to each other
in the dark --
waving lanterns
Second Prize, San Francisco International Haiku Competition 2009
Michael McClintock
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在黑暗中
面對彼此 --
搖晃的燈籠
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在黑暗中
面对彼此
摇晃的灯笼
Bio Sketch
Michael McClintock's lifework in haiku, tanka, and related literature spans over four decades. His many contributions to the field include six years as president of the Tanka Society of America (2004-2010) and contributing editor, essayist, and poet for dozens of journals, anthologies, landmark collections and critical studies. McClintock now lives in Clovis, California, where he works as an independent scholar, consultant for public libraries, and poet. Meals at Midnight [tanka], Sketches from the San Joaquin [haiku] and Streetlights: Poetry of Urban Life in Modern English Tanka, are some of his recent titles.
Michael's poem works emotionally effectively as Ichibutsu Shitate (one-scene/image/theme/object haiku), a "single-object poem, which [focuses] on a single topic and in which the [haiku flows] smoothly from start to finish, without leap or gap found in the "composition poem" (that reads a poem with two juxtaposed images/topics...; Traces of Dreams, p. 111)
ReplyDeleteToday is the Lantern Festival, marking the end of the 15-day Chinese New Year festivities. His beautifully-crafted haiku, especially L3, lifts my spirit.
Here is my response haiku:
Water Snake Lantern zigzags
through Ketagalan Boulevard ...
end of Chinese New Year
note; Ketagalan Boulevard is in Zhongzheng District,Taipei, Taiwan, between the Presidential Building and the East Gate. Its length is 400 m,and there are ten lanes in two directions and no traffic islands.