Comments of Sandra Simpson, Final Judge of the 15th PIHC
It was an honour to be invited to judge this contest. My few remarks here are designed to help poets who did not have work selected. The contest rules require that a kigo be used, however, the overwhelming majority of entries simply named a season. These poems may be perfectly publishable but for the winners in a contest I wanted to see innovation. A surprising number of haiku used anthropomorphism and an equally surprising number used adjectives, in some cases more than one in a single haiku. I’m afraid that unnecessary words stand out in such a short and concise form. A few haiku arrive with us fully formed, but generally most will benefit from the editing process.
After reading each of the poems I received at least twice, I was delighted to have a strong shortlist. The haiku chosen all display a freshness, leave room for their readers to enter and inhabit, and fully deserve their honours.
Winners:
First Prize
vesper bells—
the barn raising
ends in song
Marilyn Ashbaugh, USA
This haiku immediately caught my eye – and my ear! A long summer’s day is drawing to a close (vesper prayers are at sunset) as a day of community teamwork ends with happy song, albeit not in church, despite those summonging bells, and with the prayers of the farm owner answered. Barns are large and expensive buildings but essential where winters are long and hard. Barn raisings, now mostly confined to North American communities such as the Amish, traditionally take place in June and July (northern summer). Neighbours work together for free, the implicit contract being that the ‘sweat equity’ will one day be returned. The poet has chosen their words carefully, lots of soft sounds to emphasise the winding down of the day and the feeling of tired elation when a physical job is well done.
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Second Prize
relapse . . .
snow upon snow
upon a snow angel
Indra Neil Mekala, India
There is much mystery in this poem – what is the illness (minor or major), who made the snow angel, why has the poet observed it so closely over time, where is the poet (at home or in hospital)? Yet, all these unanswered questions add up to a satisfying whole. Each reader can write their own story into this haiku. The poem is paced well and, again, there is a careful choice of words with sounds as soft as falling snow. The ellipsis is just right, able to represent the passing of time, footprints in the snow, falling snow or even the three layers of snow mentioned in the poem.
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Third Prize
past the point
of no return
Hiroshima Day
Michael Henry Lee, USA
This haiku presents us with an exact moment – 8.15am on August 6, 1945 – as an atomic bomb was released by a United States military aircraft above Hiroshima, Japan, but also asks to consider, I think, all the ‘points of no return’ there must have been at every step to that moment. And although the A- bomb stopped something (at a huge human cost), it started something too, and the world has ever after lived with the threat of nuclear warfare. As a by-the-way, at the beginning of 2025 scientists moved the Doomsday Clock – which measures the danger to humankind from such things as warfare and climate change – forward one second, to 89 seconds before midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe. Is there hope or are we already free-falling, past the point of no return?
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10 Commendations (unranked)
at the edge
of the Milky Way
peach blossom
Maureen Sudlow, New Zealand
An interesting comparison – if we look into a peach blossom do we see a galaxy; if we look at the Milky Way are we reminded of a blossom? One is very much smaller than us but can be held close, one unimaginably larger and unimaginably far away, yet both contain worlds. Peach trees bloom in late winter when the Milky Way will be clear in the night sky, perhaps with a ‘blossoming’ of peachy-pink colour on its edge.
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flea market —
in the amber stone
another autumn
Ana Drobot, Romania
A flea market implies items of little value, but amber, for many women at least, is prized. That first insect name gently led me to imagine an insect trapped in the amber. A nice colour comparison between amber and autumn, and good word choices with all the repeating ‘m’ sounds. Echoes of Shiki’s „for me going /for you staying . . . /two autumns„.
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mud season
all the known aliases
of rain
Brad Bennett, USA
How many names for rain are there, do you think? The poet has found a fresh way of indicating a season, one that will suit a reader in any part of the world.
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small worries
ballooning in the breeze
winter moths
Ingrid Jendrzejewski, United Kingdom
All too easy for small worries to balloon, but with the effective pivot line we can also see moths ‘filling out’, their wings rippling in a chill breeze.
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winter rain…
stitching another inch
into his memorial scarf
Jay Friedenberg, USA
A loving moment that is filled with sadness – tears may be falling like the rain outside. How long is this scarf already, and how long will it be? (Which may be like asking how long grief lasts.) Who is stitching it? Why only an inch? A story waiting for its reader to become the stitcher, to fill in and finish.
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the mountain
inside each mountain
goose feather snow
Alan Summers, United Kingdom
Underneath each snow-covered mountain is another mountain, waiting for its summer reveal. And the exterior of a mountain also eventually changes – small rocks, gravel – as it weathers. I could find no online reference to ‘goose feather snow’ (and don’t live in a snowy clime) but like the sound – and feel – of it.
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first frost …
a Gazan baby’s face
in pixels
Chen-ou Liu, Canada
The first sign of winter is juxtaposed with a baby in Gaza, likely seen under terrible circumstances. Pixels are the tiny units – or pieces (a shadow word, surely) – that make up a digital image. News is always to hand, refreshed continuously if we choose to look, but the devices we use can make us feel remote, less empathetic. The author’s intent (to me anyway) is unclear, which adds another layer of interest.
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winter evening—
sparks flying from
an old book
Aakanksha Tanwar, India
The sparks may be metaphorical (an exciting book), but they also may be literal – someone reduced by circumstance to burn books to stay warm, or even a political book-burning. The word ‘old’ is slippery. Is it a book once held by an ancestor, a book found in a dusty corner, does it refer to, for example, the Bible? Much to ponder.
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psithurism
with every gust of wind
more sky
Oliwia Zarzycka, Poland
Some words have a very particular meaning, one that isn’t easily conveyed in another way. Petrichor is one and here we have another. As well as creating a sightscape, ‘psithurism’ – meaning a rustling or whispering sound such as leaves in the wind – when said (silent ‘p’) gives us a soundscape to accompany our autumnal walk. Using ‘extraordinary’ words like this in a haiku is not everyday practice – for good reason – but this poet has pulled it off.
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crisp autumn day
so much to do
i won’t do
Forest Meadow, USA
Ah yes, the luxury of sitting back and just enjoying being alive, choosing to set aside the to-do list. I appreciate the small ‘i’ which places the narrator as a bit player on this marvellous day. Or, has the season has awakened a sense of urgency in the poet who realises their life is bound to be shorter than they’d like? A push-me-pull-you haiku – up to the reader to choose joy or sadness.
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Thanks to all 264 authors from 44 countries who have sent their haiku to the 15th Polish International Haiku Competition 2025:
Algeria (1), Australia (10), Austria (1), Belgium (1), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2), Bulgaria (10), Canada (4), Columbia (1), Croatia (16), France (2), Germany (5), Greece (1), Hungary (2), India (18), Indonesia (1), Iran (4), Ireland (1), Italy (14), Lithuania (3), Malaysia (1), Malta (1), Montenegro (2), Morocco (2), Netherlands (2), New Zealand (22), Nigeria (1), Pakistan (2), Philippines (2), Poland (43), Romania (12), (2), Serbia (6), Singapore (1), Slovakia (1), South Sudan (1), Spain (2), Sweden (1), Switzerland (2), Taiwan (2), Türkiye (1), Ukraine (1), United Arab Emirates (1), United Kingdom (21), USA (34)
All the best in 2026 and welcome to the 16th Polish International Haiku Competition.
Polish Haiku Association