Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Friday, August 15, 2014

A Book of Poetry Yet to Be Published, A Tanka Prose

A man shaped like a Henry Moore sculpture lies at the foot of the Toronto skyline. Red and black slashes cut the sky above him. A Meeting Place of Minds is printed in small letters at the top of the book. My Chinese signature scrawls across a water-stained map of Taiwan at the bottom.

the muse screams
but waves of nostalgia
are much louder ...
the blank page's stare
intimidating me



Note: The origin of the name "Toronto" comes from the Huron word toran-ten, which literally means meeting place.