Home Village Tanka

in the home village

this storm-damaged oak tree

our initials

and overlapping hearts

carved deeper than the rest

Kokako, 43, 2025

Homeland Tanka

I murmur

the return to my homeland ...

two parts of me

stretch over a preposition

and a surging ocean

Kokako, 43, 2025

Birth Steam Haiku

slant winter light

the birth steam

of a new calf

Kokako, 43, 2025

included in The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, 2025

Years in Exile Haiku

years in exile

summer waves lap at the edge

of my dream

Kokako, 43, 2025

Obituary Clippings Haiku

obituary clippings

in Mother's catch-all drawer ...

winter solitude

Kokako, 43, 2025

Raven after Raven Tanka

from tree to tree

crying raven after raven ...

the night dark 

and colder around me

since being laid off 

Kokako, 42, 2025

Post-Election Blues Tanka

post-election blues ...

in morning chill

yet the jagged twigs

of this oak stump

stretching skywards

Kokako, 42, 2025

First Train Ride Tanka

first train ride

to my father's hometown ...

the lengthy chat

with this middle-aged man

in the rain-streaked window

Kokako, 42, 2025

Stubble Field Haiku

the stubble field

catching the last rays of sun ...

old man and his dog

Kokako, 42, 2025

Neon Dream Haiku

highway motel 

a neon dream to

nowhere

Kokako, 42, 2025

Leftover Dream Haiku

distant sirens ...

I curl deeper into

my leftover dream

Kokako, 42, 2025

Spiderwebs Haiku

spiderwebs

in the slanted moonlight

foreclosure sign

Kokako, 41, 2024 

Parole Haiku

first day on parole ...

he close his eyes to feel

the winter sunshine

Kokako, 41, 2024 

Selected Haiku: Black Smoke Haiku

braids of black smoke
tied and untied
by the winter wind

Kokako, 25, 2016

Selected Senryu: Divorce Talk Senryu

divorce talk
each sip of tea more bitter
than the last

Kokako, 24, April 2016

Selected Haibun: Collateral Damage

for Susan Sontag

white poppy

pinned to her son's first suit

Remembrance Day

Inside the top drawer of her husband's wooden desk, there is an old photo album. It starts with pictures of toy trucks, toy soldiers, toy tanks, and other delights of boys from the neighborhood playing in the sunlight. It ends with the picture of a new military cemetery with a row of white crosses in winter mist.

Note: First introduced by British pacifists in 1926, the white poppy is used as a symbol of peace and worn as an alternative to (or complement to) the red poppy for Remembrance Day.

Kokako, 24, April 2016

An Immigrant Poet

Like a Chinese coolie laboring in a foreign mine, I try hard to dig out those English words that resonate with my  thoughts of home and pent-up emotions on a moonless night. Most of the time I don’t get any pleasure from  writing, apart from those fleeting moments when I extract gold from the sands of a river that winds through this  land of ghostly memories.

writing done
I open the window

to smell the sunshine

Kokako, 29, 2018

Winter Rain Haiku

winter rain ...
alone in my rented room
with a pile of books

Kokako, 29, 2018

Goodwill Haiku

all these things
packed in boxes for Goodwill
death anniversary

Kokako, 29, 2018

Childhood Home Haiku

the echo
of fading footsteps ...
childhood home for sale

Kokako, 29, 2018