harvest moon
the horizon between here
and hereafter
1st Prize, Katikati Haiku Competition 2012
Lorin Ford
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
中秋月
在此及以外之間
的地平線
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
中秋月
在此及以外之间
的地平线
Bio Sketch
Lorin Ford grew up between two homes, one by the beach and one in the bush. She has written ‘long’ poems but these days she focuses on haiku , both as a writer and as an editor. Her book, a wattle seedpod,(PostPressed 2008) is currently out of print but short collections of her work can be accessed at the Snapshot Press website and via her bio on the editors’ page.
Below is the judge's (Owen Bullock's) comment:
ReplyDeleteOstensibly, this haiku makes two religious references: in the harvest moon, which suggests the harvest festival, and the idea of the hereafter. But whatever the haiku stirs is mediated by the image of the moon, which is an entirely natural thing, and more likely to be referenced by paganism than any organised religion. The word 'hereafter' is an intriguing choice - is the poet trying to use it in an original way, to soften its metaphorical function and make it more literal? Or is the writer insisting on a religious backdrop to events? I think it's more likely to be the former case. This word is being hijacked to mean something like 'what comes next'. With that interpretation, the entire poem remains literal, with the detachment we expect from haiku. At the same time, the metaphorical possibility endures, and so the haiku seems to balance various elements. For me, it affirms the religious and the elemental at once, bringing what might otherwise be seen as polarities together. This piece appealed to me immediately, but also inspired a deepening reading.
L1 successfully sets the context, scenic and literary (in relation to moon haiku, especially to Japanese moon haiku), while Ls 2&3 work effectively on at least two levels, textual and intertextual (on the latter level, the horizon in L2 could be interpreted as the text horizon).
ReplyDeleteExcellent haiku evoke coherence beyond the text horizon.
ReplyDelete-- Richard Gilbert, quoted from 'Song of Himself' by Scott Mason (Frogpond,35:2, summer 2012