4th Polish International Haiku Competition 2014
WINNERS
(book prizes and diplomas):
1ST PLACE:
long afternoon…
the church spire shade
reaches the beggar
Ramesh K
Adyar, India
Rafał Zabratyński: A flawless record of a sharp observation with an array of supplementary interpretations in one tiny poem. Evidently, it is enough for a successful haiku. Is the above work one of such poems?
– A flawless record
An exchange of any word in the offered form would apparently cause a diminution in the general meaning of the haiku or its additional interpretations. For instance, the unbearably streching afternoon is skillfully emphasized by the appropriate pick of the verb in the last line.
– A sharp observation
At long last! — a compassionate response of the majority of readers is likely to read. However, the image presented in the work offers much beyond a sheer sympathy. It points out the intriguing end of the longer process. This very fragment was precisely chosen probably because of the renditions that it is able to generate.
– An array of supplementary interpretations
The most obvious, and at the same time overwhelming rendition of the poem is certainly the one which arises from the sacred character of the described building. The church spire can be perceived at this point as the hand of God, which finally brings a well-deserved relief to the beggar. A much more understated, although equally inventive possibility of perceiving the haiku is the one arising from an instance of synesthesia used in the work. At this point, the duration of the afternoon seems to measure off or even physically lenghten the church spire shade.
To sum up, the chosen poem perfectly suits the aforementioned description, what after all establishes it as not only the successful haiku but also the victorious one.
2ND PLACE:
silence
breaking in two
a log on the fire
Alexey Andreev
Moscow, Russia
Rafał Zabratyński: The driving force behind this haiku is the pivot in the second line of the poem. It combines intangible silence with a physical log in such a way that the poem can also be read from the end. As a result of this unexpected juxtaposition, the reader is in fact able to follow two paths of narration, on which either the persistent silence fructures the log or the crackle of the breaking log divides the silence. A remarkable insight!
3RD PLACE:
the scarecrow
slips the harvest moon
into his sleeve
Cherese Cobb
Maryville, United States
Rafał Zabratyński: The lyrical charm of the depicted image immediately rivets the reader’s attention to this haiku. The mood of the whole scene is built little by little. The reader follows the poetics of the piece verse by verse. Clearly, what appears to show up at the end of the reading is a delightful view of the rising harvest moon entangled in the scarecrow’s sleeve.
COMMENDATIONS
(in alphabetical order by haiku)”
after our argument
fireflies
on the way home
Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland
===
delaying
the night falling
field of rapeseed
Florin C. Florian
Botosani, Romania
===
grace of the night—
a swan leans to pick up
a falling star
Steliana Cristina Voicu
Ploiesti, Romania
===
late autumn
the old stump
is in leaf
Boris Nazansky
Zagreb, Croatia
===
on the drawn heart
walking doves
inside… outside…
Nikolay Grankin
Krasnodar, Russia
===
open lotus
a pond makes room
for the rain
Julie Warther
Dover, United States
===
rendezvous—
on my lips
Indian summer
Marta Chociłowska
Warsaw, Poland
===
wildlife park
lovers peck at baguettes
and each other
Helen Buckingham
Wells, Great Britain
===
wild roses—
the way she ties back
her hair
Terry Ann Carter
Victoria, Canada
===
wind chill
among trembling leaves
more and more sky
Maria Kowal-Tomczak
Opole, Poland
SUMMARY
Congratulations to the winners and commended haiku poets on your superb poems!
The book prizes for the winners are the following bilingual (Polish-English) collections of poems by Wisława Szymborska: Tutaj/Here (1st Prize), Wystarczy/Enough (2nd Prize), Chwila/Moment (3rd Prize).
The fourth edition of the Polish International Haiku Competition has gathered 386 authors from 47 countries: Argentina (1), Australia (17), Austria (1), Belgium (3), Bosnia and Herzegovina (5), Bulgaria (17), Canada (11), China (1), Croatia (31), France (6), Germany (11), Greece (1), Hungary (1), India (28), Indonesia (1), Iraq (1), Israel (1), Italy (4), Japan (2), Kenya (1), Lithuania (3), Macedonia (1), Malaysia (1), Mexico (1), Montenegro (4), Nepal (1), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (15), Nigeria (1), Philippines (7), Poland (101), Romania (18), Russia (4), Serbia (9), Slovakia (1), Slovenia (5), South Sudan (1), Spain (1), Sweden (1), Switzerland (3), Taiwan (1), Tunisia (2), Turkey (2), Ukraine (3), United Kingdom (18), United States (36), Vietnam (1).
We thank you all for such a large interest and invite everyone to participate in the fifth edition, which will start in August 2015.
The organizers would like to express their gratitude to George Swede for all the help, support and time devoted to the competition. The haiku which were not mentioned in the above results can be reused by their authors in any way.
The Polish translation of all the poems and comments — Rafał Zabratyński.
With kind regards — The Team:
Rafał Zabratyński, Final Judge
George Swede, Pre-Selector
Krzysztof Kokot, Coordinator