a week after
my coworker's suicide
the sculpture on her desk
collapses -- magnetic paper clips
that held nothing together
Honorable Mention, 2008 Tanka Society of America International Tanka Contest
Michael Dylan Welch
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
我的同事自殺
一個星期之後
她桌子上的雕塑
崩塌 -- 一堆磁性文件夾
無法固定任何的東西
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
我的同事自杀
一个星期之后
她桌子上的雕塑
崩塌 -- 一堆磁性文件夹
无法固定任何的东西
Bio Sketch
Michael
Dylan Welch is the founder
of the Tanka Society of America (2000), and co-founder of Haiku North
America conference (1991) and the American Haiku Archives (1996). In
2010 he also started National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo), which
takes place every February, with an active Facebook page. His personal
website is www.graceguts.com, which features hundreds of essays,
reviews, reports, and other content, including examples of his published
poetry.
Michael Dylan Welch’s sculpture of paper clips—something we have all seen, and may even have on our own desk tops—is turned into a powerful metaphor about the fragility of life, and of individual purpose, in our time...
ReplyDelete-excerpted from the judges' commentary, accessed at http://www.tankasocietyofamerica.org/tsa-contest/winners-and-judges-comments/2008-tsa-international-tanka-contest-winners
The following suicide tanka by Michael Dylan Welch could be read as a sequel to his poignant tanka above:
shiny pens and a stapler --
no one tells
the new hire
his desk is where
the suicide sat
Gusts, 17, Spring/Summer 2013