astride
a fault line in the bay
a sea star
one small splice
in this fractured world
Certificate of Merit, 7th International Tanka Festival Competition
Lesley Anne Swanson
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
橫跨
海灣的斷層線
一隻海星
在這個斷裂的世界
作為一個小的接合物
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
横跨
海湾的断层线
一只海星
在这个断裂的世界
作为一个小的接合物
Bio Sketch
Lesley
Anne Swanson has lived in Northern California, the Southwest, and the
Pacific Northwest, but now calls Pennsylvania home. Always a wordsmith,
she discovered tanka in 2011 and has been enthralled ever since.
Below is excerpted from the judge's (Jane Reichhold's) comment:
ReplyDeleteIn my making my piles of poems to consider for the prizes, there was one with all the poems relating to earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand. These were very touching as they found first one way and then another to express loss and sadness. I was very drawn to several but with the lack of a proper tanka shape I regretfully had to lay them aside.
"I was very drawn to several but with the lack of a proper tanka shape I regretfully had to lay them aside."
ReplyDeleteModeled on traditional Japanese tanka, this heartfelt poem is made up of five poetic phrases (equivalent to five ku of 5-7-5-7-7) and structured into two parts with L3 as a pivot. Strategically speaking, through a pivot on the unexpected (L3) to uncover the socio-geographical aspect, Lesley’s tanka effectively builds, phrase/line (ku) by phrase/line (ku), to an socio-emotionally powerful ending that has the most weight. And on a second reading, the "sea star" in the poem carries analogical significance.