Gold-Plated Casket Senryu

my reflection
looks a little younger --
gold-plated casket

Failed Haiku, 5:53, May

Dead-End Alley kyoka

I plead
for one more day
alone
in a dead-end alley
with the Grim Reaper

Failed Haiku, 4:46, 2019

Winter Crow Tanka

wingbeats
of a winter crow
I try
to fend off thoughts
of death and dying

NeverEnding Story, December 9, 2019

Edge of Reality Tanka

alone
on the cliff edge
of reality
I hear the siren’s song
come home, my dear . . .

Atlas Poetica, 37, 2019

Short Day and Long Night Tanka

father murmurs
the day is short
the night so long ...
the lines on his face
grow darker and darker

Atlas Poetica, 37, 2019

Weight Tanka

alone
on the edge
of a frozen lake . . .
I bear the weight
of forty-year-old me

Atlas Poetica, 37, 2019

Half-Empty Glass Tanka

the winter moon
in a half-empty glass
this taste
of my midlife
gets bitter and bitter

Atlas Poetica, 37, 2019

Selected Tanka: Piece by Piece Tanka

I'm scared
I'm scared of myself...
at daybreak
piece by piece I try
to put myself together

NeverEnding Story, March 1 2016

Birthing of Darkness Tanka

to Dylan Thomas

rage, rage
against the birthing
of this darkness
will I be at the edge
of the tunnel light

NeverEnding Story, July 28, 2019

Flat-Footed Death Tanka

this snowy silence ...
flat-footed Death paces

to and fro
in the dark corridor
of my aging mind

NeverEnding Story, March 10, 2019

Snow Crystals Haiku

snow crystals
in my hospital room
this short life and yet ...

NeverEnding Story, February 26, 2019

Headstone Tanka

cycling alone
through the graveyard
I side-glance
at my name
on a headstone

Its own place: a mindscape of tanka, 2018

Choked by Fear Tanka

in the claw
of 3 a.m. insomnia
I'm choked by fear:
sleeping alone
among nameless graves

Its own place: a mindscape of tanka, 2018

Selected Haiku: Letting Go Haiku

winter wind ...
let go of my past
scrawled in the sand

Hedgerow, 21, March 20 2015

Selected Tanka Prose: A Walking Shadow

stage lights on . . .

my copy of Macbeth

battered

and its cover spotted

as if by white molds

I start reciting in a hoarse voice, Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow . . . In the back of my mind, I wonder if there is another tomorrow for a gentile like me in this promised land.

Atlas Poetica, 21, 2015

Horizon Tanka

lightning
on the horizon . . .
the years
before me
stretch thin

Atlas Poetica, 33, 2018

Selected Haibun: Suspended between Life and Death

On my way to work at the meat factory, a dewy green leaf is shaken loose and blown away from a maple tree. It floats along the sidewalk. Suddenly, a wind whips it about and sends it soaring skyward. Then, the wind stops and the leaf falls to the ground.

evening chill ...

pressing the razor

against my skin

Cattails, 4, January 2015

Selected Haiku: Last Cherry Petals haiku

last cherry petals
drift to the ground
I miss myself

Wednesday Haiku, 158, 2014

Lengthening Shadow Tanka

lengthening
shadow on the hallway
to the morgue ...
I wake up sweating
on the bedroom floor

Atlas Poetica, 30, 2017

Mid-Life Crisis Senryu

this talk
of mid-life crisis ...
my beer gone flat

Failed Haiku, 2:24, December 2017