Three Cherita

I was excited to hear that Editor John Zheng announced a call for submissions to Haiku Page for a special issue featuring tanka and cherita. With so few publications showcasing cherita, I was eager to contribute. My heartfelt thanks to John for selecting three of my cherita for Issue 11, published at the end of September 2025. I’m honored to be among the 27 poets included in this issue.

fragrance of
a withered rose

even in death

something
beautiful
survives

Beauty and essence can outlast physical decay. The withered rose, though dead, retains its fragrance, symbolizing how intangible qualities—love, memory or impact—endure beyond life’s end. This cherita is a meditation on mortality and resilience, reminding that even in loss, something meaningful persists.

karma

returning
to source

the river becoming
a waterfall
becoming the river

Karma is a natural, cyclical process, like water flowing, transforming and returning to its essence. Actions ripple through existence, undergo moments of intense reckoning or change, and ultimately rejoin the broader stream of life, always connected to their source. The poem invites reflection on how our choices shape our journey, yet we remain part of an unending, interconnected flow.

sharing
ice cream

something strawberry
sprinkled
with

sweet nothings

The act of sprinkling, both literal sprinkles on ice cream or metaphorical sweet nothings, captures a fleeting shared moment of romantic connection without grand declarations. Love thrives in these kinds of small, layered moments where a simple dessert becomes a canvas for affection, and whispered words elevate the ordinary and ephemeral into something intimate and memorable.