HYAKU-NIN IKKU (One Hudred Haiku by One Hudred Poets Project)
Selection by Susumu Takiguchi, UK
(WHCshowcase was formally launched during the "World Haiku Festival 2004—La Fenice in Venice", an international haiku event which was held from 28 August to 15 September 2004. The official display of WHCshowcase in the cyberspace began on 13 November 2004.)
This unique showcase for haiku and related genres is designed to be an exhibition area where works in these various genres of the highest standards and quality will be displayed on a continuous basis. They will be shown not only to WHC members but also to everyone else in the world. Authors may be invited to make some revisions as and when necessary.
WHCshowcase is part of WHC's initiative for "Higher Standards & Quality" and seeks to be a yardstick against which good works can be judged. It is expected that the number of works selected for WHCshowcase will be small. These selected works are expected to be considered to be included, with the author's permission, in a future world haiku anthology of WHC. Haiku poems selected for WHCshowcase will be considered for the WHC’s new project: HYAKU-NIN IKKU (One Hundred Haiku by One Hundred Poets), which is to select one best haiku from each of the one hundred poets invited.
The following are the selections of WHCshowcase subsequent to the 50 poems displayed in the previous issues of World Haiku Review. They are poems displayed from 30 July 2006 (No. 51) to 29 December 2006 (No. 85):
51
summer night...
the river takes stars
towards the ocean
[original Italian]
quando fa notte
il fiume porta stelle
verso l'oceano
Brando Altemps (Italy)
52
Back from Egypt ...
desert sun
the sand too hot
for footprints
mirage ...
the last drop of water
in my bottle
Hurghada ...
in the desert I forget
my own name
Bedouin camp --
life is a camel's
hump
sunrise ...
I stare into the eye
of God
desert evening ...
I enter my own
wilderness
Ella W. (The Netherlands)
53
cool morning
a street dog
also sneezes
[Original haiku in Spanish]
fresca mañana
un perro callejero
también estornuda
Israel López Balan
54
pawn shop window
the ring
bought for her
Don Haney, USA
55
drought -
the first raindrops
raise a little dust
Carole MacRury, USA
56
reading room
the silence
of turned pages
Bill Kenney, USA
57
sundown
. . . the snail inching its way
into autumn
Robert Wilson, USA
58
hot asphalt -
an ant hauling
a dead ant home
Carole MacRury, USA
59
Au fil de l eau
le bouchon tire le pecheur
vers le soir
Downstream
the float pulls the angler
towards the dusk
J. P. Cresta, France
60
chemotherapy -
she always liked the way
I kissed her hair
Bill Kenney, USA
61
mid-winter . . .
a rice paddy
sprouting cone hats
Robert Wilson, USA
62
last day of summer -
cicada in my attic
no longer sings
a few yellow leaves drift
in cool morning breeze
last day of summer -
desert cactus blooms again
within the green-house
scent of rosemary lingers
as a distant memory
Joachim Seckel, USA
63
glacier in the lake -
a splash is seen
before it is heard
Vaughn Seward, Canada
64
autumn lawn...
more leaf-mulching
than grass-cutting
Vaughn Seward, Canada
65
dripping mist
pulls the sky
into the valley
Kala Ramesh, India
66
morning mist . . .
the soup maker chopping
fish heads
Robert Wilson, USA
67
crowded bus
every passenger breathes
the same autumn
Israel López Balan, Mexico
68
fallen leaves -
a leashed pup tumbles
off the curb
Allen McGill, Mexico
69
deep night
the silence of a spider
spinning
Carol Raisfeld, USA
70
What is Basho's
old pond or frog to a
tired commuter?
Kami (Judy Kamilhor), USA
71
a fly buzzing
behind the blinds
i am not alone . . .
opening the blinds . . .
oh, the friendly fly
has died
Dustin C. Neal, USA
72
naked branch
last night a leaf
trembled there
Bill Kenney, USA
73
storm-dashed
poppy heads rise up
from the fallen grasses
Dick Pettit, Denmark
74
star gazing . . .
a young woman
wanting children
Robert Wilson, USA
75
midnight
rat gnaws book pages
deep silence
Radhey Shiam, India
76
first showers
fill the creases
on his face
on the march. . .
lives bundled
on their heads
pinpricks of light
against
the full moon
the child...
nestled
in her curve
Yajushi, India
77
spiaggia d'inverno
senza pause l'amore
fra riva e onda
beach in winter
restless love between
shore and wave
Moussia, Italy
78
in love with the new sun
the cherry blossom forgets
the night's frost
Ivan M. Granger, USA
79
birch tree --
i leave on it
a wordless poem
Stanford M. Forrester, USA
80
spring rain
on the mower's blade
last year's grass
Andria Plowman, UK
81
first snow—
my child's footprints no longer
fit inside mine
an'ya, USA
82
I put on high heels -
everything in my house
looks different.
Zhanna P. Rader, USA
83
patch of ice...
a remembrance day poppy
embedded
Vaughn Seward, Canada
84
foggy rooftops . . .
a sense of the day
only in outline
Michael McClintock, USA
85
old year, new year....
one soul newly arrived
one soul soon to leave
tamashii no katsu umare katsu saru kozo-kotoshi
Debra Woolard Bender, USA
[END]
