All the Feelings Tanka

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"

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

Higher Fence Senryu

two feet higher fence

new neighbor's bulldog eyeing

my beagle below

5-7-5 Haiku Journal,  February 10, 2026

Before Jesus Tanka

a bare heart

and a humbled mind

before Jesus --

patch by patch filtered sunlight

slips beyond the chapel door

NeverEnding Story, July 12 2026

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

in the chapel

I pray to Jesus

hour after hour

finally tired of me

Time leaves me alone

NeverEnding Story, September 15, 2017

Added:

The air in here twice-breathed, the taste of stale water in the waiting room. 

trapped wasp

thumping at the pane 

doctor’s gaze

Added:

Awake after a late muggy afternoon nap.

alone

yet the looping

of this fly

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

summer cottage

after killing the last fly

I am alone

Failed Haiku, 2:16, 2017

And this could be read as a prequel to my senryu below:

summer cottage

everywhere the echo 

of me

Cattails, October 2025

Added:

By the lake of my mind, flower by flower ...

first homecoming

where wild bluebells bloomed

stacked townhouses

Added: No More Fairy Tales, LV

wildfires

hotter, bigger, deadlier

than before—

orange haze over Toronto

as multi-lane traffic crawls

FYI: This is a sequel to my tanka below:

No More Fairy Tales, XXXII

silhouetted

against the smoky forest

far away yet near ...

the Premier's mouth opens, closes

opens before cameras

NeverEnding Story, August 15 2024

This Urge Haiku

this urge deep inside…

oak tree roots that crack open

my asphalt driveway

5-7-5 Haiku Journal, February 15, 2026

War and Peace Tanka

Trump Empire, Inc., XCIX

written in response to The Washington Post, July 9 2026: 

Trump reopens the Iran war — and a political problem he can’t shake

firefly light on, off ...

the porch breeze leafing 

through a worn copy

of War and Peace

as Trump news is muted

NeverEnding Story, July 10 2026

FYI: Here are some of the best-known War and Peace quotes:

If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.

A battle is won by him who is firmly resolved to win it.

The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.

Added: Politics of Distraction, XX

Power on, off, on, off— a heat dome buckles the grid.

my neighbor's TV

blasting Iran War news ...

one stray outbarks the rest

FYI: The Guardian, July 13, 2026: Oil prices leap and stocks fall as Trump reinstates Hormuz blockade on Iranian shipping

Brent crude rises 5% after US president says 20% toll will be imposed on key trade route to cover  "safety and security."

Added:

war news on mute

the drawn out cry

of a cricket

Silhouette Haiku

silhouette

across storefront ATM glow

moths circling

NeverEnding Story, July 9, 2026

FYI: This haiku approaches yūgen through a stark, modern cityscape... for more about yūgen and deailted comments, see "To the Lighthouse: Yūgen (幽玄)"

Added:

beneath the billboard

a shopping cart of blankets

frost in the moonlight

Night Haiku

snowed in ...

I fold myself

into night

The Solitary Daisy, 67, 2026

Hospice Twilight Haiku

hospice twilight

the girl braids her doll’s hair

just like before

tsuri-dōrō, 32, March/April 2026

Lovers' Quarrel Haiku

lovers' quarrel  

in the summer twilight  

knotted branches sway

NeverEnding Story July 6 2026

FYI: This could be read as a sequel/counter-poem to my haiku below:

dappled trail 

a summer breeze humming

our sweet nothings 

NeverEnding Story, June 28 2025

Added:

summer stars 

tangled in my love's hair: 

skinny-dipping 

Added:

starry midnight ...

summer rain

into the silence

Added:

rippling sunset

the far-off sound

of a fishing boat

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

summer dusk

fishing boats set their nets

around the sun

First Place, Fifth Setouchi Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest

Marietta Jane McGregor

Added:

late afternoon light

the snarl 

of lawn mowers

Added:

monsoon rain

my toddler wanders

from room to room

Firework-Lit Sky Smols

    firework-lit sky

America First banner

smols, July 4 2026

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

the staccato

of July 4th fireworks ...

what's left unsaid

NeverEnding Story, July 4, 2026