Monday, December 22, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Visual God Haiku by Ben Moeller-Gaa

English Original

           b
           o
      a l  o
o    n i  k
n a o b s
e f  t  r  h
g t  h a e
o e e r  l
d r r  y  f

Moongarlic, 2, 2014

Ben Moeller-Gaa


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

     接
     著
一 另 圖
位 一 書 書
神 位 館 架

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

     接
     著
一 另 图
位 一 书 书
神 位 馆 架


Bio Sketch

Ben Moeller-Gaa is a haiku poet and a contributing poetry editor to River Styx literary magazine. He is the author of two haiku chapbooks, Wasp Shadows (Folded Word 2014) and Blowing on a Hot Soup Spoon (poor metaphor design 2014). You can find more on Ben online at www.benmoellergaa.com.

1 comment:

  1. For avid readers and library users, Ben's effective jux. of "one god after another" and "library bookshelf" (symbolizing the preservation, display, and dissemination of knowledge) forms a concrete and relatable image that sparks the reader's reflection on the meaning(s) of theology and its relation to religious practices.

    Note: Below is Ben's original haiku published in Moongarlic, 2, 2014:

    one
    god
    after
    another
    library
    bookshelf

    Evaluated in the aesthetic context of visual/concrete poetry, the vertical form of the original adds little to the poem while the typographical arrangement of the revision (,which looks like "a row of books of different sizes" on the bookshelf) is effective in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem.

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