everywhere

 I remember a time when i used to see lots of stars in the night sky, here in St James, Trinidad, where i live.

Now not so. The stars are few and the night sky most times blank except for the moon.

stars everywhere 

joining dots in search

of dad's constellation 

--Lakshmi Iyer, India 

This haiku took me back to a happy time of night sky watching.

For the poet, this might also be so. A haiku contemplating a happier time.

But there is also longing and sadness intimated in this haiku. The poet, desperate for continued connection, traces a constellation to recapture a loss of love, her father.

Four poets commented on Lakshmi's haiku and all four comments carried  a sense of loss and longing.

Structurally, Lakshmi's approach in this haiku can be seen as 'out of the box', it is neither a 17 syllable, nor  is it of  the formal 5.7.5 format.

Review by Gillena Cox; founder/coodinator Caribbean Kigo Kukai

View all the haiku and comments HERE 

 View the invitation for this kukai HERE

year of the tiger

year of the Tiger 

every day

 I never lived 

--Eufemia Griffo, Italy 

 What makes this a winning haiku? I think all of the white space. One can imagine, one can speculate, one can research. There is so much mystery in this haiku.

 I think others in this kukai were just drawn to the allure of could be in this 12 syllable stunner. 

 Well Done Eufemia 

Review by Gillena Cox

founder/coodinator

Caribbean Kigo Kukai

 the theme of this kukai was 'year of the tiger' 

 View all of the haiku written HERE 

 View the invitation HERE

where sunflowers bloom'

train from Kiev ...

 in the old coat

 sunflower seeds 

 © Lucia Cardillo; Italy 

 War is cruel sad lonely business. Separation, death, heartbreak its reward. 

Lucia's Line One draws us in immediately to a place troubled by war. Therefore her Line One is loaded with emotions; heavy hearted and weighted down.

 The state of the coat in Line 2 resonates with emotion and extends the mood of Line One. With 11 syllables a play of darkness and light weaves a powerful emotional story.

 However she does not leave us in the dark place. 

A matryoshka effect intimates: hope as a light embedded in those seeds, just as the seeds themselves are sunken into the old coat. 

A story then of hope told, as this is where the  haijin leaves us. 

Well Done Lucia

Review by Gillena Cox; founder/coordinator

Caribbean Kigo Kukai

The theme of this kukai was 'where sunflowers bloom' 

 View all of the haiku written HERE 

 View the invitation HERE

a magical moment

Xmas carol

I place all my puppets

on the windowsill

 © Cristina-Valeria Apetrei/ Romania

Line One of Christina's haiku sets the stage for a scene to follow. Do we know where she will take us next? Christmas carols gives a sense a joy of that season. An audience receiving, a story traditional and enchanting being told.

Christmas connotes in its ideal form a image of family. The Nativity scenes call us to newness, birth, people around us, adoration. 

The ideal of Christmas does not project for us the loneliness that so many of us must be facing in this time of celebration.

But Christina pulls us into a reality of that loneliness of Christmas, and the magic of hope; in her fragment,  Lines Two and Three, which follows an astounding phrase of Line One

Well Done Christina

Review by Gillena Cox. Founder/coodinator Caribbean Kigo Kukai

The theme of this kukai was  'a magical moment'

View all the haiku responsesHERE

View the kukai invitation haiku HERE

flower

 muezzin's call

the scent of magnolia

enters the mosque

© Cezar Florescu

It's  amazing, the way sound can manage our moods. The cry of a baby. The loud horn of a car from an irritant driver. The alleluias from our church choirs. All of the above jolts us in different ways. Add fragrance to each and a totally new event is there for our brain to translate into feelings and responses.

I remember as a child growing up in Chaguanas Trinidad, hearing the muezzin's call. I had at that time no understanding of what it was, having been a Roman Catholic child and not schooled in the ways of other religious practices. Later as an adult the scant knowing of other's and their view and practices in God worship allowed me to  make comparisons. So immediately on reading Cezar's poem there is the parallel of church bell and the smell of incense. A reverence appeal occurs in my mind even though i do not know the a Magnolia flower, personally.

What makes this a winner. The tease to the senses, the pull of intrigue, the setting of a story being told. I think. The skill of 'toriawase' features in Cezar 's haiku of three lines fifteen syllables. A haiku lifted apart from others by his peers in this kukai.

In ' Haiku and the five senses'  it is stated that "The five main senses are some of the most important tools that we use to perceive the world...When you read a well written haiku you should be able to feel at least one or more of these senses." [Haiku and the five senses - http://dev.everydayhaiku.ca/haiku-and-the-five-senses/]

Well Done Cezar Florescu

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

View the full results HERE

The prompt for this kukai was flower

year of the ox 2021

 still chewing

bitter mouthfuls ...

year of the ox

--Lucia Cardillo - Italy

Covid 19, indeed a bitter pill served up to humankind, leaves a nasty taste. So many loved ones have passed on, leaving behind the memory of loss, longing, and the effects of a surprise attack. Yet , life must go on; not as we know it, but in a new normal way.

Each and everyone on this planet has been touched, has been served up a sampling of this bitter medicine. Lucia is therefore, spokesperson for all of us reeling under the sway of this pandemic. And, she does it succinctly in three lines and eleven syllables. the pathos is deeply rooted in the frieze of where we are at, and resonates with the characteristic of the ox, which even if he displays his fierce tantrums at times, also naturally ruminates and mulls over after his feast.

Mono no aware is skillfully wrought in this haiku for it states our position in this pandemic as we bravely face 2021  chewing on the happenings  of last year.

Well Done Lucia

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

View the full results HERE

The prompt for this New Year Kukai  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

World Cup 2018

world cup final
the old couple holding
hands
.--Stella Pierides Neusaess, DE and London, UK



Maybe to a lot of us when we hear World Cup, we think: football, feet, teamshirts, roaring crowds, stadiums pavlions... yes?
To Stella the trigger is endurance and contunity and abiding love. Yes, all of which is necessary; for the next, and the next, and the next World Cup.
In her haiku, Stella attends the macro and zeros in on the micro. In the midst of it all, the hype, the joys, the disappointments, here is a couple "holding hands" [in her phrase, of a most exquisite haiku moment]
And this is what haiku is all about; what most will ignore, the haiku poet arrests.

Well Done Stella

gillena cox; Founder/coordinator-Caribbean Kigo Kukai




The prompt was 'World Cup 2018'. See the details HERE



See the full results HERE

pocket

refugee child
in his overcoat pocket
a Disneyland map
--Cezar
This haiku, written using 9 English words, just tugs at the heart in a big way. It zeros in to that place
in each and every one of us where we hold our dreams. Just like in the pocket of this child; who has no control,
no blame in his circumstances. It pokes at our vulnerability and cuddles our hope.
All this he does in, his syllables [16] held within the haiku standard. He presents in the English neoclasical
style of three lines.
For me this just whets the haiku appetite and leaves us wanting more such goodies from haijin.

Well Done Cezar

gillena cox; Founder/coordinator-Caribbean Kigo Kukai


pocket was the Kigo for this Kukai.

See Results HERE

introspection

monarch butterfly
discovering how much
I have changed
--Christina Sng, Singapore


Christina relates to us the essence of contemplation. To be in tune with self to be honest and true to self. To understand the dynamism in our being. To grow, to change, just like our natural physical bodies undergo cell growth and change, so to our consciousness must tune in to this awareness of our actions, comprehension and desires to continue, to improve, to change when needs be.
Her juxtaposition of the Monarch is excellent. A haiku moment shared par excellence.
We see a beautiful end result and we know there have been stages and phases to get there. Just as our haiku writing takes us on a journey of knowing the rules observing the masters, developing our own style and staying respectful to our beginnings. This haijin knows that she has blossomed. She understands that she has grown her haiku wings. We wish her all the best in her haiku flights.

well done Christina
gillena cox, founder/co-ordinator CKK




The prompt for this kukai was introspection

See results HERE

gift

waiting for gifts
in the beggar's hands
first snowflakes
--Cristina Apetrei Romania



This haiku is pertinent to the magic of Christmastime. When hearts are awakened in the contemplation of the birth of the Christ child, Messiah and saviour. He the greatest of all gifts given. And, his symbolic receipt of gifts as the lifting of humanity from our stable selves'.

Yes while we feast and celebrate, there are always those to whom we can extend ouselves to in giving.

One of the comments received about this haiku while in the vote and comment phase of the kukai was: "This picture is awakening our conscience. It calls to my mind the Andersen's fairy tale “The Little Match Girl”. How much so i agree, with the writer of this comment

Christina conforms to the Short Long Short line structure keeping her syllables within the 17 count, but does not rigidly hold to the [go shichi go] or 5/7/5 as the classical platform states. There is the use of fragment and phrase technique, with quite a surprise in her phrase [Lines 2&3]. We just didn't know, where she was going, after the [line 1] fragment.

WELL DONE Cristina
gillena cox, founder/co-ordinator CKK



The prompt for this kukai was gift

See the results HERE

welcome

first touch-
the way a bud welcomes
a butterfly
--Rita Odeh, Haifa/ Israel

There is a child like innocence to this scene, in Rita's haiku. We want to be lost in the flight of a dainty little butterfly
so easily tossed in the breezes and exclaim, Look! as it makes contact.

The colours are left to our imagination, we can therefore imagine our favourite flower and butterfly contact. This is such an ordinary happening, here in the Caribbean, however for those climes where there is Spring, after the Winter months, bringing back the warmth and newness, this is extraordinary, for each seasonal wait for Spring is rewarded.

The lightness of the butterfly in flight and in contact, revels in the haiku aesthetic of Karumi.

Her Line Two, extracts the essence out of this haiku moment, by her expression - "the way". She doesn't explain it; she invites us to tap into our own consciousness, to experience it, and bring to our reading, the Aha between writer and reader.

Well Done Rita!
gillena cox, founder/co-ordinator CKK



The prompt for this kukai was welcome

See the results HERE

retreat

hilltop
a monk empties his thoughts
into the rising sun
--Adjei Agyei-Baah (Ghana)

Adjei's haiku opens with a command to our attention. One word, forms the voice of this poet into grabbing our attention.
"What is it about the hilltop Adjei"? is it the shape of it, is it verdant, is it parched due to scorching hot weather? All these ideas come to play in our minds, at the sound of the poet's voice.
His haiku continues as revelation his phrase, the interest of his haiku’s fragment.

So, it’s about a monk, Okay. And even though he gives us this bit of info in his haiku phrase, he cleverly applies the Japanese aesthetic of 'ma' where enough space is left in his telling of the tale for us to still wander in our minds filling in blanks.
This monk of Adjei's, he could be on the hilltop, or standing looking at the hilltop, or even be withdrawn in his private reading space, looking at a picture of a hilltop.

What we know for sure is he, the monk, awed by the spectacle directs his thoughts to no one else but the rising sun. A lovely setting of the monk's aloneness and his commune with nature. Be he, just absorbed in reverie, or creating alone-space in a crowd.

Thank you Adjei for an awesome haiku in this the 2017 anniversary of Caribbean Kigo Kukai
Well Done
gillena cox, Founder coordinator – Caribbean Kigo Kukai


Revisit
Results of the kukai
The kukai prompt was retreat

Christmas beverages

snowflake cocoa . . .
enveloping myself
with old love letters
--Christine L. Villa, USA

The chill of winter greets us, as soft as snowflakes falling, we can settle into warm pyjamas, fluffy slippers or plain amazement like me; when, on vacation In New York, my sister called me to the front door and urged me to put my hands out, only to be caressed by, for the very first time in my life, nature's divine snowflakes.

Since my first snowflake experience is thus, when i read Chrissi's haiku, i could taste, the comforting hot chocolate, and remember the caress of nature, all at the same time. I had not yet gotten to Line Two of her haiku but i was wrapped up, warm and snug

Chrissi continue in her very evocative style, in this haiku, by wrapping herself, and us, in the process; as she smothers herself with a sense of taste, embrace, and memory What's not to love about this haiku.
I am not easily moved to tears, but, if i were one of those at Line Three, I would have certainly have had to reach for a kleenex or two.

This haiku affects our senses in a good way. We want to reach out and hug Chrissi. We want to tell her, this is what memories should be about, keeping us warm when the cold drafts of day to day, whatever the season, drift in.

Well Done Chrissi
--gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/coordinator


haiku prompt Christmas beverages
revisit the results of this kukai