I know you’ve been waiting for the poll to open on this haiku contest; thanks for your patience while I’ve been slogging through my day job’s week from hell.
There was a small conundrum with the entries for this contest, but first let me say how wonderful it was of everyone to submit so many poems! The problem, though, is that a bunch of the entries, albeit thoughtful and interesting and fun, didn’t really conform to the format/style guidelines outlined in the contest rules. That is, some of the entries weren’t 5-7-5 syllables. So all those poems which didn’t fit the guidelines have been reserved and will be part of a new short poem contest in March, with the same prize as this contest.
But many of the entries fit the haiku form I outlined beautifully, and these viable haiku are presented here for you to enjoy and vote on! Voting will be open for a week, until Wednesday night next week. You can vote once a day, so it’s like approval voting — and so remember that voting for all of them is like voting for none of them. Feel free to share this post with others, too, so lots of people can enjoy the haiku and vote.
And if yours is one of the entries listed below, please make sure to check back on this blog to find out who wins. If it’s you, I’ll need your contact info so I can mail you your prize, a copy of the new anthology Strange New Words by Ari Marmell.
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January Haiku Contest Entries
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from veronicahaunanifitzhugh:
Reaffirmation
Do you resolve to
hold me when I pull away
and kiss still my tears?
what I may intend
isn’t always in my reach
still I keep trying
from Greg:
My New Year’s resolve
to eat less, exercise more
lasted till Friday
from Sky Vani:
failed resolutions
with joint forces strive to goal
~ living happily
from mjlamarche (#1):
resolutions; clouds
wind-threshed, light-slivered. squeezed by
goals other than mine.
from Tshering Dolkar:
to let go of me
that you I like river flow
like flower just be
from laine:
My mind says “Achieve!”
or the year will be a waste.
My heart disagrees.
from Mjlamarche (#2):
each year’s promise drops
its seed on dry, frigid ground.
the harvest? pure joy.
from David Hutt:
resolutely hitchhiking:
packet of Gauloises,
she passes me some red wine.
won’t quit hitchhhiking.
from Maria:
Hope burgeoning, blooms
The new year clears life’s losses
Clouds bursting, Renewed
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