The winners of the Haiku Club October Saijiki Contest have been announced!



First place goes to ~mreid973 for scarecrows. An effortless, modern metaphor for mortal bareness, this haiga shines a spotlight on human nature.


Second place is a tie between:

*ColdContactKiss for autumn rain. This entry combines the senryu and haiku forms with a wry wit, mocking a modern season marker (daylight savings) with an innocent observation about the weather.

and

*Djoseph for autumn drizzle. I like that the first two lines (combined with the Autumn in its title) mislead the reader into thinking it's about falling leaves, and then reveals it's rain falling through trees. The alternate reading that people are taking cover from the drizzle, under a tree, is also a cute image.


Third place goes to ~Aqua-rat for autumn wind. With the world closing down for the year in the northern hemisphere Autumn can be a gloomy time. But true beauty is there to be found even in these circumstances. The dancing larches are all the more joyful because of the grey day.



Honorable mentions go to:

~lucidflux for autumn waters. This prose is as crisp and clear as the icy waters it ends in. Autumn holds unique joys that are well represented here with a playful flair.

*mcdermid for burning leaves. On a chilly day the smell of burning leaves offers a special comfort. The choice of "sigh" is lovely because it steps around the more obvious words one might use to describe a fleeting scent. With daylight dwindling the sigh also seems to represent the world downshifting from the energy of warmer months and settling in for the winter.

~ShinamoriWing for winter mist. This work paints soft and beautiful imagery with syntax that carries very well from Japanese to English.