Haiku Society of America

Haiku Society of America Student Haiku Awards
in Memorial of Nicholas A. Virgilio

Paul O. Williams
judge

Over 325 poems were entered in this year’s Virgilio Competition. It was a difficult task to narrow the selection down to just seven. While a majority of the poems submitted could best be classified as minimal, some were five words or fewer, or senryu, concerned solely with human situations--often humorous, we were looking for poems that captured a haiku moment--a specific place and time, recorded honestly, free from commentary or sentimentality, with a lasting resonance of deeper understanding. I want to emphasize that every young poet that submitted work is to be congratulated and encouraged to continue writing. ~ Paul O. Williams

 

solitary swimmer
ripples
the early-morning sun

Anne Alfredo
Wahlert High School, 9th grade, Dubuque, IA

This swimmer is setting out in the morning, with all the associations of beginning. He or she is having an effect--even on the sun's reflection, a part, a focal part, of the scene. The swimmer recalls Whitman's solitary singer, the mockingbird, also associated with water. The poem suggests a bravery, an assertive action, a proclamation of the swimmer s being, declaring his or her being in the world.

 

old man
reeling in
the sea

Beth Paisley
Wahlert High School, 9th grade, Dubuque, IA

Obviously, the old man is not reeling in the sea, except in whimsical perceptions. But he isn't reeling in anything else either, and he is absorbing the whole atmosphere of the shore, and that is most of the point of fishing anyhow. Being at the sea is the point, reeling it into one's being. Fishing is the excuse. How is it that so many surf fishers are older men? This example fits the scene.

 

after the flood
our flag waves
from the clothesline

Katie O’Connor
Wahlert High School, 9th grade, Dubuque, IA

A poem of recovery, of going on, this haiku is about setting things to rights again, showing the flag, even if it is, at the moment, mostly drying out. It is still there, still waving, and it is "our" flag, not just any flag. It is a step to reestablishment, in recovery. Its colors are clear and bright, declaring hope.

 

dandelion
wished
away

Tony Leisen
Wahlert High School, 9th grade, Dubuque, IA

Dandelions are so easy to dissipate with one puff almost as slight as a wish, and the puff makes just that sound—wish—as the seeds float down the wind. The poem is economical. contains a delightful onomatopoeia and is altogether pleasing.

 

the tree
snowcovered
except one leaf

Maureen Reilly
Wahlert High School, 9th grade, Dubuque, IA

There is always that leaf, that exception, that different thing, being itself, separate, individual. Such single leaves give the world distinctiveness. Again, the poem is economical, coming at the end into the sharp focus of its perception.

 

two oak leaves
just the same
until a brown moth flies away.

Charlotte Stevenson
Castilleja School, 9th grade, Palo Alto, CA

Protective coloration is such a dry expression, drier, perhaps, than the leaf itself, or the moth, which startles us with its suddenly becoming itself, flying with a living purpose and not at the whim of the breeze. It is a separate will we are dealing with, asserting itself in its flight.

 

two bold streaks of blue
split by the thin horizon —
ocean and spring sky

Katie Gallagher
University High School, 10th grade, Honolulu, HI

All that blue . . . only one defining line, the horizon, gives us shape and definition, sets the world on a level again. The poem is a 5-7-5 haiku, the only one among our winners. Its longer center line becomes the horizon, with its final dash lining it out, right in the middle of the scene.

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