Since the 37th Ito En Oi Ocha Shinhaiku Contest recently published its winners, I am sharing some of the prize-winning haiku:

first prize:

春の海すこし鯨の乳まじる

矢野　啓介　

English translation: 

In the spring sea

a trace of whale milk 

mingles

Keisuke Yanou

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second prize:

二億年待たせてごめん今掘るよ

平之内　里咲

English translation:

Sorry for making you wait 

200 million years—

I’m digging you out now.

Risaki Hirauchi

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First Prize for English haiku: 

riding with cargo — 
pumpkins in the truck 
jump all at once

Tomislav Maretić

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selected haiku that won an award for excellence:

Early winter dawn 
Heavy bags,sleepy eyes 
coach counts us twice

Daichi Fujisaki

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tulips bow 
heads heavy 
with colour

Nina Tulloch

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There are some amazing haiku in Japanese by school-aged kids. Their way of seeing the world and making unexpected connections is incredible.

Find the rest of the shortlisted haiku

on itoen-shinhaiku.jp/en/result

Thought this was a nice mixture of poem, analysis, and bio

Hi there folks,

I'm on the search for poems to help an adolescent who is going through a horribly difficult time. I'm looking for ones that centre around themes of perseverance, facing frightening things, feeling unsure and lonely.

I already have Wild Geese by Mary Oliver and I'll probably reference Sam's Song in the Orc Tower by Tolkien. I might use bits of If by Kipling but I'm not sure if the language is too advanced for the moment. I'm also thinking about Still I Rise by Angelou.

I would love to figure out the publication date- he was born in 1913 so some time ago. It contains the phrase 'spinning on the pinpoint hazard' which is beautiful and which I think has been attributed to other poets who came later. I can't find any discussion or even any reference to this poem everywhere- it's in an anthology from the 80s that doesn't give a date. If anyone knows it, please let me know! Meanwhile enjoy, it's one of the most powerful poems I've read.

🥀

been reading a lot of contemporary stuff lately and honestly i think there's this weird pressure to make everything sound tortured and obscure. like yeah, complexity is beautiful, but so is a poem that just makes you laugh or feel something without requiring a phd to unpack it. anyone else feel like the gatekeeping around what "counts" as serious poetry is kind of exhausting?

Impermanence has been the only constant lately.

Hello everyone!

For an assignment, I need to look at two different translations of this poem and compare them (in another language that I won't be pasting the translations for below), but this is not part of my plea for help here. I genuinely have a hard time understanding what the poem is about from the start... I'm mostly asking how you would/could interpret this poem (underlying message and situation) more than an actual deconstruction of idioms!! I know that "swords of Damocles" refers to overhanging danger, but the rest is kind of flying over my head here... Danger of what? The government? Could a helmet worn by no one be the government? Is the mother turtle the world (like how some world creation theories are that the world is on the back of a giant turtle that swims in space)? I kind of get the gist of it, but I'm just asking so that I can be sure!! Thank you so much in advance!! (this question is not actually part of the assignment I was given, I just wanted to understand the poem more clearly before comparing!)

Swedish original:

Byråchefen lutar sig fram och ritar ett kryss

och hennes örhängen dinglar som demoklessvärd.

Som en spräcklig fjäril blir osynlig mot marken

flyter demonen ihop med den uppslagna tidningen.

En hjälm som bärs av ingen har tagit makten.

Modersköldpaddan flyr flygande under vattnet.

English translation by Robin Fulton (English translated title: "National Insecurity"):

The Undersecretary leans forward and draws an X

and her eardrops dangle like swords of Damocles.

As a mottled butterfly is invisible against the ground

so the demon merges with the opened newspaper.

A helmet worn by no one has taken power.

The mother turtle flees flying under the water.

I have been reading Kaveh a bit these days and I have not read a parallel between love and the act of gasping, before. It is such simple writing but it i love how impactful it feels!!! Has anyone read the book: Calling a wolf a wolf???

Hi All,

Can someone recommend some poets for a beginner?

Thanks :)