THF Monthly Kukai — June 2024

 
 
Welcome to the THF Monthly Kukai.

This month’s theme:
corn
 
 
 
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!

The THF Monthly Kukai is pleased to welcome Beverly Acuff Momoi to its staff.

Today marks the debut of Beverly Acuff Momoi as 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. Her first set of comments can be found below the May Kukai Winners and Honorable Mentions.

Results of Last Month’s THF Kukai

theme: yellow

In May there were 189 submissions from thirty-three countries across five continents.
Ninety-eight voters casting ballots determined the following results.

First Prize
 
farmer’s market
all the different hues
of honey
     — Alfred BOOTH (57 points - 2; 6; 4; 4; 3)
 
Farmers’ markets offer an abundance of color, and at first read, this seems a fairly straightforward scene. The second line might initially suggest the rich and varied colors of produce and plants. But the last line introduces complexity and offers a more layered reading. Honey — versus any yellow vegetable or flower — is an inspired choice. The color of honey can range from the palest of yellows to deep amber, depending on what the bees fed on. But with the third line, I also see the sun filtered through jars of honey, as well as the yellows of honeybees. Bees pollinate so many of our vegetables, fruits, and nuts, they are essential to our food supply and our well-being. For me, the last line lifts this haiku and gives it resonance beyond the page.
 
Second Prize
 
buttercup —
sunshine scrunched
in a toddler's fist
     — Lorraine Carey (55 points - 3; 5; 6; 0; 2)
 
The second line — “sunshine scrunched” — makes the poem. The action is authentic; toddlers do scrunch things. It is also poetically effective both in its sound qualities and in the leap to the sun, without which there are no buttercups.  I also note that there are two yellows here: buttercups and sunshine. I can’t read this haiku without smiling.
 
Third Prize
 
cracked sidewalk . . .
a tiny yellow flower
peers at the sky
     — Padma Priya (53 points - 4; 4; 2; 3; 5)
 
Each of us responds differently to color, and I appreciate that yellow was chosen to convey resilience here — the brightness of that flower emerging through a cracked sidewalk. For me, the persistence of the flower could be evoked more effectively if the verb in the third line relied less on personification and more on the natural behavior of flowers. Personification can be effective in haiku — and many readers responded favorably to its use in this haiku; I just prefer it be done in a more ambiguous way. If you are interested in personification in haiku, Alex Fyffe has an in-depth discussion in THF’s Haiku Dialogue (scroll down past the paragraphs on allusion): HAIKU DIALOGUE – Literary Devices – personification
 
 
Honorable Mentions
 
library
the silence of the words
yellowed by time
     — Dan C. Iulian
 
We have a different use of yellow in this haiku; here it’s a verb. Although it carries the notion of color, when it is a verb, it conveys aging, and so my response is more reflective, sad.
 
dandelion field —
my toes caress
the sun
     — Elena ZOUAIN
 
Most people consider dandelions to be weeds. As such, they are wild and resilient, and I am delighted that the poet finds the sun in them, rather than in a beautifully manicured garden.
 
tinting
the forest breeze
an oriole's song
     — Sanjuktaa Asopa
 
I admire the subtlety and suggestion in this haiku.  Yellow is not explicitly stated, but it is suggested with the oriole’s coloring. And it is the song, not the bird itself, that colors the breeze.
 
buttery light
the kitchen flooded
with summer
     — Marion Clarke
 
With that opening line, this haiku immediately conveys the emotional warmth of summer, and it’s a multisensory experience. It’s like a warm hug.

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!