Haiku Society of America Haibun Renku Awards for 2016

Haiku Society of America Renku Awards
in Memorial of Bernard Lionel Einbond

~ ~ ~

HSA Renku Awards for 2016

Deborah P. Kolodji and Linda Papanicolaou
judges

First Place

Honing Oil

Ferris Gilli (coordinator), Marietta GA
Ron C. Moss, Leslie Vale, Tazmania

~ ~ ~

Honing Oil

honeycomb skies
kittens suckle milk
in the sunshine

Ron C. Moss

a grandpa teaching how
to blow soap bubbles

Ferris Gilli

the chrome
of an old blues harp
cool to touch

Ron C. Moss

maple keys twirl downward
to an unheard rhythm

Ferris Gilli

fireworks split
the red moon
into sparks

Ron C. Moss

the floor routine ends
with a wardrobe malfunction

Ron C. Moss

the remote control
with her toy robot
on the blink

Ferris Gilli

love train lights dim
in the sleeping carriage

Ron C. Moss

satiated at last
we awake entangled
at the cliff’s edge

Ferris Gilli

the scent of honing oil
still on Dad’s knife

Ron C. Moss

wonderful
how you carve a mermaid
from a hunk of clay

Ferris Gilli

pirate ships in the bathtub
as the plug is pulled

Ron C. Moss

a harvest moonbeam
softly blesses the room
of a DNR patient

Ferris Gilli

the darner dragonfly
hovers between worlds

Ron C. Moss

their thick book
about earth’s giants
stitched at last

Ferris Gilli

at midnight in the museum
a Tyrannosaurus rex lifts its head

Ferris Gilli 

in a secret place
there's frost on the bones
of a swallow

Ron C. Moss

this relentless cold
seeps into my very marrow

Ferris Gilli

plum blossoms
from the master's brush
gently in the breeze

Ron C. Moss

a speckled frog leaps
onto the still weathervane

Ferris Gilli

~ ~ ~


Honorable Mention

New Year's Morning

David G. Lanoue, New Orleans LA
Nicholas. M. Sola, New Orleans LA

~ ~ ~

New Year's Morning

so many new
jogging suits—
New Year’s morning

David

ham hocks in the pot
with black-eyed peas

Nicholas

a yin-yang of bubbles
swirls ‘round
the rubber ducky

David

the priest praises
didactic art

Nicholas

all the headlights
on the freeway
and the bright moon

Nicholas

in chilly darkness
a stranger’s touch

David

a quickie
with the quarterback
after the loss

Nicholas

the bully discovers
the taste of grass

David

Teddy Roosevelt
dropped his glasses
on San Juan Hill

Nicholas

halfway up
the snail turns around

David

the record
will not stop
will not stop

Nicholas

our expanding universe
doesn’t give a shit

David

I ask the store clerk
for my wife’s size
of Depends

Nicholas

pet rocks and real estate
in the beloved’s will

David

under the winter moon
a cup of coffee
left in the park

Nicholas

a hyperactive squirrel
in snowy pines

David

the congressional aide
respawns again
in Call of Duty

David

an east wind travels
over the cemetery

Nicholas

shivering cherry blossoms
eagerly await
what’s next

David

the children let go
of their balloons

Nicholas

~ ~ ~


Honorable Mention

Northern Lights

Anna Maris (coordinator), Tomeililla, Sweden
Marcus Liljedahl, Sweden

~ ~ ~

Northern Lights

northern lights
on the snow covered lake
a melted rainbow

Anna

the line of frosted tour buses
comes to a standstill

Marcus

scribbled writing
on the back of a postcard
a new set of words

Anna

the third star twinkles
on a hotel sign

Marcus

~

autumn sky
thoughts wander to the dark side
of the moon

Anna

red leaves piling up
around the welcome mat

Marcus

short days
wrapped in firelight and silk
long nights

Anna

his nose buried deep
in the scent of her curls

Marcus

spinning
the terrestrial globe
where would you go?

Anna

telling the same old story
as the pinot kicks in

Marcus

~

sleepless again . . .
cicadas out of sync
with the neighbor’s bed

Marcus

summer heat still on my skin
sickle moon

Anna

frozen image
the buzz of computer fans
grows stronger

Marcus

a rush through their veins
fiber optics

Anna

on the nightstand
train tickets
to separate worlds

Marcus

the sky - at the same time
so big and so small

Anna

~

a barren field
framed
with gilded leaves

Marcus

oh, green shoots, green shoots!
shoot me!

Anna

first daisy . . .
a girl rips off
petal after petal

Marcus

out of the lightest of rains
a perfect arch of colors

Anna

~ ~ ~

 

 

 

The Haiku Society of America sposors this annual award for renku of 36, 20, or 12 stanzas.

See the contest guidelines for the HSA Renku Awards.

For more information about the goals of this contest, download a copy of the HSA Renku Contest Committee Report (pdf) published in Frogpod XIII:2 (May 1990).

Awards by year:

| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 |

 

2016 judges commentary:

Grand Prize - Honing Oil

There is something magical about “Honing Oil,” which we awarded First Place. Each link draws the reader in with strong imagery, and each shift is so very satisfying in both surprise and progression. It starts off calm, with kittens suckling milk in the sunshine and a grandpa with soap bubbles and then builds to an intense sensuality before darkening into the ache of a pulled plug and DNR patient. And yet, that dinosaur lifts its head at the end of the 3rd side before the close, ending with plum blossoms and a frog leaping onto a weathervane. It is a poem I will never forget. The skill of the writers and the freshness of strong imagery brought me back to it again and again when reviewing the entries. ~Deborah P Kolodji

"Honing Oil", our first prize winner is a powerful piece of writing that in turn breaks Master Higashi's mold. The hokku/wakiku pair opens with lovely spring imagery: kittens suckling under sunny skies, a grandfather teaching grandchildren to blow bubbles; then, following an old chrome blues harp, an "unheard rhythm" of twirling maple keys—which moves us to summer before the jo is out. The development ha (2nd side) is similarly unconventional, with an eroticism that builds from fireworks in the first moon verse, a "wardrobe malfunction" and a toy robot, to the love verses whose sexuality spills into the scent of honing oil on a father's knife. With the intensification ha (3rd side) the mood shifts towards death: a creation in clay, a pulled bathtub plug, a moonlit hospice room, a dragonfly as mediator between life and death, a large bound book, and a museum dinosaur. In its fast close, the kyu (4th side) is most surprising of all. Frost on dead bird's bones and relentless cold yield to plum blossoms. Suddenly, the breeze stills as we end with a frog. ~Linda Papanicolaou

~ ~ ~


2016 judges commentary:

Honorable Mention - New Year's Morning

“New Year’s Morning” was awarded Honorable Mention for its meticulous execution of the Nijuin form. The seasonal references are clear and the links make sense, but ultimately its artistic vision makes it more difficult for the reader to engage with the poem. The mood does not seem to change much as the poem progresses, although I believe it is by design. It opens with New Year’s joggers and then progresses to love verses that feel very impersonal – a stranger’s touch in the darkness and a quickie with the quarterback. The 3rd side follows in the same vein, a man shops for Depends for his wife and there are pet rocks in wills. This uniform and detached mood truly underscores life in an uncaring, expanding universe, which is how the poem succeeds at an intellectual level. ~Deborah P Kolodji

“New Year’s Morning” and “Northern Lights” share Honorable mention. Both follow the classic Higashi form, though with quite different stylistic results—and various shortcomings. “New Year’s Morning” is a well-crafted renku with many wonderful images though the linking often eschews the deepening of mood in favor of wit or ironic detachment: a didactic priest, quickie sex, a hyperactive squirrel, a universe that “doesn’t give a shit.” It’s not a world that easily lets us in except on its own terms. ~Linda Papanicolaou

~ ~ ~


2916 judges commentary:

Honorable Mention - Northern Lights

The strong images of “Northern Lights” also stayed with me long after I read the poem. Although there were some issues with kigo and linking, the excellent writing and almost frightening beauty of this poem demanded recognition, which is why we also awarded it an Honorable Mention. I found the ending unforgettable in the skillful way the image of the girl ripping petals off a daisy is juxtaposed against the aurora borealis and a link that says “shoot me” brings to mind the daisy and atomic bomb explosion in the famous 1964 LBJ political attack ad against Barry Goldwater. For a renku, I believe these topics are too strong to be in the closing links, even though I admit that I can’t help but love the way this poem ultimately works for the reader. ~Deborah P Kolodji

“Northern Lights,” by contrast, draws us immediately into a frozen landscape of tour busses gathered to view the aurora borealis. I do feel there are weaknesses in the season references, beginning with the hokku’s analogy of the aurora as a “melting rainbow,” a blending of two spring kigo, while the wakiku’s season reference “frost” treads too closely to the hokku’s “snow covered lake”. In the 2nd side “red leaves piling up” may signal autumn for us, but red leaves and fallen leaves are winter kigo in the saijiki, so this is a season image that should be used with care. Similarly, the next verse has double kigo: “short days”, a winter kigo, and “long nights,” which is autumn. At times it seemed as if the writers were deliberately toying with season confusion, and the verses became puzzles to be worked out before the renku could continue. Two final points in the 4th side: 1) The penultimate verse is a flower verse rather than blossom. Blossoming fruit trees—cherry, plum, peach, apple etc., bear much more resonance than flowers and while many published nijuin have flowers, all of Higginson’s and Carley’s templates code for blossom and I assume that Master Higashi’s intent was traditional. 2) The ageku closes back to the hokku with a rainbow. I really wish they hadn’t done that, though I still think the poetry of the writing deserve honors in this year’s Einbond contest. ~Linda Papanicolaou

~ ~ ~


About the judges:

Linda Papanicolaou

A middle school art teacher and art historian, Linda Papanicolaou became interested in haiku and haiga in the late 1990s. Her art and poetry have appeared in Amaze, Autumn Leaves, Cattails, Contemporary Haibun Online, Daily Haiga, Fire Pearls, Frogpond, GEPPO, Haigaonline, The Heron’s Nest, Ink Sweat & Tears, Journal of Renga & Renku, Lynx, Mariposa, Modern English Tanka, Moonbathing, Moonset, Nisqually Delta Review, Notes from the Gean, Ribbons, Santa Fe Broadside, Simply Haiku, Sketchbook, Soundings, Temps Libres, Haiku Poets of Northern California’s Two Autumns readings, the World Kigo Project and World Haiku Review. She is a member of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Haiku Poets of Northern California, and the Haiku Society of America. For the past ten years she has edited Haigaonline and has been involved with World Haiku Review and Modern Haiga. In 2013 she served as co-judge with Norman Darlington for HSA's 2013 Lionel Einbond Renku Contest, and in 2015 led a triparshva at The Haiku Foundation.

Deborah P Kolodji

Deborah P Kolodji is the California Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America and moderates the Southern California Haiku Study Group. A former president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, she is also a member of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, Haiku San Diego, the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, and Haiku Canada. She had published over 900 haiku both on and off the web, as well as tanka, haibun, cinquains, and free verse. She has a haiku in the 2015 Nebula Awards Showcase published by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and has won a Dwarf Stars Award. She discovered renku in 2001 during the World Haiku Club Tournament and has led renku sessions at recent Asilomar Haiku Retreats.

~ ~ ~