Window Frost Haiku

alone again scrawled

on the neighbour’s window frost —

last rays of sunset

Haiku Avenue, 10, 2026 

All-Night Laundromat Gembun

Distant blue flashes ripple on wet asphalt—a low echo.

half-asleep, alone

yet not alone enough

all-night laundromat

NeverEnding Story, September 28 2026

Added:

On a cul-de-sac, a detached house with gardens in front and back.

pension, high-tech stocks ...

the first day of retirement

under a gray sky

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

first day

after retirement

the brush

is dipped deeper

in Chinese ink

Tanka Honorable Mention, 2016 San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu, Tanka

Added:

my wife's tears ...

I peel the onion 

one layer at a time

Added:

The kitchen refrigerator hums a low drone.

slanted moonlight

on my wife's post-it note:

I need more space

Added:

eviction notice

a stack of poetry books

overdue

Added:

autumn garden

one sunflower leaning

against the fence

Snow Haiku

snowonsnowonolddog  andme

a    l        o    ne          together

Haiku Avenue, 10, 2026

Fenceside Chitchat Haiku

fenceside chitchat

the drone

of bumblebees

The Mainichi, June 22, 2026

First Summer Since She's Gone

Moths batter the porch’s yellow bulb, a dry, restless tapping against the casing. Below, a glass of melting ice sweats into the wicker table.

The humidity lies over us like a heavy blanket, but the old beagle and I can't kick it off.

a hazy crescent

the rhythm of crickets

stitching our silence

Cornflower, 1, 2026

Icicles Tanka

moonlight

dripping from icicles

in pulses

this silence echoes

weeks without you

Tanka Award Winner, Time Haiku, 64, 2026

FYI: The prize is £40 ($USD 54)😍

Moonlit Kiss Haiku

our moonlit kiss ...

that first time years ago

and the last

NeverEnding Story, September 10 2026

Added:

sultry night

a couple knee-deep

in stars

Added:

jasmine breeze

tonight smells of her

gone for years

Added:

moving day

the backyard swing 

slows to a stop

Added:

summer's end

the blue morpho

under a pin

Added:

sky tinged smoky gray

alone, I drive slowly past

what's left

FYI: This could be read as a sequel to the following:

cliff edge —

a burning sky

behind us

Honourable Mention, IHS International Haiku Competition 2022

Marion Clarke 

Late Wife Haiku

half-sleep again …

seeing my late wife turn back

not turn back

Haikuniverse, June 18 2026

Cyclic Pursuit of Love

I scroll through one dating app after another, and another.

snow on snow

our pot of tea steeps dark

and bitter

Beeps flurry. Messages stack up. Faces blur. I scroll until my thumb aches. The night thins out into small screens.

awake, facing

the empty side of my bed

sunrise tinged gray

A vee of geese unzips the morning sky. I reach for my phone.

haikuKATHA, 55, 2026

Reflection Haiku

Chen-ou or Eric ...

my reflection in the eyes

of a white colleague

NeverEnding Story, August 28, 2026

FYI: This haiku is written in response to the following:

spring mud

the hyphen

before American

Frogpond, 44:2, Summer/Spring 2021

Fay Aoyagi

And my haiku blow could be read as a sequel:

Pacific waves

Chen-ou Eric two names meet

and part here not here

NeverEnding Story, June 10 2024

Pulses Tanka

moonlight

dripping from icicles

in pulses

this silence echoes

weeks without you

Time Haiku, 65, 2026

Human, All Too Human

heated breaths

and tangled bedsheets

bodies and dreams . . .

the bittersweet burden

of this love affair

 

to Kintsugi Master

I lament, with gold glue

could you piece back

my shattered heart?

a cloak of silence falls

 

chance encounter

at a motel ice machine . . .

with eyes and hands

we undress each other’s armor

curling into a single dream

Ribbons, 22:1, 2026

Gliding Kayaks Tanka

gliding kayaks ...

ripple after ripple

overlapping

summer stars that bridge

what words never could

NeverEnding Story, July 30 2026

Added:

the time it takes

for my aging beagle

to close his eyes—

crumbled dog-treat pieces

left in my jean pocket

FYI: My tanka below could be read as its sequel:

my neighbor’s dog

hit by a red sports car ...

after our walk

she tells me she  sees

his shape in the clouds

Bright Stars, VI, 2014

Added:

one tide cycle

after another and another

across the Pacific 

pulling out, returning anew ...

my heart still on the other shore

Added:

to stay or to go

I murmur to myself

again and again 

through the autumn wind 

each leaf zigzags its way down

Added:

all things must pass,

the seasons teach me this —

yet I still press

my face into her lingerie

forgotten in the basket

All the Feelings Tanka

(FYI: The following is the first installment of Realm of Contagious Stupidity, an ongoing series of contemporary, satirical kyōka examining modern culture and politics.

Realm of Contagious Stupidity, I

In response to Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Against stupidity we are defenseless."

at the gallery

a plane mirror with a sign:

the DUMBEST --

no one stands before it

except a Trump lookalike

FYI: The Guardian, Oct. 2 2025: A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0

If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might there be a way out?)

I was told

to hide all the feelings

once grown --

carrying this silver casket

I shed tears for her, and me

NeverEnding Story, July 24 2026

FYI: This could be read as a sequel to my tanka below:

with each sob

his body convulses …

in the hospital

for the first time

I embrace a man

Ribbons, 7:4, Winter 2011

Added:

my brain humming 

with scraps of Sappho  

while Eros stirs ...

"I'll be a poet," I confess

to my river reflection

Added: This Brave New World, CXXVIII

another lineup

round the block near a foodbank

wall-mounted TV

blasting "sunlight on demand"

"orbiting data centers"

FYI: The Tyee, July 23 2026: 

Reflect Orbital's giant mirror to create “sunlight on demand” was just approved by the United States Federal Communications Commission, or FCC,

In February, SpaceX filed with the FCC for one million more satellites, for “AI data centers.”

Added:

dust motes  

in slanted moonlight—  

I settle  

into what remains

after bankruptcy

Surging Pacific Haiku

Yellowing Memories, IX

surging Pacific ...

on its other shore mom waved

I wave back in dreams

NeverEnding Story, July 21 2026

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

wind-torn clouds

the surging winter ocean

between mom and me

Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2024/25

And This could be read as a sequel to my tanka prose below:

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

Caterpillar Cloud Haiku

caterpillar cloud ...

my autistic son’s eyes speak

a thousand words

Haiku Canada Review, 20:1, 2026

Higher Fence Senryu

two feet higher fence

new neighbor's bulldog eyeing

my beagle below

5-7-5 Haiku Journal,  February 10, 2026

Lovers' Quarrel Haiku

lovers' quarrel  

in the summer twilight  

knotted branches sway

NeverEnding Story July 6 2026

FYI: This could be read as a sequel/counter-poem to my haiku below:

dappled trail 

a summer breeze humming

our sweet nothings 

NeverEnding Story, June 28 2025

Added:

summer stars 

tangled in my love's hair: 

skinny-dipping 

Added:

starry midnight ...

summer rain

into the silence

Added:

rippling sunset

the far-off sound

of a fishing boat

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

summer dusk

fishing boats set their nets

around the sun

First Place, Fifth Setouchi Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest

Marietta Jane McGregor

Added:

late afternoon light

the snarl 

of lawn mowers

Added:

monsoon rain

my toddler wanders

from room to room

Absence Tanka

moonlit icicles

dripping from the eaves ...

another night

alone with my drunken self

haunted by her absence

Take 5ive, 2026

The World without Father Tanka

written for my late father:

alone again

on this winding road home

in slanted moonlight

I try to imagine my place

in the world without Father

NeverEnding Story, June 21 2026

FYI: This is a sequel to my tanka below:

Father's breath

fades into forever ...

I gaze out 

his hospice window

at the moon, its fullness

Haiku Page, 11, 2025

reprinted in Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, February 12 2026