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NZPS International Haiku Contest 2010: Judge's report by Tony Beyer

Regardless of subject matter, the wit of haiku is dry, its emotion parked well outside the actual physical presence of the words in the poem. But those words are the poem. All the author can do is assemble, refine and supply them to the reader who will make what he or she can of them. There is no room for editorialising or steering the thoughts of the reader. If the experience of the poem is not enough, nothing else will be, either.

With these fairly seasoned views in mind, I was delighted to be given the challenge of reading and appreciating the enthusiasm expressed in this year's gathering of 470 haiku. Not all the authors of these poems have quite achieved expertise in the genre yet, but I very sincerely urge every one of you to keep at it. Though a judge may seem like someone who should be consistently accomplished, writing well is a tough calling for which the apprenticeship never really ends. Sometimes I think that writing haiku well is even tougher than that!

While enjoying many of the haiku, I was most impressed by those which placed me in a genuine situation or environment, then made me see in ways that may not have occurred before, or enlarged the scope of my perception. Good haiku result from accurate observation of both the subject and the words chosen to enact a response.

tour bus
a bug I don't know
lands on my arm

- Quendryth Young (Australia), 1st

Many things could be said here about the information or education that comes from travel, or the sense of otherness in a strange situation. The poem has said them all for us, though, with much more precision and accuracy. The high-stakes element of choice in haiku occurs in the ambiguity of the second line: an individual bug or type of bug? The first possibility is humorous and homely, the second strange and new.


gathering storm -
the scent of lavender
across the fence

- Patricia Prime (NZ), 2nd

What is occurring in nature is universal and also local. Small human boundaries and limitations don't get in the way. If someone else could own the lavender's scent they could also perhaps own the storm! A thankfully unlikely proposition.


floodlit lake
the white bits
of a pelican

- Quendryth Young, 3rd

Haiku aren't supposed to rhyme, but the internal rhyme here tightens both perception and expression with economy and flourish, standing in for an instantaneous flash of light. The surprise of who is present out there is enacted by effective word choice. Those “bits” of pelican are definitely living (and lively) bits, not scraps or fragments.

All three winning poems combine some awareness of haiku tradition as it has developed in English with a confident use of the possibilities of poetry in English. This is the kind of approach that allows haiku, transplanted from another language and culture, to grow as an independent genre.

Among the Highly Commended and Commended entries, there were moments of acute observation: kereru, new mantises, an absent plum tree; in other words, the rich mulch of a spontaneous, believable world brought into focus by refreshing vision. Occasionally, in the near-misses, there was just one word too many or too few, a reminder of how demanding the highest standard really is.


Tony Beyer, June 2010

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