Selected Tanka Sequence: Happy Families Are All Alike

she and I
sit across the table
in the morning
bearing the silence
of another new year

separated
and yet living quietly
under the same roof
we used to share
a ripe pomegranate

she can’t stand me
even in a photo
bits and pieces
of our honeymoon
drifting into the dark

Atlas Poetica, 21, 2015

Selected Tanka Sequence: The Same Old Story

first sunlight
after Valentine's Day
her heart
beating against mine
in a cheap motel room

her departing words
each star has its own journey
linger with me...
the mouth of darkness swallows
our summer stars and her

in twilight
rustling maple leaves
have a voice
that answers the storm
I murmur, what am I?

returned mail
from my ex-girlfriend
piles up...
flakes of thought drifting
in a world of one color

New Year's cleanup...
finding her wadded-up bra
under the bed
at last I breathe in
the smell of her betrayal

Red Lights, 9:1, January 2013

Selected Tanka Sequence: The Portrait of an Attic Poet

I yell out
I'll stay drunk on writing
her silent tongue
like a scissor
cutting my words to shreds

rain pelting
the windows of this rooming house
I hear voices
rising towards the ceiling
jostling for survival

my mind complains
it's hard to live by words alone
tongues of fire
lick the flesh
and stay for a while

I conduct
the Fifth Symphony
inside my head
the doctor sees nothing
but a poet's failed dream

a wolf
howling at the cold moon
alone
face to face
with my own demons

after wishing
on a shooting star
all that remains
of my attic room
a shadow on the wall

Lynx, 27:3, October 2012

Selected Tanka Sequence: Tomorrow, When Will You Appear?

English Original

as silent and firm
as the rocks
I pine for you ...
the sun sets
but not my shadow

in the glow of sunset
the shadow and I
are companions:
I dream of his life
he longs for my heartbeat

raising the wine cup
you used to drink
I entice the moon
for her, with my shadow,
will make a party of three

Chinese Translation

明日幾時有？

沈默堅立
如同岩石
我渴望妳…
太陽已西下
我的影子佇立不動

在落日光輝中
我和我的影子
是同伴：
我夢想他的生活
他渴望我的心跳

舉起
你常用的酒杯
我邀請明月
她，我的影子
和我三人成為好友

Atlas Poetica, 7, Autumn 2010

Selected Tanka Sequence: A Year Gone with the Wind

I gaze
with my shadow
at the spring moon
that used to perch
on our shared dream

I dust
our photos taken years ago
wondering
if there's a Gobi Desert
in a corner of her heart

drinking alone
under an autumn sky
in my glass
I see her moon face
of three loves ago

snowing outside
I sit at a window
drinking coffee
the old self walks into
the summer of '67

Atlas Poetica, 6, Summer 2010

Note:  In celebration of the upcoming 7th anniversary of being a published writer of Japanese short form poetry, I am pleased to announce a new publishing project, Selected Tanka Sequences by Chen-ou Liu.