Selected Tanka: Blackboard of His Mind Tanka

no matter
what Father just said ...
his right hand
keeps erasing the words
on the blackboard of his mind

A Hundred Gourds, 5:3, June 2016

Selected Haiku: Waiting Room Haiku

waitingroom  t h e  s   t   r   e   t   c   h  o f  t e n  h o u r s

A Hundred Gourds, 5:3, June 2016

Selected Haiku: Squid Boat Haiku

the lights
of a squid boat ...
starry night

A Hundred Gourds, 5:2, March 2016

Selected Haiku: Returned Manuscript Haiku

one coffee ring
joins another ...
returned manuscript

Revision, A Hundred Gourds, 5:1, December 2015

Selected Tanka: Barking Dog Tanka

winter rain
on and off, on and off ...
thoughts of home
interrupted
by a barking dog

A Hundred Gourds, 5:1, December 2015

Selected Tanka: The Look Tanka

she kisses me
with the look in her eyes
the distance
between our shadows
becoming shorter

A Hundred Gourds, 5:1, December 2015

Selected Tanka: Tempest Tanka

loneliness
doesn't have a tongue ...
and yet it speaks
through a dripping faucet
and the tempest in my mind

Revision,A Hundred Gourds, 4:4, September 2015

Selected Tanka Prose: A Part, Yet Apart

"'The letter 'I' is pronounced with a large flap of the tongue. In contrast, the best way to pronounce 'r' is to move your tongue as little as possible when making the sound," my eager ESL tutor tells me from across the table. After several attempts at "alive and arrive," "flee and free." and "blight and bright," I recognize a helpless look on her face. She is twenty years younger than I with dyed blonde hair. Then, in a low voice, she says, "Sometimes,  I'm jealous of you. You speak and act like you know who you are. Hovering between two worlds, I feel pressured to be loyal to the old one while living in the new, approved of on either side of my hyphenated identity: Chinese-Canadian."

she murmurs

I'm homesick at home ...

I respond

in halting English

the past is my home

A Hundred Gourds, 4:3, June 2015

Selected Kyoka: Gary Cooper Type Kyoka

I say to her
I'm the Gary Cooper type
at dinner
she nudges a shell open
and finds nothing in it

A Hundred Gourds, 4:3, June 2015

Selected Tanka: Bite Mark Tanka

her bite mark
still on my shoulder
in shadowy light
the shape
of those unspoken words

A Hundred Gourds, 4:3, June 2015

Selected Tanka: Eyeless Doll Tanka

sleepless again
looking at water stains
on the ceiling
I hug my loneliness
like an eyeless doll

A Hundred Gourds, 4:2, March 2015

Selected Haibun: Child Is Father of the Man

winter twilight ...

Father stands firm

in diapers

He can't remember what he had for dinner but can still hear The Spring Rain Will Come Again. It was playing when Sarah Rose danced topless on the bar at Janus in his freshman year of high school. Now, he mumbles to himself, Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day, my boy...

A Hundred Gourds, 4:1, December 2014

Selected Tanka: Chalk and Time Tanka

in twilight
my childhood classroom ...
the blackboard
holds the lingering scent
of chalk and time

A Hundred Gourds, 4:1, December 2014

Selected Tanka: Old Swing Tanka

a winter gust
riding the old swing
in the backyard ...
my childhood sweetheart
in and out of my thoughts

A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

Selected Haiku: First Light Haiku

first light
snowflakes treading
the silence

A Hundred Gourds, 3:4, September 2014

Selected Tanka: Hometown Memory Tanka

hometown memory
turning into snowflakes
in the gusty wind ...
from the car radio
My Country Is Winter

A Hundred Gourds, 3:3, June 2014

Selected Haiku: Weight and Shape Haiku

the weight and shape
of this moment --
a leaf through the air

A Hundred Gourds, 3:3, June 2014

Selected Tanka: Darkness Tanka

wrinkled
loose-leaf pages ...
I write
to keep the darkness
echoing

A Hundred Gourds, 3:2, March 2014

Selected Haiku: Wintry Night Haiku

wintry night
one stray dog answers
another

A Hundred Gourds, 3:2, March 2014

Selected Tanka: Winter Moonlight Tanka

alone
I am stretched out
on the bed
winter moonlight
on top of me
 
A Hundred Gourds ,3:1, December 2013