tenth year in exile ...
wave after wave rinsing
my shadow
Fourth Prize, New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition 2025
Chen-ou Liu
Comment by the Judge, Scott Mason: The persistent “otherness” commonly felt by an exile finds a poignant natural correlate in this poem. As the years come and go, the beach waves continually advance and recede; yet they can never wash away the protagonist’s physical shadow, nor the felt sense of a shadow existence when separated from one’s “true” home—perhaps a home located on the other side of the ocean from where he or she now stands. [I’m reminded here of Dante: “You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man’s bread” (Paradiso XVII)]
And my haiku below could be read as its prequel:
a beach stone
streaked with rust ...
years in exile
Cattails, April 2020
As the years come and go, the beach waves continually advance and recede; yet they can never wash away the protagonist’s physical shadow, nor the felt sense of a shadow existence when separated from one’s “true” home—"perhaps a home located on the OTHER SIDE of the ocean from where he or she now stands"... excerpted from the judge's commentary
ReplyDeleteI stare
past the moonlit ocean . . .
tenth year in exile
Second Place, 35th Capstone International Center Sakura Haiku Contest, 2021
Chen-ou Liu