a mask for Christmas?

silent night

three little masked magi

watching the stars

--Cezar Florescu

The ennui that is Christmas 2020 is unbelievably sad, yet the creative hope of the determined faithful is remarkably encouraging.

So far as we await the tried and tested vaccine for dealing with this 2020 pandemic.

Our 2020 vision of hope stirs us in ways wonderful; even our decorations reflect our humourat securing victory over pathos.

The mask a physical attempt at flattening the curve in our constraint of social distancing is an icon of wisdom, so why not mask our magi figurines as we laugh in the face of this pandemic overshadow awaiting and celebrating the greater healer of all time born in a manger.

Cezar has copped the trust of fellow kukai players with this haiku of thirteen syllables.His line count remains  at 3. He draws us into a remembrance of majesty and love with a touch of new normal added to the reality of seeking and finding healing.

well done Cezar 

Review by gillena cox; Founder/coordinator-Caribbean Kigo Kukai

View the full results HERE

The prompt for this 2020 Christmas Kukai was  a mask for Christmas?

social distancing

 each bean

planted four inches apart

the wait

Mark Gilbert, UK

The first line is both engaging and intriguing. It pulls the reader into the haiku, the second gives us a clearer picture of the farm. The distance is represented as 'four inches', each bean is given four inches of earth apart to struggle, to fight for nutrition, to learn to grow on its own. The farm is a metaphor for life, similarly we are given our 'four inches of earth' on planet Earth to struggle, to fight for nutrition, a tireless but essential competition which enables us to grow on our own. The amazing aha line, 'the wait', before we all get plucked away by the harvest of death?. The haiku shows we are truly lonely in this world, we do not truly enjoy anything since we compete for them, we compete for water, housing, shelter, etc. That is why the world keeps running a dire shortage of these things... Gilbert has penned a very thoughtful haiku which he will be remembered for.

Review by Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian

The theme for this kukai was social distancing
The Results HERE

remembering Martha Magenta

 tall grass

the scythestone tunes in

with a cicada

--Henryk Czempiel; Poland

A haiku written in three lines staying within the 17 syllable count. The opening scene is tall grasses. A phrase followed by a fragment of 2 lines.

 Tall grasses  bring us to a place of growth and thriving and gives us also a sense of hiding. 

Next he gives us sounds, juxtaposing the manmade and the natural -  scythestone and cicada

One of sharpening a tool  for cutting down grasses,  the other a mating fertility and continuation song.

Cicadas are peculiar for their long rest in the earth as long as seventeen years, then to emerge as nymphs which climb trees and shed their exoskeletons

This kukai was a remembrance  for the passing of haiku poet who left us in January

Henryk's haiku by its sounds and songs gives us the sense of wailing, the human  effort of grieving.  Yet at the same time, affords us the hope in the nature of the cicada to rise to a new life.

Well Done Henryk

--gillena cox; Founder/coordinator-Caribbean Kigo Kukai

The Kukai was a celebration of haiku poet Martha Magenta who died in January 2020. a distillation from her haiku was the theme for this kukai

This is her last haiku submitted  to Caribbean Kigo Kukai

tiny cobbled streets

in silent shadows

a cicada

--Martha Magenta

SEE RESULTS HERE

Christmas decorations

 hanging baubles

one after another

memories with mom
--Cezar Florescu 

A very bittersweet haiku.  I read it as the mother has passed implied by the poet reminiscing about her.  Line 2 works as a pivot like a zeugma between Lines 1 and 3 so it can be read as 'hanging baubles one after another' and 'one after another memories with mom'.  I can read it as a general reminiscing of my mother as I hang Christmas decorations on the Christmas tree or imagine with each light or Christmas ball as I search for a place to hang them my mind flits to different memories of this season with her.  I also think about the smattering of family heirloom decorations or made by me or my siblings as children saved by my mother, literal memories now hung on my tree.  I like the word choice "baubles" it has a nice analogy to memories as sparkling gems.  My only reservation about baubles is would I have know they were Christmas decorations if I hadn't already known they were this contest theme and I can't unknow it to be sure.  But with the clues in the phrasing and that Christmas is often reminisced I think I would have known.

Review by Michael Baribeau

The Theme of this kukai was Christmas Decorations

Full Results HERE

tiny

tiny dewdrops
a partridge breaks
the light
--Cristina Apetrei

A beautiful haiku image.  It captures a fleeting moment with wildlife  in a burst of light with a poetic analogy of sunlight glinting dewdrops as broken light. I read it as a partridge, a ground bird that hides in meadow type habitats, flushed from it's hiding place of tall meadow grass, maybe by the poet just passing by, and flying up it sent a shower of dew from the grass spraying up sparkling in the sun like fragments of lights, and 'breaks the light'. Is it a white spray like a spring morning mist or golden like during the sunrise?  It's nicely concise, only giving the reader enough to spark the image and letting their imagination do the rest.

Review by Michael Baribeau 

The theme for this kuaki was tiny

Full Results HERE

shopping

homeless -
above the shopping cart
a sky full of stars
-Ana Drobot (Romania)

I like that the first line was homeless and not 'the' homeless allowing the reader to also see it from a homeless person's eyes.  Dealing with homelessness and even the humbling image of carrying along their possessions in a shopping cart to my ear has an unpretentious melancholy mood of wabi sabi. But I also like how line 3 can give us pause to see the virtues of such a life, modest, harsh, and fleeting as they may be, to live not only on the streets but among nature and beneath the stars, and the symbolism of stars reminds us that they too can hope and dream.

Review by Michael Baribeau

The theme for this kuaki was shopping

Full Results HERE