Silent Night Tanka

Silent Night from afar...
when not curled up in a ball
on the couch
I pace the room reciting
Li Po’s Autumn Thoughts

Gusts, 19 Spring/Summer 2014

River Tanka

Father recited
Li Po's Quiet Night Thought...
I listen
to Heaney's river
in the trees      
(for Seamus Heaney)

PoemHunter, September 9, 2013

Politics/Poetics of Re-Homing, XXXVII

the 37th tanka in the sequence about diasporic experiences

the harvest moon
meets me at the window...
echoes
of Li Po's laughter
in the corner of my mind

Atlas Poetica, 15, 2013

New Year Tanka

rejection emails
pile up like snowflakes...
in my New Year dream
a smile on Li Po's face
as he reads my poetry

Now This: Contemporary Poems of Beginnings, Renewals and Firsts, 2012

Loneliness Tanka

there are times
when my loneliness
becomes bearable:
the moon whispers
the words of Li Po

PSSMS, May 17, 2012

Moon Monostich

plunge into the river of the moon where Li Po leaped

Sketchbook, 6:6, November/December 2011

Moon Haiku

English Original:

alone by moonlight
no wine, I recite
Li Po

Chinese Translation:

獨在月下
沒有酒，我朗讀
李白的詩

Ardea, #1, Summer 2011

Moon Haiku

moonlit night
reading between the lines
of Li Po's poem

World Kigo Database (Li Po)

Note: This haiku alludes to one of Li Po's (or Li Bai's ) most famous poems, Drinking Alone in the Moonlight. For further information, read "Li Bai drinking alone (with the moon, his shadow, & 42 translators)".

The Cruelest Night: A Sijo

Loneliness seizes night with its teeth
and growls, I'll eat you up

Savoring the bright moon, flowering trees
my Li Po, my wine cup, and my dreams

until daybreak, it picks its teeth
with the thin threads of faint sunlight

Winter 2010 issue of Rust+Moth

Moon Gogyohka

I pawn
Drink Alone by Moonlight
at a river tavern
gazing at the moon
pondering if Li Po is mad at me

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Moon Haiku

under the bright moon
the wine and Li Po
or cherry blossoms?

Summer, 2010 issue of Haiku Ramblings

Autumn Haiku

autumn moonlight
slips into the attic window . . .
thinking of Li Po

Ambrosia: Journal of Fine Haiku, #5

Featured Tanka in Atlas Poetica

English Original:

the same moon
Li Po drank to
the same autumn
Tu Fu wrote of—
I alone change

French Translation by Mike Montreuil

la même lune
dont Li Po s’abreuvait
le même automne
que décrivait Tu Fu—
moi seul je change

Gusts, 10
showcased in New Special Feature: Canadian Tanka Poets in French and English and Salamander Cove

Nostalgia Tanka

the same moon
Li Po drank to
the same autumn
Tu Fu wrote of --
I alone change

Gusts, #10

Moon Tanka

gazing up
at the moon over Ajax
I realize
it's bigger than
the one Li Po wrote of

Autumn 2009 issue of Simply Haiku