THF Monthly Kukai Voting Ballot — August 2024
This month’s theme:
apple
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 | a blush of dawn the season’s first gravensteins | |
2 | a crabapple tree out in the back . . . a slice of heaven | |
3 | A divine Fruit Opened Pathway to Enlightenment Awaken Others Mother Nature | |
4 | a drop the apple tells me why I hold my ground | |
5 | A is for Apple on the first day my wet pants | |
6 | a matter of love and spice mom’s apple pie | |
7 | A partly eaten apple On the back of my Mobile . . . ! | |
8 | a star! the child’s face when the apple is sliced | |
9 | a turn of season apples to apple chips | |
10 | a waxed apple . . . the sheen she smears to cover bruises | |
11 | a woman in art class munches on a ripe apple tempting me like Eve | |
12 | adam’s apple this boxer is a girl | |
13 | after the fall the (adam)antine chain of (eve)nts! | |
14 | all the goodies as in the Garden of Eden but . . . no apples | |
15 | among the apple trees not so complicated to take and fall down | |
16 | an apple mobile on the laptop she eats with flock | |
17 | an apple a day filling the pillbox with prayers | |
18 | An apple a day Keeps that old doctor away My bowel move — yay! | |
19 | apple blossoms gunshots inspite | |
20 | apple only if the forbidden one is not so sweet | |
21 | apple blossom dusk everywhere the light slips into darkness | |
22 | apple blossoms the doctor gives me six months | |
23 | apple blossoms — the new blouse fits you perfectly | |
24 | Apple blossoms resting Among leaves of sunlit green The reminiscences | |
25 | apple cider the crush of sky almost dusk | |
26 | apple cider the scent of cinnamon in your hair | |
27 | apple harvest Grandmother’s empty apron | |
28 | apple harvest just one slight rot her scar that is still | |
29 | apple is an apple isn’t an apple | |
30 | apple moon the waxy feel of the sonogram | |
31 | apple of her eye my mom chops the fruit into bite-sized chunks | |
32 | apple of his eye never far from the tree, spoilt rotten to the core | |
33 | apple of my grandma’s eyes I am | |
34 | apple peel twirling sunset in my hand | |
35 | apple picking we ignore what’s on the ground as we climb the ladder | |
36 | apple picking . . . a child’s laughter scents the air | |
37 | apple pie savoring a vestige of the rocket’s red glare | |
38 | apple pie with Granny Smith . . . my mom always used Macintosh | |
39 | apple time in grandma’s garden — her cheeks, chattering apple peels | |
40 | apple tree someone’s sin ripens | |
41 | Apple tree The root diverts obstacles underground | |
42 | apple wrinkled face in the autumn of my life who have I become | |
43 | apple-cheeked dawn first day of school | |
44 | Apples always fall to ground wormy | |
45 | apples hanging from the branch a monarch | |
46 | Apples in the basket Mother in the casket September gone. | |
47 | apples on his path . . . my neighbour with Parkinson’s | |
48 | assaulting the helpless pie a hungry legion | |
49 | autumn fog apple smell worsens my isolation | |
50 | autumn morning the worm and the apple they share the silence | |
51 | b u z z z z ing . . . entangled in silks another death in the orchard | |
52 | back to sleep, dreaming of the same green apple | |
53 | Biblical hang up spurning lover’s apples | |
54 | bitten apple — the taste of memory lingers | |
55 | bitten apple the sin is in the sourcing | |
56 | Bitter Apple — the pup’s surprise wanting to chew the chair leg | |
57 | bombing the fruits are still hanging old apple | |
58 | bottled apple juice beside my copy of Paradise Lost | |
59 | bruised thin skin life as an apple always changing | |
60 | buzzing near the apple blossoms a honeybee | |
61 | celestial feasts — to throw at random a golden apple | |
62 | Cider bubbles rise As the radio plays on, Echoes of the blues. | |
63 | cinnamon tucked inside baking apples the scent of autumn | |
64 | crab apple tree removal sidewalks coming | |
65 | crabapple jelly making the best of things | |
66 | Crisp, tart and juicy A cold snappy start To the new season | |
67 | cross-country travels kerouac or appleseed twist the stem & see | |
68 | crosswise apple slices the core reborn a star | |
69 | crunch of a rosy apple scent of summer days | |
70 | curly apple peel a homeless person in a fetal pose | |
71 | deep in the flesh in apple shaped core a seed | |
72 | drawing the halved apple the smooth red line the white flesh | |
73 | drunken wasps fueled on fermenting apples fearful flying | |
74 | Each year I forget to protect you from the wasps Memory fails me | |
75 | Eager for sour snacks, Disorderly geese let loose, Ripe crab apples rain. | |
76 | equinox the summer’s crop about to fall | |
77 | Eve, but no Adam. And no apple. Only this light rain letting up. | |
78 | even now she bows at the sound Fuji apple | |
79 | extra homework munching my way through apple fractions | |
80 | fall fair among the candied — bobbing — pies is the apple of my eye | |
81 | falling far from the apple tree her bruised childhood | |
82 | family tree row the thud of an apple falling faraway | |
83 | father’s orchard the shape of apples as the crescent moon | |
84 | filling a basket with Golden Delicious newlyweds | |
85 | from a seed grows a tall tree shady seat, read, and eat | |
86 | from her lips to mine apple | |
87 | Fruit one, tooth zero The core captured Her first loose tooth | |
88 | gather with laughter twinning amid the bounty sun-kissed apple cheeks | |
89 | golden apple in the silence of the night the moon | |
90 | golden delicious . . . a bit taller now on my shoulders | |
91 | Golden Delicious . . . the first bite into nothing else compares | |
92 | good apple harvests on my side of the fence . . . Thanksgiving | |
93 | grandad’s orchard dad on the ladder with a missing rung | |
94 | grandma’s treat golden apples cut into little bites | |
95 | grandpa and grandson next to each other apple purée for both | |
96 | grandpa’s death anniversary wind brings the smell of old apple wine | |
97 | grandpa’s penknife the way he’d peel an apple in one curly strip | |
98 | green apples young life stitched in an apron | |
99 | green apples . . . grandma’s creaking bones | |
100 | green apples . . . waiting for them to turn red | |
101 | guarding the windfalls — drunken blackbirds | |
102 | gym shower green apple scent next door — a child again | |
103 | harvest dusk the scent of apples and our sweat | |
104 | harvest moon . . . a sprinkling of sugar over Gran’s apple pie | |
105 | heirloom apples on weathered tables cars whiz by | |
106 | her final wish — apple sauce and cinnamon just the two of them | |
107 | Hesperides, Idunn, Johnny, Newton, even Eve crisp snap Irresistible gifts | |
108 | hidden figures . . . youngsters disguised within a crab apple motif | |
109 | his apology — a worm wriggles out of the apple | |
110 | his name another apple in her basket | |
111 | history in the hands of the local wood turner . . . apple tree bole | |
112 | hornets buzz their backyard windfall . . . until moonrise | |
113 | hot summer day apples in the stream once petals | |
114 | how to live in peace and harmony . . . a new apple app | |
115 | I am picking apple but they are not mine at nextdoor | |
116 | in the bassinet smiling baby girl apple cheeks | |
117 | in the twilight the apple tree no longer blooms for you and me | |
118 | it cannot be for her to suffer all, on account of a single apple | |
119 | kitchen window grandma shoos another fly from her apple pie | |
120 | late-night-storm rattling the core at each bite | |
121 | laying her to rest the tang of fallen apples | |
122 | lonely christmas . . . first bite of the peace apple breaks the ice | |
123 | lost in her thoughts a girl in the Apple orchard time, a ceased notion | |
124 | lunar eclipse . . . bit by bit an apple bobbed | |
125 | married silence an almost perfect spiral of the apple peel | |
126 | mirror image the first fine lines wrinkly apples | |
127 | missing you — mum and your apple pie | |
128 | mom’s apple pie revealing a splash of southern comfort | |
129 | moonlight brightening my hands grandma’s apple tree | |
130 | mothers kiss another apple in a school lunch | |
131 | much paler freckles on the apple’s skin summer outing | |
132 | my daughter picks fruit on an empty stomach crabapple | |
133 | my father’s face resembles a dehydrated apple | |
134 | My winter glum, a shrivelled apple on a naked tree. | |
135 | narrowing path the wizened remnants of an apple tree | |
136 | Newton’s Law — after the autumn tempest the last apple also falls | |
137 | night skin sweats summer/slumber swelling apple seeds soiled | |
138 | north wind biting into an apple | |
139 | nostalgia chills apple orchard blooming the first love | |
140 | not seeing the situation’s gravity eve bites the apple | |
141 | on the earth self is the first to eat this apple | |
142 | on the table apple for teacher empty classroom | |
143 | once bitten twice shy Eve’s apple | |
144 | one more twist of the apple stem reciting the alphabet | |
145 | our recipe for divorce — comparing apples to oranges | |
146 | over the fence the neighbor-friendly apple branch | |
147 | overindulgence — i lay the blame tartly on apple pie | |
148 | passed down recipe wiping tears while peeling Granny apples | |
149 | plenitude an apple on cricket ball duty | |
150 | Pure pleasure on my dog’s face crunching a Fuji apple, closed eyes, wagging tail. | |
151 | red apple . . . just my wish to be special | |
152 | red apples dropping one by one in the street | |
153 | red delicious lips so plump and full I want a bite | |
154 | red everywhere more red — the drifting red dragonfly tastier — my green apple | |
155 | Red hard white soft juicy Seeds dark hard to comprehend Simply complex ground tree repeat | |
156 | refugees camp a child keeps the apple seeds for supper | |
157 | René Magritte the man behind the apple (Le fils de l’homme is Magritte’s most famous self portrait) | |
158 | rewritten script . . . Snow White don’t bite the poisoned apple | |
159 | ripe apple — the round aroma of her breasts | |
160 | road to Gulmarg — the ripening apples on her Kashmiri cheeks | |
161 | scent of cinnamon preparing the apples for the pie | |
162 | second wife eats an Ambrosia apple the same way | |
163 | she offers an apple i return with fig leaves | |
164 | she offers him a bite of her apple — sweet sixteen | |
165 | shrivelled crabapples bouncing at the branch tips . . . redwing wassail | |
166 | Silent fall. Gravity. Green or red. Heavenly fruit. | |
167 | small green spheres still make a few tart pies . . . sans worms | |
168 | Snow White — my mother-in-law gives me the apple | |
169 | split by lightning still buds on the old apple tree | |
170 | standing where grandpa’s house used to be — crabapple trees in bloom | |
171 | still life . . . shine on the apple outlasts its season | |
172 | summer flowers a mealy old apple in my lunchbox | |
173 | Summer has arrived My grandma’s stoic apple Slowly touches the ground | |
174 | summer morning scrumping my way late to school | |
175 | summer picnic munching in silence just the worm | |
176 | summertime orchards crimson and golden feast for all senses | |
177 | sun-baked the last bushel of Bramleys from my late mother’s tree | |
178 | sunrise red — father comes with a basket of fallen apples | |
179 | Swimsuits. Summertime. Prime body type and ripe fruits — Apple of my eye. | |
180 | taste of sun crisp the morning mist | |
181 | Tell’s appleshot arrow right through worm in half | |
182 | That’s my apple Mac, OK Donald! | |
183 | The apple arrives. I can hear dear autumn’s gate creak open again. | |
184 | The apple doesn’t fall, Unless it’s on a hillside, Far from the tree | |
185 | the apple maggot laid eggs inside a juicy Golden Delicious | |
186 | the apple, Steve the apple — are we better for the byte we took? | |
187 | the bruises you refuse to see . . . apple pie | |
188 | The forbidden fruit Hanging lovely on the tree Easy on the eyes. | |
189 | the good Samaritan — held in tender hands a bruised apple | |
190 | the stock dividends funding my retirement windfall apples | |
191 | thirteen fruits and ginger your holiday guest calls it apples with whipped cream | |
192 | This year’s branches droop with dozens of tempting fruits! Tart afterbite, though. | |
193 | three pounds of Cortlands the creak and sway of a vendor’s scale | |
194 | tin can puppets dance war children smile unblinking cheeks red as apples | |
195 | to be picked by hand, crisp apples remain still a wonder for days | |
196 | travelling clouds . . . the changing shades of apple orchard | |
197 | twenty years ago Gwyneth started a trend Apple | |
198 | two feet below an apple on a head cupid’s arrow | |
199 | visiting mother — a little sweet this time in unripe apples | |
200 | waning moon golden delicious after a turtle’s dinner | |
201 | watching daughter crunch her footballing opponent apple of my eye | |
202 | wax works the chill of a grocery store apple | |
203 | well mown grass under a polished apple on canvas | |
204 | who left this half apple on my table? | |
205 | William Tell’s son prefers the watermelon | |
206 | windfall — Grandma’s legacy in seed | |
207 | windfall apples we p a r t ways as friends | |
208 | windfalls . . . scattered sparkles on a lawn freshly mowed | |
209 | winter orchard sleeps baskets of apples lined up cider press awaits | |
210 | wormy apple thinking about my funeral again | |
211 | yellow apples hand pies shaped like her mother | |
212 | You sat on my shoulders to reach for the apple . . . our hearts were racing |
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!
