The past few days have found me shleppng back and forth from bed to couch, folliwng a strict Nyquil and hot tea regimen, and bemoaning my decision to brave the post-holiday hallways maskless. I’ve been in and out of troubled sleep – mostly awake in the dark of night. Things have not been great.
But today. I found a burst of energy that afforded me the opportunity to go outside to check the mail. And y’all. Fresh air is nothing short of life changing. In that brief trip to and from the mailbox I appreciated every drop of sunlight, the crispness of the air, and thought “Yes, this is what the poets are talking about.”
Haiku is a Japanese form of three-lined poetry, usually conceived of in 17 syallbles, traditionally including some aspect of nature. The English haiku expands this definition to include other themes and a wider range of syllabic allowance. Send us your three-lined poems of 10 – 20 syllables on any theme of your choosing to pinesongawards@gmail.com. For a full list of submission guidelines, check out the adult contest page of NCPS.
Our judge for the Bloodroot Haiku Award is Lenard D. More. He is the author of several books, including Long Rain, and The Geography of Jazz. He also is the editor of several books, including All The Songs We Sing, and the multi-authored anthology, One Window’s Light. He is the recipient of several awards, including the North Carolina Award for Literature (2014); Haiku Museum of Tokyo Award (2003, 1994, and 1983); and Margaret Walker Creative Writing Award (1997); He is the first African American president of the Haiku Society of America. He is the longtime Executive Chairman of the North Carolina Haiku Society. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Carolina African American Writers Collective.
I invite you to read this article from the Academy of American Poets on haiku. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, it offers some amazing examples of the form. I’m going to take the inspiration from the outdoors and write some haiku of my own. Lumpkin out.
PINESONG AWARDS 