The 24th HIA Haiku Contest Prize Winners
Haiku in Overseas
Prize Winners, selected by Toshio Kimura
| setting sun a cuckoo dissolves in its song | Ravi Kiran (India) |
The voice of a cuckoo that tells us the time on a clock is familiar enough. (In Japan, however, its unfrequented voice suggests no activity, and that kind of clock is called a pigeon clock.) On a summer evening, just when the cuckoo’s song has been almost forgotten, it begins to sing again. The poet attends to this vacant space, and comes to understand how the cuckoo gradually vanishes into its own call in the encroaching darkness. It seems unique grasp, and yet it makes you think that maybe it is.
| border station a maple leaf still waiting on the platform | Eduard Tara (Romania) |
In Western Europe, as well as in Eastern Europe, there are many railroads connecting different countries, and here in this haiku the next station is already in another country. Can this maple be seen from the platform, or does it instead represent the passengers waiting in the autumn foliage? How long has it been waiting? Perhaps the train will never come. If it is placed in Eastern Europe, then the threat of war contrasts with the beauty of the autumn leaves.
Honorable Mentions, selected by Toshio Kimura
| mountain hare behind the stones his own dusk | Xenia Tran (U.K.) |
| Sunny winter day － rolling after its shadow kicked chestnut | Nikola Đuretić (Croatia) |
| origami star i fold the sky into another sky | Alvin B. Cruz (Philippines) |
| where sunflowers follow the summer sun ongoing war | Meera Rehm (U.K.) |
Prize Winners, selected by David Burleigh
| Toothache but only a star falls | Srini (India) |
The juxtaposition of what is close and immediate with something large and distant is memorable here, connecting the personal and the universal.
| palm reading sunbeams disappear in an oak’s bark | Nina Kovacic (Croatia) |
Again there is a contrast and pairing, between the close attention to the palm, and something else beyond, that creates a sense of mystery.
Honorable Mentions, selected by David Burleigh
| the frog looking back at me from the tip of a pencil | Mattias Granfrid (Sweden) |
| sudden blackout… the sustainable light of fireflies | Ali Znaidi (Tunisia) |
| Perseids… granny stops reading a fairy tale | Seby Ciobica (Romania) |
| Full moon passes evenly over the uneven buildings of Tokyo | Maria Akiyama (Japan) |