Tuesday, November 3, 2015

One Man's Maple Moon: New Neighbors Tanka by Joanne Morcom

English Original

I wave
at new neighbors
and hope
that we never
become friends

"The Garage, Not the Garden,"  Atlas Poetica Special Feature, Fall 2013

Joanne Morcom


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

對著新鄰居
我揮手打招呼
並期望
我們決不會
成為朋友

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

对著新邻居
我挥手打招呼
并期望
我们决不会
成为朋友


Bio Sketch

Joanne Morcom is a poet and social worker in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  Her poetry appears in a variety of print and online publications, as well as in her two collections, A Nameless Place and About the Blue Moon. Visit her website at www.joannemorcom.ca.

2 comments:

  1. The thematic and emotional turn at the end of the poem tanka the reader a counterexample of the image of vibrant, diverse, but neighborly city life. And it reminds me of the famous closing line from Robert Frost's "Mending Wall:"

    He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

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  2. That last line made me laugh out loud!

    Highly amusing - and also intriguing, as it makes this reader wonder what it was about the neighbours that elicited this response.

    marion

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