': How Joe Biden's lifelong bond with Israel shapes war policy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -When Joe Biden met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet during his visit to Israel, the U.S. president assured them: "I don't believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist."

Entering national politics in 1973, Biden spent the next five decades forging his policy positions - iron-clad support for Israel's security coupled with backing for steps toward Palestinian statehood - as he served as U.S. senator, Barack Obama's vice president and finally president.

During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden was the chamber's biggest recipient in history of donations from pro-Israeli groups, taking in $4.2 million, according to the Open Secrets database.

"Whenever things were getting out of hand with Israel, Biden was the bridge," said Ross, now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "His commitment to Israel was that strong ... And it's the instinct we're seeing now."

3) The Times of Israel, Dec. 2: Israel said to tell neighbors and US of plans to create Gaza buffer zone after war

Jerusalem has informed Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey of the plans, three unnamed sources from the region told the Reuters news agency.

“Israel wants this buffer zone between Gaza and Israel from the north to the south to prevent any Hamas or other [terrorists] from infiltrating or attacking Israel,” one of the sources said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday in Israel that the Israel Defense Forces will establish a buffer zone “deep” into Gaza after the war, Kan news reported Friday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that Washington opposes any reduction in Gaza’s territory.

“We don’t support any reduction of the geographic limits of Gaza… Gaza must remain Palestinian land, and cannot be reduced,” Kirby said during a press briefing.

4) CNN, Nov.9: UN human rights chief says both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes

“The atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 were heinous, brutal and shocking, they were war crimes – as is the continued holding of hostages,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians amounts also to a war crime, as does the unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians,” he added.

And 5) And 4) United Nations, Press Release, Nov. 16: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people

GENEVA (16 November 2023) – Grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making, UN experts said today. They illustrated evidence of increasing genocidal incitement, overt intent to “destroy the Palestinian people under occupation”, loud calls for a ‘second Nakba’ in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the use of powerful weaponry with inherently indiscriminate impacts, resulting in a colossal death toll and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure.

“Many of us already raised the alarm about the risk of genocide in Gaza,” the experts said. “We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire. We are also profoundly concerned about the support of certain governments for Israel's strategy of warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the international system to mobilize to prevent genocide,” they said.

Added: This Brave New World, CXVII

a boy's stare

the grinding sound loud and louder

as the tanks roll in

Added: This Brave New World, CXVIII

a dog wanders

around tangled rubble ...

a blood-stained hand

FYI: Democracy Now!, Dec. 1: "Mass Assassination Factory": Israel Using AI to Generate Targets in Gaza, Increasing Civilian Toll

We look at a new report that reveals how Israel is using artificial intelligence to draw up targets in its military assault of Gaza. The report's author, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, has found that the IDF's increasing use of AI is partly a response to previous operations in Gaza when Israel quickly ran out of military targets, causing it to loosen its constraints on attacks that could kill civilians. In other words, the "civilian devastation that is happening right now in Gaza" is the result of a "war policy that has a very loose interpretation of what a military target is."

For more, read [Tel Aviv-based, news and opinion webzine] +972 Magazine, Nov.30: "A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza: Permissive airstrikes on non-military targets and the use of an artificial intelligence system have enabled the Israeli army to carry out its deadliest war on Gaza" 

Eviction Day Haiku

winter branches

beaded with raindrops ...

eviction day

Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn 2023

Film Star Tanka

alone

I sit through the end credits

trying hard 

to remember the film star

with curly hair like my first love's

Chrysanthemum, 31, 2023

German Translation by Chrysanthemum Editorial Team

allein

bleibe ich beim Abspann sitzen

um mich angestrengt

an den Filmstar zu erinnern

mit lockigem Haar wie meine erste Liebe

Milky Way Haiku

the milky way 

between us

an ocean apart

Chrysanthemum, 31, 2023

German Translation by Chrysanthemum Editorial Team

die Milchstraße

zwischen uns

ein ganzer Ozean

One Day at a Time

test results

this carrousel

of thoughts

early leaffall

the silence between me

and the cancer doctor 

hospital garden

the evening breeze carries

my prayer

The Bamboo Hut, 2, 2023

Cop-Out Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, XXIII

written on the eve of COP28 hosted by Sultan al-Jabe, the Oil Chief of the U.A.E., a petrostate which is one of the hottest places on Earth.

Dubai skyline

silhouetted against sunset

private jet

after private jet landing

for a climate cop-out

NeverEnding Story, November 29 2023

Note: Note: This is a sequel to my COP27 tanka below:

written to this "ridiculously photogenic" Talker, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, the fourth most polluting country per capita in 2022, a country of gas-guzzling car enthusiasts.

COP 1, 2, 3 ...

these endless climate talks 

like crows' caw-caw-caw --

between Canada's plan and action

this Nunavut-sized gap

NeverEnding Story, November 6, 2022

FYI: CBC News, Nov.27: COP28 host used climate talks to push for oilpatch deals, including in Canada: Leaked briefing documents reveal plans to discuss fossil fuel projects with 15 nations.

The Tyee, Nov. 29: Danielle Smith Heads to COP28 to Sell Fossil Fuels: Premier plans to pitch carbon capture and Alberta’s ‘clean’ oil and gas at climate summit.

And The New Yorker, Nov. 25: The Road to Dubai: The latest round of international climate negotiations is being held in a petrostate. What could go wrong?

...There have now been twenty-seven cops; this week marks the opening of the twenty-eighth, which will be held in Dubai. Over the years, everything cop-related has grown bigger and more elaborate. This year’s session is expected to attract some seventy thousand people—enough to populate a small city...As cop has grown and grown, so, too, of course, has the problem it’s supposed to address. In 1995, global carbon-dioxide emissions amounted to twenty-three billion metric tons. This year, the total is expected to be about thirty-seven billion tons, an increase of around sixty per cent. Meanwhile, cumulative emissions—which, from a climate perspective, are what count—have doubled. Among scientists, it is widely agreed that the planet is approaching critical “tipping points,” if it hasn’t already crossed them. “Life on planet Earth is under siege,” is how a recent scientific paper put it.

...“cops are the only place where the most vulnerable countries have a seat at the table,” Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s special envoy for international climate action, told me. “And that is so important because it changes the dynamics. It forces the largest emitters to sit across the table from countries like Vanuatu and listen to what it means if we don’t act.” (Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, is another country that could easily be wiped out by sea-level rise.)

And Global News. Dec. 1: A United Nations report criticized Canada last month, calling it the country with the widest gap between its promises and actual climate action. Now, Canada is pledging $16 million [merely a rounding error in the Canadian federal government budget] for a climate disaster fund. 

And The Guardian, Dec. 3: COP28 president says there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels

I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C

-- Sultan Al Jaber , President of COP28 and Oil Chief of the U.A.E., a petrostate 

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XXIV

this weight

of something un/spoken

on TV

the world's largest iceberg 

breaks free, drifting somewhere

Note: This could be read as a prequel to my tanka below:

this world of reduction: 

of fingers lost to frostbite

of lives lost to depression ...

in the morning sunshine

another polar bear drifts off

PoemHunter, March 23 2022  

FYI: NewScientist, Nov. 27: Where is the iceberg that broke off Antarctica and is it a threat?

...An iceberg more than three [not four] times the size of New York City began drifting again after being stuck on the seafloor for nearly 40 years

Chad Greene at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California  says it is clear that icebergs are breaking off Antarctica at a faster rate than snow is adding mass to the ice, “meaning climate change is causing the Antarctic Ice Sheet to lose mass at a significant rate”.

Researchers have been shocked by recent climate extremes in Antarctica, including record-high temperatures and vast areas of missing sea ice, which serve to buffer the continent’s ice shelves from warmer water and waves.

And CTV News, Nov. 24: World's largest iceberg breaks free, heads toward Southern Ocean

It's rare to see an iceberg of this size on the move, said British Antarctic Survey glaciologist Oliver Marsh, so scientists will be watching its trajectory closely...an iceberg of this scale has the potential to survive for quite a long time in the Southern Ocean, even though it's much warmer, and it could make its way farther north up toward South Africa where it can disrupt shipping.

Added: This Brave New World, CXIV

children's blood flows 

outside the pages of War and Peace

my friend feels

the loss of her passion

of her writing dream

Added: This Brave New World, CXV

written on the eve of the ceasefire's end

the call to prayer 

a half-ruined mosque

in twilit Gaza

FYI: Reuters, Nov. 30: In Gaza, call to prayer rings out from bombarded mosque

Balanced on a steep slab of fissured concrete with rods of twisted metal poking out and the remnants of a dome slanted at a 45-degree angle behind him, a young muezzin in a baseball cap called Muslims to prayer from atop a bombarded mosque in Gaza.

Life as a Chinese Temp

restructuring...

my cubicle shrinks

my salary, too

look of this cashier

I set aside chips, eggs, milk...

even the rice

finding new gigs ...

in my mind's eye these faces

of landlord after landlord 

you're let go ...

this twist to the boss's mouth

in my midnight dream

The Bamboo Hut, 2, 2023

Moonlit Ripples Tanka

a leatherback surfaces 

with its head through a hole

in driftwood ...

I gaze beyond moonlit ripples

to the homeland I left behind

The Bamboo Hut, 2, 2023

Note: The leatherback turtle can travel 16,000 km (10,000 miles) or more each year, crossing the entire Pacific Ocean in search of jellyfish.

New Kid Haiku

lemonade stand

the look of this new kid

on the block

Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, September 30 2023

Mother's Puffy Eyes Tanka

red gathering

in a mother's puffy eyes ...

her boy alone

in the shadowed corner

of the hospital hallway

Honorable Mention, Member's Choice Award, Ribbons, 19:3, Fall 2023

Commentary: My [Catherine Smith's] interpretation of this poem is that it speaks of the great scourge: domestic violence. Here we see a mother waiting for treatment, after suffering physical abuse. How many times has this happened? Will it safe for her to go back to her home? Does she has the courage to leave the situation and seek help at a refuge? Simple questions, complicated answers.

Then there is her boy in the shadowed corner. The poet has cleverly used these words as the boy is indeed relegated to the shadows. From the sidelines he witnesses the abuse and is helpless to do anything about it. He lives in a state of perpetual anxiety waiting for the next time. Pretends to his classmates that everything is okay. Lies if asked about his mother's bruises. Tries to quell the rise of internal anger which keeps rumbling in his soul. This poem highlights our deep concern for the wellbeing of everyone caught up in these terrible situations.

Thanksgiving Emails

reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXXX

Subject: thanksgiving alone

To: my self [stuck in life] 

From: me

Date: November 23

at daybreak flickering birdsong

Re.: thanksgiving alone

To: my drunken self

From: me

Date: November 24

alive in this broken world

NeverEnding Story, November 24 2023

FYI: This is the first set of English language tanka written in the form of an email. And L5's of two tanka allude to the thematic focus of the following poem:

“Invitation” by Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time

to linger

for just a little while

out of your busy

and very important day

for the goldfinches

that have gathered

in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,

to see who can sing

the highest note,

or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,

or the most tender?

Their strong, blunt beaks

drink the air

as they strive

melodiously

not for your sake

and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning

but for sheer delight and gratitude –

believe us, they say,

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you,

do not walk by

without pausing

to attend to this

rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

It could mean everything.

It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:

You must change your life.

Added: This Brave New World, CXI

Now, This Promised Land

written on the 50th day of the Israel-Hamas War

the blood drips

from his big dirty hands

Netanyahu lookalike 

Hostages Square

a girl's candle flickers

in the cold air

FYI: Demonstration at what has become known as "Hostages Square," in Tel Aviv, near the Ministry of Defence, marked 50 days since Hamas attack on Israel...Hamas delayed the release of the second group of captives, accusing Israel of violating the truce, which started on Friday and is expected to last for four days... excerpted from Al Jazeera, Nov. 25: Tens of thousands rally in Tel Aviv amid delay in release of [second group] of captives.

And the following tanka could be read as its sequel:

This Brave New World, CX

Kidnapped

pasted over Occupier

pasted over Kidnapped

above the photo of a man ...

this battle for perfect victims

NeverEnding Story, November 18 2023

Added: This Brave New World, CXII

this hazy night

before the ceasefire ends

shortness of breath

Added: This Brave New World, CXIII

between his teeth

a piece of hummus-stuffed bread ...

maimed orphan's last meal

FYI: Haaretz (founded in 1918, the longest running and most progressive newspaper with with an "exposure rate of 4.7%" in Israel), Nov. 28: Gaza's Unfolding Disaster: When Humanitarian Aid Is Your Last Meal... Orphans are multiplying in the streets, the bombing survivors are traumatized and once the truce ends, everybody knows death may fall again from the sky at any moment.

...a representative of Save the Children stated, “Every ten minutes, a child in Gaza is killed by a bomb and every five minutes, a child is wounded, in an asymmetric warfare situation that testifies to the failure of international law, whose aim is to protect civilian lives.”

And Reuters, Nov. 28: WHO warns disease could be bigger killer than bombs in Gaza

WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris on Tuesday said the agency is already seeing a dangerous surge in diarrhea in Palestinian children.

“We saw a very high number of cases of diarrhea among infants and again, no, there’s no treatment available for them. You know, if you have a child with diarrhea you need to give them re-hydration in order to keep them going until they get better and if you’re not able to do that, they can die very quickly from dehydration.”

Thanksgiving and Truthgiving Senryu

nonstop back and forth

between thanksgiving and truthgiving ...

a pile of leftovers

NeverEnding Story, November 23 2023

FYI: The Nation, The Debate, Nov. 20: Should America Keep Celebrating Thanksgiving?: Sean Sherman argues that we need to decolonize Thanksgiving, while Chase Iron Eyes calls for replacing Thanksgiving with a “Truthsgiving.”

For many Americans, the image of Thanksgiving is one of supposed unity: the gathering of “Pilgrims and Indians” in a harmonious feast. But this version obscures the harsh truth, one steeped in colonialism, violence, and misrepresentation.

Thanksgiving’s roots are intertwined with colonial aggression. One of the first documented “Thanksgivings” came in 1637, after the colonists celebrated their massacre of an entire Pequot village.

CN Tower and Immigrant Past Tanka

CN Tower

hidden in fog and rain ...

all that remains

of my immigrant past

now just a blur 

Revision, Cold Moon Journal September 6, 2023

FYI: The CN Tower  in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, stands as the tenth-tallest free-standing structure on land, and it remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, and is the third-tallest tower.

Zen Garden Haiku

Zen Garden

a dragonfly's wings pat

the morning sunlight

Plum Tree Tavern, September 22, 2023

Hurricane Haiku

eye of the hurricane 

alone in the dark I look 

into my life

Plum Tree Tavern, September 22, 2023

Childhood River Haiku

alone with the sound 

of water flowing over rocks ...

this childhood river

Plum Tree Tavern, September 22, 2023

The World Divided

This Brave New World, CVII

a wavy sea 

of American flags mixed

with Israeli flags ...

at the corner an old man cries

Never Again for everyone

fighting one war crime

with another war crime 

this foggy night

scream after scream drowned out

by the sound of fireballs

a Haredi

with his back to a man

in an army uniform . . .

shadows lengthen

on the Wailing Wall

NeverEnding Story, November 18 2023

Added: This Brave New World, CVIII

written on World Children's Day

hazy twilight ...

rain washing a mother's blood

into her children's blood

FYI: Al Jazeera, Nov. 20: "World Children’s Day tragedy: Gaza’s 5,500 lives lost to Israel’s attacks"

One out of every 200 children in Gaza has been killed by Israeli attacks in the past six weeks...That is one Palestinian child killed every 10 minutes. 

Added: This Brave New World, CIX

written in response to DW News, Nov. 23: Airstrikes and fighting continue in Gaza as temporary cease-fire is delayed: Fierce fighting is continuing in the Gaza Strip. Israel's military says it has carried out airstrikes on over 300 Hamas targets in the past 24 hours.

Life and Death

nonstop

a silver-haired man stares

into the night sky:

the space and time gap

between fireball and fireball

to save a life

is to save this broken world

a rabbi laments ...

TV debate back and forth

about the new body count

FYI: Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:1 (22a)

Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.

And The Guardian, Nov. 15: "Messages arrive from Gaza with news of dead children. It has become a graveyard for humanity’s conscience" (FYI: The headline alludes to UN Secretary-General António Guterres's Nov. 6 remark:

The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis.  It is a crisis of humanity,...A graveyard for children.

Added: This Brave New World, CX

Kidnapped

pasted over Occupier

pasted over Kidnapped

above the photo of a man ...

this battle for perfect victims

FYI: The New York Times, Nov. 21: Between Israelis and Palestinians, a Lethal Psychological Chasm 

“Each side begs for the status of five-star victim,” said Mohammad Darawshe, the director of strategy at the Givat Haviva Center for Shared Society, which promotes Jewish-Arab dialogue and is about an hour’s drive north of Jerusalem. “If you are stuck in victimhood, you see everyone else as victimizing and dehumanizing.”

The consequence is a psychological chasm so deep that Palestinians are invisible as individuals to Israeli Jews, and vice versa. There are exceptions, of course: Some Israelis and Palestinians have dedicated themselves to bridging that divide. But generally, the narratives of the two sides diverge, burying any perception of shared humanity.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli war, known to Israelis as the War of Independence, is the Nakba, or catastrophe, to Palestinians. Nakba vies with Holocaust as each side invokes “genocide.”

The relentless weaponization of history goes all the way back to biblical times and the divergent fates of the estranged sons of Abraham — Isaac, the patriarch of the Israelites, and Ishmael, a prophet of Islam.

The demonization knows no bounds. Since the Hamas attack last month, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, has spoken of fighting “human animals.” Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau, has described Israel as “neo-Nazis supported by colonial forces.” Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has in turn called Hamas “the new Nazis.”

Breathing Space Haiku

musk thistles ...

less and less breathing space

between us 

Frogpond ,46:3, Autumn 2023

No Vacancy Haiku

the distance 

between winter stars

No Vacancy 

Kingfisher, 8, 2023