Earth Week Haiku Contest
In honor of Tuesday-speaker Bill Kupinse being named this month as the first Poet Laureate of Tacoma, and in celebration of National Poetry Month, we invited everyone to participate in our First Annual Earth Week Haiku Contest.
The Rules:
Anyone can enter - no experience or expertise necessary. Just write a three-line haiku (5-7-5 syllables) about something related to the Earth, nature, the environment, climate, consumption, toxins, urban wildlife, rainforests, etc. Submit it to me by email (rviens@bcc.ctc.edu) by the end of the day Thursday, April 24. Send as many entries as you like. We'll post them all and students of the SSA will pick their favorites and award some prizes. We're not talkin' anything fancy here - we just want to have a little fun!
The Entries (April 25, 2008):
Below is a list of all the entries to the contest (in the order they were received). They are in the words of the author (I did not edit anything). The winners of the contest will be announced soon. (April 25, 2008)
The Winners (April 30, 2008):
The students of the SSA and our guest poet (Bill Kupinse) have selected the winning haiku! Everyone agreed that there were a lot of great submissions and it was difficult to choose, and both picked 2 haiku - one for its imagery and one for its humor. Winners should see me to receive their prize. Thanks to everyone who participated - it was lots of fun!
Comments from Bill on the Poet's choice:
"Thanks for sharing the haiku page. Your students and colleagues (and you yourself, I notice) have all written some wonderful syllabic verse. I’m impressed by the quality of all of the submissions, so it’s really hard to choose, but the following poem struck me for its artistry and geological scale [Martha's] and the poem below [Renee's] for its stinky humor."
| Haiku Contest Winners! | Author |
|---|---|
| SSA Winners: |
|
| Mother Earth Pure, stunning, serene Painted spectrum, brown, blue, green Now tainted, dull, mean. |
Cortney Giovanni Ledford |
For crying out loud, |
James Kelly |
| Poet's Choice Winners (Bill Kupinse) | |
| An eagle riding thermals in a cloudless sky: What's a million years? |
Martha Silano |
| Throwaway diapers 3rd largest landfill litter Mega poo-llution |
Renee Gotta |
All Haiku Submissions |
|
| Snowing in April In the Pacific Northwest No global warming? |
Patty James |
| April nineteenth snow, My furnace is broken, too. How many blankets? |
Liz Anderson |
A Sad Loss I look at the hills, |
Pauline Christiansen |
Fresh cool breeze of spring Gentle spring rainfall Muddy clothes mixed with |
Geetha Sadashivan |
| Grassroots volunteers, reconstruct Mt. Rainier Park, FEMA MIA again. |
Phil McGilton |
Elevate array; Cost of fast burgers: |
David Orr |
Orchids in the rain Icy snow in April… The Locust Plague Wheat stubble strung in rows |
Susan L. Gjolmesli |
| I stink of old earth No toxins under my arms stinky man, clean man |
Adam Magnoni |
| Warming sky rises Crystals thaw to frigid spheres Shift to vapor now |
Jeffrey Stewart |
My pants are toxic |
Sophie Holeman |
I ran to the ocean |
Anonymous |
Dead Sequoia Trees |
Jesse DeLange |
You look in the distance |
Kylah Ellison |
| BCC email And evolution hot talk Starts polar melt down |
Ron Austin |
| Rain, rain, gray skies, rain Never used to be this bad I stopped using plastic bags |
Susanna Pehrson |
| Organic! Whole grain! Why can't we eat junk food like Normal people do? |
Anonymous |
| Gasoline junkies Sobering up together Green revolution |
Kent Morgan |
Last desperate taste. For crying out loud, |
James Kelly |
| Paper or plastic? Get yourself some canvas bags! The Earth needs your help. Empty out your trunk! You're spewing much more carbon when it's stuffed with junk. Idling in traffic? Your carbon footprint's the size of Sasquatch. My daughter reaches to pick a dandelion, then points to the moon. Five hungry lemons at our backyard feeder. The years pass like clouds. The possums nesting in an old baby jogger: Resourceful critters! An eagle riding thermals in a cloudless sky: What's a million years? |
Martha Silano |
| Water from Fiji Makes no sense in Bemidgi The cost is too high… |
Judith Paquette |
| Paper or plastic? Seemed so difficult to choose. Now there’s cellulose. We cut down the trees Blue planet so big; |
Tony Blanchett |
| Ode to my two-week old environmentally-friendly Englander bed, "Rejuvination"
Toxins in my bed |
Anne Taylor |
| My beautiful world It grows sad from our abuse Start loving the world |
Roshni Tewari |
| Throwaway diapers 3rd largest landfill litter Mega poo-llution |
Renee Gotta |
| Snorkeling last year, Views of fish and coral blocked By floating plastic |
Karla Fuller |
| Brown bag - once a tree - Collects old news, bills, first drafts, Fodder for saplings. Trust "If it's yellow, Small plastic bottles |
Debra Golden |
| Mother Earth
Pure, stunning, serene |
Cortney Giovanni Ledford |
| Three of my ESL students composed Haiku for Earth Week: Save! Save energy look out for generations buy the local food by Sintam, Sui Ping (Eva) (Eva is from Hong Kong) This is the Earth's week we must try to consume less Let's do it daily by Janaina Wollmann (Janaina is from Brazil) Celebrate our Earth Love her and respect her all Let's live together! by Mika Hayakawa (Mika is from Japan) |
Submitted by Kristi Middleton |
| Speckled Spring stirring Lended colors splash upward Petals launching Hope |
Dan Forsyth |
| I was inspired by the talk given last night by Timothy Egan about his book, The Worst Hard Time, when he mentioned that an enormous aquifer in the Midwest is rapidly draining.
Water disappears, Aquifers draining, |
Sharon Berg |
My toxic shampoo, Arctic ice melting, |
Rob Viens |
BCC Earth Week is organized by the BCC Student Science Association. For more information contact Rob Viens in the BCC Science Division at rviens@bcc.ctc.edu or (425) 564-3158.
