evening prayer

one by one

stars appear

*Published in the August 2018 issue of Stardust Haiku

thunder rattles

each window pane

you ask

when I learned

to fight back

*Published in Stacking Stones: An Anthology of Short Tanka Sequences. The above is my contribution to a sequence titled "Becoming" in collaboration with Christina Sng, Jessica Malone Latham, Josie Hibbing, Mary Hohlman, and Susan Burch. 

mountaintop

all I hear

is your breath

*Published in A Sense of Place: Mountain - Hearing on The Haiku Foundation's website

fatherly advice

he tells me to read

Story of O

missing mom

I become

his wife

*Published in #FemkuMag Issue Three

frilly things

you always liked

the pink one

but I ask you

to take me

as I am

*

four years later

her ashes sit

in my closet

now covered

with the same dust

as her bones

*Published in not a memory, exactly (the cherita book 15)

I am happy to announce that I am a semifinalist in the March Art of Haiku contest sponsored by ITO EN North America. You can view my poem, along with the other semifinalists, here. Additionally, my poem was published in the Japanese newspaper, the Shukan NY Seikatsu, on 8/25/18.

wildfire

I take my truth

to the masses

*Published by Haikuniverse (www.haikuniverse.com) on 8/4/18

After my haibun, Far from Home, was published in Scryptic earlier this year, I received an interview request to discuss it along with life, art, and inspiration. Many thanks to Bekah and Shannon Steimel for this opportunity! You can read my interview here.

buried alive

another I’m sorry

for nothing

*Published in #FemkuMag Issue Two

I knew

it was the way

you said her name

the way flowers

discover sun

in spring

*Published in on a quiet street (the cherita book 14)

**Designated as a cherita lighthouse (editor’s choice)

Secrets I Used to Keep

Maybe it was the moonlight. Or the weed. But I knew it was my duty to tell her how beautiful she looked.

wildflowers

along the highway

a burst of life

*Published in Contemporary Haibun Online, vol 14 no 2

sunset chai

our voices

lower

*Selected haiku, NHK World Haiku Masters: June, 2018

Far from Home

It's a long drive to the art museum. An hour, minus rush hour, to be exact. So, I pass the time repeating some mantras that, according to all of these popular self-help books I read, will greatly benefit my mental health:

I am beautiful.

I am worthy.

I am safe.

Honestly, I am still waiting to see if they work, but in the meantime, I guess they can't hurt. 

self-love

I tell myself

what they don't

*Published in Issue 2.1 of Scryptic Magazine 

ripped daffodils

every time I couldn’t

say no

rising sun

I look in the mirror

and say I love you

*Published in #FemkuMag Issue One

Letting Go

My 2017 year-in-review bears an uncanny resemblance to my recently updated sock collection: all of the old and worn-out ones have been replaced with new and more comfortable ones, and I could not be happier with that decision.

New Year's Eve

some goodbyes

take a lifetime

*Published in Le Lumachine no. 28

in the end

mother stopped cleaning

her home and self

perhaps the flies

kept her company

when I couldn’t

*

imagine

a forest

that circles

back in

on itself

and us

*Published in now i listen (the cherita book 13)

crystal shop

for two hours

I sparkle

*Published in Akitsu Quarterly Summer 2018

One, Two...

My first time, I didn't know what to expect. A chorus of angels singing hallelujah, perhaps. Or maybe even a high-five from Jesus. Instead, I stared at the ceiling, counting cracks.

early spring

some flowers bloom

before others

*

Parallel Lines

In my entire adult life, I've never been single. Heck, I've never even lived alone. At the age of 18, I switched hands from one older man to another - perhaps a gentleman's agreement to take care of "the wild one." Maybe it's the cold rain. Or the colder grip of aging. But I wonder how many pieces of my identity I've lost over the years, scattered between drops of still-falling rain.

sunrise

I shift my gaze

to the west

*Published in Haibun Today, vol 12 no 2

Blackout

Two, tonight.

white pills

the snow falls

in me

*

Cut & Paste

Every once in a while, I forget I'm steering the ship that is my body.

into nothingness

the clouds

the clouds

*

Nocturne

Yet again, the arms of insomnia hold me awake.

darkness

but only if

you listen

*Published by The Other Bunny on 5/28/18

who's bold enough

to believe

in love or war?

I tell your lies

to the falling rain

*By Gabriel Bates and Tiffany Shaw-Diaz, respectively, and published in Vines #2

improving

my inner dialogue

icicles melt

under the touch

of high sun

*Published in Issue #123 of Hedgerow: a journal of small poems

long shadows

over ripened wheat

the way

you twisted my truth

when I was a child

snow returns

after days of warmth

I drift away

into a dream

that was never mine

*Published in Volume 1, A of Ephemerae

kiss of autumn

one tree

starts to blush

*Selected haiku, Seasons of Haiku Interpretive Trail at The Holden Arboretum

cherry petals...

between gusts of wind

forgiveness

*Selected haiku, NHK World Haiku Masters: May, 2018

sabbath

everyone else was attentive

during song and sermon

but I was too busy

drawing fantastical creatures

on donation slips

*Published in autumn deepens (the cherita book 12)