English Original
turn of a new leaf over and over climate conference
Trash Panda, 5, 2023
Eric A. Lohman
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
重啟新頁一次又一次氣候變遷大會
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
重启新页一次又一次气候变迁大会
Bio Sketch
Eric A. Lohman is a psychiatric social worker at a large public teaching hospital in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. His career focuses on helping the homeless, addicted and chronically mentally ill populations of Atlanta and the surrounding area. Most of his writing serves as a response to that reality.
This climate haiku works effectively because it uses the monoku (one-line haiku) format to create a "looping" effect that perfectly mirrors its subject.
ReplyDeleteThe opening phrase, "turn of a new leaf," is a classic idiom for change, but in the sociopolitical context of a "climate conference," it becomes literal (foliage/nature) and ironic (the lack of actual progress). And by placing "over and over" in the middle, the haiku creates a circular rhythm. The reader's eye repeats the phrase, mimicking the repetitive, cyclical nature of these conferences where the same promises are made and broken.
Furthermore, in a one-liner, the lack of stops allows the "leaf" to "turn" right into the "climate conference," suggesting that the rhetoric is just part of a spin cycle. This haiku captures a specific modern frustration—the performance of change vs. the reality of repetition.
And my vertical climate haiku below could be read as a narrative and thematic prequel to Eric A. Lohman's horizontal one-liner above:
Deleteclimate
talk
after
talk
leaf
on
leaf
Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, May 12 2022
Chronological Shift:
The vertical haiku captures the agonizing, passive passage of time before or during the climate event. The horizontal one-liner captures the frantic, repetitive aftermath.
Escalation of Frustration:
The vertical structure isolates the word "talk" to show quiet disillusionment. The horizontal structure crams the words together to show overwhelming political fatigue.
Accumulation to Action:
The phrase, "Leaf on leaf" in the vertical haiku shows the physical pileup of unaddressed time. This accumulation directly triggers the manic, cyclic action of turning the leaf "over and over" in the horizontal one-liner