THF Monthly Kukai — April 2025

 
 
Welcome to the THF Monthly Kukai.

This month’s theme:
eggplant
 
 
 
Note: Anonymity is an essential part of any kukai. Please respect this to offer the reader (and voter) the opportunity to choose only the poem.

The THF Kukai Overview

A kukai is a (usually quite casual) poetry contest. The administrator of the kukai (that’s us) assigns a theme for a given writing period and posts to Troutswirl (The Haiku Foundation blog) on the THF site, which is then redirected outward through our various media outlets. Poets write work to this theme during the allotted time and submit it to the administrator. The work submitted is gathered into an anonymous roster and posted to Troutswirl (The Haiku Foundation blog) for public viewing. At that time all participating poets and other interested readers may vote for their favorites. Votes are tallied and the results made public. The top winners will be acknowledged each month, and offered their choice of prizes from a list compiled by the Foundation. Please remember that everyone who votes is a winner — the process of choosing your personal favorites is not just fun, but also one of the best ways to improve your own haiku practice!

Results of Last Month’s THF Kukai

theme: violet

In March there were 203 submissions from thirty-three countries across six continents.
One hundred ten voters casting ballots determined the following results.

First Prize
 
deep in the woods
violets push through
a deer's white bones
     — Judit Toth (66 points - 6; 3; 6; 3; 0)
 
Spring is a time of change, of sometimes startling contrasts, as the cycle of life advances. In this haiku, a deer has not survived the winter, but its bones provide nourishment for other forms of life. It is a haunting scene: the delicate beauty of the wild violets pushing through white skeletal remains.
 
Second Prize
 
violet dawn
a dewdrop pauses
on the petal’s edge
     — Richard Matta (65 points - 8; 3; 3; 1; 2)
 
Every image in this haiku underscores the transience of life. In the beautiful first line, we can see the day just emerging, when the world is not dark and not yet light. Few things are more short-lived than a dewdrop, with just the briefest of pauses before it disappears. The sounds in this haiku — the plosives — are very effective, reinforcing the suddenness of change.
 
Third Prize
 
pressed violets —
the book opens gently
into spring
     — George Galcsik (55 points - 2; 6; 3; 4; 4)
 
Wild violets have a sweet fragrance. I don’t know how much remains once pressed, but I can imagine there might be a lingering scent. And with the last line, we are propelled beyond the page, to masses of flowering violets — to spring.
 
 
Honorable Mentions
 
between lightning and thunder the violet hush
     — Nalini Shetty
 
When I was a child, I learned to count the seconds after a lightning flash and before the first thunderclap; the shorter the time between them, the closer the strike. In this haiku, form — the quick, uninterrupted line — follows function, and the final word choice is perfect. I can’t read “violet hush” without also thinking “violent hush.”
 
learning English
from crayon wrappers
my violet childhood
     — Jackie Chou
 
Crayons evoke powerful childhood memories for many of us, and connecting the words for colors to the colors themselves is immediately useful in a child’s world. But it is in the last line that we feel how challenging it must be to learn a new language. It is not a sunny yellow or rosy pink childhood. Violet is more complex and can symbolize the imagination and dreams. This is a very compelling haiku.
 
wild violets
filling her yard
foster children
     — Anne Fox
 
This haiku made me smile with its very effective pivot line. Wild violets grow in profusion, and I could see a yard filled with rambunctious children. Our time with both foster children and wild violets is temporary, but in this haiku, joyous.

Beverly Acuff Momoi is THF Monthly Kukai Commentator. She is an award-winning poet and author of how the wind sighs and Lifting the Towhee’s Song. From 2019 to 2021 Beverly served as a panelist for the Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards.

Writing for The Haiku Foundation Monthly Kukai

On the first day of each month The Haiku Foundation will announce the kukai theme for that month. This theme should be the topic of your poem, and may be stated (by using the theme word or words) or implied. Form may be traditional (three-line, 5-7-5) or free (various numbers of lines and/or syllables). Season words (kigo) may or may not be used at the poet’s discretion. A poet may submit one poem per theme. All poems must be the original, unpublished work of the author. In order to maintain the spirit and fairness of the kukai, a poem that has appeared anywhere with its author’s name cannot be allowed for submission.

Please use the Kukai submission form below to enter your poem, and then press Submit to send your entry. No other submissions will be recognized or honored. Once a poem is submitted it cannot be revised. All poems must be signed (that is, no “anonymous” poems will be accepted, and the Submit button will not be available until both Name, Email, and Place of Residence fields are filled in). Poets will not receive acknowledgment of their submissions. Poems will be accepted from the announcement of the theme through midnight of the 15th of that month. All poets are eligible to participate. Administrators of the kukai are ineligible to submit poems. Your submission form to us should look something like this:

line one
followed by line two
and then line three

or

this poem is all in one line

or

            jjjjjjjjjjj
kkkkkkkkkk
                    lll
   mmmmm

[all lines right-justified]

If your poem has special formatting requirements you should note them as in the third example above.

Good luck, and have fun!