Thursday 3 May 2012

Competition Corner (3): Kukai Results

Sparrow in Philadelphia

I enjoyed taking part in the 1st International “sparrow” Kukai organised by editors, Rita Odeh from Nazareth and John Daleiden over at Catching the Moment. The kigo (season word/topic) was SPARROW/S. 

I read on the Haiku World site that 'a kukai is a peered review poetry contest. A topic is assigned by the secretary, and all poets submit their poems on that topic to the secretary. An 'anonymized' list is then distributed to all participating poets and they are invited to vote. Votes are returned anonymously to the secretary who tallies the votes and resends the poems to the participants, this time with names and points revealed.'

There were some excellent entries, and some real surprises in terms of the approach to the challenge. There were also some familiar Haiku words and phrases that popped up in more than one entry, e.g. cherry blossom, Spring, sun, rain, wind, silence, song ... and perhaps more surprisingly, mailbox.

As participants, we were invited to cast votes up to a total of six points, which could be divided between three entries. One of my Haiku failed to make the long-list, but the other two came in at 7th and 9th place. I hope to enter future Kukai, and to hone my Haiku skill as I go along.
There are various kukai on the web, e.g. the Romanian Kukai site. If you would like to enter Rita's next one, you can find the details here. You have until 10 May.

P.S. My thanks (once again!) to Crafty Green Poet, who drew my attention to the Sparrow kukai.

2 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

oh congratulations! I like kukai, even if one this occasion i totally failed to get anywhere! Like you i admire the variety of approaches to the theme

Caroline Gill said...

Thank you, Juliet ... The kukai concept was totally new to me. A great idea.