Red-and-Gold Dream Tanka

maple leaves

falling on maple leaves

my three-year-old

piles up enough to hide

inside his red-and-gold dream

Shot Glass Journal, 45, 2025

Voting for Change Haiku

Voting for Change

maple leaves zigzag

in morning chill

Under the Basho, June 9 2024

Foreclosure Haiku

a gutterful

of maple leaves

foreclosure

tsuri-dōrō, 5, Sept/Oct 2021 

The Point of No Return

On the day of my emigration to Canada, a land of maple leaves and snowflakes that will eventually bury my past.

a parting

of summer clouds

mother

lets go of my hand

. . . and of my heart

Ribbons, 16:1, Winter 2020

Twilight Chill Haiku

a maple leaf
zigzags to the ground ...
twilight chill

Acorn, 43, Fall 2019

Filament of Web Haiku

a filament of web
between maple leaves
to stay or to go ...

seashores, II, 2019

Selected Haiku: Pink Slips Haiku

the crunch
of dried maple leaves...
pink slips

Haiku Canada Review, 9:2, October 2015

Selected Tanka: Jagged Piece of TimeTanka

my “now” 
written to fill up
a jagged piece
of time . . .
maple leaves turn yellow

Atlas Poetica, 21, 2015

Spiral Haiku

written on the first day of school

the spiral
of a maple leaf ...
morning chill

NeverEnding Story, September 4, 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

My Dream Is a Private Myth

The sound of gunshots wakens me on this May Day, my twelfth since emigrating to Canada. I look out the window and see a yellow bird falling from the sky. It flaps then glides, flaps then glides as it descends. Is this a sign that the rest of my life will be spent immobile in this promised land for a chosen people? Suddenly, a twinge in my heart.

to stay or to go ...

maple leaves shimmering

in the breeze

Haiku Canada Review, 8:2, October 2014

Promised Land Tanka

our new life
in this promised land?
my son raising
a maple leaf
to the sunshine

Atlas Poetica, 31, 2018

Empty Nest Tanka

an empty nest
in a forked branch
of the maple tree --
planted in his front yard
the foreclosure sign

Atlas Poetica, 29, 2017

Tangled Thoughts of Home Haiku

the calligraphy
of bare maple branches
tangled thoughts of home

Brass Bell, February 2017

Meat Factory Tanka

on the way
to the meat factory
where I work,
bare maple trees, beyond them

bare maple trees ...

Revision, Gusts, 23, Spring/Summer 2016

Selected Tanka: Barrenness Tanka

buried earth
a silver carpet --
maples and I
gaze at the barrenness
we see in each other

Selected Tanka, Gusts, 9, Spring/Summer 2009

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 by Chen-ou Liu.

Temp Job Haiku

last leaves
cling to a maple tree ...
another temp job

Whispers, December 2015

Dried Maple Leaves Haiku

the crunch
of dried maple leaves...
pink slips

Haiku Canada Review, 9:2, October 2015

A Sting to the Heart, A Tanka Set

the Pacific
between my hometown and me ...
after the rain
a rainbow appears
arching a passageway

twelfth year
to see maple leaves
change color ...
memories fill my body
like flesh and blood

NeverEnding Story, September 24, 2015

Tongues Tanka

the tongues
of a maple tree
are bare ...
my loss of home
speaks in Chinglish

NeverEnding Story, May 9, 2015