2023 Mukai Farm and Gardens Haikufest Contest
In the spring of 2023 I cojudged the fourth annual Mukai Haiku Contest for Mukai Farm and Gardens on Vashon Island, Washington. My cojudges were Barbara Johns and Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma. The submission guidelines for this contest required poems to be 5-7-5 syllables, and poems were divided into six categories, as indicated. We chose winning poems from 570 entries sent from 13 countries. These poems and many other selections were elegantly displayed at the garden in April and May of 2023, starting with the announcement of Haikufest winners on 9 April 2023.
Heritage
Mom’s 3-by-5 card:
Fold apple pieces gently
into the cake dough
Ann Spiers
Nature
strawberry picking
my young daughter has sunshine
dripping down her chin
Kelly Sargent
Reflections
on my windowsill
all the packets of spring seeds
I never planted . . .
Adele Evershed
Social Justice
caught on a riptide
a suitcase spills its contents
old shirts and new dreams
Adele Evershed
Young Poet (age 0–12)
Salmonberries bloom
Morning dew settles on their
Delicate petals
Juno Leonard
Young Person (age 13–18)
Stop war
By shaking hands
With sunflowers
戦争は終わる
手をつなげば
ひまわりの花を持ち
Yoshiki Nobuhara
In addition to our preceding selections, a popular vote by visitors to the garden and its website chose the following people’s choice winner.
People’s Choice Award
The fish are mere words,
I, the fisher, hold the net,
poetry, and cast
Ellen Zhang
