Monday, September 12, 2022

Butterfly Dream: Gnarled Oak Haiku by Kirsty Karkow

English Original

gnarled oak
my path to the hills
starts in mist

Modern Haiku, 33:2, Summer 2002

Kirsty Karkow


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

錯節盤根的橡樹
我的山路之行
在霧中開始

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

错节盘根的橡树
我的山路之行
在雾中开始


Bio Sketch

Kirsty Karkow lived in Waldoboro, Maine, where she wrote haiku, sijo, tanka, and other short forms. Lyrical, poignant, and spare, her poetry reflected a rich and deep sense of place and spirit. Her haiku have won the Mainichi and the R.H Blyth Award and placed in other contests. And she had two best-selling books in print: water poems: haiku, tanka and sijo and shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka , published by Black Cat Press.

1 comment:

  1. The visually evocative and symbolically rich image of a "gnarled oak," L1, could be read as a "foreshadowing" of the speaker's "path/symbolically a journey" to the hills, L2. And L3 adds emotional weight and psychological depth to the haiku.

    And it might be interesting to do a thematic comparative reading of my haiku below:

    snow geese
    unzip the morning sky
    my journey starts

    Brass Bell, January, 2022

    ReplyDelete