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by ~the-haiku-club is hosting two other contests:

Sonorous Sounds contest. Due December 15th.

November Saijiki contest. Due November 30th.



Great work everyone. ~the-haiku-club's first monthly saijiki contest netted a dozen entries for its Global Saijiki:

• Temperate
• Winter
• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn

• Tropical
• Rainy Season
• Dry Season


• The New Year

First place goes to ~mreid973's excellent haiga: scarecrows. What I enjoyed most about his submission was that it was the only haiga primarily focusing on human nature. Also impressive is how the haiku at the end speaks to the true nature of scarecrow as a fear inducing totem.

paper masks
silence scarecrows
in cornfields


The other entries were no less impressive, even causing second place to become a tie between *ColdContactKiss and *Djoseph

*ColdContactKiss with autumn rain:

daylight saved
another hour
for autumn rain

My personal favorite among all the entries, the sense of irony really tugs at my heart strings. A better analyst would have this to say about it "This entry combines the senryu and haiku forms with a wry wit, mocking a modern season marker (daylight savings) with an innocent observation about the weather."

*Djoseph with autumn drizzle:

still falling
in the trees
autumn drizzle

I like that the first two lines (combined with the Autumn in its title) mislead the reader into thinking it's about falling leaves, and then reveals it's rain falling through trees. The alternate reading that people are taking cover from the drizzle, under a tree, is also a cute image.


Third place goes to ~Aqua-rat with autumn wind:

the winds of spring
are now the winds of fall
still the larch dances

One of the other judges had this great quip about it, "with the world closing down for the year in the northern hemisphere Autumn can be a gloomy time. But true beauty is there to be found even in these circumstances. The dancing larches are all the more joyful because of the grey day."
I'll just say I love the sense of movement through out the piece, the wind blowing through the seasons and the lark's wings.




~lucidflux for autumn waters.
This prose is as crisp and clear as the icy waters it ends in. Autumn holds unique joys that are well represented here with a playful flair.

*mcdermid for burning leaves.
On a chilly day the smell of burning leaves offers a special comfort. The choice of "sigh" is lovely because it steps around the more obvious words one might use to describe a fleeting scent. With daylight dwindling the sigh also seems to represent the world downshifting from the energy of warmer months and settling in for the winter.

~ShinamoriWing for winter mist.
This work paints soft and beautiful imagery with syntax that carries very well from Japanese to English.


Also check out the journals of ~the-haiku-club, *ColdContactKiss, *Lit-Twitter, *mcdermid, and *saiun for more coverage on the results.




In other news, I've been binging on film over the last weekend, rushing from venue to venue trying to catch them all. Of the 5 movies I did catch, I most enjoyed the German entry, Kirschblüten - Hanami @ Cherry Blossoms. A bit on the long side (2 hours plus), but definitely worth it if you've the time. 8/10

The one that failed to impress was the supposed "best of the lot", En la ciudad sin límites @ The Boundless City. Solid all around, but I just didn't much enjoy it. Also, Chaplin's daughter is pretty attractive for an elderly lady. 5/10

I'm on the fence about Polish entry, Duze zwierze @ The Big Animal which (I rather it didn't) reminded me of Peruvian film, El acuarelista @ The Watercolourist . In a nutshell: oddman out is harassed by batshit insane neighbors. More subtly done in The Big Animal, Animal is also interesting in that it's a recently made film in black & white. 6/10