THF Monthly Kukai Voting Ballot — June 2021
This month’s theme:
community
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 | 3 spoons of sugar borrowed over the fence his BD cake is saved | |
2 | 49 apartments building one blended smell of our dinner time | |
3 | A herd of hoof pounds Rumbled in the empty streets. Humans staying one. | |
4 | a red bench — women raising voices on silent tears | |
5 | a smile at the end of a phrase . . . facebook friends | |
6 | a tender vine envelops the tree trunk — united in grief | |
7 | a zoom full of seniors coaching each other how to unmute | |
8 | acacia trees . . . the buzzing of the bees at sunrise | |
9 | an empty lot littered with wildflowers urban renewal | |
10 | bees and flowers magically blended honey | |
11 | being — same wavelength no pretence | |
12 | belated blooms I live among the hopes | |
13 | Birds on the wire at the dawn meditation Everyone welcome | |
14 | blinded by smell of crayons and glue the old schoolhouse | |
15 | blinding flash the boy covers his ears | |
16 | bumper crop parents bookend their broods | |
17 | chitchatting with neighbours so much buzz in the California lilac | |
18 | chorus of frogs — multi-lingual haijin gather round the pond | |
19 | cicadas the dreams we all share | |
20 | Closed kindred Knitted lodgers wandered Unity altered | |
21 | clouds on peonies the weight of the rain | |
22 | colorful fabrics church’s quilting circle a flutter | |
23 | community care i leave my ‘I’ behind | |
24 | community center bingo for candy bars — Milky Way | |
25 | community flowerbeds the sunny breaths of volunteers planting seedlings | |
26 | community garden another night visitor climbs over the fence | |
27 | comm(unity) of all songbird notes | |
28 | community quarantine on the balcony railing a family of six pigeons | |
29 | community service we rebuild bridges and spirits | |
30 | condolences slowly warming up at the funerals | |
31 | cornflower scent — gathering of bees on my balcony | |
32 | covid death — only the caretaker accompanies him | |
33 | COVID ward a young man gives up his bed for an old one | |
34 | Early summer hope Vegetable garden Preparing salad | |
35 | elephants on the march no signposts | |
36 | evening walk all the thresholds I’ll never cross | |
37 | excited bird talk heads tilt this way and that new neighbors | |
38 | face control flies back a crow | |
39 | facebook her posting lost in the algorithm | |
40 | faceoff the poets sharpen their verse | |
41 | fever of stingrays bypassing ocean angler community action | |
42 | Field full of flowers Flaunting all colors and scents Till the scythe arrives | |
43 | field of wheat — thriving spikes mingle with wild poppies | |
44 | first dating — the doorman’s accomplice glance | |
45 | flash floods everyone rushes to save the deity’s idol | |
46 | Flock of birds I saw rejoicing; singing Community spirit . . . | |
47 | Food pantry A meal offered From heart to hands | |
48 | from burrows among the bushes Fairy penguins assure each other | |
49 | funeral praying mantises still on the wall | |
50 | gathered in the shade smoking sunshine cigarettes sipping yellow wine | |
51 | golden orb’s web in our communal garden collecting sunshine | |
52 | . . . grandmothers caring for children caring for . . . | |
53 | gravestone path — all the villagers unburied by snowmelt | |
54 | heard first on Zoom the death of a friend winter chill | |
55 | held together by tarpaulin and tent poles street sleepers | |
56 | Hiroshima Day the one-legged king pigeon cuddled by the flock | |
57 | honey in my tea agitated buzzing near the fallen hive | |
58 | house debris . . . ants still find the way to mama’s kitchen | |
59 | howling at the moon I hear answering howls | |
60 | i listen to the Wind and i don’t know the Wind — mallow flowers | |
61 | I see the moon and the moon sees you as close as a song | |
62 | In a universe Of diversity A sense of belonging | |
63 | in all seasons ant shaking hands and work together | |
64 | in silence walking through whispers adult survivor | |
65 | In summer, when we melt, let it be together, not further apart. | |
66 | jingling dance in colorful costumes night of tribes | |
67 | June heatwave nightly, from rooftops owls bellow | |
68 | just big enough for us — country church | |
69 | kites in the sky children of migrants ascend togeter with them | |
70 | last minute goal a wave of excitement roars through the masses | |
71 | local gardens abundant vegetables to share | |
72 | Lockdown Sharing of Haiku poems Fills the gap | |
73 | locked down — my community of one | |
74 | lump of sugar — for every ant equal share | |
75 | mail box flyer historic home under threat I sign the petition | |
76 | meditation hall all pervasive silence in different jargons | |
77 | Melting G7 Summit Poles apart | |
78 | migrating hooligan schooling as one fools the seal | |
79 | migratory birds look not the chasing storm | |
80 | modern times among a crowd of people I’m lonely | |
81 | monday traffic the cotoneaster full of bees | |
82 | monks asleep crickets recite the sutras | |
83 | monochrome enough out here . . . yellow king penguin | |
84 | morning in the city no place for shadows on the crowded street | |
85 | morning ritual . . . my dad feeds an army of sparrows | |
86 | morningside terrace the city not looking as shitty from here | |
87 | Most women feel like waitresses at a wedding, even in their homes. | |
88 | my community — people know about me even more than I do | |
89 | neighborhood’s grassroots movement . . . network of trees | |
90 | new chair the trust wobbles | |
91 | Noah’s Ark in the desert sand silicified trees | |
92 | one-handed boy the blind girl raising both kites | |
93 | pandemic streets no place to pick pockets | |
94 | pandemic ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ galaxy of stars ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ is a Sanskrit phrase found in Hindu texts such as the Maha Upanishad, which means “the world is one family” | |
95 | part of our commune but not — the all-weathers homeless | |
96 | peace garden two men chat a pair of legs between them | |
97 | pondering life here how cardinal knows squirrel grass knows thirst, seeks sun | |
98 | potluck dinner twelve bowls of baked beans mutual melody | |
99 | “proliferative distributive & wide tenets of an undated community.” | |
100 | puffed feathers — he bows again and again | |
101 | refugee day . . . following the river to its source | |
102 | refugee tent — in a foreign language spelling “home” | |
103 | resurrection night — the dandelions light up the road to the cross | |
104 | reverence for my grandmother’s long life grieving village | |
105 | samphire flats frogs’ chorus rises above reeds | |
106 | sense of belonging absorbing stories told barber chair awaits | |
107 | sharing a sense of place up there in the mountains a forest of trees | |
108 | sharing memories under the wrinkles . . . old age home | |
109 | silver bells one Santa drops a quarter in another’s bucket | |
110 | six feet apart one pandemic world | |
111 | someone to call when childcare is canceled weight off my shoulders | |
112 | soup kitchen — on menu today mom’s special broth | |
113 | starlings preparing the heavens for darkness | |
114 | still walking to work but my morning shadow’s getting longer and longer | |
115 | strawberries — a gathering of ants in the vegetable garden | |
116 | streetlights coming on the spine-frosting screams of happy drunk girls | |
117 | suburb bar in sweetish smoke bitter stories | |
118 | Swimming in the buff No body is peculiar All are special | |
119 | Tai chi inside the shadow inside myself | |
120 | the bees change their hive . . . monday morning | |
121 | the middle of May and still the cold persists another snowfall | |
122 | the ocean knows even the tiniest pebble | |
123 | the warmth of a real congregation funeral mass | |
124 | the wolf chatters the sparrow scatters the hunter’s ego shatters | |
125 | there are no more words children of the world unite love is all we know | |
126 | three friends of winter pine, bamboo and plum art in bloom | |
127 | three trees join roots find middle path unity | |
128 | underground temple . . . ants excavate the soil to build their colony | |
129 | vole prints wildflowers dropping seeds upon new snow | |
130 | waiting an hour to accept her Friend Request he plays it cool | |
131 | we mould together interlinked share our deep roots a sense of place grows | |
132 | WHO speaks up for sapiens | |
133 | wintry morning inside the labyrinth we sing frozen songs | |
134 | yarn collective the click of knitting needles and tongues |
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!
