Haiku praise
Judge Alison Chisholm highlights the winning entries from our haiku competition
Poetry WINNERS
Alison Chisholm
1st prize Winner
HAIKU,
by Audrey Coldrick
ancestral voices ripple over red scorched earth; rattle ancient bones.
The haiku is not an easy option for poetry. Its brevity and succinctness require incredible power in the control of language. Its additional rules need to be juggled alongside content. Assessment of a haiku is partly dependant on the individual’s appreciation of the effectiveness of the ‘haiku moment’, an immediacy of impact. The tiny form needs to pack a punch in order to grip its readers.
One of the measures of success of a haiku resides in what the reader can take away from the poem. This may be a glimpse at something in the nature of man, (in the case of a senryu), or in the nature of the universe, that reveals a nugget of understanding. It may simply be a heart-stopping scene. It may leave resonances that continue to work in the mind. Disappointment only sets in if the piece is so underwhelming that the reader moves away from it muttering that most damning of criticisms: so what?
It was pleasing that very few of the entries in this competition fell into the last category. Nearly all had something to say that was worth reading.
Unfortunately many pieces covered the same ground. It’s a curious phenomenon that a competition for poems in a set form but with a free choice of subject often attracts entries that cover the same subject matter. On this occasion, poems about spring dominated, and buds and blossoms dusted a sizeable proportion of the entries. The second most popular time reference was autumn, and falling leaves swirled through quite a number of pages.