Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Monday, April 6, 2026

Easter Lily Haiku

Easter lily
a curl at each edge
deepens



Added:

Jesus Wept

war news on mute ...
the sound
of Easter rain

church spire's tip 
piercing through half-sleep
a child's scream

I cry 
no reason, and yet
(this silence)


FYI: The title,  "Jesus Wept" (John 11:35),  is widely recognized as the shortest verse in the English Bible (King James Version and many others).

We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent, indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people

Pope Leo XIV,  his first Easter Mass


And this is a sequence to my tanka set below:

What Will Come Next?

in Easter sunshine
a billboard atop the church
proclaims:
Mary, called Magdalene
host to seven devils

Jesus is Risen
drifts from the whitewashed church
on the corner
a middle-aged black man
wears a crown of thorns



Added:

After Easter

slate-gray sky
white, trumpet-shaped blooms
curl inward

church door closed
a fallen petal
cups the last light


Added:

a gembun written to T.S. Elliot

April is the cruelest month, I murmur to myself

drinking alone
the sound of snowfall
deepens


Added:

alone ...
the dawn sky 
tinged gray


Added: Politics of Distraction, V:
written in response to the Convicted Felon/Peanut-Brained man who sits behind the Resolute Desk

Does this political senryu (comic haiku) work well?

two-week ceasefire …
mid-bite of a taco
he mumbles, I won


FYI: taco stands for Trump Always Chickens Out


Added:

two-week ceasefire
pop, popping under the hood
of a Ford Mustang


Added: 

love in my dream
eyes half-closed, lips parted ...
surf crashes ashore