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Our 2023 Haiku Competition is on now HERE.
WHO
Anyone in the world, of any age or background, may participate. Among members of the Society of Classical Poets, everyone including Advisory Board members may participate, if not involved in judging the contest. The winner, if not resident in the United States, must have a PayPal account or a bank that accepts US checks, in order to receive prize money.
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PRIZE
$100
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JUDGE
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WHEN
Now until August 15, 2022. Results to be announced August 30, 2022.
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WHERE
Post your entries in the Comments below.
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WHAT
Each competitor may submit up to three haiku of traditional form: three lines per poem with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second, and 5 in the third. Entrants are recommended to conform to other traditional haiku requirements outlined HERE. They should be new poems, written since the closing of the 2021 haiku competition. Although this competition is held in summer, haiku dealing with any season are acceptable.
If you want coaching on haiku features, please read the examples and explanation before submitting your entries. Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment. This is permitted until the competition closes, but do take reasonable care to complete work to your satisfaction before you enter it. Please do not use the Comment area as your scratch pad. That is discourteous to other competitors, to interested readers, and to the judge and will disqualify you.
Entries that do not meet basic traditional haiku requirements may be deleted. Anyone who submits more than three entries will have ALL his or her entries disqualified, unless excess entries are clearly withdrawn by a later Comment.
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PAST WINNERS
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Star-filled, full-moon night
Frogs and crickets make music
For one little girl
Snake slithers away
Underneath the wooden fence
At the edge of town
Little river frog
Hiding under the sidewalk
When a dog goes by
Clouds float gracefully
Upon the whispering wind
Always in motion
The ocean’s waters
Wrap me in a warm blanket
Of cool, clear liquid
Shining dewdrops slide
To mark the coming of dawn…
Where has the night gone?
The sky is paper—
I am caught between it and
the next page, white field
New blooms on black trees
veiled in quiet bone-white fog:
spring’s dirge to winter
The sky, placid lake:
magnolia dips three pink
toes in its waters
Spring in blue lagoon
Oyster in nacre wraps pain
From pricking sand grain
No blossoms on boughs
Prophet’s feet on fallen leaves
Fragrance of greatness
Concentration camp
From the bottom barbed wire hangs
Skin scrape, frost-encased
around the wood stove –
the grandmother moved into
an endless story
woodland waterfall
a glistening tapestry
shrouded in its mist
the morning after
two cardinals cavorting
in a fallen tree
mushroom multitudes
popping up after the rain
a refugee camp
A blinding summer
rain strikes our patio and
stills all evening noise
Spring’s bright pear trees bear
no fruit, but delight us with
pink or white blossoms
Dark green tree top branches
sway crazily from an abrupt
afternoon summer breeze
Thanks Margaret Coats for including me, Joseph Buehler
Margaret, please consider the three poems I sent on July 5th. I realize now you only accept 3 poems. I sent 2 more today, so they don’t count. Joseph Buehler.
I am counting the above three posted July 5 as your entries. Thank you!
yellow zucchinis
sweat in sunlight’s gaze
supple, beeswax skin
sailboats hem the port
icy breeze braids through the waves
a glass tapestry
blush daisy petals
melt in thumbs and grass halos
a fleeting love
Fledglings in Springtime
Know not even how to ask
“Shall we see Autumn?”
Night before evening
Falls on stained-glass windowpanes.
Beauty is darkened.
taking out the trash
hungry for a fly the frog
shoots his slimy tongue
ripples in a pond
underneath the crescent moon
shines a million stars
bones beneath the ground
buried deep within a mound
dying to be found
Cherry blossoms high
Cherry picking time is nigh.
Cheery, cherry pie.
“Wind in the Willows.”
Pooh’s head resting on pillows
Honey? Two kilos.
Wind blowing like that
Upsets my calico cat
By knocking him flat.
The Sun is still there
On Winter nights but it is
Too dark to see it.
Templars’ hooves sling mud
Onto blades’ flashing fury.
Nostrils swell and snort.
Haiku
“Clear Dew” Ibuse
A turtle plods forth
to a wide and sandy beach:
the sound of water.
as per “Clear Dew” Ibuse:
The phrase “the sound of water” in Japanese is “mizu no oto”—水の音.
Thanks for clearing the dew! You are welcome to submit your haiku in both English and Japanese if you like.
Dreary August night
Full moon passing over ships
Whistling winds at sea
Brisk afternoon walk
Sun peek-a-booing through trees
Summer breeze cools me
Spring time marathon
Tunnel of sakura trees
Pink petal runners
puffer jackets at
the beach, littered with sandmen,
kangaroos sunbathe
I had trouble coming up with Australian kigo, but the challenge was fun.
scarecrow points the way–
to an unmanned rail station
rural migration
fallen soldiers in
rippling fields of golden wheat–
winds blow row on row
tithes for the stone church…
young boys who stole Christmas pines
hand back scented coins
Please note that this comment supersedes that of July 1st:
Mountains near Madrid
Still traced at the seams with snow…
Almond trees in bloom
Swathe of goldenrod
Swaying, surging in the breeze…
All that Debussy
Drifting into shore
The swan’s red intricacy…
Just a withered leaf
Golden stamens waft
Bumblebees fly love aloft
Pistil packing child
Tree figured by wind
Stretching beyond endurance
stately speaks of change
Autumn spider spins
Silk threads overwintering
Her offspring within
Title: Broken Hearts and Rotting Peaches
The worms are feasting
On the old sweetness of us
Like rotten peaches
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Title: Playground Trees
Old bark is stripped down
By sticky, chubby fingers
Leaving raw amber
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Title: Autumn
Leaves falling down to
Cold barren ground, orange and
Brown mix like fresh paint
The bird flies
when the tall tree falls
right to another, imminent fall
abyssal spring blue –
believing the sky closer
with each ascended floor
along the sea cliffs
the lifeblood of the planet
beats against the rocks
steam rising from pines
heated by the morning sun—
vap’rous ghosts set free
bare branches reach out
to the cold and distant sun;
it goes on its way
springs sun shone as new
whisper from a brilliant muse
this is a haiku
summer snow falling
flake-white feathers, bloody quill
red-tailed hawk flapping
autumn starlight falling
pale thin ghosts of fallen leaves
on the falling leaves
Fallen leaves again;
Trees are like feeling lonely —
But birds, will be back.
It is on the spring;
Birds are building their houses—
They will be chirping.
It’s on the winter;
Everything there, are in whites—
It is so frigid.
Black clouds in the sky
Rain drops falling one by one
Puddles on the ground
Hello, Annanya De,
If I may. Your reference to “black clouds” as a traditional haiku
element is absolutely brilliant. I enjoyed reading your pieces.
Thank you,
E. Owen