2020 RESULTS

At the Ninth Edition of the Haiku Contest SHARPENING THE GREEN PENCIL 2020 organized by the Romanian Kukai Group have participated  176 participants from 5 continents as follows:    AFRICA 1 Algeria 1 2 Nigeria 2 3 South Africa 1 ASIA 1 India 12 2 Indonesia 3 3 Iran 7 4 Malaysia 1 5 Nepal 1 6 Pakistan 2 7 Sri Lanka 1 8 Taiwan 1 9 Thailand 1 10 Turkey 1 11 Vietnam 1 AUSTRALIA 1 Australia 10 2 New Zealand 10 EUROPE 1 Belgium 3 2 Bulgaria 5 3 Croatia 24 4 France 4 5 Germany 9 6 Greece 1 7 Hungary 1 8 Italy 4 9 Lithuania 2 10 Malta 1 11 Montenegro 1 12 North Macedonia 1 13 Poland 9 14 Moldavian Republic 1 15 The Netherlands 1 16 Romania 6 17 Russia 3 18 Serbia 3 19 Slovenia 1 20 Spain 1 21 Switzerland 3 22 Ireland 1 23 Northern Ireland 1 24 UK 4 25 Ukraine 1 AMERICA 1 USA 24 2 Canada 5 3 Colombia 1 The organizers would like to express their gratitude to the participants for such a large interest and invite everyone to participate in the seventh edition, which will start in February 2021. Michael Dylan WELCH, President of the Jury Cezar Florin CIOBÎCĂ, Member of the Jury Dan DOMAN, Member of the Jury Cristina Young, Member of the Jury Ana Drobot, Secretary, Congratulations to the winners and commended haiku poets.

WINNERS

Comments by Michael Dylan Welch, USA

FIRST PRIZE diagnosis . . . how easily we become autumn leaves Sanela Plisko Croatia This poem offers a confrontation with mortality. Even if the diagnosis is not terminal, it’s still a sign of getting older, of becoming like the leaves of autumn. Human nature is seamlessly melded with nature and its unfolding seasons in this poem. Haiku often celebrates the ephemeral, and here we are reminded that even our entire lives are not to be taken for granted.

SECOND PRIZE bitter frost nothing left to offer the homeless man/ Tracy Davidson  UK This is a poem of empathy, made more intense by how cold it is. I appreciate how “offer” empowers the homeless man to decline an offering, a word choice that humanizes him. And yet this is a poem of introspection, too, in that the poet wonders if he or she might do more to help, but can’t.

THIRD PRIZE hunger moon the long shadow of this world Agus Maulana Sunjaya Indonezia The corona virus is sweeping the world as I write this, so I immediately project that crisis into the meaning of the world’s long shadow, and how we hunger for resolution. Readers are free to interject whatever shadow meaning they wish into this poem.

HONORABLE MENTION 

(IN ORDER)

1. four years now the pink fairy dress she would have worn Joanne van Helvoort Netherlands We are not told what happened four years ago. Perhaps a death or some accident or injury? The pink dress suggests that the poem is about a child, but it might not be. The poem exudes love and grief at the same time.

2. no names . . . on the common grave spring wildflowers Antonio Martinez Rubio Spain The beauty of spring is lost on the dead, but not lost on the observer, who may wonder at the lost identities of those interred in this common grave. Even the wildflowers are not named, but the poet may imagine that those who died equally brightened the lives of others.

3. adding milk to my tea . . . the many shapes of morning clouds Olivier Schopfer Switzerland I enjoy the idleness in this poem, that moment of having morning tea, of sitting at a window or on a patio. The purpose is to have tea, not look at clouds, but still the poet notices the clouds and their many shapes, and perhaps those shapes represent the many duties that lie in the day ahead. Having tea has brought the poet into closer awareness of nature. I imagine this to be summer.

COMMENDED

(IN ORDER)

1. asked to give yet another eulogy biting wind Louise Hopewell Australia The word “another” deepens the sadness here. We can imagine a time of war or sickness, or a place and time where many elderly people happen to be dying, and how this takes an emotional toll on the person asked to provide so many eulogies.

2. snowdrops bowed with the dew— morning prayers Rodica Stefan Romania The beautiful image of the flowers bowed with dew lets us imagine the person being bowed in prayer. The person here has gone outside to pray and becomes one with nature at noticing not just the snowdrops but also the dew.

3. evening chill under the pear tree the smile of a strange woman Radostina Dragostinova Bulgaria This is an enigmatic poem, not just because of a strange woman’s smile but because of its relationship to a pear tree. We don’t know the season here, such as whether the pear is blossoming or not, or why the woman is “strange” (maybe just a stranger), but the chill of evening suggests that the woman’s smile is foreboding.