Hollow-Eyed Men Haiku

hollow-eyed men huddled

outside the shelter window

hollow-eyed men waiting

NeverEnding Story, December 8 2025

FYI: This could be read as a prequel to my haiku below:

shelter window view

this two by two freedom

of an azure sky

Trash Panda, 9, 2025

Added:

the waning moon

winter-blurred

what remains of us

Added:

awake, yet not awake

in the dark

this darkness inside

Added:

ice crystals 

on the hospital window ...

father's last look

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLV: 'Gazan stray"

twilight haze

a Gazan stray in shadow

where ravens circle

Added:

the way home

this night stretches long

as my breath clouds

Shelter Window Haiku

shelter window view

this two by two freedom

of an azure sky

Trash Panda, 9, 2025

Sleeping Rough Haiku

gathering shadows

ten more people ticketed

for sleeping rough

Cold Moon Journal, April 10 2024

Homeless Man's Shadow Tanka

this winter

colder than last

at twilight

a homeless man's shadow

slips into the church

Gusts, 38, Fall/Winter 2023

Deep Winter Haiku

deep winter

the shelter's entrance 

darkens

The Pan Haiku Review, 2, winter 2023

Happy Christmas Haiku

Happy Christmas

the gap-toothed grin

of a homeless man

Enchanted Garden, 5, 2023

Romanian Translation by Editor Steliana Cristina Voicu

Craciun fericit

rânjetul știrb

al unui om fără adăpost

Voice of God Tanka

reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXIX

the voice of God

commands me to go on

a hunger strike ...

on the edge of his shelter bed 

this man in a three-piece suit

NeverEnding Story, June 1 2023

FYI: NeverEnding Story: Call for Mental Health Awareness Poetry Submissions

Added: Game Show 2024, XXI

Trump-DeSantis feud

one pitbull jumps at another

in its rival's shadow

FYI: Politico, June 1: Trump-DeSantis feud gets ugly fast 

Added: Game Show 2024, XXII

written in response to this "ridiculously serious" New York Times article (co-written by THREE reporters) about " 'Policy Fights' where DeSantis sees his chance to hit Trump."

"policy" fights

between Trump and DeSantis

a burst of midnight barks

Added:

steel anniversary

their cold war condensed 

into one shot

Shelter Tanka

outside the shelter

the howl of the north wind --

a teen of few words

wolfs down one plateful

after another ...

NeverEnding Story, March 2 2023

Added: This Brave New World, LXX

national divorce 

among red and blue US states ...

the wall of pillows

wide and wider between us

while she turns up the volume 

FYI: The Seattle Times, Feb.23: ‘Civil war’ trends after Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet asks for national ‘divorce’

The Twitter hashtag “Civil War” was trending as people reacted to a tweet from Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

In the tweet posted to her personal page, Greene took Presidents Day to call for a “national divorce” among red and blue states, citing irreconcilable differences.

“We need a national divorce,” she wrote. “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

Many on Twitter likened the message to a call for a second Civil War.

And Huffpost, Feb. 27: Mehdi Hasan Reveals Why 'Kook' Marjorie Taylor Greene Is So Very Dangerous

...But there’s another point to Greene’s “ridiculous rhetoric,” and that’s to get people ― mainly white conservatives ― “dangerously angry, to radicalize their racial grievances, to indulge their sense of victimhood, to turn them against their neighbors, but especially against Washington, D.C., and the two coasts,” MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan said.

Added:

an old man

pursues his drunken shadow

nonstop

through a revolving door ...

twilight turns to sleet to snow

Un/Covering the News

an unlucky man

or a threat to public safety

the reporter asks ...

a Black shot dead hours later

after pacing around a store

frostbite amputations

spike to a 10-year high ...

the anchor's voice

drowned by streams of chatter

and laughter from diners

a nurse's death

headlines for one day 

and life goes on ...

(with more deaths by depression

from overwork)

another

swarming attack by teens

replaced by news

of a self-harm epidemic ...

new snow on old snow  

NeverEnding Story, January 17 2023

Added: No More Fairy Tales, IX

more than 1000

private jets land at the airport

of this snowy resort

talk after talk of climate

in the Davos summit

Added: No More Fairy Tales, X

Davos summit

protesters outside scream

no plan B! no planet B!

Added:

a teenager

in the bare maple tree ...

a moose

charges back and forth

in the gathering dark

Eight Teenage Girls Tanka

screams mixed with the sound

of a blood-stained bottle of wine

swept across asphalt ...

a man stabbed to death in swarming

by eight teenage girls 

NeverEnding Story, September 20 2022

FYI: Swarming/swarm attack is a military-style assault in which a group of people all attack a single individual at once. For more details about this senseless tragic death,  CBC News, Dec. 21: Teen girls charged with murder in Toronto 'swarming' death were after liquor bottle: witness

And for more examples of character tanka, see my "To the Lighthouse" post, Character/Persona Tanka

Homeless Shelter Tanka

 we'reallinthistogether

            snow
              on
            snow
   onhomelessshelter

Bulgarian and English Tanka Handbook (edited by Dimitar Anakiev)

Clean Toronto Together

one by one 

tent cities dismantled 

amidst drifting snow

the mayor wears a smile

for the camera

will my bed 

be far enough away

from my neighbour’s ...

a masked old man murmurs

by the shelter entrance

weareall

inthistogerther, t o g e t h e r

facing the challenges

politicians of all stripes

at each other's throats

NeverEnding Story, November 18 2022

Note: For more, see "To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Irony"

Coal Lobbyist's Shadow and Street Teen Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, IV

written in response to [the "most powerful] Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin"'s critique of President Joe Biden's "end-of-coal remark" [not a plan]:

this cold night

a total lunar eclipse ... 

toward the lamppost

the coal lobbyist's shadow

passing over a street teen

NeverEnding Story, November 6 2022

Note: For more about my poetic responses to the COP27, see "Special Feature: Poems Selected to Challenge these "Talks" at COP 27." 

FYI: Insider, Nov. 7: "Biden says coal plants will be replaced by cheaper solar and wind power."

These comments drew criticism not only from Republicans, but from [the "most powerful] Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin" of West Virginia [49th place for average family income and 46th for percentage of families in poverty]. The senator, whose state still generates roughly 90% of its electricity from coal, called the president's comments "outrageous and divorced from reality." 

"President Biden's comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs" 

Divorced from reality, Indeed! This is America, the second most polluting country in the world.

The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency was Andrew R. Wheeler, the most influential coal lobbyist (For more, see Public Citizen, July 12, 2018:The Coal Lobbyist Now Running the Environmental Protection Agency)

Street Camping Haiku

street camping

beside one stray

... then many

Plum Tree Tavern, August 28 2022

Street Kid Haiku

a stray dog's stare

in the high-rise shadow

a street kid

tsuri-dōrō ,10 , July/August 2022

Omicron Surge Haiku

Three Hundred and Third Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

       

        omicron

         surge

         snow

           on

         snow

           on

homeless shelter

NeverEnding Story, January 18 2022

Added: Three Hundred and Fourth Entry

learning Greek letters ...

another variant emerges 

as rain turns to ice

FYI: Associated Press, Jan. 15: Expect more worrisome variants after omicron, scientists say

Every infection provides a chance for the virus to mutate, and omicron has an edge over its predecessors: It spreads way faster despite emerging on a planet with a stronger patchwork of immunity from vaccines and prior illness.

That means more people in whom the virus can further evolve. Experts don’t know what the next variants will look like or how they might shape the pandemic, but they say there’s no guarantee the sequels of omicron will cause milder illness or that existing vaccines will work against them.

They urge wider vaccination now, while today's shots still work.

Sound of Three Coins Tanka

reading between the lives and writing between the lines,  VI

the Pope doubles down 

on quashing the old Latin Mass... 

outside the church 

the sound of three coins 

dropped in an old man's cup

PoemHunter, December 19 2021

FYI: Pope at 85: Gloves come off as Francis' reform hits stride, Associated Press, Dec. 17 and Vatican announces new restrictions on Latin Mass, The Week, December 19

A Vatican document released Saturday imposed further restrictions on the pre-Vatican II liturgy, including a prohibition on listing Latin Masses in parish bulletins... In his introduction to the document, Archbishop Arthur Roche, the head of the Vatican's liturgy office, said clergy "must not lend ourselves to sterile polemics, capable only of creating division, in which the ritual itself is often exploited by ideological viewpoints."

On this night of love, may we have only one fear: that of offending God's love, hurting him by despising the poor with our indifference. Jesus loves them dearly, and one day they will welcome us to heaven.

The Pope, Christmas Eve Mass, CBC News, December 24

Snowonsnow Haiku

snowonsnow ...

a teenager brings some

into the shelter

tsuri-dōrō ,6, Nov/Dec 2021 

News After News Tanka

news after news

of record-shattering heat
day after day
a homeless man evicted
into the mayor's silence

Haiku Canada Review, October, 2021

New Variant Tanka

Two Hundred and Ninetieth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written in  response to CNBC's breaking news, Nov. 26: WHO calls special meeting to discuss new Covid variant found in South Africa with "a large number of mutations."

new variant

the worst we've seen so far ...

muting the TV

a shelter cook starts chopping

as early nightfall turns to snow

NeverEnding Story, November 27 2021

Added: Two Hundred and Ninety-First Entry

watching my toddler

watching a fly climb the wall ...

prolonged lockdown