2025 Triveni Haiku Awards

Ashish Narain and Michael Dylan Welch, judges

Welcome

If haiku are poems of shared experience, we hope you especially enjoy sharing the following selections from the 2025 Triveni Haiku Awards. We looked for vivid and fresh images, often with seasonal settings, but mostly sought joyfulness and wonder. Not every haiku is joyful, of course, but they all seem to express gratitude for whatever experience each poem highlights. In this way, haiku are a means of cultivating gratitude, of cultivating an appreciation for life around us. Our congratulations to the poets represented here, and thanks also to many other poets whose work came close and those who took part in the joy of haiku by entering this contest. As you receive these poems, we invite you to take your time, perhaps reading each poem aloud. May each poem give you contentment and gratitude.

—Ashish Narain and Michael Dylan Welch, judges

First Place (Rs 10,000)

drowsy day

our watermelon seeds

speckle the cat

Lorraine Haig

Tasmania, Australia

What better to do on a drowsy day than to enjoy watermelon? This shared experience, indicated by “our,” has a sense of joy or delight, and the people in this light-hearted poem are having a bit of fun, perhaps by spitting the seeds toward their cat. The cat, too, is too drowsy to be concerned. The poem has the feeling of Bashō’s notion of karumi, or lightness. The watermelon suggests that this is a carefree summer moment, and the poem invites us to share the delight. —Michael

A brilliantly executed poem where every word has meaning. Watermelon strongly suggests summer. The sense of not having a care in the world is conveyed by “drowsy,” as well as by the cat who can’t be bothered to walk away, even as seeds are spat on her. The word “speckled” shows that this has been going on a while, while “our” shows that the poet is not alone. All in all, we feel a strong sense of calm and the full enjoyment of an ordinary moment, which lifts this haiku to something extraordinary. —Ashish

Second Place (Rs 5,000)

a shaft of sunlight

the stairwell becomes

a cathedral

Adelaide B. Shaw

Somers, New York, United States

This vivid image transforms the mundane into the sacred, the ordinary into the extraordinary. A key aspect, perhaps subtle, is that this poem dwells on a private change of perception, one that’s easy to relate to. The stairwell is not a cathedral, but the shaft of light makes it seem as if it is. More importantly, the poet recognizes the sacredness of an ordinary stairwell as being equal to a cathedral, perhaps suggesting a larger awe and appreciation for everything around us. —Michael

There is wonder in everything, and this haiku to me speaks to that. The poet’s use of “the” in qualifying the stairwell suggests that this is well known to them. Yet one shaft of sunlight—perhaps from the setting sun—is enough to transform it to something marvelous. While no season is mentioned, to me it evokes early autumn, when dust hovers in the air with just enough light that it is not a glare. —Ashish

Third Place (Rs 3,000)

sacred mountain

I tire halfway

to enlightenment

Tracy Davidson

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Some readers may wonder if this is a haiku or a senryu, or perhaps it doesn’t matter. However, haiku can have humour, too, and this poem’s humour pokes a bit of fun at the poet and our human frailty, even in the light of pursuing a noble aim—to climb to the top, if not to seek enlightenment. Our tiredness reminds us of our humanity, and perhaps that’s a different kind of enlightenment. —Michael

As someone from India who has trekked extensively in the Himalayas, I found that this poem resonated with me instantly. The quiet humour adds to the appeal. However, it also caused me to pause and consider. Striving for enlightenment is hard, and it is only human to become weary halfway through. —Ashish

heatwave alert

children blow

on a wind chime

Pascal Pozzo di Borgo

Bastia, France

It’s such a hot day that no wind stirs the wind chime. The children are wishing not just for a cooling wind but for the melodious sound of the chimes. And so there is a wind after all, coming from the mouths of children. —Michael

The phrase and fragment complement each other well. How quiet and still it must be that bored children amuse themselves by blowing on the windchime? —Ashish

fireplace—

the wall holds the shadow

of an empty chair

Kavitha Sreeraj

Hyderabad, India

Why is the chair empty? What loss has befallen this family? Or is there any loss at all? We feel at least an absence. On what may be a cozy yet melancholic winter night, the light of the fire draws the poet’s attention to the chair’s emptiness, and thus to whoever might normally fill it. 

—Michael

The phrase beautifully conveys the feeling of missing someone who now remains only in memory, while the fragment hints at the coming winter. A poignant poem. —Ashish

soft breeze

braiding the scent of jasmine

into her tress

Padma Thampatty

Wexford, Pennsylvania, United States

A summer feeling suffuses this poem, where the wind is blowing a woman’s hair, and also braiding it with the jasmine scent. This richly evocative poem invites us to pause and linger, to share in this sensory moment for as long as we can. —Michael

The image is strongly Indian. Is it a mother braiding her daughter’s hair? Or is it actually the scent that allures the poet, perhaps carried on the soft breeze? —Ashish

summer house

a layer of dust

on the old fairy tales

Eufemia Griffo

Settimo Milanese, Italy

After a long winter, a family returns to their summer house not only to find the dust they expected but also to notice dust on a book of fairy tales. This is not just any book, but a well-known book of old fairy tales. Those tales have been in the family for a long time, reminding us of the rich history of family tales that they’ve built over time in their summer home. —Michael

A nostalgic poem. I see the poet returning after a long time to a place full of joyful childhood memories, as enchanting as fairy tales. —Ashish

falling star

how many of us share

the same wish

Dejan Pavlinovic

Pula, Croatia

A touch of subjective musing balances with the concrete image of a falling star. The introspection in this poem looks outward, beyond the private wish to wondering about the wishes of others. This poem offers a moment of vulnerable empathy. —Michael

An intriguing poem that we can read in different ways. The poet might be talking about how common our wishes mostly are—particularly concerning our own and loved ones’ wellbeing. However, they could also be talking about a well-known individual being knocked off their pedestal. —Ashish