Contest Comments from David McMurray
High quality haiku were submitted with awe-inspiring photos by contestants on sea themes that included: beaches, rowing, estuaries, death, outriggers, sea, lifeguard, scuba diving, sunsets, ship-in-a-bottle, refugees, curly willows, beach-combing, seabirds, sharks, and even a selfie.
The Highest Award
Judge’s Comment on the haiku and Photograph
As ephemeral as cherry blossoms, there is nothing as wonderful as a day at the beach with friends. Nor anything as sad as when it ends. Summer vacations are a national rite in France, and everyone seems to head to the beach at the same time. Spaces are marked with parasols or by pitching a tent. Instant friends can be made when everyone is in the holiday spirit. We cherish those moments, especially when we’ve gone back to work. We might keep in touch and make plans for next summer. Creatures of habit, we might even return to the same spot.
Living in Ile de France to the South-West of Paris, the winner is an avid photographer who has published many haiga and photo-haiku on line.
Award for Excellence
Judge’s Comment on the Haiku and Photograph
Alighting on the river just out of the haikuist’s field of view, time and time again the noble, yet crafty heron lures the boaters and their cameras down an estuary.
The winner likes the world’s shortest poetry form, saying “it is poetry in Nature, not in words.” Writing haiku for more than 35 years in a country that borders the Adriatic Sea, he has authored Butterfly Over the Open Sea and The Boat in the Reeds.
Award for Excellence
Judge’s Comment on the Haiku and Photograph
The haikuist sets up a creative interplay between the photo and the haiku. Both are integral to understanding the striking haiku moment that passes in a flash of lightning. The photographer as well as the birds on the shallow, brackish-water lagoon can’t help but cringe in the dark. The veteran haikuist has most certainly gotten his feet wet filming the dynamism and vast ecological resources along the African Gulf of Guinea.
Assistant Head of Dannaks Senior High School, and language teacher mentoring young writers and poets he is member of the Africa Haiku Network.
Award
