Poetic Musings: Cliff's Edge Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

cancer diagnosis ...

the glimpse of a rainbow

over the cliff's edge 

NeverEnding Story, August 30, 2022

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: L1 sets the theme while visually arresting and emotionally powerful image of Ls 2&3 shows something beyond words, dialectically contrasting ("glimpse" of a "rainbow" over the "cliff's edge"), which means a "different way of seeing."

A life’s work is not a series of stepping-stones onto which we calmly place our feet, but more like an ocean crossing where there is no path, only a heading, a direction, which, of itself, is in conversation with the elements. — David Whyte

The poet and philosopher David Whyte calls this choice “standing at the cliff edge of life.” The cliff's edge is the place where we encounter life’s unknowns. The sun is low behind us, casting our shadow out over the ocean towards the far horizon, pointing towards uncharted territories. Here we are asked to set down our plans and pretenses and look square into the raw, elemental truth of existence.

-- excerpted from "At the Cliff's Edge," April 24, 2020

And my three haiku below could be read as prequels, which can form a 3-haiku sequence with a narrative arc titled "at the Clife Edge of Life" :

cliff inside my head

the darkness at the end

of a winter dream

The Light Singing, 2014

cliff edge ...

the sound of waiting

for nothing

Highly Commended, 2016 New Zealand Poetry Society Haiku Competition

cancer diagnosis ...

the glimpse of a rainbow

over the cliff's edge 

NeverEnding Story, August 30, 2022