Poems that Inspire

The Weekly Romanian Haiku contest no. 411 has prompted haiku author Costin Iliescu, the winner of the most recent volume publishing contest organized by Romanian Kukai (2015), to create a new project for his fellow haijin. 

Every Saturday, the participants will choose haikus from the list of anonymous poems sent every Friday and write a new haiku, starting from an image or an idea in the haiku they read and that inspires them. They will choose their own haiku that inspired them and then write a new one. 

The first list of poems is available on the blog http://poemeinspirate.blogspot.ro/. From Weekly Contest no. 411, Costin Iliescu has chosen poem no. 23. Afterwards, the participants created their own:

poem no. 23

the window blinds
slice through the light -
butterflies at dinner

Rodica Calotă

The following haijin were inspired by this poem:

Violeta Cuturescu

butterflies in my stomach -
the neighbor’s silhouette
through the blinds

Iulia Ralia

through the blinds
I listen to the crickets -
one last night?

Carmen Duvalma

through the dark
rays of light -
night butterflies

Oana Gheorghe

through the blinds -

a ray of light crawls

into the teacup

Vasilica Grigoras

autumn labour -

on the plow’s blades

slices of sun

Luminita Ignea

butterflies on the ceiling -
the moon moves shadows
through the curtains

Mihaela Cojocaru

after the storm –

the sun slices clouds

with thousands of rays

Costin Iliescu

through the blinds –

on the table the sun

slices up the bread

RESULTS OF FIRST HAIKU CONTEST "SHARPENING THE GREEN PENCIL"

First Prize

the hunter's moon

a night is not enough

to get the point

luna plină de toamnă

o noapte nu-i de-ajuns

pentru-a înţelege

traducere din limba engleză de Eduard ŢARĂ

Artūras ŠILANSKAS

Vilnius, LITUANIA

Second Prize

falling leaves

one by one

my old friends

frunze căzătoare

unul câte unul

vechii prieteni

traducere din limba engleză de Eduard ŢARĂ

Andrea CECON

Cividale del Friuli, ITALIA

Third Prize

rattling windows

dad gasps his final breath

during a blizzard

geamuri trântite

tata-şi dă ultima suflare

pe viscol

traducere din limba engleză de Eduard ŢARĂ

Karen O'LEARY

West Fargo, STATELE UNITE ALE AMERICII

Commendations
(in alphabetical order)

whiz of a scythe

in the transparent blueness

larks’ undersongs

 şuierul coasei

în albastrul transparent

isonul ciocârliilor

translated from English into Romanian by Corneliu Traian ATANASIU

Ljubomir DRAGOVIĆ

Banja Luka, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

His roots and branches

hold earth and sky together –

the old oak tree.

Rădăcini şi crengi

unind pământul şi cerul –

bătrânul stejar.

translated from English into Romanian by Cezar Florin CIOBÎCĂ

Verleyen HERWIG

Bruges, BELGIUM

sumi-e mountains

a blackbird tries to fly

from the drying ink

munţi sumi-e

o mierlă-ncearcă să zboare

din tuşul uscat

 translated from English into Romanian by Darrell LINDSEY

Darrell LINDSEY

Nacogdoches, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

snow storm –

petrified raven travelling

on a withered tree

 

viscol –

corbul de piatră

pe-un pom chinuit

translated from English into Romanian by Corneliu Traian ATANASIU

Ljubomir RADOVANČEVIĆ

Zagreb, CROATIA

 

in the dream

my dead friend has to go

winter solstice

pregătit de drum

prietenul mort din vis

solstiţiu de iarnă

translated from English into Romanian by Cezar Florin CIOBÎCĂ

Bruce ROSS

Bangor, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

peach season –

the way his foot

fits my hand

timpul piersicii –

felu-n care picioruşul lui

îmi umple palma

translated from English into Romanian by Cezar Florin CIOBÎCĂ

Sandra SIMPSON

Tauranga, NEW ZEALAND

 

woodland

the silence

of history

pădure

liniştea

istoriei

translated from English into Romanian by Eduard ŢARĂ

Dietmar TAUCHNER

Puchberg, AUSTRIA

The Haiku Contest SHARPENING THE GREEN PENCIL

The Haiku Contest

SHARPENING THE GREEN PENCIL

organized by the Romanian Kukai Group

The ROMANIAN KUKAI monthly contest will have been celebrating 5 years of online activity on April 1st, 2012. The contest is addressed to those who can write in Romanian only. It has been and still is an excellent means to promote haiku for those who can speak Romanian. Furthermore, the haiku online contest has become a genuine school where a new generation of authors have promoted it.

The experience which has been gained in these years determine us to initiate a contest in English, language which the mostly used by the haiku writers presently. The majority of the subscribers to our contest in Romanian have been participating to the international contests in English rendering appreciating results. We agree that the time has come to offer them a chance to confront the world wide writer in a contest organized by us. It is a celebrating contest but we hope and wish it will become a yearly event. A contest which, as most recognized contests, comes to stimulate the creativity of the authors and the quality of their poems, to represent a means of mutual understanding and to enriching everyone’s experience.

The contest's name is inspired by one of the well known lyrics of Elena Manta Ciubotariu's haiku : spring - / the child is sharpening / the green pencil, awarded in 1995 at one of the international contests organized in USA.

Contest rules

1. The contest is open to the public, regardless of age or nationality. Members of the executive committee are not eligible.

2. The contest is free of charge.

3. There is preference for the unpublished poems in media, volumes or on the internet.

4. The participants are required to send two haikus in English. They are asked to send the native variant of the poems also.

5. There is no theme imposed.

6. The poems will be sent only by e-mail at eduard_tara@yahoo.fr. At the subject box it is mandatory to write haiku contest 2012. The actual message must contain the poems which should be accompanied by the participant’s credentials: (name, surname, postal zip code, e-mail address).

7. The deadline is 15^th of March 2012.

8. The secretary of the contest will copy and transmit the list of poems to the members of the jury by e-mail, without mentioning the contestants’ names or personal data.

9. The jury will appreciate the originality and the complexity of the poems in accordance with the spirit of the classic haiku.

10. The jury will award three prizes and, also, a number of commendations which will be decided depending on the quality of the poems. Each rewarded author will receive by mail a diploma and a copy of the printed anthology of the contest.

11. The awards will be made public on April 1st, 2012 on the official Romanian Kukai site http://romaniankukai.blogspot.com.

12. The received poems will be published in an anthology dedicated to the contest which will be available to the public on the official Romanian Kukai site http://romaniankukai.blogspot.com.

13. The authors who send poems for the contest agree that their poems should be published in the contest’s anthology under no pretense of financial demands. The authorship can be claimed following the publication of the poets in the anthology.

14. The jury will be formed by Corneliu Traian Atanasiu, the founder of the online haiku movement from Romania, Dan Doman and Cezar Florin Ciobîcă.

Other three poems from Romanian Kukai

hand in hand
on the sunny path-
fall shadows
Corneliu Traian Atanasiu

meagre horse
slowly moving off-
frozen trough
Ioan Garda

the red carpet-
in the frame a squirrel
holding a nut
Corneliu Traian Atanasiu

My favourites among the RK and HC winners in 2011

Lamp of watch-
mosquito's shadow
as big as a horse

Petru Ioan Gârda

"To make a horse out of a mosquito", in Romanian, is the equivalent of "to make a mountain out of a molehill". When one is on the watch, worrying, this is very likely to happen. But it is also easy to imagine the actual shadow of a mosquito cast on a wall in the size of a horse by a small lamp.

wedding suit-
a couple of moths
in a pocket

Dan Norea

The old wedding suit is shelter for a new couple. I find the image rather tender, although moths are usually associated with decrepitude.

after the downfall-
deeper the colour
of forget-me-nots

Virginia Popescu

Is this poem about flowers after rain, or is it about blue eyes and tears?

lunch break-
on the plough handle
sparrows prattling

Mihai Mateiciuc

autumn wind
opening all gates-
no caller

Valeria Tamas