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

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Little House on the Prairie

I stand alone
under the prairie sky
chewing on thoughts

ripple after ripple
of grass shadows
the scent of spring

tall grasses
bend to the moon's faint light
wending my way home

NeverEnding Story, Feb. 14, 2014

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

English Wordmines Tanka

like a coolie
laboring in English wordmines
for seven years...
the scars in his mind
the hole in his heart

for 劉鎮歐 who has lost his Chinese soul

NeverEnding Story, Feb. 5, 2014

Monday, February 24, 2014

Human Race(s)

A Haibun for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author of Americanah


ice pellets between us …
you wouldn't understand;
it's a black thing

I don't know why these words have been on the edge of my mind, and I still  cannot understand why she gave up her master’s degree to fulfill her heart’s burning desire by singing in a blues band— this is just one of her "black things."

I witnessed Canada geese migrating south for the tenth time, but I cannot forget the image of her sticking out her tongue to taste snowflakes, her eyes dark and bottomless, and most importantly, her cutting remark about my obsession with Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.

On our last night together, with her eyes glaring, she said, "As a member of the model minority (in her emphatic tone), you just don't understand it. The real tragedy of Emmett Till was not the murder of a black teenager for wolf-whistling at a white woman, but the question lingering in the minds of some black people: why did Emmett Till whistle?"

the force of silence upon me early snowfall

Haiku Canada Review, 8:1, Feb. 2014

Sunday, February 23, 2014

A Haiku about Dementia

long time passing
echoes down the hallway . . .
dementia ward

Haiku Canada Review, 8:1, Feb. 2014

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Midsummer Night Haiku

midsummer night
the migrant's face comes out
of a watermelon

Revision, Haiku Canada Review, 8:1, Feb. 2014

Friday, February 21, 2014

Canal Water Haiku

greeny canal water...
face to face
with Patrick Kavanagh

Shamrock, 27, 2014

Note:  There is a statue of Patrick Kavanagh along the Grand Canal in Dublin, inspired by his poem "Lines written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin":

O commemorate me where there is water
canal water preferably, so stilly
greeny at the heart of summer. Brother
commemorate me thus beautifully.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Thanksgiving Night Tanka

Thanksgiving night...
her father dozing
on the sofa
with a bottle of wine
in his veiny hand

Bright Stars, I: An Organic Tanka Anthology, 2014

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

tongues of fire Tanka

reflections
in her children's eyes...
tongues of fire
licking at the bottom
of her bungalow

Bright Stars, I: An Organic Tanka Anthology, 2014

Monday, February 17, 2014

Eagle Feather Tanka

for Idle No More activists

the woman
with an eagle feather
sitting alone
before the armed police ...
sparrows in flight

Bright Stars, I: An Organic Tanka Anthology, 2014

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Chinese F-Words Tanka

an old man stands
on a street corner
shouting
at the white sports car …
Oh, these Chinese F-words!

Bright Stars, I: An Organic Tanka Anthology, 2014

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Chinese New Year Tanka

coming home
after a long day of work
we say awkwardly
gong xi fa cai !
with the fish for only two

Bright Stars, I: An Organic Tanka Anthology, 2014

Note: The Chinese phrase, "gong xi fa cai !," means wishing you a prosperous new year!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Shattered Suns Tanka

shattered suns
on the country road...
Jesus dangles
from the rear-view mirror
on an old Ford pick-up

Bright Stars, I: An Organic Tanka Anthology, 2014

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Monday, February 10, 2014

A Tanka about The Word, Jew

line upon line
page after page
the word
Jew
six million times


for Phil Chernofsky, author of And Every Single One Was Someone

NeverEnding Story, January 27, 2014

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Saturday, February 8, 2014

A Haiku about Fighting

our first fight --
my dog stalks the shadow
of her cat

Haijin, January, 2014

Lotus Haiku

a lotus stem
slightly bent in twilight
the Zen master

Haijin, January, 2014

Friday, February 7, 2014

Dream Haiku

the Lord returns
cloaked in fire and glory ...
his dream in my dream

The Light Singing, 2014

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Darkness Haiku

cliff inside my head
the darkness at the end
of a winter dream

The Light Singing, 2014

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Summer Moon Haiku

her fishing line
touches the summer moon
my lips her hair

The Light Singing, 2014

Shadow Haiku

(for my friend, Paul Crudden)

my shadow
lies next to Paul ...
hospice room

The Light Singing, 2014

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

New Year's Resolution: You Must Stay Drunk on Writing, So Reality Cannot Destroy You

A Haiku Sequence

writing haiku...
the cock crows
as if possessed

the vacuum humming
I revise
a spring haiku

color of the sky
like a cat dead for weeks
my summer haiku

a pause
between haiku
half-moon

writing haiku...
autumn sunlight breaks
through a wall of gray

winter solstice
a haiku lost and found
in my dream

the porridge
on my coffee-stained desk
rewriting haiku
(for Jack Kerouac)

Lynx, 29:1, February 2014

Monday, February 3, 2014

April Rain Haiku

 for T. S. Eliot

April rain
silencing the voice
in my head

The Light Singing, 2014

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Blue-Eyed Teens Haiku

budding cherry petals ...
three blue-eyed teens greet me
with middle fingers 

Wah, 1;1, April 2014

Hunter's Moon Haiku

hunter's moon ...
pacing back and forth
in my attic 

Wah, 1:1, April 2014

Saturday, February 1, 2014