Haiku 3, January 2011
Vanguard Haiku
First Place
discharged soldier
he stares at his gun’s barrel
to nothingness
Victor P. Gendrano
Second Place
what book
in which killing triumphs
do the gods read
Sandy Vrooman
Third Place
battle scarred dog
can't lick its
bleeding ear
Snehith Kumbla
Honourable Mentions
(In no particular order)
Love entered my heart
I must have left it open
I am glad I did
Deborah Green
an orphan child
and a wounded lamb
both licking an empty bowl
G R Parimala Rao
slurping soba
wondering just how long
a life should be
Marie Shimane
Zatsuei, or Haiku of Merit
blackout
our laughter laughs
at us
Nana Fredua-Agyeman
There you are walking
Strutting like a proud peacock
Without the feathers
Deborah Green
Old warrior's end
his medals carried
by a boy scout
John Hamley
stormy weather
I weep and laugh a little
every day
Peggy Heinrich
a blast of sunlight
explodes on the ocean floor
a new life form stirs
Peggy Heinrich
Four deer are hanging
in warming fog, hearts opened
still gentle in death.
Anne Hills
oncology suite
the tv lady demonstrates
the whitening of teeth
Elizabeth Howard
cremation :
is it the end?
ashes in urn
vishnu p kapoor
Veterans hospital
who would think that these old men
were once young warriors
Howard Lee Kilby
as the night moves on
to the sentenced hours, pale
moon rides the daybreak
Hi-Young Kim
an empty chair
at the Nobel ceremony ...
thoughts of Tank Man
Chen-ou Liu
(note: The Tank Man is the nickname given by the international media of an young man who stood in front of a column of Chinese tanks on the morning of June 5, 1989.)
river bending barely
into the gold unknown
I have come from
Clare McCotter
his twin
lost in battle, the pain
of a phantom limb
André Surridge
de Chirico
the empty highway
beyond nowhere
Raffael de Gruttola
(In no particular order)
Mickey Mouse gas mask . . .
choking back laughter
our strange voices
Pat Prime
amidst the rubble
a little orphan
chews a blade of grass
G R Parimala Rao
an infant’s hand
outstretched in the rubble
waiting for mother's arm
G R Parimala Rao
raindrops
a myriad fleeting nipples
on garden pond
Margaret Rawlinson
they stole
ARBEIT MACH FREI
the sunless morning
Bruce Ross
a fork on the path —
we go our
own ways
Nirali Shah
Carrying the tomb
of unburied days:
New year
R.K.Singh
school photo
so many bright futures
lost to war
André Surridge
silence of death
only the vultures feast
price of war
Sandy Vrooman
man as machine
totally disposable entity
to the greedy
Sandy Vrooman
old man retches
grimy kettle whistles
grey dawn chorus
Julia Wakefield
in the busy street
two women running
opposite ways
Julia Wakefield
existence
in earthen jar or universe-
scale of consciousness
Aju Mukhopadhyay
harvest moon -
even my shadow
has a shadow
ayaz dary nielsen
breaking the rose’s heart a slug’s winged dream
Clare McCotter
confusion at the end a terrible tangle of strings
John Stevenson
OTHER HAIKU FORMS
A LUNAR ECLIPSE
Cold, starry night -
the grayish orange
of the eclipsed moon.
Sky fills with clouds -
the orange moon's
pick-a-boo...
Eclipse of the moon -
I run in and out
of my house warmth.
We crane our heads
to the cloud-hidden moon -
its winter eclipse.
My husband gives up -
cloud after thick cloud
over the moon-orange.
I run inside
with haiku plucked from the sky -
a lunar eclipse.
I call them "spiteful",
the clouds that have hidden
the red, eclipsed moon.
Momentarily
it peeks out through the clouds,
the now-uneclipsed moon.
Winter solstice -
the night clouds turn
blue, gray and pink.
Zhanna P. Rader
a lane to bedlam
(a sequence of scifaiku)
by John W. Sexton
dewdrop balanced
on the beetle's back - Lao Tzu
sees a grail of stars
parliament dissolved
the snail king bequeaths
a spiral attic
elec trick requiem
moth's glitter falls
through the room
light of a star
that's already gone out
the past our present
x-rayed his inner ghost
Mars enters the constellation
of Cancer
temporary souvenir -
the cloud takes a mould
of Pegasus
an incomprehensible dust:
mite-suns suckling
in nebulae
still smouldering since
the honeymoon -
she shows off her anthracite ring
torsellated braid-work
of stars -
my mind is nothing
God's 'flu-fall...
antibodies for imperfection
are imperfection
a lane to bedlam -
on the frozen puddles
she steps from star to star
aged five through scrunched eyes...
climbing up the strings
from the stars
woodlouse sellotaped
to a lit bottlerocket
thus we conquer space
snow interpenetrates
our moonlit shadows -
the earth still holds us yet
the space
space is moving into -
a blackbird brightens the hedge
the pond silver...
Shiki wills moonlight
into his corrupted lung
POETS IN THIS ISSUE (In alphabetical order)
Melissa Allen
ANGELO B. ANCHETA
Alexander Ask
Don Baird
Alan S. Bridges
Belinda Broughton
Rosa Clement
Raffael de Gruttola
Kai Falkman
Nana Fredua-Agyeman
Claire Gardien
Victor P. Gendrano
Deborah Green
John Hamley
William Hart
Peggy Heinrich
Anne Hills
Elizabeth Howard
Hans Jongman
vishnu p kapoor
Howard Lee Kilby
Hi-Young Kim
Snehith Kumbla
Joseph M. Kusmiss
Priscilla Lignori
Chen-ou Liu
CaroleAnn Lovin
Sean MacMathuna
Steve Mangan
Thomas Martin
Clare McCotter
Aju Mukhopadhyay
Gautam Nadkarni
ayaz dary nielsen
P K Padhy
Andy Pomphrey
Pat Prime
Zhanna P. Rader
Geethanjali Rajan
G R Parimala Rao
Margaret Rawlinson
Bruce Ross
Riitta Rossilahti
John W. Sexton
Nirali Shah
Marie Shimane
R.K.Singh
John Stevenson
Elizabeth Strand
André Surridge
Sandy Vrooman
Julia Wakefield