Hot News: Award-Winning Tanka and Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

Dear NeverEnding Story Readers:

I've recently received five pieces of good news, and I'm excited to share them with all of you:

closed in

on herself once again...

dinnertime filled

with the sound of chopsticks

and April snowflakes

Joint First Prize (Certificate of Merit Conferred by Contest Judge, Maxianne Berger),

8th International Tanka Festival, 2016
(Judge`s Comment:  A simple rendering of solitude, silence, and tranquility. We are not told why this persona seeks to separate herself from others, we only know that she has done this before. We are free to attribute reasons based on our own experiences. Quiet is apparent in two details. The sound of chopsticks would usually goes unnoticed, something our brains ignore because unimportant. Line 4 brings the sound to our mind's ear, and our imagination perforce sets it in an otherwise silent background. As to falling snow, its acoustic presence is one of muffling other sounds. Beyond sound, however, when snowflakes appear in the poem they place the persona at a window, on the inside, looking out-­with all the emotional interpretations that might imply. "April" says springtime, but "snowflakes," winter. We are invited to fill in our own take on the dual nature of this symbolism. Meanwhile, there are no sounds of sadness--no tears, no sighs. As such, there is a certain calm conveyed by the whole)

home from hospital ...

a robin's song

and nothing else

Honorable Mention, 2016 Betty Drevniok Award

(Judge's Comment: ... with its stunning pathos and freshness of feeling there was no doubt [this was] the haiku that I felt deserved prize recognition...)

distant sirens

over the border bridge

a blood moon

Shortlist, 2015 Touchstone Award for Individual Poems

French Translation by Tempslibres Editor Serge Tome

sirènes distantes

sur le pont frontière

une lune de sang

emerald flicker                      

of a dragonfly's wings           

first day of school                  

Highly Commended, 2015 Iris Haiku Contest

Croatian Translation

smaragdno treperenje

krila vilina konjica

prvi dan škole 

Without the Middle

dewdrops

on a blade of grass

at twilight

this lingering fear,

I want a divorce

surge of the wind ...

her voice hardens

into its rigid strength,

I love you, Eric,

but I can't stand you anymore

all those nights

her moist smile nuzzled

the nape of my neck ...

now in the dim light

one wedding pillow left

a white trail

left in the winter sky

by her plane --

I still wait for the turn

and wave of her hand

Third Prize, Haiku Canada Tanka Story Contest, 2016

(Judge's Comment by Angela Leuck (Haiku Canada Review, 10:1, February 2016, p. 47): The story is enhanced by effective and contrasting imagery: the poet refers to delicate, transitory phenomenon like "dewdrops" and a plane's "white trail," while the wife's steely determination to leave is indicated by the use of strong words like "blade," "hardens" and 'rigid strength." The poet also evokes endings through reference to the day's end: "twilight" and "dim light.")

Many thanks for your continued support of my writing.

Happy Reading

Chen-ou

Note: Another piece of good news is that the following tanka are included in Wild Moons: The Canadian Tanka Anthology edited by George Swede and Angela Leuck:

first ESL class

on a snowy night

I struggled

under the weight

of unspoken words

(Note: ESL stands for English as a Second Language)

Ribbons, 11:1, Winter 2015

a black rope

hangs from our childhood tree

the sound in her chest

lonelier

than a winter gust

Honorable Mention, 2012 San Francisco International Competition:

nine autumns past

first trip to my homeland…

now in Taipei

drinking alone in moonlight

I still long for Taipei

Joint First Prize, 7th International Tanka Festival Competition, 2012             

sultry dusk...

the nape of her neck

draws me in

as a streetlamp

beckons to the moth

Third Place, 2012 Love Tanka Contest

mid-autumn night…

the wind whispers to me

Chinese words

that offer me a home

in the shape of a moon

Tanka First Place, 2011 San Francisco International Competition Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and Rengay

her toothbrush

in my medicine chest

declares residency…

gazing at the mirror

a face hard to recognize

Tanka Third Place, 2011 San Francisco International Competition Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and Rengay

putting the corpse

of loneliness around my neck

I jump

into the darkness

of a spring day

Back Cover Tanka, Ribbons, 6:3,  Fall 2010