Winners of The White Shoe Haiku Contest
The White Shoe Staff
[The White Shoe Haiku Contest ran for several months, with one winner posted every day alongside each new White Shoe piece. For a brief, shining moment, the haiku contest meant everything to us. It was a phenomenal thing. We had joy, we had fun, and despite the fact that this contest occurred during the winter months, it was as if we had seasons in the sun. Important Note: Although this page is archived as it originally appeared, this contest is over. If you still have haiku that you want to submit, we are sorry, but it is too late. Read the haiku to small children. They will give you prizes we cannot.]
· · ·
In addition to posting one new haiku alongside each White Shoe piece, we began and ended this contest by featuring a few haiku about haiku. Meta-haiku, if you will. Our postmodernity baffles even us. Enjoy the counterintuitive reverse-chronological-order goodness that follows.
· · ·
Enough is enough.
Haiku contest with your terse
terminology.
[Samuel Adair | 3.6.01]
- - -
A first line of five
Then onto one of seven
Five on the last line
[Josh Stott | 3.6.01]
- - -
Five, seven, and five
are seventeen syllables:
a perfect haiku
[Bake Neko | 3.6.01]
- - -
If I write real fast,
there won't be time for my brain
to play editor.
[Susan Taplinger | 3.6.01]
- - -
The first line has five.
The second line has seven.
Then end with five more.
[Lincoln Bahr | 3.6.01]
- - -
My fingers are tired.
All this counting confuses.
Seven more than five?
[Rez | 3.6.01]
- - -
The lightning flashes
It's a summer thunderstorm
And now comes the rain
[Megan Stromberg | 3.6.01]
- - -
Her husband has gone
to the mountains with the dog.
She misses the dog.
[Marilyn Injeyan | 3.6.01]
- - -
My little red car
goes so fast sometimes I get
scared we'll fly away
[Kim King | 3.6.01]
- - -
Aching, creaky joints
from too damn many birthdays.
Enter Medicare.
[Jean Moyer | 3.6.01]
- - -
A sailboat at sea.
Toward where — eternity?
A homestead maybe.
[Priya Ramachandran | 3.6.01]
- - -
Did you ever think
that maybe you weren't as smart
as your mother said?
[Susan Taplinger | 3.6.01]
- - -
My sister will be
reading this email, and then
clicking her mouse here.
[Barry Payne | 3.6.01]
- - -
Taxi driver's hot
Breath mixes with the moment —
Garlic, cabbage, beer.
[Holli Keel | 3.6.01]
- - -
Final splendid act
Red, gold, orange amuse us
Farewell sweet summer
[Sarah Miller | 3.6.01]
- - -
I thought that I heard
your footstep at the threshold —
only the rain knocks
[Candi Cooper-Towler | 3.6.01]
- - -
toasted marshmallows
burnt back and crispy — just right
summertime delight
[Maurice Rivard | 3.6.01]
- - -
On the map above
My gray padded office wall
Burma is no more
[Rachel Kimsey | 3.6.01]
- - -
He said, "I'll call you."
So I'm waiting by the phone.
Love is a bummer.
[Susan Taplinger | 3.6.01]
- - -
The dandelion blows:
(chickens on a ferris wheel)
feathers in the wind.
[Marilyn Nelson | 3.6.01]
- - -
"I don't eat corpses,"
she sneers, fists in the pockets
of her suede jacket.
[Bettina Davis | 3.2.01]
- - -
Songs downloading fast
Piracy on my hard drive
I love Napster so
[Sarah Wood | 2.28.01]
- - -
to get my clothes clean
it is twelve steps down the hall
to the laundry room
[Jim O'Brien | 2.26.01]
- - -
I've spent the whole day
doing nothing. I see no
reason to start now.
[Megan Schoonover | 2.22.01]
- - -
The key to my heart
slipped out of my shirt pocket
into careless hands.
[Krista Rose | 2.20.01]
- - -
Does checking email
more than eighteen times a day
make you lame? Hope not.
[April Lopez | 2.15.01]
- - -
some haiku express
depth of insight and beauty
but this one does not
[Rez | 2.12.01]
- - -
Seasonal Haiku
Spring, summer, and fall
(sometimes also called autumn).
Last of all, winter.
[Lincoln Bahr | 2.8.01]
- - -
Yellow piggy mask
Though the bag does not inflate
Oxygen will flow
[Madeline Ferwerda | 2.6.01]
- - -
Sometimes, I sit on
moss-covered stones in the woods.
They make my bum cold.
[Kim King | 1.30.01]
- - -
Disgusting canine!
Why did you do your business
On our new carpet?
[Tim Jones | 1.26.01]
- - -
Chilled from winter winds
The trees crackle from the ice
Like my frozen heart
[Dorene Davis | 1.24.01]
- - -
Graveyard
Evening mist rises,
shrouding the slumbering dead
in their deep, cold beds.
[Jean Moyer | 1.22.01]
- - -
Grieving mother waits
While doctor inspects hurt boy
Speedy sled for sale
[Sarah Miller | 1.19.01]
- - -
we got lost walking
back roads, avoiding the field
where she was murdered
[Amy Middleton | 1.18.01]
- - -
When I have dry mouth
I like to get a cool drink
Man that tastes real nice
[Josh Stott | 1.17.01]
- - -
Dainty blue eggshell
All of the pieces are here
Except the robin
[Susanna Lee | 1.16.01]
- - -
Ode to My Audubon Calendar
Here upon my wall,
with more charm than I'd guessed, hangs
an armadillo.
[Susan Taplinger | 1.12.01]
- - -
ignoring breakfast
coffee is my only need
inject java — aaahhhh
[Michelle Crawford-Bewley | 1.11.01]
- - -
Shadows of birds rise
as if smoke through late fall air —
chimneys watch in awe.
[Danny C. Knestaut | 1.10.01]
- - -
Land manatee walks
Walrus-necked, blue-eyed slug boy
My dog is too fat
[Jill Tallman | 1.8.01]
- - -
Einstein was a quack
Galileo was too, man.
They had no love bones.
[Richard Whitehurst | 1.5.01]
- - -
Philadelphia,
San Miguel de Tecuman,
Cities with long names
[Rachel Kimsey | 1.4.01]
- - -
For those who ask me
How do I write my haiku —
I use my fingers.
[Bake Neko | 1.3.01]
- - -
I have learned to trust
myself as I grow older.
Let them question me.
[Denise Roberts | 1.2.01]
- - -
Just consider the
possibilities of your
imagination.
[Jean Moyer | 12.21.00]
- - -
Plastic grocery bag
Snagged on a telephone wire
Fluttering empty.
[William DeFord | 12.20.00]
- - -
Before we collide,
the man on the tricycle
brushes off his wheels.
[Frances LeMoine | 12.19.00]
- - -
The whole string goes black
when just one tree light goes out.
Stupid Christmas lights.
[Howard Tayler | 12.18.00]
- - -
A small child napping
through a quiet autumn rain.
What winter intrudes?
[Jim Futrell | 12.15.00]
- - -
no longer able
to catch real prey, the cat drops
pinecones at my door
[Marilyn Injeyan | 12.14.00]
- - -
I look at windows
wondering which one, which one?
Music falls with snow.
[Candi Cooper-Towler | 12.13.00]
- - -
Moving to the Coast
Years in the desert —
I forgot the sound of rain.
Now: it falls for hours.
[Abby Parcell | 12.12.00]
- - -
Why am I angry?
Sell my soul for tuition —
unprepared teachers.
[Matt Graham | 12.11.00]
- - -
Raindrops falling in
A puddle. I see the round
Belly of Buddha.
[Zoe Calder | 12.8.00]
- - -
Heavy Metal Haiku
duh duh duh duh duh
duh duh duh duh duh duh duh
Smoke on the water
[Richard Guest | 12.7.00]
- - -
A tedious date
He kept on about his work
She admired her nails
[Mary Flodden | 12.6.00]
- - -
Sitting in the snow,
monkey coughs, cries, and struggles.
Out pops a hairball!
[Jason Minton | 12.5.00]
- - -
If a tree falls on
someone you hate, do you still
need to hide the ax?
[Megan Schoonover | 12.4.00]
- - -
Sure, you are handsome,
Smart, kind, gentle, and cool, but
I have more money.
[Tim Jones | 12.1.00]
- - -
Magic Cookie Crisp
You stole my heart, you sure did.
Striped-shirt Cookie Crook.
[Jenny St. Onge | 11.30.00]
- - -
I'm getting a rush
rolling on the floor so high
pass the catnip please
[Maurice Rivard, Sr. | 11.29.00]
- - -
One time I ate soup.
It was so hot, it burned me.
I didn't like that.
[Kim King | 11.28.00]
- - -
The first line is too…
short — Now I count on my fin-
gers, and now it's done
[Susan Taplinger | 11.27.00]
- - -
Writing bad haiku
Is like eating chocolate chips
Under the blankets
[Susanna Lee | 11.27.00]
- - -
See the thought, pushing
against the seventeen bars
of its prison cell.
[Mark Orin Berrett | 11.27.00]
- - -
Surely I am not
The first one to find humor
In changing haiku's length
[Eric D. Snider | 11.27.00]
- - -
You pretty much can't
Use anapestic hepta-
Meter in haiku
[Reid Gray | 11.27.00]
- - -
One two three four five
One two three four five six sev…
One two three four five
[Josh Stott | 11.27.00]
- - -
A bird calls, doves coo
This day I think I will rue
I'm writing haiku
[Angela Zimmerman | 11.27.00]
- - -
A poet I'm not,
though my third line does contain
"a seasonal word."
[Andrew Thomas | 11.27.00]