Poetic Musings: Moon and Star Haiku by Mark E. Brager

moon and star  ...

a stray goose becomes

an echo

Second Prize, 2014 Betty Drevniok Award

Mark E. Brager 

Judge’s Comment by Vicki McCullough:

The poet has painted an expanse of mostly empty, darkening sky. The straying goose is masterfully conveyed by focusing on sound rather than visuals. That the stray goose becomes “an echo” implies the presence of  the flock. The ‘becoming an echo’ tracks the physical separation as the honking of the flock is differentiated into call-and-response, or to our ears, an echo. Perhaps the poet can only hear the stray goose and disrupted flock, as they’ve already "disappeared" in a Samuel Beckett–like near-void.

The poet has painted an expanse of mostly empty, darkening sky. The straying goose is masterfully conveyed by focusing on sound rather than visuals ...

Technically speaking, Mark skillfully employs the techniques of zoom-in (narrowing-focus) and sense-switching to portray this rich and evocative imagery.