bamboo

morning cleaning -
the bamboo shadows
sweep the stairs
----Jacek Margolak; POLAND


The resonance in this haiku is subtle and savoury. One can see the shadows, the wind moving the leaves and feel the companionship with nature that Jacek experiences on this particular morning.
Cleaning on a morning, adds a freshness of perspective, it brings a newness, like the new day; to life and being. Almost like sweeping away what you desire from yesterday, making a clear path for the provisions of today, He sweeps and observes a reptition not of himself, but of all of creation in the process of morning's newness; as mimicked in the strong silent resilient bamboo, whose leaves yield to the breeze of newness. Just so, he procures a ritual of apprehending, continuance, and an almost thanksgiving gesture, that he might receive more. He makes space for the day's occurance.
Jaceks bamboo remains in the shadows, as the day ahead is; unknown, a short distant future, an yet unfolded existence; which exposes a mere glimpse, a maybe, of plans already in the mind, not yet realised, not yet brought to light.
A haiku chuck full of appeal to the senses, devoid of clutter, presented in twelve syllables.

Well done Jacek

--gillena cox
Founder/coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



The kigo was bamboo

mud

The tempest…
white fallen plum petals
in the mud
--Magdalena Dale, Romania

This haiku has a fierce opening. It grabs the attention of readers and forces us to witness a happening of strong ferocious winds. In our mind's eyes, we see oh so much; even if we have never experienced such a force of nature, present day exposure of such occurences, have been media fed to us. Therefore our minds can rove through the collection of real or virtual experiences, enough so that we can wander and be lost.
However there is a stark reality of white fallen blossoms in Line Two; which quickly reels us back into Magdalena's haiku, with the precision and detail of flowers - white, and small and from a particular bough.
And we are now placed in a real situation of pity for these tiny fragile petals squashed in the squelch of thick viscous mud; hapless, soiled, captured. We lean to, in our poets soul, that place that we have sometimes found ourselves in; when we have been overwhelmed, trapped, and muddled; but, we are not plum blossoms.
Magdalena acheives her rending, in twelve syllables; a dramatic fragment to introduce and infuse us into an empathy drawing instance. The contrasts in colours and textures are sharp. Her tone is no nonsense and curt. Her story is credible and well crafted


Well done Magdalena


gillena cox
Founder/coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



The kigo was mud

sand

footprints in the sand
her toes digging deeper
where he kissed her
--John McDonald, Scotland


The romance celebrated in this haiku, is not without its impressions of passion and intensity; to such a degree in a three line poem, within the constraints of seventeen syllables; incredible. Line two, presents a remarkable scenario; of this happening and structurally, it works as a well placed pivot. This is the stuff that most editors crave for their haiku journals. It conforms to well understood haiku standards, but is by no means boring. On the contrary, this delightful piece, is all show, not just narrative. Look there it is, as we savor, as they did, that moment, capsuled in the sand. Its by no means a frieze however, we do pick up the nuances of differing heights of the personnae, and as well, there is enough subtle movement within for our reading eyes to read and return to read again, absorbed in the use of the 'ing' form of the verb 'digging' with the intruigue of a kire to follower - 'deeper'. To draw us even moreso into the scene.
Three lines and fifteen syllables sketches for us a romantic kiss on the beach sands

Well done John
--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai




the kigo was sand

rice

planting rice
the child on her back
soothed by song
--Marleen Hulst; The Netherlands


Those who commented on this haiku zeroed in on the basic uppermost theme of bonding; and i too, am swayed by this relationship spell of the unstated but presumed mother child companionship in the rice field; the setting presents the hope of nourishment; sustenance and furtherance to that love bond; we are taken further on the strains of her song to hungers sated not only for this child but to a world which will also be fed because of her back bent in supplication to the palate of so many, unawares of a meal first created in a song of love
She uses no kireji; her two images are clear and concise; the juxtaposition, stands on its own measure, of the progression of Marleen's direction of this scene. There is no surprise, there is no intrigue, only an esoteric binding cord; working hands, bent back, and care giving; crafted into a haiku, the likes of which the group nominated winner

Well done Marleen

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



the kigo was rice

tuxedo

tuxedo
wedding anniversary -
mom asks me to put on
my father's tuxedo
--Cezar F.Ciobîca, Romania

I ask myself, after reading and rereading this haiku, why did so many people like it, and why did it emerge winner in this kukai ? Every time i read it i summized a new interpretation; a new set of answers to questions of the activity inside the poem. Three characters are presented, two of them in the foreground and one in the background. The direct conversation between 'mom' and the poem's persona is related to us after the fact, but it features prominently in the setting; yet it is unclear to us what really is the request; is it to clothe the father who is unable to dress himself? Is it that the persona should wear the tuxedo of his father on a particular wedding anniversary, since it will fit him well. And if so does it intimate to readers the likeness of father and son

Who will be wearing the tuxedo? are all characters present day? these are some of the questions which lend itself to the intrigue in Cezar's haiku, a chiaroscuro of character and request in a wedding anniversary canvas

Well done Cezar

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai




The kigo was tuxedo

ribbons

old diary -
between two blank pages
a pink ribbon
-- Cezar-Florin Ciobîca, Romania



Cezar's haiku qualifies diary, old diary, which connotes memories.These memories may be sad or happy. The fact that the pages are blank, could mean an untimely ending to entries or the kind of entry best not expressed by words. This diary could be his or someone else's. There are so many possibilities, which Cezar leaves out, it makes for a very intriguing poem. The kigo ribbon is qualified - pink ribbon; but again, the colour pink carries its fair share of joy and pain in interpretation. It is certainly not a stand back and observe ku; one cannot help but get involved. His well crafted abstraction draws us in with eager curiosity.

Well done Cezar

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai




the theme of the kukai was ribbon

string

broken string
my paper kite disappears
in the sun
--Jacek Margolak; POLAND



A deeply disturbing image for the christian soul - "broken string". This subsumes one into a limbo, a hopelessness; and Jacek resonates his theme in this quest of oblivion by choosing to use the word "disappears in Line 2. Disapperance into a scorching inferno, in this case Jacek's haiku 'sun'. An apocalyptic rendering of the Kigo - string, that can cause the faint hearted to swoon, and the neligent believer to take stock, for Lost Lost is the fate of hopelessness; the result of inadequency as tenants in this human earthly scenario. And, as flimsly as Jacek's kite of paper, such is our earthly existence.

What a terribly wonderful canvas from the haiku brush of Jacek Margolak accompanied by the rhythm of his 's' alliteration

Well done Jacek


--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



the theme of the kukai was string

bud

first buds
the dream fading
as I tell it
--Bill Kenney, USA

I do not have a home spring experience; coming from and living in the tropics; my friends online tell me of their hankering for spring's warmth and renewing greenery during the white cold of winter 's snow blankets; and i emphatise, and my empathy is not with out substance; for i have briefly experienced winter's cold blasts while on vacation in Brooklyn New York; shortlived as my holiday stay was, it remains etched in my memory sphere.

I can very well sense the fleeting of Bill's haiku spring moment, be it the reality of a newwnes of life, in this budding phase; or the waking up out of, a spring filling dream; either way, the themes of longing and the ephemeral are solidly expressed.

Bill, hints but does not state concretely, about this phenomenon of budding; where is the reality, where is its existence, where the occurrance? Is it in a day's snapshot of retaining, or a fantasy's whirl of escaping, what we do know of this (a coming into, a coming out of?) Bill thinks surely that's enough for his haiku audience, an expression has been embossed in his existence important enough to share; Thank you Bill for your sharing; well done, in ten syllables.

“Thus having prepared their buds against a sure winter the wise trees stand sleeping in the cold.” William Carlos Williams


--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



the theme of the kukai was bud

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day...
only cup of tea
warms my hands
--Jacek Margolak; Poland

¸.•**•. ♥ ♥ ¸.•**•.¸

late Valentine's day –
the beggar still hums
an old love song
--Cezar-Florian Ciobîca; Romania


Both Jacek and Cezar have progressed the physical dimensions, in their co-winning haiku; they agree by intimation of the warming that love can bring; even though they both absent the much purported lover of the day. Space and time absorb both writers in their love contemplation; prescribed for this day.

Jacek achieves this in 12 and Cezar in 14 syllables.
Jacek provokes the touch sense, while Cezar appeals to memory.

There is a profound resonance in Cezar's poem by his skillful choice of 'late in Line 1 and 'still' in Line 2; love is lost but cunningly capsuled.
In Jacek's poem love's warmth is cleverly juxtaposed.

They both narrate a sad reality of the much sort after love; so much so, its given this international appeal.

Well done Jacek and Cezar

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai

the theme of the kukai wasValentine's Day

calendar

east wind
the paper-thin days
of the calendar
--Bouwe Brouwer; The Netherlands


"There's an east wind coming, Watson."
"I think not, Holmes. It is very warm."
"Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared." Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "His Last Bow", published in 1917 but set in 1914, ends with Holmes addressing his assistant Doctor Watson on the eve of the First World War)


How fragile is this life we live, 'paper thin days' best describes to us, our mortality, and our existence in the wake of challenges - 'east wind'; but the calendar does not determine history, it merely records time. Truly all of creation is in God's hands; its up to us the players in this, the vast drama of the universe, to choose the 'high roads' or the 'low roads'; and all is consequent afterwards.
Bouwe's haiku is dramatic and provocative, in thirteen syllables, he presents to us a dish of rhetoric "What? of this our lives"

Well done Bouwe
--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai


the theme of the kukai was calendar