Selected haiku 2012

When His Excellency Dr Drago Ĺ tambuk suggested that the International Academic Forum consider launching a haiku award in memory of Vladimir DevidĂŠ, it did not take much convincing.

IAFOR is dedicated to the promotion of international, intercultural and interdisciplinary research, dialogue, and understanding, and Vladimir DevidĂŠ would have identified strongly with this mission, for in many ways it was also his own. He was a mathematician, a Japanologist, a translator, and a poet, who through haiku accessed another culture and built bridges between Croatia and Japan, and within Japan. After his death, those bridges continue to develop between exponents of classical and modern haiku as the award recognizes excellence regardless of whether submitted haiku are in the traditional or more modern style, and indeed has been generously backed by the two principal haiku associations representing these schools: the Haiku International Association and the World Haiku Association.

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The award also reaches out to practitioners around the world as it both promotes understanding of the commonality of shared experience, excellence within the art form, as well as the wider work of the organization, for while haiku is a quintessentially Japanese form of poetry, it has become a global art form due to its universal appeal. No other form can so convincingly celebrate banality and frivolity; convey a moment of giddy happiness, or a lifetime of pain. It can offer humorous asides, throwaway puns, and yet also touch the depths of profundity. In their small, unassuming way, haiku can, at their best reflect and inspire the shared experiences of people throughout the world.

Poets from twenty-eight countries submitted entries to the second Vladimir DevidĂŠ competition, and the quality of their entries was consistently high. I trust you will enjoy the following haiku, selected with great care by Dr Ĺ tambuk.

Joseph Haldane Nagoya, January 2013 IV

Acknowledgements The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) would like to thank the many poets and other lovers of haiku who supported the award and haiku reading event, including Akito Arima, President of the Haiku International Association, Hana Fujimoto, the organization's Secretary, and poet and translator, Emiko Miyashita. We would also like to thank Ban'yan Natsuishi, President of the World Haiku Association for his help in promoting the award.

The organization would like to thank Dr Arima for delivering the LibrAsia 2012 keynote address, as well as announcing the results of the 2012 Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award. We would also like to thank, founder and judge, His Excellency Dr Drago Štambuk, for his continued work on behalf of the Award.

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Foreword

We, the Haiku International Association, wish to make the world peaceful through grassroots exchanges among the world’s lovers of haiku, and are happy to support the Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award and commend its vision. Haiku is a poetry of nature and seasons which embody us all. Writing and sharing haiku can be a powerful way to promote mutual understanding of differences between human beings.

I am often asked why haiku is so popular in Japan, and I think there are three main reasons: 1) Haiku is short, and has a fixed form of 5-7-5 Japanese syllables; this style is easy and allows haiku to be accessible to everyone. One can count the syllables on one’s fingers and easily write it on a scrap of paper.

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2) Haiku is about nature and the seasons; there is no need to discuss or comment on difficult or delicate issues. To confront is not its goal, but instead to bring harmony.

3) The shortness of haiku enables people to memorize a poem, so it can be appreciated widely and passed down through the generations. Basho’s haiku written in the seventeenth century, for example, is still so vivid in our eyes.

an old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water.

Basho Matsuo (1644-1694)

In Japan, there are many forests due to monsoon climate. Nature here is mild polytheism is still prevalent, preserving animistic way of thinking in our daily X

our and an life.

Animism is the idea of respecting all and every creature in nature and living together in harmony. It emphasizes the importance of the coexistence of nature and human beings. A poet’s awe for nature, as well as a sympathy and affiliation for plants, animals, mountains, and rivers are found in haiku. In haiku, we stand on an equal level with them.

I am very happy to say that Mr. Tomas TranstrĂśmer, the winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, is also a haiku poet. Haiku is thus becoming more and more popular throughout the world.

Through the cooperation of all of the poets in the world, we want to further internationalize haiku to enrich the lives of others.

The power lines stretched across the kingdom of frost north of all music Tomas TranstrĂśmer XI

In times of conflict and uncertainty in the world, we still can appreciate our daily life and find beauty there. We should all write haiku and achieve a goal of mutual understanding among ourselves and bring peace to this beautiful planet.

Akito Arima President of the Haiku International Association Japan Â

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vladimir devidé haiku award selected haiku 2012 Founder & Selector: Drago Štambuk, Croatia

iafor

2nd Vladimir DevidĂŠ Haiku Award 2012 Founder & Selector: Drago Ĺ tambuk, Croatia

Number of Entries: Number of Entries: 208 from 28 countries, 7 of unknown origin. The highest number of entries from Croatia: 75; 36%; second USA: 30; 14%; third Serbia: 19; 9%; fourth / fifth Bosnia & Herzegovina and UK: 8; 4%.

Organizer: The International Academic Forum as Part of LibrAsia 2012: The 2nd Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship Osaka, Japan, April 5-8, 2012

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Table of Contents

一 Vladimir Devidé

4

二 Drago Štambuk

9

三 Grand Prize

19

四 Runner Up

25

五 Commended

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VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ Despite a successful international academic career as a renowned mathematician, with professorships in Australia and the US, as well as his native Croatia at the University of Zagreb, it is primarily as a Japanologist and haiku poet that Vladimir Devidé is now remembered.

Devidé was not only one of the world`s most celebrated haiku poets, but a tireless promoter of Japanese culture. If Croatia is now considered a Haiku “superpower”, with more poets practicing the art per capita than any other nation, it is largely thanks to his efforts. A full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Vladimir Devidé has won a number of awards and honours, including the Le Prix CIDALC (1977), the Prize of the City of Zagreb (1982), and for his work as a promoter of Japanese culture, the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure (1983). Vladimir Devidé died in August 2010.

VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ HAIKU AWARD The competition was founded by his fellow countryman and haiku poet, Dr Drago Štambuk, as a tribute to Devidé's vision and passion for haiku. The award is based on literary merit, regardless of whether in the traditional or modern style. As such, it aims to transcend haiku divisions in the unifying spirit of Vladimir Devidé.

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DRAGO ŠTAMBUK His Excellency Dr Drago Štambuk is the Croatian Ambassador to Brazil, a post he took up in early 2011, after five years as Ambassador to Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Dr Štambuk is a widely published and acclaimed poet, and is now recognized as one of Croatia's most distinguished men of letters. His writing career began in 1973 and has grown to include more than 40 collections of poetry in Croatian, English, French and Spanish, and his work has been included in all relevant anthologies of Croatian contemporary poetry.The ambassador has received numerous literary awards in his native country and abroad, and was the first recipient of Dragutin Tadijanović Award established in 2008 by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also a founder and director of the All-Croatian Poetry Festival on the Island of Brač, founded in 1991.

As well as his writing, Dr Štambuk has had two

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separate careers as both a medical doctor and a diplomat. A graduate of Zagreb University's Medical School (1974), he went on to specialize in internal medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology at the Clinical Medical Center in Zagreb, before moving to London in 1983 to continue his medical career at both the Royal Free Hospital and St Stephen's.

Following the independence of Croatia in 1991, he became a diplomat, and has served as the Croatian ambassador to various countries, including India and Egypt, and from 2005 was named as Croatia's representative in Tokyo. His brief was expanded to include the Republic of Korea in 2006.

The ambassador was a Fellow at Harvard University from 2001 to 2002. He was appointed to the IAFOR International Advisory Board in 2010 as the conference chair for the first Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship 2011, and instituted the Vladimir DevidĂŠ Haiku award as a tribute to DevidĂŠ,

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who had died earlier in 2010, serving as the judge for the 2012 award.

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The Vladimir DevidĂŠ Haiku Award is for haiku regardless of whether it is traditional or modern; it transcends haiku divisions and is based only on literary merit.

The following haiku have been commended by the competition, and the winner and runners up were announced by Akito Arima on Friday, April 6, 2012 at the occasion of the Poetry Reading.

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Grand Prize, shared by two authors

on the steps of the Freedom Memorial, a discarded snake skin

Anthony Kudryavitsky, Ireland 9

Grand Prize, shared by two authors

The rocking chair – a young pregnant woman swings her big belly

Tomislav Maretić, Croatia 1

Runner Up

On top of the cliff couple prepares to take leap – ocean front wedding

William T. Shehan IV, USA 25

Runner Up

from shadow to shadow a ferret

Margaret Beverland, New Zealand 27

Runner Up

Twilight loosened flesh longs for the earth...

Susan Daily, USA 29

Runner Up

evening snow... two figures coming up the hill

Timothy Russell, USA 31

Runner Up

Ninety-nine friends drinkin' coffee all alone nobody's on-line

Andrea Popov Miletić, Serbia 33

Runner Up

autumn sunset a field mouse nibbles at my shadow's heart

Earl R. Keener, USA 3

Runner Up

Wrought iron flowers – only the time is visiting my mothers grave

Iulian Ciupitu, Romania 3

Runner Up

A bus full of men is heading to the new factory.

The driver looks tired

Darko Popovski, Skopje-Macedonia 3

Runner Up

barflies like fireflies but full of lies

Daniel Gahnertz, Sweden

Commended

karst terrain a road through vastness – bleating only...

Nada JaÄ?menica, Croatia

Commended

contention seed doesn't sprout just everywhere – Buddha's smile

Dragan J. Ristić, Serbia

Commended

late at night tapping at my window – the same lonely sparrow

Saša Važić, Serbia

Commended

sea death a bouquet of roses washed ashore

John Tiong Chunghoo, Malaysia

Commended

Solitude – only the wild flowers fragrances cross the house threshold

Constantin Stroe, Romania 3

Commended

first frost her lipstick smudges bone china

John Parsons, United Kingdom

Commended

a beggar sleeps tin cup full of cat urine – spring dawns just so

Malte Blegvad, Denmark

Commended

frozen puddle – a stray dog licking his tongue

Đurđa Vukelić Rožić, Croatia

Commended

all night long pointing to the stars hatless scarecrow

Boris Nazansky, Croatia

Commended

a homeless man on the midnight mass – warmth of a home

Marija Pogorilić, Croatia