Home Country and Old House Tanka

ten years later

back in my home country . . . 

by slanted moonlight

I drink to the old house

tucked warm within me

Editor's Choice Tanka, Cattails, April 2026

Editor's CommentaryThis poignant tanka takes one back in imagination to early roots, capturing a sense of memory and emotional connection to the past. The words, ‘back in my home country’, touch a chord within. The phrase, ‘by slanted moonlight’, is striking. It’s as if a narrow beam of light opens a window into the child’s memory. ‘I drink to the old house’ brings thoughts of absent family and friends, a nostalgic reflection of those who shared company is rediscovered. The last line, ‘tucked warm within me,’ suggests a loving picture of mother and child. There is a sense of nostalgia and tenderness in this writing.

Low Winter Moon Haiku

one week sober

the low winter moon

paler

Cattails, April 2026

Dream and Reality Tanka

a yellow leaf

under the wiper blade

this migrant life

back and forth, back and forth

between dream and reality

NeverEnding Story, October 22 2026

Added:

a side-glance

at the beggar whose accent

is like mine ....

I recall the months spent

putting back pieces of me

Added:

books of poetry

stacked from floor to ceiling —

alone

together with past voices

to explore my future self

Added:

back home again

from a wellness center

alone, the neighbor

deadheading garden tulips

the colors of sunrise

Added:

winter stars

look closer yet far away

face to face

I see something hidden

behind my sick wife's eyes

Added:

alone

on this little island

in the lake:

water-blue, bird-singing

world of my own

Bulbs Tanka

morning rain ends

as I gaze out the window

green-musing

the bulbs awake

one bloom at a time

 

Romanian Translation by Editor Steliana Cristina Voicu

ploaia de dimineață se termină

în timp ce privesc pe fereastră

meditând asupra verdelui

bulbii se trezesc

câte o floare pe rând

 

Enchanted Garden, 15, 2026

Border Fence Haiku

fromrivertoriverborderfencespringthaw

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

Water Lilies Haiku

          o

   r

               g

f                   a maze of water lilies 

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

Words and Lines Gembun

My fingers click-clacking — hail against the window.

what's left unsaid

between words and lines ...

alone at false dawn

NeverEnding Story, October 18, 2026

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXXIII: "smoky fog"

The smoky fog shrouds where a centuries-old Gazan mosque stood

afterwards

anything matters?

news on mute

FYI: Out of approximately 1,275 pre-war mosques in the Gaza Strip, 1,050 have been completely destroyed and 191 have been partially damaged (totaling 1,241 affected mosques). And according to  both Geneva Conventions, Protocols I and II and the Rome Statute, Article 8, bombing religious sites is considered a war crime.

And EurAsia, October 19, 2026: Global polls find Israel is the least popular country on Earth, disliked by 67% of people

Comprehensive global polls show Israel is now the most unpopular country on Earth, following its thoroughly documented genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The organization the Alliance of Democracies conducts a comprehensive study every year called the Democracy Perception Index.

The comprehensive study found that Israel is the most disliked country on Earth — with an even lower approval rating than North Korea and Afghanistan.

The United States, the main sponsor of Israel, is the fifth-most hated country.

Fingertip Haiku

 pink    

    blossom        

       rain

 fingertip

    of my        

        toddler

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

Childhood Haiku

winding road home

my childhood

left in the rearview

NeverEnding Story, October 16 2026

Added:

moon and stars

not one that moves ...

midnight silence

Added:

morning stroll

a butterfly rides the tail

of my old dog

Added:

sunlit field trip

a school of pond koi

slipping in and out

Added:

train tracks

fading in the twilight fog ...

words half-spoken

Added:

rain on the roof

my child’s shoes by the door

no longer fit

Gold Mountain Diner Haiku

Gold Mountain Diner

lit by the spring sunset glow 

a file of miners

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

River Trail Haiku

sunlit river trail

a Buddhist nun in red robes

stops for blossoms, too

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

Bouncing Ponytail Haiku

sunlight flickering

a girl’s ponytail bouncing

through pink blossom rain

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

Spring Thaw Haiku

first day of spring thaw

I stroll behind my old dog

into skylark song

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

River Thaw Haiku

a silver-haired man

jumps into the river thaw

the spring he once knew

Haiku Avenue, 11, 2026

Deadline Eve Gembun

Rain pitter-pattering on the roof all night.

deadline eve

the cursor blinks blinking

after I write

NeverEnding Story, October 10 2026

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

My fingers click-clacking — hail against the window.

what's left unsaid

between words and lines ...

alone at false dawn

NeverEnding Story, September 1 2026

At 6 a.m., a film of cold grease has formed over my untouched coffee.

I add three words

revise them then kill the line ...

paper-white dawn

NeverEnding Story, September 23, 2026 

Added:

first autumn chill

the ladder to my tree house

two rungs missing

FYI: This is a sequel to my haiku below:

tree house

a ladder leading

to the moon 

Stardust Haiku, 66, June 2022

Added:

further in

and further in ...

moonlit fog

Added:

a begging bowl

outside the temple gate

rows of shoes

Breadline Haiku

new snow on old snow on the breadline before passers and past passers

Haiku Avenue, 10, 2026

To Save a Life

The finale of the Israeli award-winning documentary NAZA, a Hebrew acronym for "collateral damage," captures a father trapped in a furnace of grief. Heat radiates from the tangled grid of collapsed iron and melted plastic. Coughing through blinding smoke, he drags broken blocks of drywall away, his cries echoing off the smoldering rubble that traps his children.

calm between fireballs

an armless girl gazing 

heavenward, yet ...

The New Verse News, October 8 2026

FYI: The title invokes Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:1 (22a): “Whoever destroys a soul, itis considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

The concluding word " yet ..."opens a painful gap between the ideal and the reality.

If every life is an entire world, yet a child can be left maimed by war, what becomes of that world?

If saving a life is an act of immeasurable significance, yet lives are destroyed amid the rubble, what meaning can we give to that teaching?

If the girl gazes heavenward, yet ..., what can follow? Hope? Prayer? Accusation? Silence?

Furthermore, the ellipsis refuses to answer. It leaves the moral and spiritual contradiction unresolved.

Without it, the haiku ends with “heavenward,” a word that can suggest transcendence, faith, or hope. The image is poignant, but it permits a relatively consoling interpretation.

Jagged Crescent and Sky Gembun

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXV: "jagged crescent and sky"

written in response to the video clip Dreams of Palestinian Children, in which children, playfully jostling one another, crowd around the camera and call out their dreams.

Dust settles as the night folds the playground into shadow.

each classroom window

its jagged crescent

jagged Gazan sky

NeverEnding Story, October 7 2026

FYI: For more poems about Israel's Gaza Genocide, see Special Feature: Selected Poems for October 7th Reflections

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXVI: "one-minute silence and fireballs"

in Tel Aviv

traffic blocked on the highway 

for one-minute silence ...

forty miles away, fireballs

burst open in morning air

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXVI: "waiting for water, or nothing"

this day like others

before the transient light 

on the horizon ...

lines of Gazan children

waiting for water, or nothing

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXVIII: "bombed-out houses 

and mounds of rubble"

a one-armed boy

stares out the tent window

at something ...

yet still bombed-out houses 

and mounds of rubble

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXIX: "glint of a Tavor"

stirred by Israel's Elimination Project

West Bank teen limping ahead of his shadow glint of a Tavor 

FYI: Because the teen is facing the sun, his shadow is cast behind him, meaning he is physically moving forward, leaving his shadow in his wake. This adds a tragic layer of symbolism: he is trying to outrun the darkness trailing right at his heels.

Simultaneously, facing the sun means the light strikes everything in front of him head-on, effectivelyly explaining "the glint of a Tavor." The weapon is positioned directly ahead of him, catching the harsh, low-angle light and reflecting it right into his eyes.

The final visual arc of this Jewish terrorism in the West Bank haiku is as follows:

1. The subject: A injured youth (West Bank teen limping)

2. The movement & light: Walking west into the late sun, leaving darkness behind (limping ahead of his shadow)

3. The threat: The sudden flash of steel waiting in front of him (glint of a Tavor)

It is a complete, haunting narrative achieved in just twelve words.

And

Democracy Now, September 16, 2026: “The Elimination Project”: Israel’s Systematic Dismantling of Palestinian Life in West Bank: B’Tselem" (Israeli human rights group)

A major new report by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem titled “The Elimination Project” accuses Israel of “dramatically intensifying its attacks on every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank.”

B’Tselem Executive Director ,Yuli Novak: Israel is dismantling the basic conditions needed for collective Palestinian existence in the West Bank. Our new report “The Elimination Project” shows how this mechanism works and how over the past three years, it has become more lethal, violent and explicit. Come with us to the West Bank to see for yourself. The Elimination Project in the West Bank operates through five domains of action that work together and reinforce each other: killing, violence, intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover. These are all parts of a system with one aim: to ensure Jewish supremacy and eliminate the Palestinian collective.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXX: "witnessing"

roaring attack drones

drown out midnight screams --

surrounded by fire

a Gazan girl in red

witnessing her mother ...

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXXI: "Gazan camp"

Gazan camp

a paper crane blown over

bodies on bodies

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCCXXII: "fireball-lit sky"

fireball-lit sky

yesterday's bodies mingled

with today's

Winter Sunset Haiku

in the chemo chair

ten hours of winter passing

sunset tinged with gray

Haiku Avenue, 10, 2026

Drops of Dew Haiku

difference between

who I am and what I was

new year's drops of dew

Haiku Avenue, 10, 2026