The winning haiku can be found here
Write a haiku on any topic and post it in the comments section below. The haiku must adhere to the traditional parameters of a haiku to qualify (and may be deleted if it does not). It must…
1. Be three lines. The first line must have five syllables, the second seven syllables, and the third five syllables. Seventeen syllables total (5-7-5).
2. Contain a nature or seasonal reference: the crumbling leaves, the cold air, the smell of manure, the taste of fresh black berries, the cicadas’ buzzing.
3. Be in the present tense (swims rather than swam).
4. Be subtle and observational.
5. Contain some sort of twist in the third line: a shift in perspective or mood, a surprise, a new interpretation of the first or second line.
Read more about writing a haiku here.
When: Now until Saturday August 8, 2020 midnight EST. Winners Announced August 15, 2020.
Who: Anyone in the world, any age or background, may participate. From within the Society, anyone, including Advisory Board Members, not involved in judging the contest may participate. (If you are outside the United States, you will have to have a PayPal account or a bank that accepts U.S. checks to receive the prize money if you win.)
What: Each entrant may submit up to three haiku. Any topic. Must conform to traditional haiku rules above.
Where: Post your haiku in the comments section below.
Prize: $100.
Judge: Mike Bryant
Entry Fee: None
Into a lockdown
a caterpillar crawling
fragile wings unfurls
second version
Into a lockdown
a crawling caterpillar
fragile wings unfurls
the caiman’s stare
at the edge of the lagoon
her innocent long legs
*
old woman’s face
in a colorful wool
a dried “frailejón”
*
our farewell
of gliding wings
the blue butterfly
He cannot keep up.
We leave him on the ice flow.
Our hearts stay with him.
Round and glistening,
The glass is a sweet dewdrop –
Red wine tipsiness
A thin and bare tree
The snow, a plain white canvas –
Winter’s poverty
My love is a fish
A lung-breathing one, and he
Only swims in me
first winter twilight
enters the subway station
street violinist
Many shades of green
Trees are waving tenderly
To those who must leave
Sheets of rain falling
The wind begins its war cry
That battle will come
Green buds soon bursting
Birds are anticipating
Raspberries for tea
The warmth of nature
Beckons for humanity
To save or destroy
Out on the range
a sleek yellow jaguar
jungle feverish
I am now thinking this works better
what do you think?
jungle feverish
a sleek yellow jaguar
motorway madness
the breakers’ white noise
from time immemorial . . .
my feet in sea foam
floating on my back . . .
for an instant a seagull
eclipses the sun
another day spent
learning fluid dynamics
my beach vacation
“Torrid Cactus”
Thorny cholla arms
Stretching golden blooms skyward
A prickly love’s plea
“Sea Fair-er”
Speckled cockle shell
Sea orphan, bleached, limned with sand
This is time passing
“Miss Muffet Regrets…”
Spinning silken thread
She extracts her nightly home
Nocturnal nomad
Cicero proclaims,
“History is life’s teacher.”
We have failed the course.
the journey of life
but still more and more to see
along the long road
1.
Mortality
yellow daffodils
swaying along concrete path
precariously
2.
White
your letter arrived
while I was shoveling snow
to clear the driveway
3.
Pray
curling lines of heat
scorched temples of million gods –
the poor have no faith
Orange-yellow sun
Rising from the nightly skies
Now my pager rings
Pushing through the earth
The green shoot of the bean plant
Crushing children’s race
The cool evening breeze
My spirit at blissful ease
Distant Floydian Shriek
He’s there. He crowned you.
But you buried him. Alive
He is not broken.
That was a cheap trick
Poof and abracadabra
I know what’s up: Ouch!
Howls at the moon
Sometimes true love pays the price
Rescues her. Swoops in
He’s there. He crowned you.
But you buried him. Alive
He is not broken.
At first we are here
Then we are gone with the wind
Just how is unclear
Sunflowers greet us
Turned towards the lane where you live
Sun shines where you are
Amongst the flowers
Gracing the rolling green hills
I opened my heart
Crawdads clack their way
on top of the slimy rocks
unaware of you
the night is dark … cold
but the sky is filled with stars
and my dawn approaches
The world’s deadlocked in
everlong rivers of hate.
It will never end.
The skylines shimmer,
stretching for infinity
with dunes, blazing white.
The world is at war,
neverending ponds of hate.
Love, it’s gone away.
This are my three now, please ignore
my previous submissions
Soft, swaying curtains
Jasmin-scented evening breeze
whispering secrets
Into a lockdown
a crawling caterpillar
fragile wings unfurls
Jungle feverish
A sleek, yellow jaguar
stuck in traffic jam
sorry
these are…
A rose lost its stalk,
Alone on the sand, cannot
Be the old fair one.
#1
Greys await calm
Calm awaits greys
Petrichor and rain stop by on their way.
#2
Edelweiss wilts in longing
Anklets slip away afar
Does love bloom in a breezy fall?
#3
Lotus souls dancing freely.
The night above, and the stars below make earth a sun.
With nothing but love in sight..
Inspired by Takashi Nagai, “the saint of Urakami”
Bitterness turns sweet
Like dross turns to gold in heat.
Glory in the cross.