HAY(NA)KU CONTEST WINNERS!

We're so pleased to post the results of our recent Hay(na)ku contest. 'Twas judged by Mark Young, co-editor (with Jean Vengua) of THE FIRST HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY. The results are posted below. First, a prefatory comment by Mark -- and thank you all who participated by sending in your hay(na)ku poems!

"The Holiday Hay(na)ku competition attracted a good number of entries, & once again demonstrated the geographical dissemenation of the form -- there were submissions from Mexico, Spain, Finland, The Netherlands, New Zealand as well as many places within the U.S. -- the seemingly endless number of ways of approaching / augmenting the form -- amongst the winners are seriously kinetic hay(na)ku, abcderian hay(na)ku, sequences & the original stepped tercet -- and that it is a form that continues to attract new practitioners -- remember that one of the conditions of entry into this competition was that you weren't included in The First Hay(na)ku Anthology.

"The ten winners are, in alphabetical order: Lorna Dee Cervantes, Ray Craig, William Friend, Iris Lee, Rebeka Lembo, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Neon, Marko Niemi, Jordan Stempleman & Michael P. Steven. Their winning entries are below."


LORNA DEE CERVANTES

Towards the Alpha bet's New Beginning of I

&&&&& (for I)

Anything
believable challenges,
drives. Everything fallable

gains,
heightens. I
just know love

maneuvers
nothing, otherwise
proposes, quarrels, resurrects.

Surely --
tarpits, underwire,
virtuous widows, Xs,

young
zephyrs, adolescents,
bored child-driven enterprises,

future-seers,
gimme heterosexuals.
I just know

lovers
make noise
openly, proving quiescent

reservoirs,
sensual taverns
underneath vast waterfalls.

X-ray,
yes, zealously,
any bay's cavern,

dividing
entire frozen
glaciers. Halving. I

just
know living
mainly nightens. Over

paradise,
questions rise
sinuously, testily, unsure.

Valuable
wasting, x-acto
yapping, zippering autumn

both
closed, dumbed,
elegant. For giving

home.
I just
know love means

news,
orals, plurals,
quinces, ravishing silhouettes

to
underscore virtually
whimsical xerox youth --

Zanzibar!
Anything believable,
challenging everything, fallable,

gainfully
heightened: I
just know love.


------------------

RAY CRAIG


Tuesday, December 20

contortionist
imposed by “
glue and swimsuits

” adhesives
exploit in
cassette : she inserted

leaving
cow’s eye
in her ambulance

wait
20 minutes
she speaks both

but
her Cantonese
is quick : blind

woman
waiting for
bus with her

eyes
open : “ there
were people dancing

who
could only
move their arms ”


------------------

WILLIAM FREIND

mt. fuji webcam

elsewhere
water in
a white box


----------------

IRIS LEE

FRED:
farmer, fireman,
fair-haired, Ford, forgets

his
lunch sometimes,
takes forever to

finish
a wood-working
project, favorite meal

will
include French
fries, maybe fresh

fruit.
Father was
also a farmer

whose
father came
from far north

in
Norway and
spoke fractured English.

Mother’s
folks from
around here forever,

it
seems. Fred’s
fiancée, Phyllis, is

also
from farming
folks. Fred hasn’t

studied
Freud, so
he can’t fathom

why
he forgets
to fill the

Ford
with gas
when he and

Phyllis
go out
for a drive.

Still
Phyllis won’t
let Fred fuck

her
‘til they’re
married. Fred finds

life
mostly fun.
He’s got his

Ford,
fires, the
farm, friends, family.


------------------

REBEKA LEMBO


Victor
Hugo might
have said there

were
neither bad
seeds nor bad

plants
but bad
raisers; I, however,

firmly
believe he
must have never

had
little hogweeds
in his garden.

*

Jacks
in boxes
question their role

within
their boxes;
they never ask

themselves
why they
are inside them.


------------------

ROCHITA LOENEN-RUIZ

Forgetfulness
they say
indicates onset of

Alzheimer's.
Growing old
in cold countries

my brain cells
freeze over
eradicating

memories
one by
one. Until I

don't remember where
I left
yesterday.

------------------

NEON

unanticipated
anti shadows
distort the sunless

fields
hidden in
a cryogenic mind

invoking
dreams once
obscured by thought

------------------

MARKO NIEMI

http://www.helsinki.fi/~marniemi/haynaku/


------------------

JORDAN STEMPLEMAN

Untitled


promise

you’ll do

the last thing


you

said you’d

do before heading


out

you know

the one thing


I

can’t remember

when you’re here

------------------

MICHAEL P. STEVEN

precision

You
have the
precision of silence

The
rhythm of
truth against time

Let's
walk the
streets after dark

Ask
the world
for a light

*******************************

In addition, Mark said that he decided to award two runners-up prizes, to Lars Palm and Terrie Leigh Relf.

Plus, a special prize to a Greg Perry heteronym who demonstrates that the hay(na)ku is a form that can be used to poke fun at itself.

How
silly is
this fucking form?

~Son Rivers 2005