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The Winner and Runner-ups are listed HERE.
WHO
Anyone in the world, of any age or background, may participate (SCP Membership not required). 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.
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 2023. Please submit using your first and last name, as we may find it difficult to distinguish between contestants who have similar first names.
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PRIZE
$100
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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.
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WHEN
Now until September 15, 2024, 6 pm EST (New York time). Results to be announced September 29, 2024.
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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.
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 Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment.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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Blossom placed in box.
Jasmine scent will not decay.
Gold in cloisonné.
I learned to warble.
Birdies join me in a song.
I must be cuckoo!
Birds sing in bushes
While I am picking berries.
Jamming in the spring.
Truly beaytiful Haikus, so well crafted! Your first Haiku is my favorite.
Terrific line..Gold in cloisonné? Awesome.
That is three haikus. All beautiful
Three beautiful Haikus. I like the one about the birdies best
The renewed confinement…
my grandma peeps at a bird
soaring in the wind
Dread and destruction
sweep through the Caribbean…
Beryl’s blind fury
The aggressor trapped
in delusions of grandeur …
a reign of terror
This is clever your grandma is her own jailer, looking out the window to the free world
Love this haiku
My only suggestion is that you drop the leading, ‘The’. I’d hate you to miss out on a technicality because it rant 5/7/5
The evening concert –
big waves breaking on the shore
full of broken stones
A hunger dwells in
Everyone else fades away
Lights become dimmer
I like them all, but especially each of the last two they are very clever with a very clever satori line.
By stars enchant
Beautifully falling-
And fell over a bloke’s head!
You are my past
He is my present-
In the future, he furts!
The night sings lullabies
Only to keep me from-
Your nagging mouth!
Our routine small talk
takes an unexpected turn.
Summers first cuckoo!
The wind through the reeds.
During our afternoon walk,
static on the line.
Indian summer.
Growing on a pumpkin patch —
the shades of autumn.
beginning of autumn –
restless lake
washes the morning
the taste of morning tea
sun rays
through an open window
.
autumn is getting closer
different flowers in an unknown world
a comforting haiku
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Hello! I’m happy to submit the following haikus.
My many thanks, Emily C. A. Snyder
1.
five red petals fall
stain Demeter’s sobbing snow;
pomegranate Spring
2.
thread the |
| midnight maze
minotaur moan ||
|| hero ‘s(w)ings
can
I
get
a………………………………….clue?
3.
six-eyed Seraphim
shut the Eden gate to man;
let the women eat
LOL – looks like the formatting of the second one didn’t quite come through. But that’s alright. Thank you for this opportunity!
– Emily C. A. Snyder
Thank you for considering these three haiku for the 2024 Haiku competition.
Regards,
Ed Ahern
winter holdover
cruising slowly through our rooms
the first fly of spring.
the shading maple
balding even in summer
never reawoke
subject to censure
but the musk of burning leaves
is autumn’s censer
Three very nice haikus. I especially like the first one about the fly. I’ve never figured out how flies no one want to come out and where their eggs go so that they hatch in the spring. They usually problem in the summer mostly
subject to censure
but the musk of burning leaves
is autumn’s censer
– I really like this one.
I especially like the first one. It has a very clever Satori line. Although I am never partial to flies, they do service for all of the creatures in the world by eating the rotting flesh before it eats us.
Respected judges,
thank you for your time.
Regards,
Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
always on tiptoes
exuviae of insects
in a field of wheat
grasshopper kebabs
capital letters twinkling
with the beat of heart
a green popsicle
even on a rainy day
my ace in the hole
I especially like the first haiku of yours. But they’re all really good. I only have one entered, and I don’t know if it is as good as the rest of you guys.
Lapis azul sky
rainbow in the falling leaves
stars intensify
Journey cool and dry
chilly night to winter freeze
vegetations die
Sunsets with a sigh
season ends with golden ease
leaving winter’s try
I really like that third haiku. I find it interesting that a lot of people are talking about winter in here it is summer. But, I just wrote a poem about that that I’ll be submitting soon.
Good job
A feathery storm:
A cawcophony of crows
Murders autumn hush.
The moon sheens the view
Over the bay’s tidal crests—
I am swept away.
Starless ocean night.
On the skyline—fuel ship burns?
Crimson moon blazes.
I like the ones about crows best. But, I like all three
Between the cypress
And the thrush of Pelican wings,
Eternity speaks.
The old coyote
Under the solstice moonlight
Looks like Ezra Pound.
The smell of sage brush
And salt soaked mist from the surf;
Warm tobacco drifts.
Carter, please provide both first and last name, as requested in the paragraph above marked IMPORTANT, right after the one telling WHO may enter the contest. Thank you for your haiku!
“YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!”
that’s what all of the books say
then I guess I’m NUTS.
CHOCOLATES
I ate chocolates
all of my 70 years
Now diabetic.
PARTY SURPRISE
Met at a party
neither one wanted to go
Wed 50+ years.
Wendy,
You made me laugh; thank you! Then you scared me; I love chocolate and eat too much of it. Then I felt really happy for you, for your 50+ years marriage. Best wishes for the competition.
Jan
record with scratches
two sides music click pops hiss
vinyl memories
Like and like.
thank you for sharing your haiku.
Winds in my plum tree
Took all its perfumed blossoms
Their scent now in dreams
Spiders in April
Immobile sitting on stones
Sun worshippers too?
Summer skies are fun
Fluffy clouds graze in the wind
White sheep on blue fields
neúprosný čas
v pavučinách spomienok
hľadám myšlienky
lúka v rozkvete
vôňa čerstvého dažďa
zhlboka dýcham
bútľavá vŕba
uložené tajomstvá
hlboko v duši
Eva Drobna, Slovakia
Eva Drobna, thanks for your haiku in Slovak. Please either translate them into English, or submit others written in English. We are happy to see occasional dual language entries, but we judge only those written in English. Appreciate your efforts!
Signs from the Times
(July 13, 2021)
The Times is finding
poetry everywhere.
Is this true haiku?
“These things happen and
you feel like you’re alone, but
people can relate.”
Counting syllables
is all it takes to make it.
Basho! Issa! Weep!
The turn of the page
Is like briskly walking through
A door to a room
Chaos to chaos
Move from one to the other
Order to order
How many great men
Would rather not have done the
Things that made them great?
A peace lily, frost-
fringed: an old man’s hand shielding
his match from the wind.
Nice! Fresh and visual.
Summer
>
> It is a new time,
> Life comes alive and well here,
> Embrace it with strength
Haiku #5
Upon the fabric
of Sol’s Green Couch, we built life
in the sky’s embrace.
Haiku #6
To some, to be numb
is a blessing. I say no.
Painlessness is death.
Haiku #7
This poet of woes
I find him droll, composing
pains he does not know.
Cherry blossoms fall
Pink petals dance on the breeze
Spring’s fleeting beauty
Moonlight on water
Ripples break the reflection
Stars swim in the lake
Northern lights shimmer,
a dance of colors above—
nature’s silent hymn.
A marble sinking
amidst a rising silence
in vast, dark waters.
Dire straits break the skin.
Roses and Violets in bloom;
stemming from the ground.
Nothing is formless,
standing and swirling around.
Nothing is deathless.
Thank you for considering my work.
careless ugly moth
the light attracts your dark eyes
cat’s pink tongue tastes you
Goldenrods ablaze
Can you hear the ashes too?
Let me burn tonight.
Blue cotton nightgown.
Stars mark steps after living.
Metaphysics fan?
Candy in glass jars
Marching like small tin soldiers.
Rain sheets, silver walls.
Thank you for the invitation
Wild fires scorch the earth
The black ash will fuel new life.
The waste land renewed.
Spring bursts from the sky
Waking earth’s sleeping beauty,
With the kiss of life.
Slow the fall descends
In golden leaves of glory.
Life will rise again.
Kathy Bahr
chorus starts to sing
time for all of us to breath
silence of the leafs
Thinning of the veil
October’s golden flicker—
Nightlights guide the dead
Clouds blocking the sun
In stillness she waits for song
A hummingbird’s breath
Squirrels strip red seeds
from magnolia pods – again!
There go the blossoms.
…
From the roof’s edge, rain
falls in strings of silver beads –
dancer’s costume. Bling!
…
Pumpkin orange moon
perched alone on a tree branch –
nothing rhymes with you.
I relate. God bless.
Moonrise in the hills
Floods the shadow filled valley
With a spectral glow.
The summer sizzles.
Heat waves rise from the baked earth,
Waiting for a breeze.
Gnats dance in the air.
The still pond gleams in the sun,
Warmed by its embrace.