.
Winners announced here.
Write a haiku 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. See traditional haiku requirements here. Note that a haiku is like a a painting of nature. If your 5-7-5 poem is focused solely on human nature and is more cynical or humorous, then it is technically a senryu, not a haiku. However, haiku do concern human activities in relation to nature. The required seasonal word can refer to seasonal sports, holidays, entertainment, gardening, housekeeping, or visits to special places. Although this contest is held in summer, haiku dealing with any season are acceptable.
.
WHEN:
Now until Saturday August 28, 2021 midnight EST. Winners Announced September 5.
.
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. Must conform to traditional haiku rules above.
.
WHERE:
Post your haiku in the comments section below.
.
PRIZE:
$100.
.
JUDGE:
.
ENTRY FEE:
None
.
EXAMPLES
See last year’s winning haiku here.
.
.
constellations sky
the fragrance of night jasmine
deepens the stillness
Nice multisensory descriptive, I am there!
The pale winter dawn
shrouds her naked silhouette
Tree with empty nest
The weaver is here
Building his home for the spring
Dry leaves intertwined
The nest is too small
So he builds another one
It’s always too small
Nights become shorter
The air fills with light and song
Vital warmth for all
whenever the trees…
meet at the confluence forest
the sky dare not purge
moon frowns and withdraws
the sun protrudes and beams forth
dawn of a new day
on his way to tap…
climbing the tree with étè
blessings of palm wine
a wily fox leaves
feathers floating in the pond…
no fresh eggs today
wearily she waves
the white flag of surrender…
cobwebbed butterfly
waltzing with the wind
peach blossom and plum blossom
swapping dance partners
Beautiful imagery of a farm. Was the butterfly white?
Tree-shadows grow long
In the light of her sorrow,
Gold-leaves are glowing.
Her hand on her womb,
The moon rises ripe and full :
As the sea surges.
A woman’s tears slide,
A closed clam lies upon the sand –
As waves froth and pull.
The meaning life
Is to fit everything
Into a song
Blackened landscape burns
White-hot embers smoldering
Wegeneration
Sun comes in creeping
Radiating energy
Warm faces beaming
From silver silence
Tree-netted moon releases
Maple leaf golden
No Cedar Waxwings
Returned this mild winter.
Berry seeds not sown.
Popcorn clouds, blue sky
Birds sing, sun hiding, seeking
Look, Humming Bird nest!
Poetic biology lesson with the waxwings…why didn’t they return?
smoke clogging earth’s pores
nature wilting all the time
ecosystems plagued
newly warmed flannels
now in my laundry basket
have begun to purr
one lone(ly) mallard
ignored by his own echo
quacks again, hoping
breath crisp one crow dreams
feasting on roast winter squash
salt kissed with cold toes
Loved the laundry kitty and the lonely mallard. Did not quite get the third one though…
There is a glow worm
igniting the gentle night
with its charming bum
Up the window pane
it struggles against the rain
For what, I don’t know
His signal is one
that brings me hope, but perhaps
It’s an SOS
(I wonder, I do
If a UFO could read
His desperate plea)
Three wonderful poems, why break the rules with a fourth?
Blue moon milky way
The crush of waves change slowly
Yet stays day by day
Clouds outside the frame.
The position of the door
Exposes autumn.
Life
Morning has broken
A butterfly flaps her wings
Life’s rumbles begin
Toni Newell 4tth August (Australia)
museum of rot
the ochre-brown leaf piles–they
weigh heavily now
crystal upon stone
where the water meets the land
hands balance towers
mayflies swarm the beach
seeking organic matter–
algae for a feast
Nice real imagery, nature isn’t always hummingbird rainbows!
Smoke blackened red skies
Ebbs with the last breath of life
And then there was peace
A charred haunting peace…
gusty southwest wind,
with tempest of Pacific
Yule in the offing
a livid monsoon
jaundiced August hex a doom
let creatures cocoon
in tropical night
sweet sampaguita unfurls,
’til the morning blights
Urgent chirping birds
Blossoms fingering a wall
Stillness deep within
Women fighting in
Cages, mandated vaccines–
Antichrist is nigh!
This has nothing to do with nature and is not a haiku. Please conform to the rules of the contest and try again. Thank you
Sorry. how’s this
Birds fighting in the
Trees, leaves falling without choice–
Antichrist is nigh!