English Original
rain barrel
a cloud settles
into itself
LEAF, 10, July 2026
Travis Park
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
雨桶
一朵雲沉入
雲層中
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
雨桶
一朵云沉入
云层中
Bio Sketch
Travis Park is an Indiana poet and photographer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Modern Haiku, Presence, Ribbons, Wales Haiku Journal, McNeese Review, The Listening Eye, and other journals.
L1, “rain barrel,” gives the reader an immediate, concrete object. L2, “a cloud settles,” introduces a lovely visual ambiguity: is the cloud reflected in the barrel, or is it somehow descending into it?
ReplyDeleteThen the unexpected L3, “into itself,” deepens the image into something almost paradoxical—suggesting water, cloud, reflection, containment, and self-containment all at once.
The haiku’s strongest feature is its movement from object → sky → inwardness. The result is quiet but slightly uncanny, inviting the reader to linger over the boundary between the physical world and the act of perception.