Wednesday 9 May 2012

Haiku Competition (Kukai)


There's just over one day left to send in your submissions for the Second International Kukai  (Haiku contest). The topic this month is 'kite/s' and you can send up to three haiku.

I sent three in to the last one, which had sparrow/s as its topic. None of them distinguished themselves but I enjoyed writing them and - since the entrants read and vote on all the haiku (excepting one's own) - judging the entries. It gave me an insight into the judging process (very difficult) and there was an interesting range of haiku covering many aspects of sparrows, their habits, interactions with humans, and indeed the use of them as metaphors for the ordinary person.

While writing this I became aware that I hadn't read the instructions properly this time and had written three haiku about the red kites that are regular visitors to the airspace above my garden :-) So back to the drawing board...

I see these Kukai as an exercise, a little like small stones, for catching the moment. An opportunity to write many haiku I probably wouldn't have written otherwise and to read many more.

Why don't you give it a try?


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