Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Showing posts with label raven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raven. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2026

Old Farmer's Stare Haiku

old farmer’s stare 
dawn fades into the flight
of ravens

Time Haiku, 65, 2026

Friday, May 30, 2025

Raven after Raven Tanka

from tree to tree
crying raven after raven ...
the night dark 
and colder around me
since being laid off 

Thursday, August 22, 2024

Blast Craters Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XCI: "Gaza's air"

smell of Gaza's air
the ravens blizzard
to blast craters


FYI: The noun, "blizzard," which originally means a severe snowstorm with "high winds and low visibility," is used to be an action verb. This practice of using a noun as a verb is called denominalization. For more examples, see To the Lighthouse: Denominalization

Friday, March 8, 2024

Build Back (Much) Worse

Game Show, 2024, XL
written on International Women's Day

white raven on the roof ...
the same old man and his staff
patch and stitch
and slap together pieces
of past promises

Israel kills
three mothers every hour!
drowned out
by rolling chants of Four More Years!
as the storm clouds gather



FYI: The white raven is the extremely rare leucistic bird. It's not albino, evidenced by its striking sky-blue eyes, and it's believed to be a symbol of bad luck. The last time it was spotted was around Anchorage on Oct. 24 2023

And Democracy Now, March 8: Palestinian Women Prisoners Share Accounts of Inhumane Treatment, Sexual Assault

U.N. experts are calling for a probe into reports of sexual assault, torture and killing of Palestinian women prisoners by Israeli forces. The Palestinian Prisoner Society says an estimated 240 Palestinian women have been detained since October 7. 


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXIX: "period products"
written for International Women's Day

a circle of teens
making period products 
out of scraps
of their makeshift tents ...
Gaza's night sky shades of red

FYI: Dust and small particles, trapped in the atmosphere by high pressure after the aerial bombing, turn the night sky shades of red/orange-red

And Haaretz, March 7: This Women's Day, Palestinian Women in Gaza Are Making Period Products Out of Tents

The Gazan women cutting off their hair in the face of a water crisis, surviving c-sections without anesthesia and fashioning period products from scraps are showing strength and ingenuity in impossible circumstances

According to the international non-governmental organization ActionAid, Gaza is now one of the most dangerous places for women, with seven killed every two hours. 

Monday, September 18, 2023

Raven Shadow Haiku

raven shadow
after raven shadow ...
blood-stained debris



FYI: This is the sequel to the following haiku:

collapse of mud houses ...
a girl closes her eyes at last
and the world ...disappears



Added:

a bomb crater ...
bits and pieces of clothing 
and patches of grass


FYI: This is the sequel to the following haiku:

spring counteroffensive ...
the buzzing sound 
of an old man's meat grinder



Added:

howl of the north wind ...
snow on snow on sunflowers
in a girl's drawing


FYI: This is the sequel to the following haiku:

bomb shelter wall
the girl draws a dove flying
to a field of sunflowers



Added:

aftermath ...
a girl's blood-smeared face 
in pixels

Friday, March 31, 2023

Happiest Day: Trump Indicted Tanka

written on my happiest day in 2023

in my mind's eye
the royal palm tree blooming
with ravens ...
an echo from afar reaches me
to the cry, Trump Indicted 


FYI: The royal palm is a large majestic palm that is native to south Florida where the Loser-in-Chief has showcased and hidden himself. And for more poems selected for this happiest day, see my "Special Feature" post, Poems Selected for the Happiest Day in 2023: Trump Indicted.


Added:

to those who wear oversized MAGA hats

striking his gravel
the Trump judge shouts, you're free to go ...
April Fools' dream


Added: for the "Woke/Radical Left" (a politically-charged phrase used by Trumpist Republicans, Trump-lites, Trump-wannabes)

Mar-a-Lago man
tossed from one jail to another ...
April Holy Fool's dream

FYI: The Holy Fool (Yuródivyy, chiefly radical Eastern Orthodoxy), often associated with gifts of prophecy and vision, publicly acts as if mad or foolish (for Christ) 


Added: a sur\realist tanka inspired by a Holy Fool's ghost

the con man walks 
down the golden escalator
at Trump Tower
slips through the White House's entrance 
lands himself in the jail of fools

Sunday, November 6, 2022

Raves and COP27 Haiku

No More Fairy Tales, I

raven shadow
after raven shadow ...
COP27


FYI: Pissed off by these empty talks at COP26, I decided to start a new, one-year writing project, titled No More Fairy Tales, to challenge these "talks and solutions" presented at COP27.

The Wall Street Journal: Nov.6 : "COP27 Summit Begins as Economy, Ukraine War ...Overshadow Climate Concerns:" Progress has stalled since last year’s U.N. gathering...

The latest news released one hour ago: The Guardian, Nov.6 : "Cop27 gets off to delayed start after tussle over agenda for talks:" Contentious opening to UN climate conference as delegates struggle to reach agreement on discussion of loss and damage.

Reuters, Nov. 7: "At COP27, climate change framed as battle for survival"

"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told delegates, urging them to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and speed funding to poorer countries struggling under climate impacts that have already occurred.

And ABC News In-Depth, Nov. 3: Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg says UN Climate Change Conference is a "scam"

The following senryu was inspired by Greta Thunberg's response to the "outcomes/solutions" of COP26

climate change debate
I swear I'll go net zero
on swearing

tsuri-dōrō ,10 , July/August 2022)

For my poetic responses to COP26, see my "Special Feature" post, "Haiku and Tanka Selected for the COP26 Summit)


Added: No More Fairy Tales, II

                                                                                              smoke                                      
                                      rising                                                  
                     c r o w s               and                                of 
              of                                         falling 
   murder                                                            plums 
a

Saturday, July 2, 2022

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Russian Withdrawal from Bucha

a row of houses
piled into rubble
smokey twilight

trees blackened 
by a cloud of ravens 
blood-stained doll 

a Ukrainian's stare ...
his shadow slips 
into a mass grave


FYI: Reuters, April 4: Biden urges Putin war crimes trial after Bucha killings

You saw what happened in Bucha... This warrants [Putin] - he is a war criminal...We have to gather the information. We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight. And we have to get all the detail so this can be an actual, have a war crimes trial.

Los Angeles Times, April 5:  Bucha isn't just a graveyard of Ukrainian dead, it's a cemetery of Russian weapons

... The people “were killed in apartments, houses, blown up by grenades,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations on Tuesday, adding that some in civilian cars “were crushed by tanks ... in the middle of the road. For fun.”

... As they gather up the dead, officials and the military are also engaged in another task: clearing up the many mines, piles of unexploded ordnance and other battle detritus left behind in Bucha and other formerly occupied towns. Signs warning, “Danger: Mines,” dot the area. Some buildings may be booby-trapped, the military warns.


Added:

Bombshell Words Hang in the Air

PutinPutin ...
a war veteran murmurs, 
in a time machine
togetherwearehurtling
into the glorious past

one sanction
after another, another ...
one pile of bodies
on top of another
in smoky twilight 

Saturday, January 9, 2021

Calls for Removal Tanka

the White House
enveloped in a cloud
of ravens
the calls for removal
grow more intense and louder


FYI: NBC News, Jan. 7: Over 200 lawmakers are calling for President Trump's removal. 

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Covidsomnia Tanka

One Hundred Sixty-Ninth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

for covidsomnia
this cold night offers me help
unsolicited:
a talking raven and the man
in the Oval Office

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Raven Haiku

distant sirens
a raven spreading
its shadow


Haiku Canada Review, 13:2, 2019