.
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 a U.S. resident, must have a PayPal account or a bank that accepts U.S. checks, in order to receive prize money.
.
PRIZE
$100
.
JUDGES
J. Thomas Rimer, Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature, Theatre, and Art at the University of Pittsburgh; former chief of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress.
Margaret Coats, Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University; retired from a career of teaching literature, languages, and writing that included considerable work in homeschooling for her own family and others.
.
WHEN
Now until September 16, 2023, 6 pm EST (New York time). The original Sept. 15 deadline has been extended for those in other time zones. Results to be announced September 29, 2023 (corresponding with Tsukimi—the Japanese Moon Festival).
.
WHERE
Post your entries in the Comments below.
.
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.
IMPORTANT: By submitting haiku to this contest, the contestant declares that the poems are his or her own work, and that they were written after July 2022. Please submit using your first and last name, as we may find it difficult to distinguish between contestants who have similar first names.
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 Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment.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who submits more than three entries will have ALL his or her entries disqualified, unless excess entries are clearly withdrawn by a later Comment.
.
PAST WINNERS
.
.
Rain, allusive rain,
Drenches earth with sudden storms.
The birds fall silent.
Blossoms on the bough
Have yet to bear promised fruit—
Tender is the age.
Honorable Peak,
Come Spring I’ll climb Ontake—
Mystic vision waits.
I wish to replace my first haiku with the following:
Rain, pluvial rain,
Drenches earth with sudden storms.
The birds fall silent.
late July delight
fresh rain splashes hot blacktop
silently steaming
humid air hovers
icy cold glass in hand drips
sweet peach tea pleases
August afternoon
muggy fog cracks, sky sends treats
hailstones cool my tongue
No dew drops today
the lawns are set in diamonds
hands snug in mittens.
Last night I traveled
the hollows of your face where
youth hid its mercies
Sound of a raven:
Words I should never utter
to my enemies
Mayflies in sunlight
The golden retriever
haloed with them
Modern garden sheds
daisies, weeds and bumblebees;
grass is not greener.
(Haiku moved by moderator)
the fields are growing,
feels the farmer-warrior,
into battlefields
the far off mountain
sheds all but a hat of snow
when cold winds return
fox dens and bird nests
arrive and dissolve around
the stubborn boulder
The full moon was this
big! she gestures with herhands, under the moonlight.
A drop no longer
a drop no longer a drop
no longer a drop …
Quick, fill a bucket
with snow! I am thirsty for
a cup of black tea.
The full moon was this
big! she gestures with her hands,
under the moonlight.
A drop no longer
a drop no longer a drop
no longer a drop …
Quick, fill a bucket
with snow! I am thirsty for
a cup of black tea.
white frangipani
around the cemetery
lies love of my life
Dear haiku writers, please post poems with your FIRST NAME AND LAST NAME, as directed in the announcement above. Thanks for your help in conducting this large contest.
Fall hues often vie
Evening’s glory in the sky
Waiting winter’s dawn.
Rain pools in laurels
Incessant gravity pulls
One summer day splashed
Yesterday,
My heart jumped in glee
Because I still haven’t made a decision
For my part to run away and flee
Or stay entangled in this friction
Oh how I imagine some endless days
Floating in the ocean
By the salmon drifting away
In a mindless motion
But work has carried me away
From you and everything rosy
But there’s nothing left to say
This spell will be broken and mori
Where no words are left in a phrase
As you are just a token
For my limited days….
August fills the ditch:
Lace, goldenrods, and thistle.
Dowry for the Fall.
Peaches picked, not ripe,
Sit on the sill and sweeten.
Aging, we summer.
Ice captures a swirl,
Fluidity in fractal,
Memory’s curve and line.
The cosmos springs forth
An eternal liturgy
Man’s priestly order
While hoeing parched earth,
a whelk, stone-dead, surfaces –
cloned by tiers of silt.
Walking, then standing –
as summer rattles alder
egret holds his gaze.
black heron creates
an umbrella with its wings
unsuspecting fish
late afternoon sun
fills the kitchen with rainbows
swaying crystal heart
a visit from my
grandmother the day she died
peregrine falcon
snowy train station
my window stopping slowly
to frame the silence
hay bales in the barn
father and son’s slow walk home
for their cold supper
departing rainclouds
my daughter empties sunlight
from the old tire swing
abandoned drive-in
from your car roof the best view
of the Milky Way
abandoned farmhouse
collapsing into itself
if not for the vines
sun pierces treeline,
radiance ruptures the gloom.
a barren woodland.
single pale poppy
stands above a field of red.
air, ambivalent.
lunch break, woodland walk.
the internet underground
tracking my footsteps.
A doe emerges shyly
from the tree line; we watch her
through silent windows.
The oak that once stood
so dark and huge lies crippled,
toppled by the storm.
still warm at twilight
the soft rustle of starlings
settling down to roost
a young stag bellows
at his face in the water—
faraway thunder
the calm of evening…
a mute swan glides downriver
through the falling snow
Snowflakes in April
Like shampoo in the tulips
What is it doing
Mote in the moon’s eye
Is that a crack don’t touch it
You will spill the milk
Geese flying upstate
Honk through the smoggy morning
You never returned
one cent copper coin
pressed pennies memories hold
a moment in time
her hue is of bright
frida kahlo look-alike
braids she wears with pride
all she left was wood
carvings with a dust coating
keepsakes near her tomb
The Moon’s shadow weaves
Heaven’s invisible web.
Busy black spiders.
Clouds sharpen their swords.
The horizon splits in two.
An angry red sky.
A pink lotus pond
in solitary beauty
as the sun rises.
summer afternoon
floating between grass and sky
the lovers’ hammock
as I walk barefoot
my footsteps are filling up
with rain, then sunshine
this is a long night
some well-known shadows return
to my memory
at thirty-one degrees
all I want to do is lie
about the weather
weathered motorway –
we drive through the surface spray,
make fog out of tyres
from your tree, the pips
must be taken with the flesh –
uneasy eating
GLACIAL TIME
A RIVER OF ICE
STRIATIONS OF PAST EONS
SLOWLY FADE AWAY
SOLSTICE
SUMMER IN DECLINE
IN MY BONES I CAN FEEL IT
EARTH’S TILT AND TURNING
WHITE COVEYS
FLIGHTS OF BUTTERFLIES
WHITE DRIFTS NESTLED IN THE TREES
DOGWOODS DEEP IN BLOOM
while playing hopscotch
tall shadows of the children
a stone’s throw away
On a sunny day
the bright chirp of a robin
the laugh of a child
oh I cannot touch
that branch of cherry blossoms
that is touching me
My heart is an ancient manor
A souvenir of unrequited love and limitless longing
Haunted by ghost of sighs
Moon lights tear stained cheeks
The star seem dimmer in your absence
Grief and love choke me
Your eyes hold me captive
Sweet song of mermaids beckoning me underwater
Decaying desires drown me