II PIHC 2012 – results

2nd Polish International Haiku Competition 2012

WINNERS
(book prizes and diplomas)

1ST PLACE:

autumn moon
her brain a tangle
of white string

Roberta Beary
Bethesda, United States

 

Jim Kacian: This poem, I believe, is the most poetic of the competition—by which I mean the poem least likely to be explicated by other words. It consists of a season word and a poetic image, for which no other set of words might express exactly what these particular words do. What is the white string which, being tangled, comprises “her” brain? I don’t know that I can say, except that I know that somehow it is bound up with that autumn moon, and there is a justesse to this that seems ineffable, and so laudable.

2ND PLACE:

2nd hand bookshop
i release
the smell of time

Dietmar Tauchner
Puchberg, Austria

 

Jim Kacian: The delicious, if musty, aroma of this poem is certainly familiar to us all, and in fact connotes a distinct pleasure. The first line places the poem, of course, but it does more—it permits the reader to know that the time allowed to escape by the opening of the used book is actually shared, with other readers, with other times. So this is not merely the encomium of an abstraction, but also the sharing of it, and it is this personal touch that I think elevates the poem to this prize-winning position.

3RD PLACE:

shooting stars
the pop of gravel
on a country road

Alan Bridges
Littleton, United States

 

Jim Kacian: This haiku takes a rather classical approach to expressing its content: we are given both high and low, both sight and sound. The synaesthetic similarity of the two events forms a likeness in the mind which the poet has deftly captured and conveyed. At the same time it’s a contemporary poem, given that the road is at least „improved”. Shooting stars, however, appeal in any age, as here.

 

COMMENDATIONS
(in alphabetical order by haiku)
(diplomas)

 

double rainbow—
people working in the fields
are standing up

Agnieszka Malinowska
Zgierz, Poland

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Lost
I follow my dog’s bark
into the fog

Raj Bose
Honolulu, United States

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obituary
a gust of wind
touches the hedge

Marleen Hulst
Musselkanaal, Netherlands

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Roasted chestnuts
the sweet scent brightens
this cloudy day

Sanja Petrov Vlahović
Oprtalj, Croatia

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steady rain
each surface tolls
its own tone

Quendryth Young
Alstonville, Australia

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terminally ill
a snowman melts
into darkness

Sergio Ortiz
San Juan, United States

The wishing well—
Just a few words
In all languages

Anna Goluba
Warsaw, Poland

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wild coast
the sea still sorting
stones

Nola Borrell
Lower Hutt, New Zealand

===

winter moonlight—
some shattered glass
between fingers

Darrell Lindsey
Nacogdoches, United States

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Year’s end—
the old suitcase still waiting
at the door

Eduard Tara
Iasi, Romania

 

SUMMARY

Congratulations to the winners and commended haiku poets on your superb poems!

The second edition of the Polish International Haiku Competition has gathered 312 authors from 40 countries: Australia (8), Austria (3), Belgium (1), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1), Brazil (1), Bulgaria (6), Canada (7), China (1), Croatia (33), Finland (2), France (4), Germany (17), Greece (1), Haiti (1), Hungary (1), India (2), Ireland (4), Israel (1), Italy (3), Japan (1), Lithuania (8), Macedonia (1), Malaysia (1), Mongolia (4), Montenegro (1), Netherlands (4), New Zealand (16), Norway (1), Philippines (2), Poland (94), Romania (15), Russia (2), Serbia (6), Slovenia (13), South Africa (1), Sweden (1), Switzerland (1), Ukraine (1), United Kingdom (8), United States (34).

We thank you all for such a large interest and invite everyone to participate in the third edition, which will start in August 2013.
The organizers would like to express their gratitude to Jim Kacian for all the help, support and time devoted to the competition. He also generously funded all the book prizes with his personal signature: Presents of Mind (1st Prize), Border Lands (2nd Prize), Where I Leave Off (3rd Prize).
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:

Jim Kacian, Final Judge
Rafał Zabratyński, Pre-Selector
Krzysztof Kokot, Coordinator