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

Child Refugee Haiku

cherry blossoms

hand

her

out

stretching

refugee

a child

Haiku Avenue, 7, 2025

Borderless Sky

barbed wire fence

in the eyes of a refugee

borderless sky

seashores, 14, 2025

Refugee Girl Haiku

first snowflakes ...

a lone refugee girl

pirouetting

Cold Moon Journal, March 3, 2025

Refugee Child's Gaze Haiku

cold moon

in the web of barbed wire

a refugee child's gaze

Cold Moon Journal, March 3, 2025

Rainbow Refugees Haiku

written in response to CBC News, June 29: 

Rainbow refugees increasingly look to Canada for safety: Requests for assistance climbing as members of 2SLGBTQ+ community displaced in crackdowns around the world

rainbow refugees

these diverse dialects

of silence

NeverEnding Story, June 30 2024

FYI: For more about LGBTQIA+, see Special Feature: Selected Poems for the Pride Parade and Gender Identity Reflection

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXV: "breaking Gaza news"

on Canada Day, written in response to Toronto Star, June 30: Thousands sing, dance and celebrate at Pride Parade until protesters strand marchers and floats mid-route

Floats and marchers making their way south toward the parade’s finish at Nathan Phillips Square were stranded behind the protesters, who chanted “Free Palestine” and “Pride is a protest.”

breaking Gaza news ...

I look out the window

as round after round

of fireworks rocket into

the First of July sky

Added: Game Show, 2024, LVIII

written in response to the least LGBTQIA-friendly Supreme Court of the United State's immunity ruling on July 1:

a King

above the Law ...

a veteran

murmurs, immune, immune...

in the gathering dark

FYI: Democracy Now, July 2: “A King Above the Law”: Supreme Court Rules Presidents Have Broad Immunity from Prosecution

In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, quote, “The nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts,” he said.

In a scathing dissent on behalf of the minority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned the ruling would make the president above the law. She wrote, quote, “The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.” Sotomayor went on to write, “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” she wrote.

Child Refugee Haiku

written on World Refugee Day

a child refugee rides

on his father's shoulders ...

rainbow bubbles

NeverEnding Story, June 20 2024

FYI: 

"One out of every 69 people on Earth is now displaced.

That is about 120 million people, or 1.5 percent of the world's population, who have been uprooted from their homes...

To raise awareness about the situation of refugees worldwide, the UN designated June 20 each year as World Refugee Day" (Al Jazeera, June 20: The faces behind the numbers)

For more about World Refugee Day, see Special Feature: "Selected Poems for Refections on World Refugee Day"

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXX: "Rafah's skies"

written in response to Issa's "good world" haiku:

rolling off

the tip of a blade of grass

dewdrop

after dewdrop

from Rafah's skies

FYI: Issa's good world haiku below is quoted as the first stanza of "Reading the Japanese Poet Issa (1762–1826)," a free verse poem functioning like a poetic commentary, where three of Issa's haiku are included, written by Polish-American poet and 1980 Nobel Prize winner Czesław Miłosz, whose view of haiku is: Haiku is extra-literary.

A good world --

dew drops fall

by ones, by twos

Issa

Refugee Shelter Tanka

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XVII

the entrance

of a closed refugee shelter

darkening ...

an African man and a stray

share a box of French fries

NeverEnding Story, January 15 2024

FYI: CityNews, Dec. 22, 2023: Coalition of community leaders demand action, funding for [mainly African] refugees and asylum seekers, in Toronto

A coalition of community leaders is urging the federal government to take immediate action to address what they describe as a crisis on Toronto streets. Funding is desperately needed to shelter the growing number of refugees and frontline workers say the federal government has left them stranded in the bitter cold.

Thousands of African refugees have taken shelter in the basements of churches and inside a strip mall since the summer as religious organizations voluntarily took them in without government support. Many of those organizations are now tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

Added: Game Show 2024, XXXII

beach diner's TV

blasting Donald Trump's win ...

a rogue wave slams ashore

FYI: FYI: Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships and isolated structures such as lighthouses." 

Added: Game Show 2024, XXXIII

written in response to CBS News, Jan. 16: Trump wins 98 of 99 Iowa counties, CBS News projects

pundits claim

Trump can be President from jail

if he has to ...

in my trance the royal palm

crowned with winter crows

FYI: "The royal palm is a large majestic palm that is native to south Florida . And crows are highly social during winter, gathering in large flocks that sometimes number thousands."

Added:

I do, I do

over a video call ...

the bright world

in the eyes of the masked bride

holding a paper bouquet

FYI: ABC News, Jan. 10: Why are 1,500 Americans still dying from COVID every week?

Experts said there are several reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including not enough people accessing treatments or getting vaccinated as well as waning immunity.

As of Jan. 5, just 19.4% of adults aged 18 and older and 8% of children have received the updated COVID vaccine, CDC data shows.

And CNN, Jan. 14: Health experts sound alarm over JN.1 Covid variant

Michael Holmes speaks with cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, Eric Topol about the high levels of coronavirus across the U.S.

Paper Plane and Sky of Dreams Tanka

rows of tents

behind chain-link fencing 

and razor wire--

the boy flies a paper plane 

into his sky of dreams 

Take 5ive, Plight of Refugees, 2023

AllahGodJesus Tanka

a roar

of the moonlit surf 

men and women

in an inflatable boat

crying, AllahGodJesus ...

Take 5ive, Plight of Refugees, 2023

Border River Tanka

the cries 

of wild geese north bound...

on both sides

of this winding border river

men and women with backpacks

Take 5ive, Plight of Refugees, 2023

Rocky Shore Haiku

rocky shore 

a child refugee's eyes

hold the stars

Wales Haiku, Spring 2022

First Frost Moon Haiku

first frost moon

between border fence posts

those young faces

Plum Tree Tavern's Autumn Moon Special Edition, Nov. 20 2022

AllahGodJesus Tanka

reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XVII

a roar

of the moonlit surf 

men straddle

the side of a dinghy

crying, AllahGodJesus ...

NeverEnding Story, July 7 2022

Added: This Brave New World, XLIX

Edward Williams Clay's ghost whispered the following tanka into my ear last night

one scandal

after another, another ...

an Eton boy 

counting the last days

as rats flee 10 Downing Street

FYI: The joshi (prefatory note) alludes to the most famous 19th-century caricature of President Andrew Jackson whose cabinet was broken up in 1831, "The Rats Leaving a Falling [White] House," (with a detailed historical intro.to this presidential scandal), National Museum of American History.

And The New Yorker, July 7: How Boris Johnson’s Government Finally Collapsed: In twenty-four hours, more than three dozen ministers and aides deserted the Prime Minister. On July 7th, he announced his plan to resign. 

I tell you that the prime minister will not go early—because it is simply not in his nature. It is a wonderful and necessary fact of political biology that we never know when our time is up,” Johnson wrote, in 2006, about Tony Blair. “We kid ourselves that we must stay because we would be ‘letting people down’ or that there is a ‘job to be finished.’ In reality, we are just terrified of the comedown.”

Added:

hundreds-meter-long

rusty fence between two sides

of a churchyard

black and white Christian graves

under the Texan sun

Added: This Brave New World, L

phalanx upon phalanx

of Canadians chanting

FuckRogersRogersSucks 

FYI: CBC, July 8: Nationwide Rogers [No 1 telecom company] outage impacting internet, cellphones and debit payments [for more than one day without any explanation at the time of my writing].... 

Canada, with its national telecommunications controlled by the "Big Three," has some of the most expensive internet prices in the world. Now, two of the most in/famous Canadian Tweeter accounts, @fuckrogers and @rogerssucks, are tweeting the stories about the most miserable/depressing day of the year.

And CBC, July 8: Rogers outage shows need for Plan B when wireless, internet services fail, analysts say

It's the second major Rogers disruption in about 14 months. The company admitted to its 11 million wireless subscribers: "Today we have let you down."

Child Refugee Haiku

the shadow

of a skein of geese ...

child refugee

The Zen Space, Spring 2022

Refugee Camp Haiku

wisps of snow

break the silence
refugee camp

Croatian Translation

čuperci snijega

prekinuli tišinu

u kampu migranata

Iris, 7, 2021

Bomb Crafter and Makeshift Tents

a bomb crater

where makeshift tents once stood ...
the snow moon

The Bamboo Hut, 1, 2021

Syrian Child Refugee Tanka

the dervish

of first snowflakes…

a Syrian

child refugee talking

to the foreign sky

Runner-Up, 2019 British Haiku Society Awards

Judge's Commentary: This is a well-crafted tanka that begins with snow falling, identifying who sees it, where and their reaction to it. The use of “dervish” refers to the meditative movements of disciples of Sufism. The snow is moving and so is the child, a Syrian refugee in a new land. One wonders what the child makes of all this.

Note: The tanka could be read as a sequel to my poem below:

A Home Away From Home

where the sky

meets the winter desert ...

refugee tents

Arzu walks out of the tent to meet her friends, waiting in line with hundreds of others for water distribution. A wisp of cloud drifts by. It reminds her of the camp teacher's departing words, "Those puffy, sheep-like clouds you're looking at come from Syria. You will all return home one day, I promise."

Honorable Mention, 2015 United Haiku and Tanka Society Samurai Haibun Contest

Judge's Commentary: Amidst unceasing news of overwhelming number of people fleeing the conflict-torn regions in the Middle East, Chen-ou Liu’s Honorable Mention haibun is both timely and compassionate in his presentation of a young girl’s plight. The poet’s imagery of a ‘wisp of cloud’ is laden with significance. It evokes poignantly the fragility of Arzu’s hope for a safe return to her native land and also works as a ‘beacon’ of light in the otherwise drab and desperate tents-filled camp. What I find particularly powerful is how Chen-ou turns on its head, the largely negative media representations of how refugees threaten the civilizations of the host countries in which they seek asylum. There is quiet dignity in both Arzu and her teacher who holds out the promise of a return to their homeland.

Selected Haiku: Child Refugee Haiku

child refugee
a handful
of winter sunlight

The Heron's Nest, 19:1, March 2017

Selected Tanka Prose: Routine Crises

I key in the headline Dozens dead after boat capsizes. Phones ring, and laptops chatter with stories from around the world. Adrenaline pumps through my body like a tidal wave.

fading tracks

on an Aegean shore

at twilight

which of them belong to those

who drowned in cold water

I glance at the oversized clock on the rear wall of the newsroom. Its hands march closer and closer toward the deadline. And the refugee story waits to be replaced ... with the latest news from the front lines of yet another war-torn country.

Haibun Today, 11:1, March 2017