Paper Cranes Haiku

another winter

a war in places far away ...

mother's paper cranes

Haiku Avenue, 10, 2026

Dare to Be Happy

The neighborhood is a hush of humid air and mown grass. Time feels suspended, marked only by the rhythmic pulse of water hitting the driveway. For a moment, this white picket fence world is nothing but light and motion, before the next headline arrives—red banners scrolling, digits flickering upward.

on the front lawn

the sprinkler ticks like a clock

throwing silver arcs...

his toddler's laughter

chases a beagle's bay

The New Verse News, April 20 2026

War and Peace Haiku

leafing War and Peace

front to back, back to front

summer whiffle

NeverEnding Story, July 18 2026

Added:

hillside and valley

flecked with cloud shadows ...

smell of sunshine

Added:

farmers' market

tasting a strawberry

then her lips

Added:

the ripe tangle

of wild strawberries ...

an urge to love 

Added:

overlapping hearts

on a summer train window

our reflections

Added:

first outing

after the breakup

on the beach

I trip on a heart

made of stones

Added:

alone again

on the moonlit shore ...

my shadow

stretches closer, closer

to lapping waves

Added: No More Fairy Tales, LVI

What has been will be again

Acrid black columns choke the morning sun. Trapped in a valley of smoke, cars barrel past leaping tongues of fire. Across Northern Ontario, wildfires burn hotter, bigger, and deadlier than ever. More than one thousand miles away, their smoke casts an orange haze over New York's crawling traffic.

Meanwhile, silhouetted against smoky skies, the Premier’s mouth opens and closes for the camera lights, broadcasting word after word into the heat.

tongues of forest fire

there is no Plan[et] B, the rest

blah, blah, blah...

FYI: Canada’s climate-change-charged wildfires are becoming a horrific annual event. 

Over 800 wildfires are burning across Canada, with one entirely destroying the northern Indigenous community of Namaygoosisagagun. 

Back in 2023, Emma Paling reported that the same Indigenous communities that gave early warnings against burning fossil fuels are among the first to be permanently displaced by climate change.

The Breach, August 24, 2023: First Nations say they’re not wildfire evacuees, but climate refugees

Indigenous communities that first warned against burning fossil fuels are now facing permanent displacement caused by climate breakdown

War and Peace Tanka

Trump Empire, Inc., XCIX

written in response to The Washington Post, July 9 2026: 

Trump reopens the Iran war — and a political problem he can’t shake

firefly light on, off ...

the porch breeze leafing 

through a worn copy

of War and Peace

as Trump news is muted

NeverEnding Story, July 10 2026

FYI: Here are some of the best-known War and Peace quotes:

If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.

A battle is won by him who is firmly resolved to win it.

The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.

Added: Politics of Distraction, XX

Power on, off, on, off— a heat dome buckles the grid.

my neighbor's TV

blasting Iran War news ...

one stray outbarks the rest

FYI: The Guardian, July 13, 2026: Oil prices leap and stocks fall as Trump reinstates Hormuz blockade on Iranian shipping

Brent crude rises 5% after US president says 20% toll will be imposed on key trade route to cover  "safety and security."

Added:

war news on mute

the drawn out cry

of a cricket

Anything New outside St Peter's Basilica?

a magical-realism tanka prose written on Pope Leo XIV's first day

as dusk deepens

a white-haired refugee's shadow

slips into the church ...

after mass, a priest muses

if he ranks love for others

Half awake yet half asleep, he glances at the LED bedside clock: 03:00 flashing red. Flanked by LED numbers, a blindingly bright human figure starts chanting:

Religion says don't hope

outside this whitewashed wall.

But then, once in a lifetime,

these longed-for tidal waves

of justice, peace and love

can rise up under the morning sun

if faith and action rhyme

Chrysanthemum, 35, 2025

German Translation:

Gibt es Neues vor dem Petersdom?

Eine magisch-realistische Tanka-Prosa, geschrieben am ersten Tag von Papst Leo XIV.

bei zunehmender Dämmerung gleitet

der Schatten eines weißhaarigen Flüchtlings

in die Kirche ...

nach der Messe sinniert ein Priester darüber

ob er die Liebe zu anderen über alles stellt

Halb wach, halb schlafend wirft er einen Blick auf den LED-Wecker: 03:00 blinkt es rot. Flankiert von LED-Ziffern beginnt eine blendend helle menschliche Gestalt zu singen:

Die Religion sagt: Hoffe nicht

außerhalb dieser weiß getünchten Mauer. 

Doch dann, einmal im Leben,

können diese ersehnten Flutwellen

der Gerechtigkeit, des Friedens und der Liebe

unter der Morgensonne aufsteigen,

wenn Glaube und Handeln sich reimen

Whitewashed Road Sign Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXVIII: "a whitewashed road sign"

dust swirling past

"<-- Tarqumia, Jerusalem -->

peace be with you" 

under the scorching sun

a whitewashed road sign

NeverEnding Story, March 30 2026

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXXXIX: "skeletal house"

skeletal house  

and charred pottery shards --  

grass creeps in the cracks

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXC: "between wire fences"

slate-gray sky

swarm after swarm of flies

between wire fences

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCI: "the Death Bill"

Sde Teiman

silhouetted against desert sunset 

on the TV

passing of the Death Bill

popping of champagne 

FYI:  Sde Teiman is a scandal-plagued Israeli military detention camp in the Negev desert near the Gaza border.

And Haaretz, April 1, 2026: The Death Penalty Bill Illustrates How the Kahanist Revolution Has Taken Over Israeli Society

The evening of the vote marked not only a moral abyss, but also anointed the next right-wing leader: Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has managed to transform himself from a marginal thug into a shaper of right-wing ideology

Add:

straddled between

this war-torn world and the one

in my mind ...

I slam the blinds down

as fists crash on the street

Peace Talks Haiku

this ache of tears

burdened by a loon's call...

peace talks stall

Asahi Haikuist Network, Nov.7 2025

Rainbow Flowers of Light Tanka

written in response to The Guardian, December 31: Sydney New Year’s Eve strikes sombre tone as fireworks follow minute’s silence for Bondi Beach Victims

Peace, Unity

lit on the bridge’s high pylon

while Sydney pauses ...

rainbow flowers of light

bloom in the midnight sky

NeverEnding Story, December 31 2025

FYI: The Pacific island nations of Tonga, Samoa, and Kiribati are the first to ring in the New Year. New Zealand is next, followed by Australia, Japan, and South Korea)

Added:

On the Threshold

firework-lit skies ...

each year the same, and yet

each year different

first sunrise gleaming 

I high-five my reflection

in the new mirror

Remembrance Day Gembun

war is peace: the war to end all wars, news rolling

Remembrance Day

the parade lengthens

by armless vets

NeverEnding Story, November 11 2025

FYI: Originated as an idealistic slogan during World War I, "The War to End All Wars" now is a sarcastic term for this Great War. And according to Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law, "today, it monitors more than 110 armed conflicts ... Some of them started recently, while others have lasted for more than 50 years."

And for more about gembun, see To the Lighthouse: Gembun, Untitled Minimalist Haibun)

Added:

1984

spine broken, margins yellowed ... 

"war is peace" in red 

For more about Remembrance Day poems, see Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Remembrance Day

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

-- Albert Camus, written in August 1945, the day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

in the gathering dark

one candle kindles another:

peace vigil

NeverEnding Story, October 5 2025

The Only Battle Haiku

the Capitol in shadow

a gray-haired man chanting, peace

the only battle!

Asahi Haikuist Network , August 29, 2025

Golden Dove Statue Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXXVI: "a golden dove statue"

inspired by George Orwell's ghost

the man who bombed kids

gives a golden dove statue

to the man

who sent him planeloads of bombs:

war is peace, peace is war ...

NeverEnding Story, October 15 2025

FYI: The Jerusalem Post, Oct. 13 2025: PM Netanyahu presented US President Trump with a gift today, gifting him a golden dove.

And Haaretz, Editorial, Oct. 15 2025: Netanyahu Fears Peace More Than He Fears War. 

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXXVII: "now, ceasefire"

Now, "Ceasefire"

a boy stares

into the TV camera ...

his bones

protruding as if chiseled

by the cruel hand of famine

with glazed pupils

a white-haired woman

gazes up

searching for a sky-high shelf

of hummus-stuffed bread

FYI: Democracy Now, Oct. 15 2025: Pressure Grows on Israel to Allow More Aid into Gaza

Pressure is growing on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza as the ceasefire continues to hold. On Tuesday, Israel told the United Nations it would allow only half of the 600 daily aid trucks called for under the deal. 

Rush Hour Traffic Senryu

rush hour traffic ...

bumper sticker: Honk if you love peace

and quiet

Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, July 16, 2025

The Burden of Peace

"When Time crawled to reach 8:30 AM on Sunday, a cascade of relief, joy and hope washed over us. Fifteen months of horror now come to an end, at least for six weeks. And yet, as cry after cry erupts around us, echoing “Allahu Akbar!” into the air, I can't shake the inky heaviness that lingers in my heart when I see what's happened to us..."

I gaze at the ellipsis at the end of my friend's X post. It speaks of falling into the spaces, untold and foreign, and strikes me with its longing.

each bombed-out house:

an album with no photos

but with people

living, wounded and dead

pressed between its pages

Before I log out, another bit of viral Gaza news appears on my X feed: "At least four Palestinians were allegedly shot dead by the Israeli snipers since the ceasefire went into effect." The embedded video shows a man trying to drag a boy’s lifeless body before he too is shot.

anything new

under Gaza's smeared sun?

smoky rubble

beyond smoky rubble, and yet

again smoky rubble

Ribbons, 21:1, 2025

New Peace Plan Haiku

written on the 80th anniversary of VE Day 

new "peace" plan

fields of sunflowers

bend to the wind

NeverEnding Story, May 8 2025

FYI: This haiku could be read as a prequel to the following:

army of sunflowers

again peace becomes

war somewhere

Third Prize, 2016 Kusamakura Haiku Competition

Dietmar Tauchner

And for more about reflections on VE Day, see Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on VE Day in the shadow of Russia's War on Ukraine

...the idea that this was all just history and it doesn’t matter now somehow is completely wrong.

Those values of freedom and democracy matter today.

-- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer

Added:

the silence 

in an armless man's saluting ...

the sunlight shines

on 30,000 ceramic poppies 

at the Tower of London

The World Unseen Tanka

men and women 

birth and death, war and peace ... 

between pages

of A Farewell to Arms

the world unseen breaks each one

NeverEnding Story, May 7 2025

FYI: L5 alludes to the following lines from A Farewell to Arms:

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

And the following is an excerpt from "Last Words" by Joan Didion, which was published  The New Yorker, October 25, 1998

In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.

So goes the famous first paragraph of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, which I was moved to reread by the recent announcement that what was said to be Hemingway’s last novel would be published posthumously next year. That paragraph, which was published in 1929, bears examination: four deceptively simple sentences, one hundred and twenty-six words, the arrangement of which remains as mysterious and thrilling to me now as it did when I first read them, at twelve or thirteen, and imagined that if I studied them closely enough and practiced hard enough I might one day arrange one hundred and twenty-six such words myself. Only one of the words has three syllables. Twenty-two have two. The other hundred and three have one. Twenty-four of the words are “the,” fifteen are “and.” There are are four commas. The liturgical cadence of the paragraph derives in part from the placement of the commas (their presence in the second and fourth sentences, their absence in the first and third), but also from that repetition of “the” and of “and,” creating a rhythm so pronounced that the omission of “the” before the word “leaves” in the fourth sentence (“and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling”) casts exactly what it was meant to cast, a chill, a premonition, a foreshadowing of the story to come, the awareness that the author has already shifted his attention from late summer to a darker season. The power of the paragraph, offering as it does the illusion but not the fact of specificity, derives precisely from this kind of deliberate omission, from the tension of withheld information. In the late summer of what year? What river, what mountains, what troops? 

Edge of Peace Haiku

ramadan moon

behind skeletal houses

the edge of peace

Third Place, The Solitary Daisy Annual Haiku Contest, 2025

First Day

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXV: "first day of Ramadan" 

humming of drones ...

a family's suhoor meal,

finger-sized biscuits 

iftar table 

for a family of ten ...

six seats empty

mosque floor littered 

with plaster and broken glass ...

O Allah, grant us refuge

Ramadan moon 

behind skeletal houses

the edge of peace

NeverEnding Story, March 3 2025

FYI: The first days of Ramadan, Ashra, are called the days of mercy. In these 10 days, Muslims should seek Allah's (SWT) mercy and praise Him. Suhoor is the pre-dawn meal eaten before fasting during Ramadan, and Iftar is an evening meal that Muslims eat to break their fast during Ramadan.

And Haaretz, March 2: Ramadan Begins in Gaza Amid Ruins and Devastation: "Some Families Were Wiped Out Completely"

As the holy month begins, Gazans grapple with profound loss and the threat of renewed conflict, while in the West Bank Palestinians endure economic hardship and rising despair as a military offensive widens.

Word-Bombs and Lie-Mines Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIII: "Jimmy Carter"

in memory of Jimmy Carter, a bluntly honest man of Faith who follow[ed] the Prince of Peace in the New Testament (The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024)

these worn pages

of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

in snowlight

Carter's word-bombs bunker-bust

IDF's tunnel-deep lie-mines

NeverEnding Story, January 1 2025

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIV: "new year of the same fate"

A New Year of the Same Fate

alone, lost

in the calm between fireballs

this Gazan boy's gaze

a two-thousand-yard stare

at the Great Beyond ...

with lifeless eyes

cast to Gaza's ashy skies

this girl's face

summons a grief 

as old as Time

FYI: The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024: Remembering a Visit to Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia

Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin spent thirteen days secluded near Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain and produced a peace treaty that has endured for forty years. It was Jimmy Carter’s signature accomplishment and one that has never been matched in the region, despite decades of strenuous attempts.

...on his first day in the Oval Office, in January, 1977, he stunned his Vice-President, Walter Mondale, by saying that his first priority was to bring peace to the Middle East. Carter later told me that he believed God had put him into the Presidency for that very reason.

...So why do you think God wants peace in the Holy Land?” I asked. “Because we follow the Prince of Peace in the New Testament,” he responded.

In retrospect, Carter’s priorities in the White House—the environment, energy conservation, peace, health care—were remarkably prescient, and certainly his personal qualities offer a dismaying contrast to so much of the present state of American politics. Perhaps his piety soured the American public on him. Other qualities—his doggedness, earnestness, sincerity, blunt honesty—were in sharp contrast to those of Reagan, who proved irresistible to the public.

From the River to the Sea Haiku

 Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, IX: "from the river to the sea"

Tel Aviv in twilight

from the river to the sea

peace, peace only ...

NeverEnding Story, January 21 2024

FYI: Salon, Jan.18:  “From the river to the sea”: Netanyahu says he rejected Biden's call for Palestinian state after war: Netanyahu used phrase Israel's supporters claim is a call for Israeli genocide when used by Palestinian advocates

Netanyahu, who has long opposed the formation of a Palestinian state, rejected any such notion on Thursday.

“This conflict is not about the lack of a state of Palestinians but the existence of a Jewish state,” he said, according to a translation from i24News. “Every area we evacuate, we receive terrible terror… and therefore I clarify that in any arrangement, in the future the state of Israel has to control the from the river to the sea,” he continued, repeating a phrase that Israeli supporters have claimed is a call for genocide when used by pro-Palestinian supporters.

Washington Post, Oct. 16 2023: Welcome to the new, ‘new’ Middle East

This time [when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly on "Sep. 22, 2023," which means "before Oct. 7th"], Netanyahu had a different image as a prop — a map titled “The New Middle East,” depicting a section of the region shaded in green. That included all of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, with no delineations showing occupied Palestinian territory, as well as countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, X: "Let My People Go"

lingering echoes

from a sea of protesters

in Tel Aviv:

Let My People Go

Elections Now

FYI: "Let My People Go" is a phrase that originates in the Book of Exodus 5:1:

And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

And Haaretz, Jan. 20: "Only Graveyards Will Be Named After Netanyahu" 

Thousands Protest Across Israel Against Netanyahu's Government

Thousands attended demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and outside Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea. Bereaved sister: 'The values on which this country was built were replaced by political survival, bickering, and incitement'

Whoever kills one life kills the world entire

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, VI: "death count"

written on the 100th day of the Israel Hamas War

Whoever kills one life kills the world entire

white sand beach

miles north of a refugee camp

now-flattened

a Gazan's first and last

apperance on the TV

bombed-out hospital

death count debate

a peace vigil stretches

into foggy night

NeverEnding Story, January 14 2024

FYI: The title is taken from Talmud:

Why was man created alone? Is it not true that the creator could have created the whole of humanity? But man was created alone to teach you that whoever kills one life kills the world entire, and whoever saves one life saves the world entire. —paraphrased from the Talmud

--Gideon Frieder, "To Save the World Entire"

For more poems about the ICJ's genocide case against Israel, see Special Feature: Poems Selected for South Africa’s Genocide Case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, ICJ

Democracy Now!, Jan 10: IDF Is Using Hunger as a Weapon of War, Says Israeli Rights Group B'Tselem

Human rights groups say Israel is using starvation as a weapon in the Gaza Strip as Israel severely restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid, medicine and food supplies to millions inside the besieged and bombed territory. In a new report," Israeli human rights group B'Tselem lays out how Israel's decision to cut off electricity, water and international humanitarian aid to Gaza after a 17-year blockade against the territory has led to a very quick collapse of infrastructure. "The things that impede this provision of food for people who are starving is a declared policy by Israel," says Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem international advocacy lead. "The Israeli government is at fault, is responsible for this, and this should lead to immediate international action."

CNN, Jan. 11: Some Israeli intel officers "shocked by what they were asked to do’ in Gaza, says Israeli journalist

Bianna Golodryga speaks to Yuval Abraham, a journalist at +972 Magazine, on his investigations into how the Israeli army is operating in Gaza.

And Haaretz, Opinion, Jan. 15: ICJ Genocide Trial Showcases Israel's Collective Temporary Insanity and Vile Government

It should be mentioned that this humanitarian assistance, very aid, which was a central aspect of Israel's line of defense before the judges but actually before the judgment of the entire world, was maligned and vilified by several members of Israel's government, as an act of capitulation.

The New Yorker, Jan. 12: How Israel’s Inspection Process Is Obstructing Aid Delivery

One of the things we witnessed personally was a large warehouse filled with humanitarian goods that had been rejected at Israeli inspection points. Goods like medical kits used to deliver babies, water-testing kits, water filters, solar-powered desalinization units, tents that people said might’ve been returned because they had metal poles.

So a whole collection of rejected items that seemed purely arbitrary. And I will also say that when one item on a truck is rejected, the entire truck is turned back, and in talking to a truck driver and others we learned that some of these trucks take twenty days to go from the starting point to delivering assistance. 

Haaretz Podcast, Jan. 9: How Can We Expect Others to Empathize With Us When We Fail to Empathize With Palestinians?

Haaretz, Jan. 12: Half a Million Gazans Are Suffering From Acute Hunger. Let That Sink In

The scope of the crisis in Gaza is becoming clearer; according to the UN, Israel is creating conditions that are making life in Gaza impossible; but Israeli leaders are unbothered

Haaretz, Jan. 30: A New Low: The Israelis Advocating to Starve the People of Gaza

For Israel's extremists, nothing is off-limits when it comes to Gaza – fighting the delivery of humanitarian aid, re-establishing Jewish settlements, human decency. But it would be a mistake to dismiss them as a fringe movement... According to Agam Institute surveys, nearly 60 percent of Israeli Jews oppose humanitarian aid – a stable figure over time.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, VII: "war after war"

war after war after Arctic blast nothing new under the sun

FYI: The Guardian, Jan. 11: ‘Brutal’ Arctic blast expected to bring frigid temperatures to North America: Extreme cold warning issued in Canada as US forecasters warn of wind chills in Texas and major snow in midwest and east coast

And according to the Geneva Academy, there are more than 110 armed conflicts in the world.

Added: This Brave New World, CXLI

in-between

fireballs bursting skyward

smell of winter air

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, VIII: "broken world"

On This Fresh Morning

just to be alive

in the broken world, my friend writes

I respond,

dying is the most alive

you'll ever feel in Gaza

with one purpose

does this war make a stone

of the broken heart?

thousands of miles away

I ponder in a cold snap