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 WHC Contests - New Year's Double Kukai

The THIRD New Year's Eve & New Year's Day
World-wide Double Kukai 2002/2003

 

Haiku Poems Inspired by Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)
Finale to WHC's Two-year Celebrations of the Centenary of His Death

The 20 Shortlist Selections

 

Haiku Poems of Merit

The following 20 haiku poems were selected for the short list.
Comments by the authors explain relationships of their haiku to Shiki's.
Total score shown in brackets

36 (13 points) Betty Kaplan, USA

open window . . .
cherry blossoms
drift in the bath

Betty Kaplan
Aventura, Florida, USA

90 (13 points) Alenka Zorman, Slovenia

under the bridge
the still river carries away
New Year's fireworks

Alenka Zorman
Ljubljana, SL

The bridge as the 'bridge' between two years. The river symbolizes the passing of time and, still as it is, doesn't care for the noisy celebration of people standing on the bridge beneath Ljubljana Castle. - AZ

110 (13 points) DeVar Dahl, Canada

the longest night --
the waterfall's sound
smothered by ice

DeVar Dahl
Magrath, Alberta, CA

One of Shiki's haiku describes the changing sounds of a waterfall. The waterfall I frequently visit produces sounds that change and in winter there is only a muffled sound through the ice -DD

144 (12 points) Aruna Lakshmanan, USA

alone
a boy skipping stones
on the frozen pond

Aruna Lakshmanan
Omaha, Nebraska, USA

Shiki wrote about loneliness and the desolation of winters. He also wrote about simple everyday activities. -AL

106 (9 points) Theolyn Brock, USA

sunlight travels
across my narrow bed
slowly tip-to-toe

Theolyn Brock
Orlando, Florida, USA

180 (8 points) Angèle Lux, Canada

dying sun
the water hyacinth
already faded.

Angèle Lux
Val-des-Monts (Québec), CA

Shiki died fairly young. He wrote thousands and thousands of haiku. He was very prolific. Imagine what he could have leave us had he lived longer. This is why I compare him with a water hyacinth. Its lovely blue-mauve flowers (a color that Shiki described a lot) hold great appeal for home gardeners who like to use them in their fish or lily ponds. Water hyacinth spreads quickly (It can increase from ten to 65,000 plants in eight months) but its flowering time lasts only one day. -AL

188 (8 points) Bruce Ross, USA

here again
then gone once more
cloudy winter moon

Bruce Ross
Orono, ME, USA

Resonates with Shiki's winter moonlight/shadow of the stone pagoda/shadow of the pine-tree (after Blyth). The affect of moonlight (here self-referential) and the New Year's Eve transition from old to new year (and the ephemeral nature of experience). -BR

212 (8 points) Robert Gibson, USA

the old house
seems older
winter rain

Robert Gibson
Centralia, WA, USA

simple. objective, feeling. - RG

123 (6 points) Ron Moss, Australia

cold sunset -
the teenager fingers the hole
in his jeans

ron moss
Tasmania, AU

The small and the mundane a moment of concentration a Shiki moment ... -RM

17 (5 points) Nancy Stewart Smith, USA

lingering warmth
still snuggling in last year's
sheets

Nancy Stewart Smith
Athens, Georgia USA

I'll have one six foot bed, constant attention and admiration, but hold the pain, if you would, please. -NSS

89 (5 points) Florence Vilen, Sweden

Midnight bells broadcast
from nine or ten cathedrals,
the first champagne

Florence Vilen
Stockholm, SW

Shiki's fourteen or fifteen cockscombs, and generally his preference for numbers; the flavour of religious celebration combined with mundane life.

160 (4 points) John Bird, Australia

learning to die -
jacaranda blooms surround
grandmother's chair

John Bird
Ocean Shores, AU

An old lady sitting in hospital grounds, surrounded by fallen jacaranda blooms -- learning from nature how to accept life cycles. -JB

62 (3 points) Marjorie Buettner, USA

New Year's day...
between half sleep and dream
the warmth of your lips

Marjorie Buettner
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Shiki taught us the importance of those sketches of life which will always concern the immediacy of now; the future is unknown, the past is irredeemable, but the magic of now--especially at such a significant almost mythical time as the New Year--makes us feel time's virginal quality when everything is as if for the first time. -MB

220 (1 point) an'ya, USA

winter solstice --
tonight my bloodhound's voice
belongs in a graveyard

an'ya
Crooked River Ranch
Oregon, USA

This haiku is based on the idea that Shiki wrote quite often of the sound of barking/howling dogs, and on a combination of these two haiku.

2 an'ya, USA

the sick room --
of all these flies around me
not one is landing

an'ya
Crooked River Ranch, Oregon, USA

Shiki often wrote about the flies in his sick room, so this haiku.

37 Moussia Fantoli, Italy

Small room for the blind
eight steps from door to window
frozen pane stops him

Moussia Fantoli
Rome, IT

This haiku echoes Shiki's mood in: "Maki wo waru/ imoto hitori/ fuyugomori" -MF

56 DeVar Dahl, Canada

haiku notebook
this spring's seed order
on the last page

DeVar Dahl
Magrath, Alberta, CA

I am sure that if Shiki's health had permitted, he would have loved to tend a garden. -DD

70 Jasminka Nadaskic Diordievic, Yugoslavia

first sounds of rain?
the sickle moon rises into
starless infinity

Jasminka Nadaskic Diordievic
Smederevo, YU

Such a beautiful deep summer night, who can sleep, it was time for enjoy, suddenly first raindrops ... I can't see, only hear this beauty. -JND

91 Florence Vilen, Sweden

Trailing along
the traces of fireworks
the old year, too

Florence Vilen
Stockholm, SW

Shiki's fireworks haiku discussed in the WHC -FV

155 paul t conneally, England

Bosworth Field
white roses scattered
in the long grass

paul t conneally
Loughborough, UK

After Basho, Shiki too found the souls of dead warriors in the battlefield's grasses - here in Leicestershire, I find the same on Bosworth Field - the place where the last King of England to be slain in battle died - Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain (the colours of the rainbow) and the white rose - the symbol of Yorkshire - my county of birth - "a horse! a horse! a kingdom for ...." - war is always gruesome and it does us well to remember this.

 

 



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