Death of a Poet: A Gogyohka Sequence

he leaps away
from the gaze of silence
over the edge of a cliff
and into a place
that less fleshy

lonely, I
turn on the TV and see
a depressed poet
jump off a cliff
I start writing poetry

Death lurks
about the room
taunting
how can I stop him
from editing my poem

days slip by
minute by minute
hour after hour
a poem is born
time withers

measuring
the weight and length
of death
I count my poems
written and read

anthologized in The Journey and short-listed in 2010 National Poetry Contest held by Polar Expressions Publishing

Tomorrow, When Will You Appear?: A Tanka Sequence

Chinese Original:

明日幾時有？

沈默堅立
如同岩石
我渴望妳…
太陽已西下
我的影子佇立不動

在落日光輝中
我和我的影子
是同伴：
我夢想他的生活
他渴望我的心跳

舉起
你常用的酒杯
我邀請明月
她，我的影子
和我三人成為好友

English Translation:

Tomorrow, When Will You Appear?

as silent and firm
as the rocks
I pine for you ...
the sun sets
but not my shadow

in the glow
of sunset, the shadow and I
are companions:
I dream of his life
he longs for my heartbeat

raising the wine cup
you used to drink
I entice the moon
for her, with my shadow
will make a party of three

Atlas Poetica, #7 (Special Focus on Tanka in Translation)

Dark Nights Give Me Black Eyes: A Tanka Sequence

Chinese Original:

黑夜給了我黑色的眼睛

夏日酷熱
藉由我影子的雙眼
我觀看世界
遮掩雙耳
我的視力變得銳利

滾開！
影子命令我
像后稷一樣
我拿起弓
射下這酷日

在過去的凝視下
我的影子和我
是孿生兄弟：
我夢盡我的生命
而他仍保有心跳

English Translation:

Dark Nights Give Me Black Eyes

summer heat
I see through the eyes
of my shadow
ears folded
my vision sharper, more focused

move!
the shadow commands me
like Ho Yi
I take the bow
to shoot down the blazing sun

under the gaze
of the past, my shadow and I
are twins:
I dream away my life
while his heart still beats

Originally accepted for publication in Atlas Poetica, #7 (Special Focus on Tanka in Translation); forthcoming in Broken/Breaking English: Selected Poems of Chen-ou Liu

(Note: Ho Yi, a legendary Chinese hero, comes to earth to shoot down nine of the ten suns that are burning up the earth at the same time)

Moon Tanka

Taiwan mooncake
hangs low in the autumn sky
mother and I
stand on Pacific coasts…
who first has a bite?

A Handful of Stones (Nov., 17, 2010)

Snow Haiku

public parking lot:
every space is taken
by snowflakes

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Snow Haiku

the way home:
I tell the secret
to falling snow

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Snow Haiku

snowflakes!
pieces of the day
drift away

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Relationship Senryu

a six foot man
curled up in a ball --
her three words

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

A Haiku about War and Peace

war cemetery
a dove lights on the stone
angel's wing

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Plum Haiku

plum petals fall
each
a piece of me

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

A Haiku about Writing

ceiling fan
my thoughts scatter
around a haiku

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Winter Haiku

pillowed
on my unpublished poems…
winter stars

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Autumn Haiku

autumn sun
her shadow darkens
their son's grave

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Christmas Haiku

snowflakes fall
into the donation jar --
Christmas Eve

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Her Moon Face: A Haiku Sequence

you are not
open to me, she yells
low spring tide

a firefly
in and out of my shadow
last summer dusk

mid-autumn moon
waiting to see her
in the dream

the winter moon
thinned to a thread
memory of her

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Dream Gogyohka

awake
I dream of being a butterfly
does he dream of me…
who cares
in the world of red dust?

(Note: Red dust is a Buddhist set-phrase for the world and its passions)

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

A Gogyohka about Writing

I scoop
the moon from a river
of words
that runs through
the bottom of my heart

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Solitude Gogyohka

I gaze
from the height
of my study
gauging the world
by the size of solitude

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

A Gogyohka about Writing

a poem (mourning)

the silent death of a poet:
the old self
is nailed down on paper
and read at least by one

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Love Gogyohka

lying
on the white sand
I feel
its moisture
my first love angst

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

A Gogyohka about Longing

the sea
inside my heart
surges every night
churning up the waves
only to recede at daybreak

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Sadness Gogyohka

a white carpet
of sand
drinks my tears
as I walk back and forth
along the shore

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Snow Haiku

blizzard
one footstep follows
another

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Snow Haiku

first snowflakes...
a letter from Taiwan
arrives

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Snow Haiku

snow flurries scatter...
Hundred Thousand Whys
on the radio

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Snow Haiku

first snow...
I stand by the window
until dusk

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook

Snow Haiku

an African man
holds out his hands…
snowflakes

Nov./Dec. 2010 "first snow" Haiku Thread of Sketchbook (Editor's Choice Haiku)

Sea Gogyohka

sea birds
grace
sky and sea
that boundless expanse of blue
into which I dive

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Moon Gogyohka

I pawn
Drink Alone by Moonlight
at a river tavern
gazing at the moon
pondering if Li Po is mad at me

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Nature Gogyohka

as always
the river rapids
lure away
both blossoms and leaves
yet cobbles lay still

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Autumn Gogyohka

the gusts
of the autumn wind
chill
the teardrops of dew
that are mine

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Morning Dewdrops and Autumn Wind Tanka

morning dewdrops
scatter
on the autumn wind
as do my tears
unlike causes yet the same fate

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Relationship Gogyohka

spring blossoms
with rainbow colors
now frost-withered
to one hue
your flower heart

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Snow Gogyohka

December’s snow
smothers the earth
you bury me
under drifts
of cold looks

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

A Four Act Passion Play: A Gogyohka Sequence

devotedly
I pray
yet He listens
absently
a four-decade old story

my heart
is a sponge
sopping up the tears
with which I wash
my prayers

I cleanse my heart
in prayers
before Him
whom my mind has doubted
seventy-seven times

no more waiting
for Him who is hidden
I hang
on the cross within me...
a faint echo, it’s finished

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Solitude Tanka

English Original:

I close
the valves of my heart
to the world of red dust
solitude and I
are now of the same race

Japanese Translation by Hidenori Hiruta

塵の世に心臓弁を我閉じる孤独と我は今同種なり

(Note: Red dust is a Buddhist set-phrase for the world and its passions)

Akita International Haiku Network (Oct. 30, 2010)

Loneliness Tanka

English Original:

living alone
in a world of one color
loneliness
devours each hour
then neglects the rest

Japanese Translation by Hidenori Hiruta

一色の世界にひとり住んでいる孤独時飲み他を無視すなり

Akita International Haiku Network (Oct. 30, 2010)

Cherry Blossom Haiku

cherry petals
falling on cherry petals . . .
I dust her photo

Sakura Award, 2010 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational

Cherry Blossom Haiku

cherry blossoms
the moon and I face
each other

Honorable Mention, 2010 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational

A Glint of Light on Broken Glass: A Zuihitsu

crescent moon
reclining on clouds
the maple stands alone

Raising my cup, I entice the moon; her reflection of you and me make us three. Bathed in moonlight, I wash in each scent you left behind. Baptized in them, I become born-again, a poet speaking in tongues.

faint mist, gloomy clouds
sorrow surrounds the day
who can take a poem
beyond the Pacific
a calligraphy of geese
flies against the sky

Snowflakes seed the sky in silence. The loneliness gnawing at the corner of my heart grows louder.

I go out the window.

September/October 2010 issue of Sketchbook

Mirror Tanka

English Original:

gazing
in the mirror
a stranger
stares back at me
a man with no eyes

Japanese Translation by Hidenori Hiruta

鏡見る見知らぬ人が見返して我を見つめる目のない男

Akita International Haiku Network (Oct. 30, 2010)

Immigration Tanka

English Original:

my days
aren’t graphed in ideograms
but lined up
like the English alphabet –
Chinese in the promised land

Japanese Translation by Hidenori Hiruta

我が日々は表意文字では示されぬ英文字のごと中国語なら

Akita International Haiku Network (Oct. 30, 2010)

Moon Haiku

to tell or not to tell the secret day moon

Frogpond, Vol. 33:3

Butterfly Haiku

from one dream
to another…
butterfly

Modern Haiku, 41:3