Winning haiku including Highly Commended : The 2010 With Words International Online Haiku Competition Results

We would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Alan, Karen and Kathy, With Words

A Full Report and Judges Commentary will appear up on With Words later in the New Year.

1^st Prize

the coot's lobes
just melting the ice
snow in the wind

John Barlow

Ormskirk, England

2^nd Prize

after chemo--
finding more beauty

in the petal bare bloom

 

Terri L. French

Alabama USA

HIGHLY COMMENDED

in their roost
of bark and brambles
the wintering owls

John Barlow

Ormskirk, England

family photo box
how my father smiles
in black and white

Sandra Simpson

Tauranga, New Zealand

bright moon
light years
between starfish

Ernest J Berry

Picton, New Zealand

Commended

Brett Brady, Hawaii, USA 

Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand 

Susan Richardson, Cardiff, Wales
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England 

Congratulations to everyone, and many thanks to every entrant who entered the competition and helped support our literacy programme and charities.

 

The 2010 With Words International Online Haiku Competition Results

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Congratulations to the winners, Highly Commended and Commended entries, but also to the incredible number of well written haiku that made judging so delightfully difficult.

A full report and details will go up onto the With Words website in the New Year.

Happy Christmas to all,

Karen, Kathy, and Alan at With Words


1st Prize


the coot's lobes
just melting the ice
snow in the wind


John Barlow
Ormskirk, England



2nd Prize


after chemo--
finding more beauty
in the petal bare bloom


Terri L. French
Alabama USA



Highly Commended

Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand
Ernest J Berry, Picton, New Zealand
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England



Commended

Susan Richardson, Cardiff, Wales
Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand
Brett Brady, Hawaii, USA
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England











 

Jean Rasey 1925-2010 haiku poet and good friend

Jean Rasey  (1925-2010)

Much loved Aussie haiku poet Jean Rasey passed away early Sunday morning 5^th December; she will be sorely missed by so many of us.

Jean’s Austalian Haiku Society biography states she became interested in haiku when hosting a Japanese exchange student in 1979/80. When Paper Wasp formed in 1994 it was the beginning of a rewarding participation in this succinct and evocative form of poetry.

We became close haiku friends via the hugely popular Osaka, Japan based Azami magazine.  After Azami’s editor’s demise, we carried on sporadically via other magazines and email including her wonderful book "easy with the ebb" :

http://www.postpressed.com.au/index.html?verse/ebb.html

 "Jean Rasey ...writes haiku of pure deliquescence... they melt in the mouth, leaving a delicate after taste of mono no aware, "an empathy to things"... There is a simplicity that skirts plainness or sentiment... When you read her haiku you may well find yourself holding your breath with hers..."

Alan Summers — With Words

 

This book has become a With Words recommended book for all our students.

"Long have I waited for sincerity. And here it is from far across the ocean, laden with the truth of why we write and why we live!"   vincent tripi — Summer 2007

Here are just a few of her haiku over the years:

first flush of dawn

down river a lone oarsman

easy with the ebb

Finalist, Seventh Annual Jack Stamm Paper Wasp Haiku Contest (2005)

moonrise

shadow to deeper shadow

the whisper of wings

Finalist, Seventh Annual Jack Stamm Paper Wasp Haiku Contest (2005)

night rain

I snuggle deeper

into the sound

"A poem Presence readers acknowledged as one of the world's best"  H F 'Tom' Noyes

This one published in the British Haiku Society’s Blithe Spirit magazine:

all night the rainbird
not until midday
a rumble of thunder

Blithe Spirit Vol 12 No 1 (2002)

 

The new issue of haijinx is out!

haijinx 2010
volume III, 
issue 1
December 2010



The new issue is out, our first new issue since 2002.

We have familiar faces and some new ones for you, enjoy!

Click here to enter our special 2010 issue: weblink

Alan Summers,
haijinx team editor