THF Monthly Kukai — May 2026

 
 
Welcome to the THF Monthly Kukai.

This month’s theme:
bronze
 
 
 
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 bids Beverly Acuff Momoi farewell.

Today marks the departure of Beverly Acuff Momoi as THF Monthly Kukai Commentator. It has been our great pleasure to share her commentaries with you over the past two years. We cannot express enough our gratitude for her wonderful contributions during her tenure, and we wish her all the best in her future endeavors. Thank you so very much, Bev!

[note from Beverly Acuff Momoi] 
Before my comments on this month’s poems, I want to let you know about an upcoming change. Due to family commitments that require more of my time, this will be my last month as THF Monthly Kukai Commentator. My thanks to Jim Kacian for inviting me to do this and to Tom Borkowski for hosting the Kukai and ensuring that it runs seamlessly. Most especially, I want to thank everyone who has participated over the past two years. It has been such a joy to read your work each month and to see the creativity and craft with which you have responded to the themes. Although I won’t be commenting on the poems, I look forward to reading more of your work in the months to come.

Results of Last Month’s THF Kukai

theme: bell

In April there were 180 submissions from twenty-eight countries across five continents.
One hundred fifteen voters casting ballots determined the following results.

First Prize
 
school bell —
his small hand slips
from mine
    — Neena Singh (118 points - 10; 8; 6; 6; 6)
 
How subtly this haiku captures a range of emotions in just a few words! Although school bells can be rung at different times of day, for me the opening line — in concert with the rest of the haiku — indicates it is first thing in the morning. School is about to start. Although we do not know who is holding the boy’s hand, I envision a mother who has walked her young son to school and is now seeing him off. I sense both his anticipation and her bittersweet feelings as he moves toward independence. Word choice is especially effective in conveying the emotional weight of both worlds: “small” implies this might be the first day of school or very early days, and “slips” suggests quiet, almost imperceptible movement, even as it evokes release, a letting go. Beautifully written.
 
 
Honorable Mentions
 
a sparrow
shrugs off the rain
wind chimes
     — Arrigo Bassi
 
When there is sound in a haiku that begins with a sparrow, one expects birdsong.  But here the sparrow’s ruffling of its feathers ends in the bright sound of wind chimes — an unexpected and delightful surprise. The verb “shrugs off” is well chosen, since wind chimes are a summer kigo and considered cheerful.
 
bicycle bells
one after another
— spring thaw
     — Daniel Haar
 
Ah, I can just hear the rush of children on bicycles and the ping-ping of bells as they pass each other! Sound carries better when the air is a bit crisp, and this haiku perfectly captures that moment when we are all bursting for spring to begin.
 
cycle bell —
the darting path
of a dragonfly
     — Sathya Venkatesh
 
What a surprise that last line — and yet how marvelously it depicts the unexpected movement of a bicycle zipping around. This haiku also has nice sound qualities, with the plosive “d” sounds suggesting the cacophony of the cycle bell.

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!