THF Monthly Kukai — August 2024

 
 
Welcome to the THF Monthly Kukai.

This month’s theme:
apple
 
 
 
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: green

In July there were 182 submissions from thirty-one countries across six continents.
One hundred one voters casting ballots determined the following results.

First Prize
 
nap in the shade
a blade of grass
for a bookmark 
     — Suzanne Leaf-Brock (90 points - 6; 9; 4; 5; 2)
 
Most readers identify with this scene, as evidenced by the votes for this haiku. Using a blade of grass to mark your place in a book is one of the delights of summer. There’s a sense of quiet pleasure here — that all is right with the world. It is a shasei, a “sketch from life,” that moves us beyond the immediate scene. It invites us to pause and bookmark these moments, to not let them pass unnoticed.
 
Second Prize
 
green light . . .
if only it was
as easy to move on
     — Neena Singh (67 points - 5; 4; 6; 1; 6)
 
Many can relate to this senryu, though perhaps in different ways. “Green light” is accessible, and it carries more than one meaning. It is a traffic signal that tells drivers when they can advance safely. When a new project is greenlit, it is authorized to go ahead. In the United States, green porch lights are a symbol of support for veterans. So, the opening line is forward-looking and optimistic. But in the second and third lines, the senryu flips the script: now the hard part begins.
 
Third Prize
 
hospice window
my mother counts
shades of green
     — Cezar Ciobica (63 points - 5; 4; 5; 3; 1)
 
A deeply moving haiku. The opening line sets the scene, and the reader anticipates heartbreak and sadness to come. But there is a sense of renewal in the last line. In spring and early summer, the world bursts open in shades of green; at the same time, some of us are in hospice. The haiku reflects the cycle of life. What do we see when we look beyond ourselves? In these days of hospice, the mother looks to new life outside her window.
 
Fourth Prize
 
morning mow . . .
the green scent
brings dad back
     — Marilyn Ashbaugh (60 points - 4; 3; 8; 1; 2)
 
The sense of smell in humans is weak compared to other animals, but it can trigger powerful memories and deep emotions. Like pulling on a loose thread, it can bring back a time and place long lost to us. Here, the routine activity of mowing the lawn kicks up the smell of freshly cut grass, and with that, we travel back to a time when the father was present in the poet’s life.
 
 
Honorable Mentions
 
mossy headstone
the anonymity
of a war veteran
     — Hifsa Ashraf
 
Moss grows very slowly, but left unchecked, it can obscure the identities of the deceased. The names of those who serve their countries through war are often lost to us, forgotten. A quietly powerful poem that calls to mind Basho’s “summer grasses” (natsukusa ya . . .).
 
zazen . . .
a praying mantis
deep in devotion
     — Milan Rajkumar
 
Is the praying mantis deep in devotion? I like the poetic impulse here, but the insect chosen is a bit too close in image for me. I wonder if reversing the second and third lines — putting the focus on human activity before the insect — might serve the poem better.
 
forest walk
in each shade of green
a hidden haiku
     — Madhavi Karri
 
A haiku in every shade of green! This poem assures us they are there, just waiting for us to pay attention, to discover things previously unseen. Here green is a promise, and every hue harbors a new wonder.
 
bonsai
all those years of him snipping
my roots
     — Vandana Parashar
 
Bonsai are exquisitely beautiful, but that perfection is obtained by pruning the tree’s natural growth. The word “snipping” in the second line is superb with its multiple readings and makes “my roots” in the last line especially poignant.

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!