Following the Moonto the Maple Land

by Chen-ou Liu

Following the Moon

to the Maple Land

by

Chen-ou Liu

First Prize Winner2011 Haiku Pix Review Chapbook Contest

NeverEnding Story 2014

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NeverEnding StoryCopyright (c) 2011, 2014 by Chen-ou LiuAll rights reserved. Published 2014

First published: October 1, 2011Printed / distributed by Haiku Pix Productions

ISBN: 978-986-86788-3-5

All rights reserved. This eBook may be downloaded for the reader’s personal use only. It may not be sold, copied, distributed or disseminated in any other way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Further, no part of this eBook may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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PREFACE

There Is No There There

Canada geese

crisscrossing the sunset sky —

alone in the attic

Tonight I sleep in Taipei, but wake up in Ajax. My

mind is winged by a yearning after things not yet

lost. I dream in Chinese, but I awake and become

Eric.

unbirthday morning

yet still I see father's face

from the mirror

My mind can’t find a resting place except writing

poetry – the only way I can manipulate the reality

of my life in Canada.

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anything new

under the autumn sun?

reading jisei

twilight

my shadow faltering

under a bare maple

Note: Jisei is the “farewell poem to life.” The original version

of my haibun was published in Contemporary Haibun Online,

7:2, July 2011.

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For my parents

who believe that I can find my own way

by moonlight.

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mother and I

stand on Pacific coasts —

the same bright moon

Pacific shore …

my poem is folded

into a boat

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wordless

in my borrowed tongue

plum blossoms

cherry petals

falling on cherry petals …

I dust her photo

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beach bonfire ...

nothing left between

the moon and me

pressed roses

in The Art of Loving …

summer ’68

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bats swirling

across the prairie —

ink-stained desk

job hunting ...

a yellow leaf drifts

from branch to branch

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peeling my pear

in a thin, unbroken spiral ...

hometown memories

autumn dusk …

I stir my coffee

anticlockwise

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a dried lotus leaf

in Tibetan Book of the Dead ...

winter dusk

roadside puddle

a street dog

licks the winter moon

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an African man

holds out his hands…

snowflakes

French restaurant

dropping in his begging bowl

snowflakes

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Silent Night

drifting in from the neighbors —

I relearn Chinese

fortune cookies

on my New Year dinner plate

don’t ask, don’t tell

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slowly I eat up a spring day quickly dissolving

these piles

of falling plum petals

no new messages

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butterflies

wing over cherry petals —

shadows embracing

the distance between

my attic and the moon —

April rain

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fork in the road ...

standing still to hear

the leaves

Milky Way …

bit by bit I put myself

out of my mind

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snow geese

cross the gray sky —

her wrist scars

an empty chair

at the Nobel ceremony ...

thoughts of Tank Man

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after Fitzcarraldo …

I go around for hours wearing

the actor’s face

inuksuk ...

my face before my forefathers

were born

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hazy winter moon ...

the scent from the chocolate heart

under her foot

blizzard …

reciting Basho in a world

of one color

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tangled

in blades of grass

spring breeze

from one dream

to another …

butterfly

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to tell or not to tell the secret day moon

I love you ...

that hazy moon

in Rashomon

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single married single again a rushing river

the attic …

my short-lived dream

under the ceiling fan

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he lies

in a gold-plated casket …

just my size

I love you

she sticks out her tongue

tasting spring rain

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a trail of clothes

on the way to her room

blooming cereus

her face

in my whisky

the moon floats

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hazy moonlight

folded under my fingers

hometown memories

sleep in Taipei

but wake in Ajax...

autumn dawn

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raindrops

on a lotus leaf...

homecoming

mandarin ducks

feather to feather ...

autumn dusk

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autumn twilight

butterfly darts in and out

of my shadow

autumn moonlight

slips into the attic window ...

thinking of Li Po

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zazen —

the wall mirror is covered

with black clothes

the master warns

keep your concentration

fluorescent lights hum

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my shadow

one step ahead of me

autumn dusk

40th birthday dream

wandering aimlessly

in the dark forest

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first snow

I eat steamed buns

by the window

Chinese New Year

eating a Happy Meal

at McDonald's

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cherry petals

in the sunlight, I whisper

letting go

one by one

frogs make holes in the pond ...

starry night

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autumn dusk

red leaves fall

into a poem

this gun …

fascinated with

snowflakes

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Appendix

Book Review: Following the Moon to the Maple Land by Kathy Uyen Nguyen, author of Wings of Fire: An Autobiographical Tanka Art Journal

Following the Moon to the Maple Land by Chen-ou Liu (Twitter: @ericcoliu) is simply a delightful chapbook. Liu's chapbook was the winner of the Summer 2011 Chapbook Contest sponsored by Haiku Pix Review. As I've known Chen-ou for several years now on Twitter, many of his haiku are familiar as I was reading this chapbook. Despite this fact, it was a pleasure to revisit many of his poems again and to see them in print!

Liu's "Preface" is unlike any other prefaces I've read out there; it is a haibun that captures his sense of self-identity and reality as if they are balancing on scales. Consider the following excerpt:

My mind can't find a resting place except writing poetry - the only way I can manipulate the reality of my life in Canada.

It is evident that Liu's hometown is in Taipei, Taiwan, yet in this haibun, there is much more room for readjustment to his new life in Canada.

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This story is shared by many of us (including relatives and friends) who are immigrants as we know that it is a lifelong process of letting go, yet still remembering one's own motherland wherever that may be. The only thing that is constant and ironically stationary in Liu's life is his poetry writing.

Speaking of Liu's hometown, I absolutely love the diction and the continuity of the images in this following haiku:

peeling my pearin a thin, unbroken spiral ...hometown memories

This haiku evokes nostalgia and is simply beautiful. The reader can imagine that both the peeling pear and Liu's hometown memories are all in an "unbroken spiral." I love the fusion between human nature ("memories") and nature ("pear").

Liu also demonstrates versatility and skill in one-line haiku such as the following selections:

slowly I eat up a spring day quickly dissolving

single married single again a rushing river

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In "[slowly]," the reader can see that the speaker of the haiku is eating up "a spring day" with the first reading, but at the same time or with the second reading, it is noted as the spring day being quickly dissolved while the speaker is eating something. Either way, I love the ambiguity and gustatory experience of this one-like haiku.

In "[single]," this reminds me of tributaries that all flow and merge together to become one big river. There is irony in the human experience when it comes to relationships (e.g., divorces, breakups, marriages, etc.): we go through these changing phases of relationships as if we are small streams ourselves trying to flow into one big river in the name of love. The middle part of the haiku with "single again" works like a hinge. It could be that the speaker of this haiku is "single again" or is experiencing once "again a rushing river" as in a rush of emotions. Here, the fusion in this haiku between human nature and nature is powerful. The use of ambiguity here is superb.

snow geesecross the gray sky --her wrist scars

While Liu's poems can sometimes be bittersweet, beautiful, or ambiguous, they can also be startling. In this haiku, for instance, the pureness of "snow

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geese" is contrasted with the disturbing image of "wrist scars." What each image shares is how they "cross the gray sky": the former with elegance before an impending storm, and the latter which depicts a female figure who previously self-harmed but is shown that her scars are healing. I am drawn to this haiku because of the many psychiatric patients I have worked with who had self-harmed but are on their way to recovery. Self-harm may be a precursor to suicide as evidenced by research. I am sure that Liu must be so troubled by this person's actions as revealed by "her wrist scars" that he wrote about it.

the master warnskeep your concentrationfluorescent lights hum

On a much lighter side to Liu's work, this is a wonderful senryu. It is funny to see how the speaker is distracted during meditation, yet the fluorescent lights are doing the humming for the speaker instead. So much for concentration and a sense of inner peace!

one by onefrogs make holes in the pond ...starry night

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I just simply could not let this one go. This is such a lovely haiku that I had to add this one to this review. I can imagine that both the pond and sky look black and that both frogs and stars are making holes in their respective blackness: the former in the pond and the latter in the night sky "one by one"! Great parallel images that share the same action!

Previously, I mentioned that I was familiar with Liu's work from Twitter. The following haiku are examples I've read and re-tweeted before he included them in this chapbook:

first snowI eat steamed bunsby the window

autumn twilightbutterfly darts in and outof my shadow

There's not much more to say to both of these haiku as they capture the flavor of Liu's lifestyle, background (e.g., "steamed buns"), and the convergence of man and nature. Just like the rest of his poems, each haiku is filled with many layers, stories, and interpretations. There were just so many superbly written haiku that did not make it to this review as I could not possibly cover

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everything. However, I did enjoy reading Following the Moon to the Maple Land and would recommend it to poetry lovers. Liu's language tilts on the romantic side, but at the same time, it gives a fresh perspective to things through his unique choice of words.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to the editors and publishers of the following publications in which these poems first appeared:

3Lights, Acorn, Akita International Haiku Network, Ambrosia, Berry Blue Haiku, Chrysanthemum, Frogpond, Haiku Canada Review, Haijinx, Haiku News, Haiku Pix Review, Haiku Reality, Modern Haiku, Muse India, Notes From the Gean, Shamrock, Simply Haiku, Sketchbook, The Heron's Nest, World Haiku Database, World Haiku Review, and World Kigo Database.

For more information about publication credits, visit Poetry in the Moment,http://chenouliu.blogspot.ca/

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First Prize Winner2011 Haiku Pix Review Chapbook Contest

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen-ou Liu was a college teacher and two-time winner of the national Best Book Review Radio Program Award. In 2002, he emigrated to Canada and settled in Ajax. He is currently Editor and Translator of NeverEnding Story, First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog, http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.ca/, and the author of five books, including Following the Moon to the Maple Land (First Prize Winner of the 2011 Haiku Pix Review Chapbook Contest). His tanka and haiku have been honored with 68 awards. Read more of his poems at Poetry in the Moment, http://chenouliu.blogspot.com/

NeverEnding Story 2014

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