Chen-ou Liu, CA

 

 

Haiku   banked clouds trailing away in dawn sky... cries of a stray dog     rainbow balloons darting across azure sky; frowning faces dragged home     tangled in crooked icicles... moonbeams     sleep in Taipei but wake up in Ajax... autumn dawn     a cuckoo in a clock… time winds me up     barren moors walking in the sound of footsteps     iris in bloom half stiffening half melting away     scooping autumn moon from the still river     Tanka   my heart will be torn by the three thousand miles between us, I plea we still gaze upon the same moon you smile playfully     smoke weaves its way through backyards… it's easier for smoke to cross fences between neighbors     stains form lines as my head weighs upon this fluffy page— pillow book     eyes wide open face twisted beads upon the forehead from anguish strung— everyone aboard!     a thousand lines of blank verse get tangled in the narrative threads of my angst     to escape from the pit of darkness the butterfly flaps its wings so does my mind     10 km bumper-to-bumper under the summer sun— we’re grilled on the 401 in Toronto     bang! sparrows of St. Paul Plaza flutter filling the sky no eye on sparrows?     Tanka Sequence   Birth of a Tanka   a plastic bag whirled by the wind struggling in mid-air— a tanka is conceived at that sight writing tanka— four lines sound perfect yet I struggle to write a fifth to perfect my tanka my anguish crumbled into a ball I continue to write as the wastebasket waits for one more throw days slip by minute by minute hour after hour— a tanka is born yet my life withers     Life on the GO   walking towards the opened door I’m pushed by GO riders sadness comes and helps shut me in a maple leaf drifts through the window and lands on me I, too, have wandered from my natural path getting off the train I drag myself to the place I live no one for company traffic sounds cheer me along   (Note: GO Transit is an inter-regional public transit system in Southern Ontario, Canada)     Cherita*   I accidentally stepping on my neighbor's shadow he yells at me, illegal alien I see Canada geese fly over their route, my roots   II   no wine left tonight my Zen mind filled with moonlight the chattering of stars has aged     III   as night deepens what the day has woven unravels in fleeting dreams as dawn breaks my hands loosely hold fringes from the past   Cherita*: A narrative short verse form derived from the haiku and tanka traditions