Contest Judges …Ordered by the Seasons Nine Honorable Mentions… Nanae Tamura is a haiku poet, haiku Yuki Teikei the harvested field essayist, and translator. She has written Haiku Society early plum blossoms migrant worker lifts his eyes a column in the “Shiki-shimpo” (Shiki the preliminary folds toward the mountain Newsletter) for more than two decades. for a paper crane Priscilla Lignori Translator for the yearly Shiki Calendar Announces Barbara Snow of Ehime University, she also translated coffee pot gurgle and co-edited with Cor van den Heuvel lavender lipstick heard from the empty doorway— the book Baseball Haiku (W.W. Norton & the first morning of the year school begins again Co. 2007). She learned haiku mainly without my mother Kit Nagamura from her third teacher, Kiyoko Tsuda, Kath Abela Wilson who was a disciple of Takako Hashimoto his motorcycle and Seishi Yamaguchi. She is a judge of how strongly I sense miles and miles and miles and miles both the non-Japanese haiku for the the presence of your absence— of harvested fields “City Haiku Post” and the Haiku Koshien first morning alone Deborah P Kolodji (Nationwide haiku competition for high Earl Keener school students held in Matsuyama). In early plum blossoms— her words, “I love haiku because it brings in lieu of “hello” a man who worked on haiku me close to nature and has magical my niece’s daughter shows me to his last moment power to tell me who I am always.” her jar of tadpoles Hiroyuki Murakami Karina M. Young Nozomi Sugiyama was born and raised For information about the YTHS society in Hiroshima. After moving to Matsuyama scent of an old barn— and about future contests please check in 1993, she joined the Japanese Haiku the orange cat stretches out our website: group Kunugi (Japanese Chestnut Oak), for its midday nap www.youngleaves.org which follows the yuki teikei form of Linda Papanicolaou haiku. She is the current dojin and editor of “Kunugi,” the group’s monthly magazine. As a member of the Association of Haiku Poets, in 2010 she published a haiku collection, Gacho (A Sketch Book). She has been teaching haiku and renku for beginners, as well as …2017 Contest Kigo Contest Guidelines… lecturing at the NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Association) Culture New Year: first morning This contest is for English language Center on Oku no Hosomichi, Bashō’s Spring: tadpole, departing spring haiku written in the traditional form of Narrow Road to the Deep North. In fear Summer: midday nap, flea three lines using 5, 7, 5 syllables. Each of death by boredom, she constantly Autumn: school begins, harvested fields poem is required to contain one (and kept herself busy. Now, however, she Winter: winter cloud, early plum blossom only one) season word (kigo) from the believes that perhaps the most Winners following list chosen for this year’s precious resource is, indeed, idle time to of the Tokutomi contest. hatch haiku and enrich her life. 2017 Haiku Contest 2017 Prize-winning Haiku First Prize: $100 Second Prize: $50 Third Prize: $25

Comments by the Judges early plum blossom winter clouds blanket first morning sunrise Nanae Tamura the faint recollection that tents in the refugee camp shines through the open window Nozomi Sugiyama i’ve been here before stray cats yowl all night spotless countertop

Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi Michael Henry Lee Neal Whitman Jenny Katherine Luu Haiku Contest

The Annual Tokutomi Haiku Contest of Haiku can sometimes be rather personal This poem shows that we can use the Everything seems different and new on the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society (YTHS) is and express very private inner scenery tiny form of the haiku to describe not only New Year’s Day, and we feel a solemn named for Mr. Kiyoshi and Mrs. Kiyoko evoked by what you have been given our everyday lives but also an unfamiliar atmosphere permeates the air. In Japan Tokutomi, bilingual speakers of English from Mother Nature or your own world. Perhaps the poet got this we wear our best clothes and use new and Japanese. They founded the experiences. This haiku expresses an information through the TV, a magazine, chopsticks. Many people are willing to Society in 1975 to foster writing haiku in emotion on encountering an early plum or newspaper. The refugees’ lives are climb a hill or go to the seashore to see English along traditional Japanese blossom, forming a murmurlike phrase. very different from our own; however, a the newly born sunrise because we guidelines, with the inclusion of a season The poet probably sees one dignified growing number of displaced people live believe it gives us health benefits and word in each haiku and the use of a plum blossom as if it is a divine all over the world. The poet is sensitive peace of mind. In this haiku, the poet 5-7-5 syllabic pattern. YTHS studies (but messenger of spring. We should say that enough to feel the deep sorrow of those welcomes the first sunrise through the is not limited to) this form. The Tokutomi there are a number of haiku expressing who are forced to live in a refugee camp. open window. The rays of the sun shine Haiku Contest is the longest-lived similar feelings of déjà vu. However, this He/she doesn’t use any big words to on the spotless counter top to bless the contest in the West that requires contest haiku is a success because of the describe the depressed feelings, but the people in the house. The sun seems to entries to follow this traditional form. splendid usage of kigo, a winter plum winter clouds that cover the camp promise a joyful start to the year. blossom, and the word “here” in the third completely symbolize the tough situation. line. If it was just about a plum blossom, And the yowl of a stray cat heightens the the effect and atmosphere of this haiku effect. It resonates with the people’s cry Title of the Cover Art Work: would be completely different. The word who lost their home or had to live “here” implies: “I am alive and am separately from their beloved families. It “Sakura Garden” by Tei Matsushita, enjoying my life and waiting for the resonates with the cry of those who have Courtesy of Patricia Machmiller coming of spring.” Surely the murmur been forced to leave their hometown. reaches the heart of the readers.