A loneliness business, and yet...

"Rage, rage against the birthing of this darkness of gaslit words..." I stop mid-sentence. The words harden on the screen. I let them sit while the night presses closer.

midnight moon

in snow-shrouded silence

the sound of keystrokes

I hit delete and take a deep breath. I remind myself that belief—not certainty, but something felt rather than known—starts a poem. I lean into the weight of this thought and push return.

paperwhite dawn

a robin's song in and out

of my writer's block

Contemporary Haibun Online 22:1, April 2026

To the Unknown

trapped alone

in the liminal space

between shifting present

and frozen past ...

I gaze up at departing geese

on my life journey

what might happen, what could be ...

this burden

of all the possibilities

as new snow falls on icy roads

Haiku Canada Review, 20:1, 2026

Time Haiku

Time stands still... 

I pirouette, pirouetting

in the first snowfall 

Haiku Canada Review, 20:1, 2026

Night Haiku

snowed in ...

I fold myself

into night

The Solitary Daisy, 67, 2026

Green Bill Haiku

March snowstorm

the prime minister drones on

through the Green Bill

Sense & Sensibility, March 2026

Winding Way Home Haiku

I sing to myself

along the winding way home 

snow thinning to sleet

5-7-5 Haiku Journal, November 9 2025

Another Snowstorm Tanka

another snowstorm …

in a world of one color

I watch passersby

each of us drifting

alone together

NeverEnding Story, March 22 2026

Added:

a brown leaf

on the frozen lake

slate-gray sky

Added: 

a gray-haired man

slumps against the alley wall

behind a tavern

clouds of his breath rise

and drift into the dark

Added:

red tip of a cigarett

between missile sirens --

darkness among stars

Added:

between sirens  

the moonlit alley holds  

a stray’s cry

Added:

in silence

I rehearse my script again

outside the job fair

daffodil heads peek out 

from a patch of snow

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXVIII

first "pop, pop, pop"  

then lies layered with cement ...

ICE on the beat

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXXXIX

to camera lights

the peanut-brained man vows, 

"I bend to no one ..."

lineups snake at the pumps

and at food banks too

Added: No More Fairy Tales, LI

It’s March Weather

Hawaii floods and Alabama snows. In the Northeast, temperatures flip-flop daily while the West Coast burns under a red-hot heatwave. With the TV on mute, I stare through the window at the twilight, grey as ash.

coal-soot haze rests

on scattered farmhouses

Four More Years askew

Grinding on ...

the wind moans

through snow-laden branches

shadows on their cheeks

white-haired Ukrainians peer

behind shelter windows

in the cold snap

a neon-lit billboard

above Kursk's mall:

men in work suits hold AKs

framed against tricolors

NeverEnding Story, February 24 2026

FYI: Kursk is a city in southwestern Russia near the Ukrainian border. For more about poems on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, see "Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on the Fourth Anniversary of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine"

And my tanka below could be read as its sequel:

the butcher

throwing more meat

into his grinder 

the wall-mounted TV blasts

war after war ...

Ribbons, 20:1, Winter 2024

Added:

Journey, Not Here and Now

Donbas teen's gaze

at a row of church spires ...

sunrise tinged gray

Behind him, the roofline sinks lower with each step, until only the cross atop the church shows above the trees. Ahead, the road bends where he cannot see.

what ifs …

beneath shadowed skies

the border pass

FYI: The vast majority of the Ukrainian region, the Donbas, is now occupied by Russia

Sound of White Smols

Arctic snap, sound of white

Smols, January 21, 2026

Note: For more about a haiku-inspired genre, see To the Lighthouse: Smols , A Haiku Inspired Form"

Added:

hands starfished 

against windows

flicker

Added:

roof icicle

dripping dawnlight

cascade 

Added:

chain-link

  life after 

MAGA Dream

Added:

White House entrance

         No Parking 

Blinking Cursor Tanka

to Thomas Mann who claimed, A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

coffee gone cold

as the cursor blinks

all night long

I stare out at snowflakes

that never settle

NeverEnding Story, January 30 2026

Added:

to Richard Bach who claims, A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. 

coffee ring on ring ...

I type five lines, five lines

then delete all

start again as robins sing

sing up the morning sun

FYI: Hot News: New Milestone, 3 M Pageviews and Call for Submissions

Every time a poem is written, every time a short story is written, it is written not by cunning, but by belief. The beauty, the something, the little charm of the thing to be, is more felt than known.

-- Robert Frost

Look forward to reading your poetry

Tel Aviv’s Sunset Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVII:  "Israelis leaving in record numbers"

I turn, turning back 

to see Tel Aviv’s sunset

for the last time ... 

this new neighbor’s words fade

in Toronto's snowfall

NeverEnding Story, January 14 2026

FYI: +972 Magazine, January 7 2026: Why Israelis are leaving in record numbers

Over 150,000 citizens have left the country in the past two years alone — many of them with a one-way ticket and no plans of returning.

And this tanka is a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXI: "beach party and booms"

written in response to The New Yorker, July 28, 2025: Israel’s Zones of Denial

Tel Aviv's beach party

the faint boom, boom, boom

from Gaza

NeverEnding Story, July 30 2025

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVIII: "incarceration crisis"

hands starfished

against detention windows --

candlelights swell

FYI: Haaretz, January 14 2026: Mass Arrests With Nowhere to Hold Them: Overcrowding Deepens Israel's Incarceration Crisis

A growing number of Palestinians suspected of illegal entry are being held in police custody in overcrowded cells, even told to 'defecate on each other.'

And this is a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLI: "Sde Teiman"

crimson twilight

at the edge of Sde Teiman 

a scream snaps in two

NeverEnding, November 15 2025 

FYI: +972 Magazine, Independent Journalism from Israel-Palestine, NewsLetter, Nov. 18, 2025: Torture, neglect, and starvation: new data reveals 98 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXIX: "smoky moon"

from charred trees

to ruins of empty houses

smoky moon over Gaza

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXX: "the yellow line"

a ponytailed girl

holds her brother’s hand

to search for firewood ...

"pop, pop" near the yellow line

take out the hidden threat

FYI: Haaretz, Jan. 15 2026: Three Months Into Gaza Cease-fire: Israel Expands Control and Razes Neighborhoods

Added:

still-born birthday

the sparkling window frost

in her nursery

Added:

for "Heated Rivalry" stars Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander

hockey stars

fight each other on the ice 

then burn red-hot 

elsewhere -- eyes after eyes

glued to the screen, sparkling

Old and New, New ... Then Old ?

home alone

I listen to the snowlight

from last year

another new year

I meet the stranger’s gaze

in the mirror

the same resolution

with a different weight

first sunrise tinged gray

New Year’s fireworks …

the room quiet before

quieter after

NeverEnding Story, December 31 2025

Christmas Snow Haiku

Christmas snow on snow ...

roasted meats, stuffing, mince pies

few words in between

Snowfall and Starlight: A Christmas Haiku Anthology, 2025

Christmas Morning Haiku

this Christmas morning

how small my world without you ...

snow on the skylight

Snowfall and Starlight: A Christmas Haiku Anthology, 2025

Breadline Haiku

the breadline lengthens

new snow on bare branches

on shoulders, too

NeverEnding Story, November 26 2025

Added: 

a row of tents

snow slipping off bare branches

clings to faces

Added:

dust to dust ...

the priest's shadow lengthens

into the grave

Added:

my eardrums

stabbed by my son's rock and roll --

this wall between us

Snowlight Haiku

sound-bathing 

in snowlight ...

this stillness

Selected Haiku, 17th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest, 2025

Trump-Raged World Tanka

Trump Empire, Inc, LXII:

alone, putting

the Trump-raged world on mute

I take a sip

of morning black coffee

and listen to the snowfall

NeverEnding Story, November 19 2025

FYI: This is a sequel to the following poem:

One Year On

A notice pinned to the community library’s message board: The Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Section has been moved to Current Affairs.

Apocalypse Now

spine bent, margins yellowed …

on its last page

Trump 2028

inked in a shaking hand

NeverEnding Story, November 2 2025

(FYI: The Independent, Nov. 5 2025: Eric Trump doesn’t rule out dad running for president again in 2028

President’s son also hints he would consider mounting a campaign himself ‘if there was no other choice and it got so bad that you had to do it’)

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLIII: "'ceasefire' strikes"

heavenward

                    rising

fireballs

               fireballs

                              falling

heavenward

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

War Is Peace

pyramid

after pyramid of rubble ...

again "ceasefire" strikes

fireball by fireball ...

the length

of a Gazan night

smoky twilight

a cry sinks into the sound

of a gunshot

skeletal houses

these layers of silence

upon silence

The New Verse News, November 9 2025

Chen-ou Liu

Haaretz, Nov. 19 2025: Israeli Strikes Across Gaza Kill 28, Including Women and Children, Officials Say

Socialist Project, Oct. 28, 2025: The Illusion of a Ceasefire: Gaza Still Under Continuous Genocide

Despite the announcement of a deal between the Palestinian resistance movement and the Israeli regime, the latter continues to violate the ceasefire provisions. The world treats the ceasefire as if the genocide has ended, but the reality on the ground tells a different story: Gaza is in ruins; and starvation, displacement, and death continue as deliberate tools of genocide. This so-called ceasefire exists only in rhetoric; genocide continues while diplomatic actors debate who allegedly broke the deal.

And Haaretz, Nov. 20, 2025: Palestinian sources described Israel's border shifts and attacks as a 'measured experiment' to expand control and test Gaza residents and mediators, warning that even small changes could trigger mass displacement and erode trust in the fragile cease-fire

Added:

my drunken voice

fading further

into the hush of night

I wait, as ever

with Loneliness

Added:

childhood river's edge

a gray-haired man 

jumps into himself

Added:

a garbage bag

tangled in maple branches

autumn deepens

Added:

shout after shout

go back where you came from

yellow leaves drifting

Winding Way Home Haiku

I sing to myself

along the winding way home 

snow thinning to sleet

5-7-5 Haiku Journal, Nov. 9 2025

A Night, Forever?

show me yours

you first, no, you first ...

wrapped in moonlight

you and I, teen explorers

undress each other mentally

three words uttered ...

our bodies listening

to moonlight

as the summer grass bed

holds the shape of our night

Drifting, drifting in and out of my dream. 

My first love, now merely a number I can reach, and a door I can knock.

The Pan Haiku Review, 5, 2025

Happily (N)ever After

balcony sunset

a table for one with sky

in my glass

I want to treat myself to a nice dinner after hanging up on my mother an hour ago. However, her parting words, "you'll regret staying single with no children for the rest of your life," float in the air like specks of dust catching the neon lights cast from New Heaven Restaurant's sign. These words now sit like rocks in my knotted stomach. I've heard them often since my divorce.

Most people around me still measure worth, success, and happiness in terms of wedding rings and strollers. "Oh, this weight of a good marriage with happy children," I murmur to myself. I notice that I'm playing with the phantom ring on my finger.

As I wait for my dessert, I look around and spot only two other tables-for-one in this crowded, trendy restaurant. I order another glass of wine to drown out the noisy voice from my inner demon. Feeling a little tipsy, I pay and walk the long way home to clear my mind, then I take a shower and go to bed even earlier than usual.

Drifting in and out of my dream,  I see something bright and soft swirling in a world of one color.

footprints in new snow

on the road to the church ...

muffled sound of bells

Drifting Sands, 32, 2025