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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 Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment.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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Breathless, cold beauty,
Light flickers like a heartbeat,
Your love, a waning moon.
Haiku 1:
Hours stretch, then snap back
Clock hands blur like fading stars,
Threads entangle, day and night
Haiku 2:
Moonlight sculpts the sky
Silver veins in endless dark,
Night bleeds into dawn.
Haiku 3:
Falling autumn leaves
Crimson whispers on the breeze,
Summer slips away.
Chirping chickadees
rouse me from my Sunday sleep
with rapturous song
A sliver of moon
floats in silver summer skies
sailing through night
Along the lakeshore
silence disturbed by a breeze
breaks the water’s peace
Title: Basketball
It soars through the air,
The crowd roars like a lion.
A buzzer beater
Thank you for considering my poem
The mud beneath me,
Calmness stirs inside my soul.
Earth swallows me whole.
Tiny feet splashing
A rainbow in the puddle –
Wonder in his eyes
Dark clouds streak the sky;
A Rain Lily, bright and still
The sole sign of hope
Cherry blossoms wake
Have long been in a slumber –
Outstretched rosy arms
scrimshaw made from spark
lightning spiders the fissures
of a fractured night
spider constructs a
God’s eye delicate as breath
more complex than death
standing smug and louche
the dandelion strikes a pose
on my well coiffed lawn
On the shore they learn
To breathe underwater past
The lines in the sand
crescent moon…
mentally arguing
with my sleepless wife
Halloween eve
wife rubs dirt
of the Dead Sea
Indian summer
I admire the shapes
of wine bottles
Withdrawing my previous submission and resubmitting w/ edits.
#1
Black snake slithers up
dark tree bark, seeking bird eggs.
The wind holds its breath.
#2
Cricket’s concert says
it’s cold. The breeze agrees—my
window stays open.
#3
Orchid smiles but
does not bow; royal as rain
now misting its face.
burgeoning springtime . . .
poets desire to sow the seeds
of enduring change
the cry of a crane…
the sharp adam’s apple of a man
looking at the sky
the first frosts
slightly pointed
facial features
“The Seasons”
I know by heart
how the snow falls
full September moon
a copper gong hums in the
symphony of night
footprints near the door
a brass knocker cloaked in snow
just a strolling cat
Circling
hands pluck at bedsheets
tracing lines, ending stories
returning to sleep
We hide from the dark
Fearing fated, endless night
And rise with the sun
Tears hide in raindrops
A reminder that heartache
Is so natural
Soothing coos of doves
A new day dawns, and with it:
Possibility.
Vividly fuzzy
Memory of someone who
Otherwise unknown.
Rose, color word task
Touch me not,seldom listen
Conflicts never end.
How fifty changed me?
Watching robins take a bath:
Friday night delight.
—-
I pull in the oars
to honor river’s silence.
Mergansers don’t care.
—-
First snow blankets peaks.
Leaves and needles blanket trails.
Autumn blankets souls.
“Harmful algal blooms”
the sign warns. Precarious,
you perch above, glad.
“You don’t know me.” True
enough—so many barriers.
Yourself, for instance.
I crash through the gauze
between consciousness and more.
Oh. Life. There you are.
Colorless
You were a painter
And I, your canvas. But now
I rest colorless.
Teta leaves home to find
Too busy wiping away tears like windshield
To build a new one.
Prayed for the rain much
The crops are now fully satisfied
Enjoying bodies swallowed by rivers.
The bird flies away singing
From my room I watch her mocking
Caged person with grilled windows.