a refugee boy
and his limping shadow
Note: the following poem could be read as a prequel to the haiku above:
winter twilight
crossing the border
a child's shadow
4th Prize, 2016 New Zealand Poetry Society Haiku Competition
Chen-ou Liu
Judge's
Comment: "winter twilight" is very much in the zeitgeist, the spirit of
the time. The poem is literally, and metaphorically, dark. We are
reminded of the plight of refugees fleeing a war zone, of a child
slipping past the border guards on his/her mission for freedom. The poet
has intentionally specified a child, drawing on the vulnerability of
innocent young lives affected by the bombing of their homes by super
powers, collateral damage in the hostilities that we read about in the
media, that we see on the nightly television news. The poet specifies
‘crossing the border'. This haiku brings an immediacy to the realities
of world conflict and if one more child is free we should, by inference,
celebrate this. A thoughtful haiku.
No comments:
Post a Comment