The 22nd HIA Haiku Contest Prize Winners

Haiku in Overseas

Prize Winners, selected by Toshio Kimura

our window-box a honeybee meanders among my desires

Cynthia Rowe (Australia)

abandoned garden a rusty bird cage with the door open

marinabita (Marina Bellini) (Romania)

Honorable Mentions, selected by Toshio Kimura

autumn loneliness waiting for the cows to come home

Susan Burch (U.S.A.)

paper lantern passing sea-grass gone, like that

Ana Prundaru (Switzerland)

long journey I wave to the moon I left behindd

Praniti Gulyani (India)

summer winds my guitar gathers the softest dust

Himanshu Vyas (India)

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Prize Winners, selected by David Burleigh

Biblical rainfall the pigeon bread has turned to dough again

Lyudmila Hristova (Bulgaria)

I liked this verse when I first glanced through, and still liked it on second reading: The pouring rain has reduced the bread to mush, while the drops knead it like a baker’s hands. There is an amusing haikai quality to this, fresh and well observed.

dropping its last leaf wind enters the bathhouse

Jonathan Humphrey (U.S.A.)

This verse too has a bemused quality, in the tradition of haikai , and is well timed, so the meaningchanges in the middle, opening up different possible interpretations as we follow the naked wind indoors, the leaf discarded.

Honorable Mentions, selected by David Burleigh

full moon my blank look

Pere Risteski (North Macedonia)

cherry petals the mask can’t hide her delight

Edward Tara (Romania)

meteor shower the black-eyed susans are watching too

Earl R. Keener (U.S.A.)

early dawn he fills the door frame with his laughter

Xenia Tran (U.K.)