2014 Results

At the Third Edition of The Haiku Contest SHARPENING THE GREEN PENCIL 2014 organized by Romanian Kukai Group have participated 264 participants from 6 continents and 47 countries as follows: AFRICA: Nigeria (1); ASIA: India (15), Indonesia (1), Iran (1), Israel (2), Japan (4), Malaysia (3), Mongolia (2), Philippines (6), Sri Lanka (1), Taiwan (1), Yemen (1); AUSTRALIA: Australia (17), New Zealand (11); EUROPE: Austria (2), Belarus (1), Belgium (3), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4), Bulgaria (11), Croatia (30), Finland (1), France (3), Germany (9), Greece (1), Hungary (2), Ireland (1), Italy (3), Lithuania (8), Macedonia (1), Montenegro (2), Netherlands (4), Poland (12), Portugal (2), Romania (23), Russia (2), Serbia (14), Slovenia (2), Spain (2), Sweden (1), Switzerland (2), Ukraine (1), United Kingdom (7); NORTH AMERICA: Canada (8), United States of America (32); SOUTH AMERICA: Argentia (2), Brazil (1), 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 fourth edition, which will start in February 2015. Corneliu Traian ATANASIU, President of the Jury Cezar Florin CIOBÎCĂ, Member of the Jury Dan DOMAN, Member of the Jury Eduard ŢARĂ, Secretary Congratulations to the winners and commended haiku poets.

WINNERS

First Prize snowy orchard the smell of summer in a baked apple Dorota PYRA Gdańsk, POLAND The snowy orchard evokes the irreparable and permanent invasion of a space destined for harvest and summer reverie. For it was not only the apples, legendarily the most tempting, round-shaped fruits, that perished in this prolific space, but also the quiet rest in the grass swayed by the insects’ busy humming. They all disappeared under the glacial, unforgiving whiteness. And yet the summer with its evanescent essence is still present in the balmy room, where an apple is being baked in the fireplace. The apple, which has stored within the summer scent, now bestows it upon one single chamber like some happiness carefully kept under its skin. comment by Corneliu Traian ATANASIU translation by ALINA BĂRBOSU

Second Prize humid night... a tadpole breaks the surface of ancient stars Chase GAGNON Detroit, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The event, that otherwise would seem insignificant, benefits from a mise-en-scène that brings it out and adds to it unsuspected values. The water’s mirror, that was stagnant, languid and unruffled, is now invaded by the tadpole’s emergence. The ancient stars, which since time immemorial had been admiring their magnificence and infallibility in the reflection rather subservient than accurate, are now bewildered. Life bursts, stuns, and shatteres equilibria. A tadpole and the world breaks away from numbness. The humid night gives birth to liveliness and hazard. The celestial landmarks are wobbling. comment by Corneliu Traian Atanasiu translation by ALINA BĂRBOSU

Third Prize carnival wig – a touch of fantasy during chemo Minh-Triêt PHAM Paris, FRANCE Your soul is filled with fear, you ask yourself: why me of all people? How is it going to end? Am I going to survive? Then, after surgery, you start the chemotherapy treatment. The doctor has warned you: know that each of the growing tissues is attacked, the nails, the hair. A few days later, a tuft of hair gets stuck on your comb. You have decided to cut off all your hair and, while gazing at the mirror, you realize that you don’t look like yourself anymore. There was also a mental change, you are no longer who you used to be before. Now, all daily worries seem so trivial! If you were a man, you would shave your head. But you are a woman. Inevitably, you will have to fight: with yourself, with the disease. You will put on a wig. And ostentatiously, you’ll choose a bright colorful one to surprise the people around you, whose faces try to hide the worry every time they see you.  “What’s wrong with you, dear, what happened?” “Oh, just a whim of mine, a carnival fantasy” you reply. Note - the author of the poem, Minh-Triet Pham, is a man. comment by Dan DOMAN translation by ALINA BĂRBOSU

COMMENDATIONS

never missing a wingbeat migrating geese Margaret BEVERLAND Katikati, NEW ZEALAND
	falling leaves slowly the fading light enters my room Bouwe BROUWER Sneek, THE NETHERLANDS
autumn equinox – cutting an apple in half Frank DIETRICH Düsseldorf, GERMANY
	windswept sky a collie on the hillside shifting sheep Jan DOBB Canberra, AUSTRALIA
Foggy evening – The old boat Sinks in the silence Anna GOLUBA Warsaw, POLAND
	growing old the snow from childhood rests on my shoulders Devin HARRISON Vancouver, CANADA
pale girl – on the hospital lawn primroses bloom Krzysztof KOKOT Nowy Targ, POLAND
	fresh snow no traces left between us Angelica SEITHE Wettenberg, GERMANY
tumultuous waves... a fisherman's boat stumbles into a rainbow Keith A. SIMMONDS Rodez, FRANCE
	a fox cub lying in the red clay another sunset Vania STEFANOVA Sliven, BULGARIA