Sunday, October 20, 2024

One Man's Maple Moon: October's Woods Tanka by Kirsty Karkow

English Original

darkly golden
through October’s woods
a small stream
catches then carries
lost leaves to the sea

Shorelines, 2007

Kirsty Karkow


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

暗金色
的一條小溪
穿過十月的樹林
接住然後攜帶
一片片落葉進入大海

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

暗金色
的一条小溪
穿过十月的树林
接住然后携带
一片片落叶进入大海


Bio Sketch

Kirsty Karkow lived in Waldoboro, Maine, where she wrote haiku, sijo, tanka, and other short forms. Lyrical, poignant, and spare, her poetry reflected a rich and deep sense of place and spirit. Her haiku have won the Mainichi and the R.H Blyth Award and placed in other contests. And she had two best-selling books in print: water poems: haiku, tanka and sijo and shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka , published by Black Cat Press.

1 comment:

  1. Kirsty's tanka effectively builds, line/poetic phrase, ku by line/poetic phrase, to a visually and emotionally powerful ending: the destination life cycle of leaves.

    The scenic landscape sketched in this imagistic tanka is its "emotional landscape:" It is the "feelings" that the reader gets from reading the poem as a whole.

    This is a fine example of mood tanka. For more, see "To the Lighthouse: Mood Haiku & Tanka," accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2024/10/to-lighthouse-mood-haiku-and-tanka.html

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