Poem the Picture Award

Flower of Life

Early in the morning

The day scripts its journey

With the garden of hope.

The brightness of smile

Renders streams of happiness

Embodying the dream of life

In every page of blissful flower.

Caressing one and all

They solemnly reflect

The symphony of Godly gift.

They live their lives

For the present

Composing the lyrics of love.

In this garden of joy

Flower of life is ever blooming

Planting poetry of smiles.

Third Prize, Sketchbook, Vol. 7 No. 3, Issue 43, July-Aug 2012 (Moderator: Shanna Baldwin Moore, USA)

Editor's Choice Haiku

Vegetables Impact the Senses

John Daleiden's Choice "vegetable" Haiku  

Thirty-three poets from eleven countries have contributed one hundred-seventy-two Haiku to the July / August 31, 2012-43 "vegetable(s)" Haiku Thread. Biologically, a vegetable is an edible plant or part of a plant, usually excluding seeds and most sweet fruit. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant. However, a non-biological definition of a vegetable is largely based onculinary and cultural tradition. Therefore, the application of the word vegetable is somewhat arbitrary, based on cultural and/or personal views. In this Haiku Thread there are many seed crops and fruits in the botanical sense, that are used as vegetables.

One of the most important qualities of a vegetable is "freshness", a trait Pravat Padhy associates with his mother's "smiles" in a unique juxtaposition:

green vegetables
my mother smiles with
morning freshness

# 18. Pravat Kumar Padhy, India

Padhy's association of the images of "vegetables" and a "mother's smiles" suggests nurturing--an important role in the life of all developing flora on earth.

Publication Credit: Sketchbook: A Journal for Eastern & Western Short Forms, Vol. 7, No.4, Issue 43, 2012

in starlit sky

the beggar counts

the coins

just enough

for a Christmas cake

Publication Credit: Ribbons, Vol.8, No.2, Fall  2012 (Ed. Dave Rice)

rose garden                      

fragrance filters through    

prison windows                

  

Rosengarten

Duft sickert durch

Gefängnisfenster

******

monsoon clouds                

a lot of hope floats              

on the ground                      

Monsunwolken

viel Hoffung treibt

am Boden

******

in long desert                            

breeze swings from                    

the crest to valley                         

I march with a lonely shadow as      

footprints fill with shifting sand   

in weiter Wüste

die Brise schwingt sich

vom Kamm zum Tal

zieh ich mit einsamen Schatten, wie

sich Fußspuren mit Sand füllen

******

Publication Credit: Chrysanthemum-12 October 2012 (Managing Ed.: Beate Conrad)

millions of stars
in the summer sky--
I walk by myself

******

brief rain--

the tender sound
from leaves

- Pub. Credit: A Blackbird Sings: a small stone anthology, Woodsmoke Press 2012 (Eds. Fiona Robyn and Kaspalita Thompson)

Dusk falls--

migratory birds paint

the rising moon

Asahi Haikuist Network, 5.10.2012 ( Ed. David McMurray)