A total of 247 haiku and 59 tanka were submitted by 92 authors for this selection.
The deadline for entries was October 15, 2016. I anonymized these texts before the selection began. The jury consisted of Sonja Raab, Birgit Heid and René Possél. The members of the selection group did not submit their own texts.
All selected texts - 35 haiku and 11 tanka - are published in alphabetical order of the author's names. A maximum of two haiku and two tanka per author are accepted.
"A haiku / a tanka that appeals to me particularly" - this is the motto for each jury member to choose up to three texts (still anonymized), to present and comment here.
The next submission deadline for the Haiku / Tanka selection is January 15, 2017.
Each participant can submit up to five texts - three of which are haiku. With the submission, the author gives consent for a possible publication on http://www.zugetextet.com/
Each member of the DHG has the option of naming a submission that will be published on the member's own page if the jury disregards it. Only previously unpublished works can be submitted (also applies to publications in blogs, forums and workshops etc.). No simultaneous submissions please!
There is also the possibility to enter the haiku / tanka yourself:
DHG website / activities / Haiku-Tanka selection / online form
or please send to: auswahlen@deutschehaikugesellschaft.de
Since the jury should consist of changing participants, I would like to cordially invite all interested DHG members to participate as a jury member in upcoming selection rounds.
Petra Klingl
A haiku that particularly appeals to me
children's hands
full of marbles
Father's frailtyRuth Caroline Mieger
Children's hands full of marbles. Then I hear a slight crunch of the glass marbles in my hand, see a greenish shimmer, feel the gentle hold, because the children's hands are full of marbles, both hands, you have to be careful not to stumble, you cannot hold on when climbing the stairs. I feel the pride of the child before playing or after receiving the gift, two handfuls of marbles. Because the mother or father would not simply equip the child with two handfuls of marbles, they would be nicely packed in a sack or a tin. But these marbles are a real treasure!
Father's frailty. It's grandpa's frailty. This child's grandpa, at least in my opinion. Fragile means being lean, weak and careful. Treat yourself gently, save energy, drink a warm tea. That it is Father's frailty means that the generation in between, the lyrical self, is present, but does not speak. This poetic construction alone thrills me now that I am sitting in front of the haiku and thinking about it.
The child comes in my imagination of his grandfather or is visiting him right now to play with him. His marbles in his hands urge caution, as does Father's health, perhaps Father's frailty sounds bright and bony, similar to the click of the marbles. Marbles and unstable health are particularly valuable for the child and the father, and both have to do not only because of the relationship. Perhaps it was father's marbles with which he once played in dusty hollows on the alley.
I can see the old father playing with his grandson at the kitchen table on a Tyrolean roulette board, from which the marbles cannot fall because of their edges. I think excitedly about how and where the two could still play with each other. At the end of the game, the little child grabs his marbles in his pockets - tongue clenched with pleasure because he won once ¬– and gets up from the table while the old man doesn't come up so quickly. But he doesn't scold his frailty, he mumbles something incomprehensible, something like "It was nice to play with you. Come back tomorrow! "
Selected and commented by Birgit Heid
Late news
look for the constellation
the doveAngelica Holweger
First of all, with this haiku, I think: why didn't the author write late news? It would be the more common term. But there is a reason for it. It may not be the daily late-night news at 23 p.m., but it may be extraordinary news in between. But there may also be no private messages on the cell phone because of the plural. An exceptional event is being sent. The pigeon shows in which direction. Certainly a special message from one of the war regions. A sad, negative, bad and troubling news.
I look away, look out of the window, look at the stars as they form known or unknown constellations. I am looking for a constellation, a closed pattern, an orderly world view by looking at the stars. Longing arises. I want peace in the world. A big dream. Too big for a person, too big even for the sum of all peace-loving people. Can the stars serve as a projection surface, even the constellation of the dove, which was introduced in the 17th century? If it would help to admire, conjure up the constellation, couldn't it ...?
It is an irrational idea, just as unrealistic as wishing wars away. But at least there is peace in the starry sky, it seems. So is the line of sight to the starry sky the wrong way? Just a vanishing point? Am I a dreamer if I hope to find solutions to the problems of this world in the sky? I will pursue this exciting question for a while.
I mean: on the one hand - I'm a fantastic. When I think of a story about Jesus that I heard when I was young: in a seed store, a woman wants to buy a handful of peace, happiness, etc., but the shopkeeper replies that there are only seeds to buy here. So I have to take action myself instead of looking for solutions in heaven after letting the late news go about me in a comfortable armchair.
But not only: When I look at the starry sky, my own thoughts, fears, wishes, ideas, my relative size also come into order. I can position myself. Here I am. Very small. At this moment. In this night. As part of the universe. In this second of world eternity. The constellations are my tools. I can always realign myself. Rethink the unpleasant news and my relationship to it. Especially in the picture of the pigeon.
Selected and commented by Birgit Heid
Autumn gust
the old linden tree bursts
in a thousand starlingsGerard Krebs
The element of surprise on the third line hits the heart. Something on the second line suddenly seems to come to life, and the image of the old broken linden tree flutters away, leaving an astonished reader. The autumn gust brings new things, life changes, old things pass, new things come into being. How life plays. The star is known for its iridescent plumage. It shimmers in the color spectrum of a rainbow and also gives the picture something soothing after the gust. The group behavior of the animals seems to hold the old linden together before the picture dissolves in the chattering song of the starlings. A particularly successful haiku, I think.
Selected and commented by Sonja Raab
Autumn gust
the old linden tree bursts
in a thousand starlingsGerard Krebs
I like autumn haiku. This clearly sets in, with a reference to the autumn situation: an autumn gust that drives into an old linden tree. So far a familiar picture. The last word on the second line already announces the volte. Of course, a linden tree will not burst when the wind blows into it. But the surprise and justification of the picture of "bursting" follows in the picture on the last line: It is a flock of starlings that are blown up by the gusts - and thus the flying apart, which simulates the "bursting" of the tree. Everything is included in this haiku, what a haiku needs: the word of the season, the observation in nature, the surprising thought, the "aha effect" - and my delight!
Selected and commented by René Possél
The selection
15 points were achieved
wool scarf
I am knitting
my thoughtsChrista Beau
11 points
Earth to earth
die Tochter
clench your fistsMartin Berner
13 points
refugees incitement
the punches
of the village boys at that timeMartin Berner
7 points
Powerless
at the friend's grave
der WindHorst Oliver Buchholz
8 points
Meteor shower…
the last seconds
meiner MutterCezar Ciobîca
11 points
the old oak ...
our initial
still togetherCezar Ciobîca
11 points
A train disappears -
in the wake of the tunnel
The colorful leavesPaul Dinner
7 points
lonely forest path
i run mine
Shadow of itHildegard Dohrendorf
12 points
No home -
Dwarfs next to that
CaravanTaiki Haijin
8 points
downpour
the mourning community changes
their colorGabriele Hartman
7 points
turned sixty
friends instead of years
countedBernhard Hauptelshofer
9 points
Application
shrugs towards
his eyelidMartina Heinish
11 points
continuous rain
in the old woman's garden
great laundryKerstin Hirsch
8 points
Golden autumn
again an email
from the parentsAnne Holtz
7 points
while smiling
for selfie
become anotherAnne Holtz
7 points
late news
look for the constellation
the doveAngelica Holweger
8 points
in the shadows
the small-leaved lime
first yellow fallsFriedrich Kelben
7 points
Garden planning
the old apple tree
strikethroughSilvia Kempen
13 points
Autumn gust
the old linden tree bursts
in a thousand starlingsGerard Krebs
13 points
Mount Athos -
beyond the monastery walls
weathered timeEva Limbach
13 points
After a stormy night -
the little tree survives
the old oak.Karina Lotz
7 points
children's hands
full of marbles
Father's frailtyRuth Caroline Mieger
13 points
white poplar
today in the narrative café
a contemporary witnessRuth Caroline Mieger
7 points
alone -
in the window of the neighbors
grins her pumpkinEleanor Nickolay
7 points
Harvest time -
Fat mice
cross the pathPetra Quintus
9 points
Roller coaster ride
The girl's cry
smells of cotton candyWolfgang Roedig
9 points
His first day of school
Raptor silhouettes
on the glass facadeWolfgang Roedig
7 points
old church -
by striking their hour
sails the seagullAngelica Seithe
12 points
Cloister -
Hanging willow branches
in silenceAngelica Seithe
8 points
First day of school
a girl is picking
shamrocksHelga Stania
11 points
Wild strawberry
share the taste
with an antElisabeth Weber Strobel
12 points
new job
with vigor in the locker room
silenceElisabeth Weber Strobel
9 points
Stopping work
in the shade of the trees
lumberjackKlaus-Dieter Wirth
12 points
blowing reeds
the Reed Warbler bounces
from stanza to stanzaKlaus-Dieter Wirth
10 points
stroll through town
I only hurt later
the beggar's lookPeter Wissmann
10 points
Asked which one
Point in my life i
now tell me
me from Schrödinger's cat
and the locked boxTony Bohle
7 points
Your thought
irgendwo
a door closes
Only a short time
till the morningHorst Oliver Buchholz
11 points
after the argument
die Nacht
so quiet
the clank of the snow
so lautFrank Dietrich
8 points
Spring Full Moon
floating in the aquarium
a dead fish
with big eyes
as if he saw somethingFrank Dietrich
7 points
die sehnsucht
in the flight of the geese
to the south
the night full
gedankenGregor Graf
8 points
At the tractor meeting
freedom booms
from the exhaust
Grandpa's grin
in front of the ice cream vanTaiki Haijin
7 points
Yes, stay!
The sky is reflected
in the dark glasses.
, , , and we breathe
the colors of the riverRamona Left
11 points
Village idyll
Here, where everyone knows everyone
it can be lived
He got from the neighbor's deathlearned from the newspaper
Wolfgang Roedig
8 points
End
the night
Fog
records the sound
of the streamHelga Stania
11 points