Hailstone Haibun Challenge

The results of the Hailstone Haibun Challenge were as follows.

Grand Prix: The Greatest Artist by Toshi Ida

Encouragement Prizes: Fontaine des Innocents by Ellis Avery; Ode to a Lily by Keiko Yurugi; Kamogawa Haibun by John Dougill

These pieces will not be published on the Icebox, but it is hoped may feature in Hailstone’s next anthology. 17 people, including judge Nobuyuki Yuasa, attended the Prize-giving & Reading meet in Takatsuki on Valentine’s Day.

inside a lily-bud

seemingly secured -

“tomorrow”

(from Keiko Yurugi’s Ode to a Lily)

Song

.

End of the winter day -

A line of singing people

Moves through the wood.

.

林間を歌い行く列暮早し

(haiku – Tito, Arashiyama, 7.2.09; photo – Noriko Kan, Mt. Ishizuchi; Japanese translation – Hisashi Miyazaki)

for Moya III

Moya’s funeral left many of us with uncountable memories. Interestingly for me, the end, when her casket was placed into the car, and the gentlest of rains began to fall, was remarkable. Moya was a gentle, and a sharing woman. I connected the event this way:

she held back the rain

until her funeral finished;

to the end, putting others first

.

寒の雨棺発つより降りそめぬ
（kan no ame/hitsugi tatsu-yori/furi-somenu, Jap. trans. by Hisashi Miyazaki)

for Moya II

.

just as night settles

on the quiet river

wild ducks take flight

cracking their wings

toward the city in the sky

.

翼打ち夜更の川に鴨発つは宙にある街目指すならんや
(tsubasa uchi/yofuke no kawa ni/kamo tatsu wa/sora ni aru machi/mezasu naran-ya, Jap. trans. by Hisashi Miyazaki)