
Shamrock Haiku Journal
Readers' Choice Awards 2010
BEST HAIKU
The following
piece that appeared in our No. 13 was voted the best
haiku published in Shamrock Haiku Journal in 2010:
dust
storm
a
trickle of blood
from
the horse's nose
--
Chad
Lee Robinson (USA)
The following two haiku that first appeared in
our No. 13 and No. 14 respectively were close runner-ups:
winter
rain -
a
stuffed starling stares
at
the ceiling
--
Bouwe
Brouwer (the Netherlands)
autumn
rain
i'm
cleaning the backside
of
the mirror
--
Dietmar Tauchner (Austria)
BEST SENRYU
We have joint winners in this
category:
people
pass by…
a dog
waiting for dog
Ayaz
Daryl Nielsen (USA)
(first
published in No. 16)
bathtime
reading
ink
spilt years ago
diffuses
--
Richard
Turner (England)
(first
published in No. 15)
And the runner-up was the following piece that
initially appeared in our No. 14:
under
the operating table
a
cat rubs herself
against
somebody's finger
-- Michael
Augustin (Germany)
We
congratulate the worthy winners, and express our sincere
gratitude to each and every reader who cast a vote.
Focus
on
Greece
drowsy
water
motionless in your eyes –
a golden evening
--
D. I. Antoniou (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
the
probability
of having summer’s glow
in mid-December
--
Dionyssis Kapsalis (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
little
child
a handful of snowflakes
takes its time to melt
--
Sophia Karipidis (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
shady
shrubs
the wind reaching
the roots
inside the mirrors,
the eyes of the dead,
weeping
--
Elias Kefalas (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
barren
night,
what can an evening star
do for you?
I still remember
a child’s hand, its shadow
on white flowers
memories of algae…
hold me, tell me
‘You are still alive’
--
Tassos Korfis (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
blind
falcon –
his cry blurs
the eye of the sun
I ask the stars
not to shine so brightly
they disappear
petrified trees –
a bronze bird
on each branch
--
Nikos Ladas (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
the
masts and the
stars
riding a seesaw
all night long
first nightingale
cutting the edges
of silence
--
Zissimos Lorentzatos (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
while you’re
tight asleep,
the moon gives
me
a derisive look
only the mirror
can stand the
sight of you
without
breaking down
--
John Patilis (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
having
killed a
cicada,
the sparrow
keeps on singing
remaining silent
so I can hear you,
the seaside nightingale
--
Yorgis Pavlopoulos (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
nightfall
the weight of
my brother’s shadow
--
Antonis Pillas (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
clearing
autumn
leaves
off the footpath –
a black bug plays dead
winter lamplight –
scooping a moth
out of the honey jar
abandoned wheat fields
a snake slides across
the threshing floor
town clock
strikes the hour
a dog sighs in his sleep
afternoon clouds –
a shadowplay on the
mountain slope
--
Rosie Roumeliotis
no
boats
in the harbour
fish stand sentinel
thorny branch –
on its tip
a butterfly
all the footprints
have vanished in the sand –
sounds blend with silence
red buckle –
on the garment of darkness,
a little moon
a tinge of sunshine
on the mountain slopes –
wearing a silk shawl
--
Zoe Savina (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
twilight
or
sunshine,
the jasmine
remains white
empty chairs
the statues returned
to another museum
pensive woman
the weight of her breasts
reflected in the mirror
--
Giorgos Seferis (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
sea
foam
and the rainbow
the fish dwells under them
--
Monk Simeon (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)
full
moon –
an aspirin melting
in my glass
little blade of grass,
one day you’ll be
taller than me
a frightened giant,
here I stand by your side,
o daisy!
--
Christos Toumanidis (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

The
History of Haiku
in Greece
by
Christos Toumanidis
The
first mentioning of haiku in Greece and in Cyprus can be traced back to
1904 when a theoretical article about haiku by Spyridonos De Viazi
appeared in the “Iris of Athens” magazine. Some 21 years later, in
1925, another Athenian magazine “Lycabette” published six original
haiku by the poet G. Stavropoulos, which were called “triplets”. Later
that year, N. Hagier-Boufidis published five of his “hai-kai” in the
magazine called “New Art”; the texts appeared under the assumed name,
Isandros Aris, and were accompanied by a short explanatory essay
describing this particular kind of poetry. Next year, the Cypriot poet
Pavlos Krineos-Michaelidis published ten of his “hai-kai triplets” in
the magazine titled “The Big Greek Encyclopedia”.
The
next period in the development of Greek haiku started in 1940. That
year, Giorgios Seferis, who later won the Novel Prize for literature,
published his poetry collection titled Exercise books, which included
sixteen of his haiku. Seferis was a highly influential poet, and his
haiku set the course for the later generations of Greek haiku writers.
However
not much happened until 1969, when Zisimos Lorentzatos, a literary
critic, essayist and poet, got his book Alphabet published. This was
the first full-length collection of haiku poems that ever appeared in
Greece. In three years’ time, i.e. in 1972, another haiku collection
followed; this one by D. I. Antoniou; it was titled Hai-Kai and
Tanka.
The
modern period in Greek haiku writing began in 1972. Such poets as Tasos
Korfis, George Pavlopoulos, Anestis Evangelou, Giannis Patilis, Argyris
Hionis, Zoe Savina, P. Ioannidou-Stavrou, Nikos Ladas, Dionysis
Kapsalis, Elias Kefalas and Panayiotis Kapodistrias produced fine
examples of the genre. As it happened, I was the editor of the first
ever Anthology of Greek haiku published in 1996, and now awaiting its
second, enlarged and updated edition.
In
2007, the Greek Haiku Society was founded. It is a cultural association
that was founded to facilitate a further development of the genre in
Greece and get more people involved in haiku writing. The Society
organised several haiku exhibitions in Athens and in other Greek
cities. It now has a small publishing house. Its first publication was
The Bridge of Rhymes (2010), a bilingual haiku collection by two poets,
Millianov Kalupi of Albania and myself. The Greek Haiku Society has
recently created its own site (http://www.haiku.gr) which is to
be further developed in the near future. We are also planning to
publish a haiku magazine.
Translated by the author
and Anatoly Kudryavitsky
Christos
Toumanidis is a founding member of the Greek Haiku Society


"Aqua_53" by Vassiliki
Gerokosta (Greece)

winter sunlight
a whole bush twigged
with sparrows
grey day
sprigs of winter jasmine
between the fence planks
gap in the cedar
circling the sun
a dance of midges
returning in moonlight
a white moth
among the aerials
morning glories
wick of a votive candle
catches the flame
--
Diana Webb (England)
bog
grasses in the evening –
a seagull
absorbs the
light
monastic high
cross –
on one arm, a
robin,
on the other,
the moon
beach sunrise
the fog returns
a dog's bark
spring dew
on a spider's
web –
communion veil
shop window –
sparkling in
the dark,
Orion’s
reflection
--
Aisling White (Ireland)
nightfall
owl gives not
one hoot
but two
fire-place
orange flames
compete
in chimney
climb
reflective
window
a cat looks out
through herself
beach walk
my footprints
stolen
by a wave
river weir
a grey heron
performs mime
--
John Oliver Byrne (Ireland)
dark November
even the gorse
bush
has the lights
on
icy morning
on the doormat
a snail leaves
a gift of
silver
stranded
seaweed
along the high
tide line
birds flock to
feast
winter noon –
under fallen
tree twigs
a mist uncurls
--
Maire Morrisey-Cummins (Ireland)
calm
bay
a stone crab’s
new claw
between
interviews
a few puffs
of the unlit
cigar
heavier rain
red berries
aglow
--
Bill Cooper (USA)
coastal range –
through gaps
in stratus
a glacier
forest track –
before a
summer storm
the smell of
charcoal
hail on slate
above rafters rats scuttle
--
Rodney Williams (Australia)
winter
playground
ants trail up
the climbing
frame
riverside
café—
a gull drinks
from
the dripping
tap
--
Nathalie Buckland (Australia)
chilly morning
the old mare
snorts
raising a trot
country morning
the milked
cows
melt
into the mist
--
Gavin Austin (Australia)
evening
snow
a scent of
rabbit
in all the air
wrinkled leaves
hotel children
smell of smoke
--
Glenn G. Coats (USA)
cold
moon
snow flowers
bloom
on the
magnolia tree
just shy of
full
the day moon
above barren
trees
--
Cathy Drinkwater Better (USA)
cryptomeria
bonsai –
many-armed Kali
in green
sleeves
rhododendron
bonsai –
nothing small
about the
blossoms
--
David Ash (USA)
autumn
dusk
cigarette
smoke blown out the window
blows back in
creaky oar
locks
after a few
strokes
only fog
--
Michael Ketcheck (USA)
blanket
of snow
the frozen
shadow
of the spire
January dusk —
a camellia
follows
the
moon’s circle
--
Mark Lonergan (Ireland)
hospital walls
in the rowans
starlings
snatch berries
iron shed
wild grasses
press
at the locks
--
Nick Sherwood (England)
harvest
moon
making a splash
on the kitchen
calendar
--
Helen Buckingham (England)
the blue Pacific
slipping through my fingers
moon jellyfish
--
Lorin Ford (Australia)
late
but not tired
the stars
--
Matt Hetherington (Australia)
summer
rains
between fallen
branches
scum gathers
--
Earl Livings (Australia)
an
old fish
in the quiet
pond –
raindrops
--
Ayaz Daryl Nielsen (USA)
amid
the embers
half read
Christmas cards
--
Chris Bays (USA)
spring
breeze
the hems of
her skirt
lifted
--
John Zheng (USA)
thin
winter sun –
three pairs of
red boots
cross the slush
--
Irene Brown (Scotland)
a
rocking chair…
two fishing
boats
nodding to
each other
--
Sharon Burrell (Ireland)
waders
on the shore
dancing to the
beat
of the moon
--
Iggy McGovern (Ireland)
buttercup
yellow the sheen of the sky
--
Noel King (Ireland)
mid-summer
sky
even the jet
trails
bloom
--
Walter Daniel McGuire (Ireland)
dawn
slumber
cawing of a
tone deaf crow
shatters
silence
--
Helen Simcox (Ireland)
sunlit
grass –
heads bowed
at the funeral
--
Joanna M. Weston (Canada)
faint
circle
the remains of
our
sandcastle
--
John McManus (England)
spring
rain –
alongside the
road,
railroad
tracks to nowhere
--
Joseph M. Kusmiss (USA)
melting
snow
the spotted
ponies
behind the
fence
--
Frances Jones (USA)
first
snow –
a manakin
moonwalks
on the putting
green
--
Ramesh Anand (Malaysia)
Translated
Haiku
a dewdrop
bathed in dust
sprinkled with
frost
-- Tatjana Debeljacki
(Serbia;
transl.
from the Serbian by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

Some Other Time
by Lucas
Stensland
(USA)
They
are building a house across the street from her mother’s. They’ve been
at it all summer. Its walls are easily bypassed plastic sheets, and the
place has become a sort of playground for the neighbourhood kids when
the workers leave. After watching my worn-down VHS of McCabe
& Mrs. Miller, we
decide to take a late-night walk and end up
standing on the dirt floor of somebody’s future living room. I
hold her
in my arms, and we gently kiss, never opening our mouths very
wide. Slowly, I put my hand under her t-shirt and lightly
caress her
waist. That’s as far as I go. She asks if I want to go to her
mother’s and keep
her company while she packs. We walk back, our shadows
touching more than
our hands. I wonder what it will be like next time I see her.
mix tape
how I said
good-bye

100 Selected Haiku of Kato Ikuya
translated
and introduced by Prof. Ito Isao
Chuseki-Sha, Tokyo,
2011
104 pp.; ISBN
978-4-8060-4752-0
Available from Chuseki-Sha, Tokyo, Japan
Klaus-Dieter Wirth. Zugvoegel / Migratory Birds
150
Haiku. German/English/French/Spanish/Dutch
Hamburger Haiku Verlag, Hamburg,
2010
200 pp.; ISBN
978-3-937257-27-3
Available from http://haiku.de
Stjepan Rozic. Biglisanje / Song of a Nightingale
Haiku.
Croatian / English. English translations by Djurdja Vukelic-Rozic
Introduction
by Klaus-Dieter Wirth
Otok Ivanic, Clostar Ivanic,
Croatia,
2010
208 pp.; ISBN
953-7205-36-2
Available from Otok Ivanic, Vidikovac 8, 10312,
Clostar Ivanic, Croatia
DOGHOUSE Books have a
limited number of copies left of two collections of haiku poems by two
Irish haijin:
John
W
Sexton.
Shadows Bloom. DOGHOUSE Books. Reviewed here
Anatoly
Kudryavitsky.
Morning at Mount Ring. DOGHOUSE Books. Reviewed here
One can get them
postage
free for the price of €12 to anywhere in the world.
Also, check out here
the range of poetry books and anthologies we've published.
DOGHOUSE Books
PO Box 312
Tralee
Co. Kerry
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)66 7137547
Fax: +353 (0)66 7137547
info[at]doghousebooks.ie

Copyright
© by Shamrock
Haiku Journal. All rights reserved. All the Shamrock
Haiku Journal contents
are copyright by the indicated poets/artists. All the rights
revert to the authors and artists upon publication in Shamrock.
Any unauthorised copying of the contents of Shamrock
Haiku Journal is
strictly forbidden. The Shamrock logo
image is copyright © by Christine Zeytounian-Belous (Paris, France).
|