Aichi Prefecture
Board of Education Award

The following haiku received the Aichi Prefecture Board of Education Award, chosen by editor Kōko Katō as Kō magazine’s best poem for all of 2017. I originally wrote the poem in September of 2000, and it was first published in Kō 32:4, Autumn–Winter 2017, page 10, and published again, with the award announcement and commentary, in Kō 32:10, #362, Spring–Summer 2018, page 1.

the rabbit’s ears

backlit by a sinking sun—

dry grass swaying

“Clear and delicate expression of the objects which a poet’s senses catch. This is the proper way of objective description of a haiku poem. It differs from a mere report of life experience. ‘backlit by a sinking sun’ is the focal point of this haiku.”

—Kōko Katō, Kō magazine