Year: 2026

08-29-26 A New Haiku for a New Day

Photo Credit: Farah Almazouni

After all of these years,
It feels like you are still right
Here by my side

Context (if you’re interested):

This is based on the Chinese song, “Night in Ulaanbaatar”, a song about missing one’s love while traveling only to feel their shadow around them.

08-28-26 A New Haiku for a New Day

Photo Credit: Rohit Farmer

To a toddler,
Everything is a castle, a knight, or dragon
That they clasp with their hands,
These same hands that now
Type in this keyboard

Context (if you’re interested):

This one is about how our childhood curiosity often transitions into adulthood sense of responsible work. Never loose your creativity. Is what this narrator does on the computer less creative now then playing as a toddler? Work on the computer can be really creative or not. I left it ambiguous to think through what we do with our time as adults and how to foster a sense of play and creativity.

08-27-26 A New Haiku for a New Day

Photo Credit: Mark Hendriks

Sitting in the heat
Still sweating though the sun set
Waiting for the start

Context (if you’re interested):

The weather was simmering in August in Central China. Normally, I could look forward to the temperature and humidity dropping once the sunset. That evening, neither would.

08/26/26 A New Haiku for a New Day

Photo Credit: Khanh Nguyen

Eating some hot soup,
Hot milk, hot water. Why’s
The food so hot here?

Context (if you’re interested):

I was in China when I wrote this, and a restaurant had just served me boiling hot soup. I don’t mean spicy; I mean the temperature of the soup was hot. It took 10 to 20 minutes to cool off enough for me to feel comfortable eating. This is a culture difference, though: in China, people often eat food whose temperature is hotter than what I am used to. Just my personal experience that day.