Last Chance to Vote in the September 2024 THF Monthly Kukai
This month’s theme:
blue
Voting closes for The Haiku Foundation Monthly Kukai tonight (the 24th) at midnight (east coast time). So make those final decisions and let us know whom you think did the best work this month.
Voting for The Haiku Foundation Monthly Kukai
Shortly after the conclusion of the submission period, an anonymous ballot comprising all submitted poems on that month’s theme will be posted to Troutswirl (The Haiku Foundation blog) on the THF site. Any reader of this ballot is eligible to vote for their favorite poems at this time. A voter may vote for up to five (5) poems per theme. A top vote will receive 5 points, a second-place vote 4 points, a third-place vote 3 points, a fourth-place vote 2 points, and a fifth-place vote 1 point.
Please use the Kukai voting form below to enter your selections, and then press Submit to cast your votes. No other votes will be recognized or honored. All votes must be signed (that is, no “anonymous” votes will be accepted, and the Submit button will not be available until both Name and Email fields are filled in), and no poet may vote for his or her own work. No commentary upon the poems will be accepted or published. Votes will be accepted from the appearance of the ballot on the 18th of that month through midnight of the 24th of that month. Readers may vote only once per ballot. Administrators of the kukai are ineligible to vote.
Note: Anonymity is an essential part of any kukai. If you know who wrote the poem then that entry is no longer anonymous. Please respect the Kukai and do not vote for that entry.
The Ballot
1 | “blue moon” . . . this song reminds me of my love story | |
2 | “Where has Summer gone?” Yellowing leaves, a dragonfly Gone, before it arrived. | |
3 | a blue sky whipped by white cotton candy clouds another wet day | |
4 | A blue tinge In her face — Heart failure | |
5 | a bluegrass band plays the field . . . fiddler’s wake | |
6 | A butterfly kitten blue eyes peeking at me | |
7 | a chime of blue fairy wrens makes my heart sing | |
8 | a fading autumn beyond the window your still blue eyes | |
9 | a peek into the robin’s nest — broken sky | |
10 | a skyline I no longer recognize . . . early bluebonnets | |
11 | after the storm the blue of the sky in the blue of the sea | |
12 | aging and decay cracking tree, splinters, earth shakes mushroom, hyacinth | |
13 | all that blue sky under the rubble | |
14 | Alone, feeling blue, Like the depths of the ocean, Heart sinks in abyss. | |
15 | another autumn shadows lengthen under her breasts | |
16 | appointment for a loan his chambray shirt ironed | |
17 | averting their gaze as the cops pass . . . illegals | |
18 | Azure seawaters, slosh softly on red rock shore — ancient land dreams on. | |
19 | beaming with morning peacock tiny lamp | |
20 | beholding this tiny blue flower i bowed | |
21 | Birds in linear grace out of the blue | |
22 | birdsong lost in downpour blue still we dance | |
23 | Black and blue bruises, Oh, noble blue blood shines with pride! Firmament excels — | |
24 | blank field blue lines waiting for a thought | |
25 | blood thinners each day soft blue bruises on her arms, mother’s smile hurts | |
26 | Blue moon is coming soon | |
27 | blue so many meanings sky mood party vote | |
28 | blue babe in my hands — just born I cry, instead. | |
29 | blue blues I feel the music | |
30 | blue butterfly past the fall equinox what she feels | |
31 | blue butterfly the comings and goings in dreams | |
32 | blue butterfly — the child’s eyes say it all | |
33 | blue cat . . . a sliver of moon in her eyes | |
34 | blue dream everything that helps mend the ozone hole | |
35 | blue flame the grief beneath her fury | |
36 | blue gentian a second chance at love | |
37 | blue hour . . . waking without you | |
38 | blue inbox I always keep my rejection email | |
39 | Blue ink Lavender lips Caress a pink sky | |
40 | Blue is the basin the rhinoceros lives on the U-haul van | |
41 | blue lagoon — the old pearler lost in the depth of the sky | |
42 | blue light scattered in the atmosphere — our planet | |
43 | blue lightning a sudden bolt from the kingfisher | |
44 | blue moon whether it’s positive or not | |
45 | blue moon — the children stop fighting | |
46 | blue moon by the bay . . . twinning with Blue Hawaii his aloha shirt | |
47 | blue mountain ridges stepping stones to the stars | |
48 | blue notes the saxophonist’s brief affair | |
49 | blue pond what are you worrying about little koi? | |
50 | Blue remembered budgie On my blue-rinse grandma’s arm — a bridge in time | |
51 | blue sea — blue whale blood is dark red | |
52 | Blue sea . . . You still waters You have restored my soul | |
53 | blue skies a party of birds the elderberries long gone | |
54 | blue skies all summer war shadows under the rubble | |
55 | blue skies my life in the now of years | |
56 | blue sky I wish I would know your peace | |
57 | blue sky when the sky is grey | |
58 | blue sky wishing for fair weather her blues | |
59 | blue sunrise how happy mother must be on Mars | |
60 | blue vote right side of winner’s ticket | |
61 | blue winter’s day around pussy willows spring is already buzzing | |
62 | blue wool . . . your shiny buttons | |
63 | blue yarn the son I never had | |
64 | blue-white bubble on the sleeping baby’s parted lips | |
65 | Bluebird! all the sky in my child’s voice | |
66 | blueing, fresh breezes, heat and starch Dad’s white shirt | |
67 | blues music feeds my melancholia . . . rainy day guitar | |
68 | bowerbird blues clinching the deal with a medical glove | |
69 | bowerbird’s bower dancing in shades of blue | |
70 | bright blue swimming cap g l i d e s a c r o s s lipsticked horizon | |
71 | bruised knees the face behind an upturned newspaper | |
72 | chemo in her blue diary was holding my hand | |
73 | chicory the bee’s buzz turns blue | |
74 | clear blue sky helping mother cleaning plants | |
75 | cloudless sky crows frolic in the eagle’s wake | |
76 | cloudless sky reflects lapis lake storm brewing | |
77 | clouds in the blue sky I let my imagination run wild | |
78 | clouds swirl in a blue vortex mares-tail sky | |
79 | Cloudy days peace and quiet Blue skies the rockets Rain like hail | |
80 | cobalt blue sea glass . . . bringing you and the sea to me in waves | |
81 | colour of heaven ice water and air stirred together make it blue | |
82 | contrails in a cloudless sky plane geometry | |
83 | Cotton clouds — Tickling the blue sky Into merry giggles. | |
84 | dance of colors on a blue canvas kite festival | |
85 | dew on the windshield mom’s old blue bathrobe my old blue bathrobe | |
86 | dipping my toes in the coldest blue — after his death | |
87 | Earthrise . . . how still the oceans | |
88 | election day she picks out his blue tie | |
89 | empty bluebird box only the tail of a red squirrel | |
90 | empty well once blue words escape and echo space quill waiting for ink | |
91 | even on straight blue days the colour of the dam perplexes shallow grey | |
92 | even the buddha those bright blue warby parkers | |
93 | ever-changing blues surrounding me between warm and cool | |
94 | every single bruise a message forget-me-not | |
95 | faded blue ink . . . my aunt forever younger than me | |
96 | feeling blue — as wool flies through my needles | |
97 | fish afloat in a blue sea red tide | |
98 | Fish caught While walking on stilts! Great Blue Heron | |
99 | flying kite — out of the blue my childhood | |
100 | from the light blue darts into the deep blue — fishing boobies | |
101 | Gainsborough’s blue boy . . . under the haystack counting sheep | |
102 | girl in his eyes looks at himself | |
103 | Glistening sapphires tears spring up out of the blue | |
104 | god the indifferent blue I pray to make it rain | |
105 | going under she closes her eyes | |
106 | golden willows the returning duck’s blue wing bars | |
107 | Granddad bedbound Dreaming of release into the Wide Blue Yonder | |
108 | grey skies . . . pointing to the sailor suit blue as you would have done | |
109 | guessing your blue on my monday | |
110 | hazy heat the cool blue tiles of the Arab Hall | |
111 | He releases — her anger to the blue sky | |
112 | his arm around my waist . . . one more fish ends up in blue heron’s beak | |
113 | hundred shades of blue none close to the sky | |
114 | hydrangea blossoms taking their cue from the sky: blue blue blue blue blue | |
115 | I am getting blue with your shiny eyes | |
116 | I couldn’t help when you went it was your own choosing | |
117 | I feel blue do you | |
118 | I feel little blue All due to flew Why so cruel | |
119 | I look out the sea I look up the sky, and see the blue of your eyes | |
120 | I touched the blue sky On back of crow wings Finally at peace | |
121 | Illusive trickster. Fractal butterfly wings play Iridescent games | |
122 | In navy blue sky faint stars show their loneliness til more darkness falls | |
123 | in the bomb shelter I can still see the sky’s blue in my baby’s eyes | |
124 | in this room where we once held hands blue summer flowers | |
125 | in winter’s crush no blue fruit save his lips | |
126 | inattentive frog scuffles in the jabbing beak of a blue heron | |
127 | iridescent shells on sandy ground birds touching the blues | |
128 | is | |
129 | It is blue, not black, The colour in the mind’s eye, Of the colour blind. | |
130 | it takes the sky to fill with birdsong blue September morning | |
131 | Journey towards the farm Hydrangeas bloom in Vietnam An ocean of blue | |
132 | l’heure bleue another open window beckons | |
133 | lake blue — a tree swallow gambols through the wind | |
134 | Layoffs and cost cuts Naïve, we stay, work harder Usher in winter | |
135 | meditation in patches of blue shifting clouds | |
136 | mellow waves learning to surf uncertain times | |
137 | Mississippi delta singing the blues as the river rises | |
138 | misty hills blue bolt of lightning bikers unprepared | |
139 | monday blues the clear skies we hoped for on sunday | |
140 | moon — something blue on thirty years of marriage | |
141 | morning walk the tiny blue in a dewdrop | |
142 | mowed meadow he came too late for a bunch of cornflowers | |
143 | my favorite lipstick shade is blue, I get it from swimming in the lake | |
144 | new blue curtains peeping at the starry sky hope amid rubble | |
145 | newly widowed will she ever see past these clouds | |
146 | night drive at the end of a lonely road rising blue moon | |
147 | Ninetieth year her smile peaks through blue icing | |
148 | not wanting to leave the water the child’s lips blue | |
149 | Ocean and Sky. In the eyes. Blue tack for a soul. | |
150 | ocean waves playing chase with the blues | |
151 | odd-eyed rescue cat . . . a blue and gold flag in the window | |
152 | ode to autumn an old friend calls out of the blue | |
153 | ogling vista distance is an illusion still miles to go | |
154 | once upon a time and all the times before that blue moon | |
155 | Opening my son’s palm, I find deep blue bobbling up, Endless and serene | |
156 | out of the blue swimming pool confessions | |
157 | out of the blue day moon | |
158 | paddleboarding I float between the skies | |
159 | Pale blue whispers circles Black in blue lapis of stone Blue vibrates black burning above | |
160 | pale face — blue skies seem over . . . dot | |
161 | plump blueberries bob in cold water bittersweet summer | |
162 | pothole puddle a vulture floats into a patch of blue | |
163 | Pregnant air vibrates echo of blue, containing inner life, light . . . | |
164 | psychiatrist visit how deep the blue of the sky | |
165 | rage, my skirt Autumn she flows free a navy sky | |
166 | reaching right down to the bumblebee . . . sky | |
167 | red only when spilled we’re all bluebloods | |
168 | sadness paints the portrait with mind-numbing strokes | |
169 | sapphire blue the fortune teller charms my good luck | |
170 | scorching heat — the temperature of a failed shot | |
171 | seeing the holds of autumn I no longer feel blue | |
172 | she always wore blue then one day black | |
173 | She smiles through her tears, Yellow flowers fall on a blue dress, And brighten my dark sky | |
174 | silence a blue note dead silence | |
175 | sinking deeper into myself homeless dog | |
176 | sky how illusion colors my views | |
177 | sky and sea blue in blue violets for the bride | |
178 | sky blue fields of cornflower staring back | |
179 | slow fall leaves let go of branches the blue between | |
180 | so blue so beautiful . . . second stillborn | |
181 | so much blue above the clouds snug in my seat | |
182 | soothing blue — respite with no curfew | |
183 | spring washing the last woolen blue anemone | |
184 | spring jays on the wing scatter plunder to the ground a robin’s egg blue | |
185 | still life at eventide dabs of blue | |
186 | stock market crash switching the screen saver to sky blue | |
187 | suddenly autumn: yesterday’s blue sky is gray the trees’ green now dimmed | |
188 | summer heat even the sky’s blue dome is cracking | |
189 | sunset orange hues stir pacific blue | |
190 | super blue moon how often he thinks of me | |
191 | The azure sky Is the same as my Hometown’s hue | |
192 | The blue heron, Alone in the harvested paddy — Morning chill. | |
193 | the blue hour at dawn a gust of willow leaves covers the untouched snow | |
194 | The blue of my suit matches the night sky . . . soon I am invisible | |
195 | the blues transposing listened-to heart-strings’ teardrops seed Delphinium | |
196 | the canvas waits paint tubes hold their breath colours flutter free | |
197 | the cornflower side — he gets something that racers are full of | |
198 | the crowd of mourners and only he look and look at the calm blue sky | |
199 | the sense of sea all walls of the house painted in blue | |
200 | the silent ripple of bluebells scattering his ashes | |
201 | The sky still blue betrayed by crazy swifts — me too, by you. | |
202 | the summer blue shifts under the lingering azure our hope is warming | |
203 | to the ancients blue did not exist sky hole in their art | |
204 | True blue, a symphony of wash colour, deeeeep you go! | |
205 | turning blue even the tear of my mom | |
206 | twilight: the day’s birdsong before rest | |
207 | ultrasound report — she fades to blue | |
208 | umbilical cord wrapped around her neck breathe, breathe | |
209 | umbrellas opening in the valley of flowers blue poppies | |
210 | unfinished . . . this ocean of grief in shades of blue | |
211 | unrealized dreams my blue scrubs a memento from nursing school | |
212 | Untwining the thread From the blackbird kite It sings . . . a bluebird once again | |
213 | Very critical Voting in the USA Blue and only blue | |
214 | we hugged, awkwardly “See you next week, love you” our last goodbye | |
215 | Wetted deck. Receding fogs promising blue. | |
216 | when I step off earth to float weightlessly, alone — sky, sea, missing you | |
217 | whisper quiet — Song Sung Blue, again in my earbuds | |
218 | white horses float on out of the blue | |
219 | white spruce the call of a magpie dark blue | |
220 | yellowish rises even the blue supermoon — fried polenta | |
221 | young lady ahead on the sidewalk — inventing new color names for her blue top | |
222 | Zombies, come alive! They nod, drool, and break my heart — Nightmares, and Narcan. |
Kukai Results
On the first day of the following month, results of the tally of the kukai will be announced. The top vote-getters as voted by readers will be posted, along with the number of points each poem tallied, and each poem’s authorship will be revealed at this time. Winners will be invited to select from a list of prizes provided by The Haiku Foundation. The theme for the new month will be announced at the same time, and the process repeated. Poems remain the copyrighted property of their authors, but The Haiku Foundation reserves the right to publish, display and archive all submitted poems for this and other purposes at its discretion.
Congratulations to all our participants!
