One more haiku to mention here is Mark Philip Stone’s salute to the Japanese poet Issa. But swimming has long been recognized as a human activity associated with summer, and the poet uses it well to open up the boy’s imaginative prospect of what he might possibly see in ocean waters. There may seem to be no nature at all in Bruce Dale Wise’s poem on the boy in a backyard pool. The first two lines of the poem may look like a senryu rather than a haiku, but “the wind also dies.” The nature reference effectively deepens the thought. This takes place every year in August, and it is quite stirring to participate when traffic and talk stop on busy streets and in stores. Notice the poem by Toshiji Kawagoe about the minute’s silence recalling the atomic bomb blasts in Japan near the end of World War II. Human life takes place in the seasons of nature, and seasonal human activities or observances can be good ways of indicating a season. But be aware of how much a season includes. Simply naming a season, or using a recognized seasonal word, is fine. These examples of seasonal reference show that it can be an opportunity for the poet to demonstrate his or her skill. When he speaks of “magpies canceling fresh twitter accounts,” he describes notorious magpie aggression destroying the chicks or eggs of other bird species-but of course he mocks human cancel culture as well. Sean Hickey names spring in his haiku’s first line, but he could have identified the season merely with his pun on “twitter,” referring to the cries of baby birds in spring. When is that? It takes a little thinking, even if the reader knows bear cubs are born during winter hibernation. Peterson sets the season in “Bear Cubs” as the time when cubs who know the forest first encounter men. Tracy Davidson saves the spring word “butterfly” to be the surprise answer at the very end of a puzzle personifying the creature in distress. Spencer Green also uses description rather than a seasonal word in his ingenious winter cityscape. What does she describe in her haiku’s first two lines? A field of sunflowers! Her final line makes excellent use of five syllables in the word “imperceptibly” to carefully specify the slow speed of the “turning to sun and to seed” mentioned in line 2. Lisa White tells what season it is with a riddle rather than a word. Joe’s haiku presents a summer night scene from nature-and suggests things beyond the scene (a beautiful textile, thoughts of light and beauty despite darkness or death). “A thread of fireflies” not only provides light in the dark natural scene, but completes the fabric metaphor with gold thread embellishing dark cloth. When he goes on to say, “Woven in the heavy mist,” the word “woven” emphasizes the dense, fabric-like texture of the fog. Joe says, “Fog enshrouds the night,” suggesting the dead of night, since a shroud covers a dead body. Even in Japan (despite kigo lists) heavy mist may arise over a lake during a summer night. The poet must be true to his observations and his imagination. Does this mean he cannot write a haiku describing fireflies in fog? Not at all. If our winner, Joe Tessitore, had consulted one, he would have found “fireflies” in the summer section, and “fog” in autumn. Seasonal words are called “kigo” in Japanese, and there are many lists of them. The excellent haiku above help show what it means to say that the seasonal reference ultimately depends on the poet’s artistry, rather than on choosing a word from a list. Thank you all for your skillful contributions to this display of poems.Īs the competition was proceeding, there was some discussion in Comments about the requirements, especially the required seasonal reference. Judged by Margaret Coats (see her remarks below)Ĭongratulations to the winner and runners-up for their fine haiku! There were very many good haiku among the poems submitted by 339 contestants this year (up from 246 last year). 43 Comments Winner and Runners-up of the Society of Classical Poets 2021 Haiku Competition
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