Write a Haiku, Win a Prize

Welcome to Zingara Poet’s first ever poetry contest.

Crazyhorse Issue 88, Fall 2015
Crazyhorse Issue 88, Fall 2015

Here’s how it works.

Write a haiku, senryu, or a Ginsberg sentence in the comments section below between 8:00 AM Friday, January 22nd and 8:00 AM Sunday, January 24 and I will select one (or maybe two) winner(s) from those submitted sometime Sunday afternoon and announce it here. The winner(s) with receive, via USPS, a free copy of the latest issue of Crazyhorse Literary Journal featuring works from their 2015 contest. (This will require disclosure of a mailing address, which can be sent to me via email at zingarapoet@gmail.com).

As a reminder, haiku is a short poem that contains three phrases with a 5-7-5 metrical count. Traditionally, haiku capture images of the natural world and is the result of careful observation. A really good haiku conveys emotion through juxtaposition of ideas and a “cutting word.” Here’s an example from Basho:

On a withered branch
A crow has alighted:
Nightfall in autumn.

A Senryu utilizes the same structure as haiku, but focuses on human nature and psychology. Sometimes written as satire, senryu may use humor, but this is not a requirement.

The Ginsberg sentence is one that contains seventeen syllables. No line breaks, no particular subject or focus. Just seventeen syllables. That’s it.

Please share widely, and LET’S HAVE SOME FUN!!

*One comment/poem per person, please.

Poems only, please. Links and promotional comments will not be approved. 

 

 


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Comments

20 responses to “Write a Haiku, Win a Prize”

    1. ZingaraPoet Avatar

      No sentence here – just links.

    2. Carrie Moniz Avatar
      Carrie Moniz

      Dance of the Dragonflies

      Ochre forms contort,
      locked in violence. She dives
      streamward for dear life.

  1. Roy Beckemeyer Avatar

    fifteen panes of glass
    divide the passing street scene
    into small chapters

  2. Tyler Sheldon Avatar
    Tyler Sheldon

    The new horse whickers,
    pulls back his curtain of grass:
    sees and knows with teeth.

  3. Eve Ott Avatar

    Loving or lethal?
    Slaughtered remains suggest both,
    but that’s neither, right?

  4. dmwauthor Avatar

    Roe stuffed fish cakes
    Saki toast Happy New Year!
    Desire grandchildren

  5. Lynne Barrett Avatar

    These days, when it rains, tiny fish swim the streets, the lawn our lilypad.

  6. James Benger Avatar
    James Benger

    earth-shattering screams
    the boy must express himself
    i wait to reply

    1. Jalyn De Sunae Avatar
      Jalyn De Sunae

      I cry out to God
      Maybe I need to change that
      and weep crying in

  7. Jalyn De Sunae Avatar
    Jalyn De Sunae

    I cry out to God
    Maybe I need to change that
    and weep crying in

  8. Marjon van Bruggen Avatar
    Marjon van Bruggen

    orange yellow black
    butterfly hovers on pond
    widening circles

  9. Dennis Etzel, Jr. Avatar

    writing a haiku
    is like stuffing the whole world
    into a small box

  10. Maryam Qureshi Avatar
    Maryam Qureshi

    The beautiful rose
    Appeared magnificently
    Among stinking weeds

  11. Kelsey Satalino (@kmsatalino) Avatar

    Purple mountain fog
    reminds me forgetfulness
    is a cool shower

  12. Marie Harris Avatar

    Turkey vulture floats above
    The littered highway
    Waste management

  13. Sarena Avatar

    They told me shyness was weakness, but I found my voice and learned to speak.

  14. Annette Hope Billings Avatar

    Amber waves ripple
    Yellow wheat in Kansas seas
    Oceans of spun gold.

  15. Ingrid Bruck Avatar
    Ingrid Bruck

    snow swallows the house
    blackbirds crowd the window ledge
    looking in at us

  16. Mary Ellen Johnson Avatar
    Mary Ellen Johnson

    Wind, dove, and poet
    speak the gift invisible.
    We hear, so to see.

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