Her studio in SoHo perches two floors above the lines of tourists snaking past Prada and Chanel. The radio hums as she steps to the canvas.

Six hours a day, she paints her nude body: strands of silver hair, wrinkles on her face, one sagging breast, slender arms and feet, thinning pubic hair.

She paints all or parts of her body in black and white or in rainbow hues, shifting with the day—sunlight, drizzle, heat, snow.

sky turns to rust 
her silhouette 
dripping colors 

Chen-ou Liu

is a Taiwanese-Canadian poet and editor. Born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1963, he emigrated to Canada in 2002 and settled near Toronto. He is the author of five books, including Following the Moon to the Maple Land (First Prize, 2011 Haiku Pix Chapbook Contest) and A Life in Transition and Translation (Honorable Mention, 2014 Turtle Light Press Biennial Haiku Chapbook Competition). His tanka, haiku, and haibun have been honored with many awards. An archive of his publications and awards can be accessed at his blog Poetry in the Moment.

Liu is also founding editor and translator of NeverEnding Story, the first English-Chinese bilingual haiku and tanka blog. Established in January 2013, the blog has 3.4 million pageviews and serves as a hub for publishing and translating Japanese short-form poetry.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Haiku and other small poems by Chen-ou Liu in tinywords (13 June 2025 – 5 December 2013)

⚡ it’s peaceful now, tanka prose by Liu in contemporary haibun online (20:2, August 2024)

⚡ Editorial Advice “for Bashō” in contemporary haibun online (17.1, April 2021)

⚡ Chen-ou Liu’s “The Distance of Love”, a Commentary by Gerry Jacobson in Haibun Today (Volume 12, Number 4, December 2018)