potter's hand

shaping dreams..
the potter's hand on his
wheel of fortune
--Vinay Leo R; Bangalore, India


Line One introduces us to the artistic spirit. There are the hands set to work, following the instructions of the muse. At the potters wheel is where we find them in synchronicity. Spirit and mass. This is such a beautiful story told in haiku by Vinay; it has an enchanting fairy tale quality. His choice of words is effective. He shapes his haiku into a first place poem among his fellow writers. Line Three is where the worker, artist, or breadwinner shapes too his life, be it one of
affluence or borderline sustenance, here it starts, in the realm of possibilities; like the haiku starts, with a dream; a wish in the mind of the haiku persona to bring to life an experience to enrich the mind of his readers.


Well Done Vinay
gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator

The kigo for this kukai was potter's hand

stormy weather

stormy weather
a homeless man clutches
his bottle of wine
--Bouwe Brouwer, The Netherlands

When i read Bouwe's haiku, i sighed; not out of despair, but of ennui, since life is not always kind; and very often, all that is left is the solace of impermanence; just like the homeless man, whom Bouwe sees, who is invisible to many; maybe even the Fates one might philosophically argue.

“Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”
― Robert Frost

Despair resonates in Bouwe's haiku, like a grey shadowy hand in an impressionist canvas. His use of the kigo given is dramatic and bold. There is no bright maybe in between. At the mercy of the the elements this is exactly what each one of us do. We grasp, we cling, we clutch whatever proves to be for us, salvation.
In a shadowy canvas Bouwe's throws so much light on humanity's frailness. There in quite a tale well told.
He omits the kireji offering a Line Two that pivots and allows for dimension in his haiku

Well Done Bouwe
gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator

The kigo for this kukai was stormy weather

The Olympic Games

high diver
at the platform's edge
stillness
--Bill Kenney, USA

The Olympic Games was the theme for this kukai ; for which Bill's haiku emerged as the winning haiku. Olympic Games for participants as well as supporters connotes tension. There are the final goodbyes after all the medalling, tears and disappointments quickly transitioned into the expectations of the next four years. No doubt there is tension in waiting, in training and in hoping.

Bill heightens the reader's expectations in this haiku by taking us to the top of a divers platform; our senses as readers are at peak. At the edge is where, he skillfully pulls ever fibre of nerve in us readers, to the hush; where all is left now to the cord of expertise and fate; which binds diver, sky, water, supporters in a magical few moments.

How well Bill's skilfully crafted haiku resonates all of this in choice and placement of thought, theme and presentation. Pivoting haiku and reader at Line Two's platform.

Well Done Bill

high school graduation

graduation day
I fold my program
into a fan
--Cara Holman

A nice crisp ku, everything that needs to be intimated is there in capsuled; and as well, all that Cara wants to tell us is stated; one gets the feeling of a deliberately written haiku, not the ones you agonize over: too many syllables, too cluttered, too vague; none of these issues, it seems plagued the writer; much like the action in Line Two, was this graduation story executed.
I picture the persona seated, with an inherent sense of knowing as to the proceedings going on around of her; and a kind of sated state overwhelms her, a done deal in her mind. She vicariously contains it all and folds it into an artful elementary action.

Well done Cara
gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator

In the past, hand fans were used not only as cooling instruments, but also as convenient communication devices, mainly for transmitting more or less furtive love messages.

The Theme for the kukai was 'high school graduation'

wedding bouquet

Shape, colour, maybe even fragrance; the writer does not specify, but memories are pictures recaptured in response to some stimulus. And here the widow is tapped and drawn into the peculiar, petals or the scent of a tiger lily to dance a memorable dance , her first dance. If this is any thing like a first love, those of us who have been smitten know, it never leaves you.

Kathy's sharing is of a response to a wedding bouquet, she shows us how the widow draws from her bouquet of experiences this select memory, her first dance. The new bride in the wedding presented, will too, have her first dance after the ceremony and carry with her a bouquet of cherished memories to continue the sequence of occurences. Some things sad, some things happy; memories are like that, specific and custom made and part of that wider wholesomeness.

Edward de Bono says of memories
"A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen."

Notice Kathy opts for the Long Short Long presentation in her haiku but does not stick to the Go-Shichi-Go syallable count

Well done Kathy
gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator

The theme was wedding bouquet

blossoming

blossoming cherry trees
I ask the waiter
for a window table
--Marleen Hulst,The Netherland

When trees are blooming, our hearts are lifted in a special way. Here in the Caribbean its from green green to burst of colour. The particularly significant burst of pinks and yellows of the Poui are a delight to the busiest and the most unassuming, How could it not touch us. In Japan there is a whole culture of hanami, the gathering of friends and family groups to watch the cherry petals of the trees in bloom burst open, then sail with the wind as they fall. In short blossoming trees are part of our conscious approach to delightfulness.
Marleen in her haiku takes this aesthetic consciousness to the next level. The persona asks to be placed in a position of this sphere of delight, its important enough not to want to miss it, its important enough to want to be in that plane of delight as long as this phenomenon is happening. Her haiku structure is peculiar rather than generic, she opts for a 6-5-6 form rather than 5-7-5; she personalises the expression of consciousness and as well the haiku presentation. This haiku resonates two levels of satiety, in the trees she will be viewing, as she eats the meal that will be served to her. Its not just about happening, no; her ku is loaded with anticipation. And into this drama of cognizance of 'the yet to be realised' we are catapulted. The action of this haiku is subtle, but carries a heightened sense of reality.

Well done Marleen
gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator

The kigo was blossoming

salted fish

bacalao
memories of a place
I've never been
--William Kenney, USA

Bill's haiku is full of contradiction, and at the same time intrigue. He express in a note, that for him, as a child that was a food eaten during the depression, poor people's food; so that this kukai challenged him to go back into himself, into a time passed, a time he has transitioned. What was his life like? we may question, but there are no answers here for us. No matter how hard we try we cannot probe his existence. It remains a memory locked in the mind of the writer. Our own consciousness allow us the savor of a food haiku. Where there is food there will be appeal to the senses of sight, and smell and taste. What he does is, direct us, to our own experience. 'A place i've never been' becomes shared, it applies to us and to him.
Salted fish to Caribbean people is poor peoples food that has made it into the rich man's plate. It is now the accepted sort after food. Sunday morning buljol, and lenten meat subsitute embraced by all. So Bill's place, is also a real place, as he emphatises with a note about the Caribbean, which was set with the kigo challenge .
Line One is sharp and strong. It commands our attention, with the use of just one word. Three syllables roll off the tongue, creating so much of a sensory effect to the reader. Before we ask, what about it? we are already transported into our very own salted fish moments. People, place colour, taste, the noise of family at the dinner table, or the encounter of an old friend in the market place. Paper wrappings with a purchase, or as the example haiku for the kukai sets - 'the hibiscus hedges' around a house where such a meal is being prepared.
From his note ("I haven't had saltfish since I was a kid; for us, it was Depression food, consistent with what you said about its history in your part of the world – a poor people's food that the rich have caught on to") which expands his haiku thought, it can be seen that the example haiku set him in a renku like direction in his presentation of this haiku; and this is all good.

Well done Bill
gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator

footsteps

the sound
of my own footsteps . . .
winter dawn
--Bill Kenney


The hush is deafening as a backdrop to Bill's footsteps. It's a cold dawn, perhaps, even a white snowed-in dawn. Line 3 brings the resonance of a lonesomeness pre-empted in Line 2. And Line 1 certainly breaks into that silence in a crisp neat way. No clutter, no excesses, just enough appeal to the reader's audible sense to want to find out more.
Where? what? are two of the first questions to come to mind on reading the opening line before the eye scans the complete poem.
In a sumie mood Bill swabs the edge of night into a lightening greyness

Well Done Bill


gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator



the kigo was footsteps

Christmas tree

Christmas tree -
every year a little higher
her paper angel
--Bouwe Brouwer, The Netherlands

Tradition, continuance, growth, seasons, changes, all these dynamic elements; are constrained here in Bouwe's haiku; as he shares with us the story of a growing child within a culture of Christmas. The simple icon of delight and happiness, the Christmas tree, resonates for us innocence, this delight. What does every child care about most at Christmas time? receiving presents; translated in the language of innocence, this means love. Juxtaposed on another level the gift of His Son to the world brings us joy; the very reason for the celebration; the receipt of a gift by the world; a child, who will mature in our hearts, as Saviour and Reedemer as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, to rejoice in the heavens with all the angels and present us with the hope of eternal life.

Thank you Bouwe for the CKK year end 2011 - haiku of Joy; well done

--gillena cox
Founder/coordinator; Caribbean Kigo Kukai



The kigo was Christmas tree