Featured Poet in Issue 21, tsuri-dōrō

Issue #21 – May/June 2024

Featured Poet – Chen-ou Liu

       a white lie

      to cover another

      early snowfall

                    light of dawn

               a tai chi master

               pushes the silence

AA meeting

the stony silence

after I used to be …

                 my wife’s kiss

               on the yellow post-it

               paper anniversary

           im-mi-grant ...

           the way English tastes

           on my tongue

Chen-ou Liu is currently the editor and translator of NeverEnding Story, and the author of two award-winning books, Following the Moon to the Maple Land (First Prize, 2011 Haiku Pix Chapbook Contest) and A Life in Transition and Translation (Honorable Mention, 2014 Turtle Light Press Biennial Haiku Chapbook Competition). His tanka and haiku have been honored with 154 awards (as of May 1, 2024)

Setu's Masters of Wabi: Chen-ou Liu

With every pilgrimage one encounters the temporality of life

-- Matsuo Bashō 

Across a prolific and acclaimed publishing career Chen-ou Liu has displayed time and time again a phenomenal command of rhythm and motion in his stunning poetry, adopting stimulating indicators to signal landmarks and topography across that terrain, the tool of wabi being one vital resource toward conveying visceral aims. There is little to no movement in a vacuum, on a sickbed, across a desolate winter landscape or quiet night, save perhaps the slightest trickling, reminiscent of grains falling through an hourglass. These pieces spectacularly reveal the duo and tag-team this style can make paired with sabi to liken and contrast, implement setup and punchline, execute a boxing combination in a sense. The common theme of undesired departure, imposed hard deadlines, ties these pieces very fittingly together; while exploring different subjects and settings, in unison the reader almost gets the perception they form a sedōka discussion of sorts, on the topic of fate and determinism, acceptance and the human condition. 

Visit  Setu's Masters of Wabi: Chen-ou Liu for detailed comments on the following two of my featured haiku:

snow light

in her hospice room

stillness

eviction notice …

roof icicles

dripping moonlight

Setu, Masters of Wabi, 2024