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

wreath

The idea of giving back is always appealing, intimating a returning joy; it tells us, in a very subtle way, that we have not lost our soul; it skew us, into a notion of eternity, of life continuing. This dynamic is succintly expressed in Marleen's 12 syllable haiku.
Autumn, with its paradoxical harvesting and withering, resonnates Lines One and Three 'wreath' and 'feeds' while Line Three pivots well Lines One and Two.
This haiku can be graphically presented as a circle; which crafts very well, the use of the kigo 'wreath'

autumn wreath
the dried sunflower
feeds a blackbird
--Marleen Hulst; The Netherlands

Well done Marleen

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



The theme for the kukai, was 'wreath'

festival lights

festival lights
smeared
on the wet sidewalk
-- john McDonald


A clever reflection haiku; here we are offered another dimension, the view of a scene within a scene, the reflective view of the writer and also a reflection of its reality; a surreal presentation.
Line Two, is powerful in its cryptic description and animation; at this pivotal juncture, John's haiku comes alive and pulls us into his experience, with uncanny curious interest. What festival is this, where is it, did it rain, how is the sidewalk wet?
It is the dearth of information which heightens our interest, once he has drawn us in.
This sidewalk canvas framed in haiku, is now hung in gallery cyberspace for our delightful viewing.

Well done John

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai




The theme for the kukai, was festival lights

blue bird

twilight shadows--
the flash
of a bluebird's wing
--Cara Holman; USA

This is such a familiar scene; i slip with ease into Cara's haiku, i wonder whether the familiarity had anything to do with her emerging into the winners slot; as her voters declined comments with their votes. But its not only familiarity that works well for this haiku; its the stuff that a good ku is made from.
The aha moment is easily achieved; and the reader settles into a haze of nuances.Through all the silhouettes of day's ending, there is a dash of colour visible enough in its instant to distract and to attract us. Something happens and its quick, and its enlivening; it happens amidst the wanning of light and the dying of day; Her choice of report for this event is simply stated ' flash of'
Just enough to whet our appetites; just enough to reel us into her contemplation of eventide. Nothing else is important at this particular instant; she has experienced something awesome, and so also have we; she has already caught us in a snare of awe. Just a glimpse of wing is visible as bird and day departs, it leaves us wanting more ...

Well done Cara

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



The theme for the kukai, was blue bird

thunder

Two offerings of thunder were chosen by the kukai players, to emerge into the winning slot, this time around.

One impacts an element of surprise, the other faintness; they are both enigmatic and compelling; causing their own shared responses.
The reckoning of adult decisions and the innocence of childhood juxtaposed in the minds of players; produced a tie into first place.

In both haiku thunder introduces the scenerio, compelling the reader, to seek out what this qualified element has in store for its personae; in one instance it proves to be heavy and commanding; in the other it is light and mischeivous; in both situations we do not know enough until we read on.

Thunder disturbs us, is repeated here in both of these haiku; in their interrupting dramas, and changing atmospheres in the active scenes presented. That is the ethereal, the quintessential aspect that is thunder; the chosen kigo of the kukai

Two types of persons in the Mediterranean society who devoted themselves to knowledge of the sky. One type of person was those called “the wise men, the learned, the scholars.” These people were in awe of the sky and insisted that no one could really grasp the greatness and magnificence of the celestial spheres... thunder is interpreted as God's voice (" God replied to him in thunder")...The sky to them was the all mighty everything that the sky did like lightning, thunder etc. For the ancients, nothing could possibly happen in the sky that did not in some way impact the earth and its inhabitants...They would never take anything for what it was meaning they would not just say okay it is noise coming from the sky.

sudden thunder
we forget
our quarrel
--Marleen Hulst, The Netherlands


distant thunder
my children's room full
of whispers
--Jacek Margolak;POLAND

Well done Marleen; Well done Jacek

But even outside of the season of the rains; thunder follows us from week to week in our daily calendar; borne on the wings of fantasy and myth from the god of thunder; son of Odin and Jord, the earth goddess. The Norse believed that during a thunderstorm, Thor, the god of thunder, rode through the heavens on his chariot, pulled by Tangrisinni and Tanngnost, two goats. Today long after the christianization of Scandanavia; Thor lives on not in religion but in the day following Wednesday it is said Thursday (Thor's day) was derived from this mythical legendary

--gillena cox
coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



The theme for the kukai, was thunder