Poetic Musings: Dew and Easter Sun Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

each

drop

of

dew

Easter

sun

NeverEnding Story, March 31 2024

reprinted in Serbian Haiku Anthology edited by Dajan Bogojevic

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: The vertical arrangement functions as a temporal slowing device. By guiding the eye downward one word at a time, the haiku mimics the gradual formation—or falling—of dew. This measured descent builds a subtle rhythmic tension that is ultimately resolved by the two-word closure of “Easter / sun,” which breaks the pattern and establishes a broader, more stable visual and semantic base.

The physical space between “dew” and “Easter” operates as a cut (kire). This pause invites the reader to bridge the gap between the minute and the immense, the earthly and the celestial. The haiku’s power lies in this juxtaposition (renso): the fragile, transient nature of “dew” set against the enduring, expansive presence of the “Easter sun.”

In both literary and biblical traditions, dew signifies divine grace and spiritual renewal, while also embodying transience—it vanishes soon after dawn. By isolating “each drop,” the haiku foregrounds the individuality and fragility of a moment, or even of the soul itself. The “Easter sun,” while functioning as a seasonal reference to spring, carries deeper symbolic weight. It evokes resurrection, illumination, and triumph over darkness. Within Christian and older solar traditions, the sun signifies constancy and divine presence; paired with Easter, it becomes a figure of enduring spiritual light.

On a technical level, the haiku suggests a phase shift. The “Easter sun” is the catalyst that will inevitably dissolve the dew. Symbolically, this transformation can be read as an ascent—the movement of the transient into the eternal, the earthly into the divine.