Following the Moon to the Maple Land by Chen-ou Liu
Following the Moon to the Maple Land by Chen-ou Liu
First Prize Winner 2011 Haiku Pix Review Chapbook Contest NeverEnding Story 2014
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NeverEnding Story Copyright (c) 2011, 2014 by Chen-ou Liu All rights reserved. Published 2014 First published: October 1, 2011 Printed / distributed by Haiku Pix Productions ISBN: 978-986-86788-3-5 All rights reserved. This eBook may be downloaded for the reader’s personal use only. It may not be sold, copied, distributed or disseminated in any other way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Further, no part of this eBook may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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PREFACE There Is No There There Canada geese crisscrossing the sunset sky — alone in the attic Tonight I sleep in Taipei, but wake up in Ajax. My mind is winged by a yearning after things not yet lost. I dream in Chinese, but I awake and become Eric. unbirthday morning yet still I see father's face from the mirror My mind can’t find a resting place except writing poetry – the only way I can manipulate the reality of my life in Canada.
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anything new under the autumn sun? reading jisei twilight my shadow faltering under a bare maple
Note: Jisei is the “farewell poem to life.� The original version of my haibun was published in Contemporary Haibun Online, 7:2, July 2011.
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For my parents who believe that I can find my own way by moonlight.
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mother and I stand on Pacific coasts — the same bright moon
Pacific shore ‌ my poem is folded into a boat
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wordless in my borrowed tongue plum blossoms
cherry petals falling on cherry petals ‌ I dust her photo
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beach bonfire ... nothing left between the moon and me
pressed roses in The Art of Loving ‌ summer ’68
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bats swirling across the prairie — ink-stained desk
job hunting ... a yellow leaf drifts from branch to branch
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peeling my pear in a thin, unbroken spiral ... hometown memories
autumn dusk ‌ I stir my coffee anticlockwise
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a dried lotus leaf in Tibetan Book of the Dead ... winter dusk
roadside puddle a street dog licks the winter moon
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an African man holds out his hands‌ snowflakes
French restaurant dropping in his begging bowl snowflakes
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Silent Night drifting in from the neighbors — I relearn Chinese
fortune cookies on my New Year dinner plate don’t ask, don’t tell
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slowly I eat up a spring day quickly dissolving
these piles of falling plum petals no new messages
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butterflies wing over cherry petals — shadows embracing
the distance between my attic and the moon — April rain
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fork in the road ... standing still to hear the leaves
Milky Way ‌ bit by bit I put myself out of my mind
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snow geese cross the gray sky — her wrist scars
an empty chair at the Nobel ceremony ... thoughts of Tank Man
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after Fitzcarraldo ‌ I go around for hours wearing the actor’s face
inuksuk ... my face before my forefathers were born
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hazy winter moon ... the scent from the chocolate heart under her foot
blizzard ‌ reciting Basho in a world of one color
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tangled in blades of grass spring breeze
from one dream to another ‌ butterfly
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to tell or not to tell the secret day moon
I love you ... that hazy moon in Rashomon
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single married single again a rushing river
the attic ‌ my short-lived dream under the ceiling fan
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he lies in a gold-plated casket ‌ just my size
I love you she sticks out her tongue tasting spring rain
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a trail of clothes on the way to her room blooming cereus
her face in my whisky the moon floats
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hazy moonlight folded under my fingers hometown memories
sleep in Taipei but wake in Ajax... autumn dawn
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raindrops on a lotus leaf... homecoming
mandarin ducks feather to feather ... autumn dusk
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autumn twilight butterfly darts in and out of my shadow
autumn moonlight slips into the attic window ... thinking of Li Po
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zazen — the wall mirror is covered with black clothes
the master warns keep your concentration fluorescent lights hum
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my shadow one step ahead of me autumn dusk
40th birthday dream wandering aimlessly in the dark forest
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first snow I eat steamed buns by the window
Chinese New Year eating a Happy Meal at McDonald's
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cherry petals in the sunlight, I whisper letting go
one by one frogs make holes in the pond ... starry night
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autumn dusk red leaves fall into a poem
this gun ‌ fascinated with snowflakes
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Appendix Book Review: Following the Moon to the Maple Land by Kathy Uyen Nguyen, author of Wings of Fire: An Autobiographical Tanka Art Journal Following the Moon to the Maple Land by Chen-ou Liu (Twitter: @ericcoliu) is simply a delightful chapbook. Liu's chapbook was the winner of the Summer 2011 Chapbook Contest sponsored by Haiku Pix Review. As I've known Chen-ou for several years now on Twitter, many of his haiku are familiar as I was reading this chapbook. Despite this fact, it was a pleasure to revisit many of his poems again and to see them in print! Liu's "Preface" is unlike any other prefaces I've read out there; it is a haibun that captures his sense of self-identity and reality as if they are balancing on scales. Consider the following excerpt: My mind can't find a resting place except writing poetry - the only way I can manipulate the reality of my life in Canada. It is evident that Liu's hometown is in Taipei, Taiwan, yet in this haibun, there is much more room for readjustment to his new life in Canada.
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This story is shared by many of us (including relatives and friends) who are immigrants as we know that it is a lifelong process of letting go, yet still remembering one's own motherland wherever that may be. The only thing that is constant and ironically stationary in Liu's life is his poetry writing. Speaking of Liu's hometown, I absolutely love the diction and the continuity of the images in this following haiku: peeling my pear in a thin, unbroken spiral ... hometown memories This haiku evokes nostalgia and is simply beautiful. The reader can imagine that both the peeling pear and Liu's hometown memories are all in an "unbroken spiral." I love the fusion between human nature ("memories") and nature ("pear"). Liu also demonstrates versatility and skill in oneline haiku such as the following selections: slowly I eat up a spring day quickly dissolving single married single again a rushing river
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In "[slowly]," the reader can see that the speaker of the haiku is eating up "a spring day" with the first reading, but at the same time or with the second reading, it is noted as the spring day being quickly dissolved while the speaker is eating something. Either way, I love the ambiguity and gustatory experience of this one-like haiku. In "[single]," this reminds me of tributaries that all flow and merge together to become one big river. There is irony in the human experience when it comes to relationships (e.g., divorces, breakups, marriages, etc.): we go through these changing phases of relationships as if we are small streams ourselves trying to flow into one big river in the name of love. The middle part of the haiku with "single again" works like a hinge. It could be that the speaker of this haiku is "single again" or is experiencing once "again a rushing river" as in a rush of emotions. Here, the fusion in this haiku between human nature and nature is powerful. The use of ambiguity here is superb. snow geese cross the gray sky -her wrist scars While Liu's poems can sometimes be bittersweet, beautiful, or ambiguous, they can also be startling. In this haiku, for instance, the pureness of "snow
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geese" is contrasted with the disturbing image of "wrist scars." What each image shares is how they "cross the gray sky": the former with elegance before an impending storm, and the latter which depicts a female figure who previously selfharmed but is shown that her scars are healing. I am drawn to this haiku because of the many psychiatric patients I have worked with who had self-harmed but are on their way to recovery. Selfharm may be a precursor to suicide as evidenced by research. I am sure that Liu must be so troubled by this person's actions as revealed by "her wrist scars" that he wrote about it. the master warns keep your concentration fluorescent lights hum On a much lighter side to Liu's work, this is a wonderful senryu. It is funny to see how the speaker is distracted during meditation, yet the fluorescent lights are doing the humming for the speaker instead. So much for concentration and a sense of inner peace! one by one frogs make holes in the pond ... starry night
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I just simply could not let this one go. This is such a lovely haiku that I had to add this one to this review. I can imagine that both the pond and sky look black and that both frogs and stars are making holes in their respective blackness: the former in the pond and the latter in the night sky "one by one"! Great parallel images that share the same action! Previously, I mentioned that I was familiar with Liu's work from Twitter. The following haiku are examples I've read and re-tweeted before he included them in this chapbook: first snow I eat steamed buns by the window autumn twilight butterfly darts in and out of my shadow There's not much more to say to both of these haiku as they capture the flavor of Liu's lifestyle, background (e.g., "steamed buns"), and the convergence of man and nature. Just like the rest of his poems, each haiku is filled with many layers, stories, and interpretations. There were just so many superbly written haiku that did not make it to this review as I could not possibly cover
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everything. However, I did enjoy reading Following the Moon to the Maple Land and would recommend it to poetry lovers. Liu's language tilts on the romantic side, but at the same time, it gives a fresh perspective to things through his unique choice of words.
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Acknowledgments Thanks are due to the editors and publishers of the following publications in which these poems first appeared: 3Lights, Acorn, Akita International Haiku Network, Ambrosia, Berry Blue Haiku, Chrysanthemum, Frogpond, Haiku Canada Review, Haijinx, Haiku News, Haiku Pix Review, Haiku Reality, Modern Haiku, Muse India, Notes From the Gean, Shamrock, Simply Haiku, Sketchbook, The Heron's Nest, World Haiku Database, World Haiku Review, and World Kigo Database. For more information about publication credits, visit Poetry in the Moment,http://chenouliu.blogspot.ca/
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First Prize Winner 2011 Haiku Pix Review Chapbook Contest
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen-ou Liu was a college teacher and two-time winner of the national Best Book Review Radio Program Award. In 2002, he emigrated to Canada and settled in Ajax. He is currently Editor and Translator of NeverEnding Story, First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog, http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.ca/, and the author of five books, including Following the Moon to the Maple Land (First Prize Winner of the 2011 Haiku Pix Review Chapbook Contest). His tanka and haiku have been honored with 68 awards. Read more of his poems at Poetry in the Moment, http://chenouliu.blogspot.com/
NeverEnding Story 2014
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