Gurga wins first place in haiku contest

The winning haiku at the 2000 Midwest Buddhist Temple Ginza Festival Haiku Contest have been reported by the judges, Joseph Kirschner and Charles Trumbull. Working independently, each judge reviewed all 72 entries blind — that is, not seeing the names of the authors — and made his selection of the top haiku. They then met on Wednesday, Aug. 23, and to discuss the many fine entries, debate favorites and select the final list of winners. Lee Gurga of Lincoln won first place in the general category. 

This is his winning entry:

Blackberry picking —

the touch of the setting sun

on my unshaved cheek

This verse, the judges felt, has everything a classic haiku needs: a specific reference to the season (blackberry picking); two images (in this case, one from nature, one from the world of humans) set together in a way that resonate with each other (the brambly blackberry bushes played against the roughness of the poet’s unshaved cheek), and an appropriate touch of emotion (the nostalgia of blackberry picking in the wistful light of the setting sun). A textbook haiku!

Lee Gurga, Illinois’ most prominent haiku poet, is associate editor of the journal Modern Haiku and past president of the Haiku Society of America. 

With his winning entry, Gurga took first-place honors at the contest for the second year in a row.

For information about another haiku contest, click here.

For a February article about Gurga, click below:

http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/020100/features/artsbook.htm 


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