A total of 247 haiku by 93 authors and 69 tanka by 29 authors were submitted for this selection. The closing date for entries was April 15, 2021. I anonymized these texts before the selection began.

Each member of the DHG has the option of naming a submission that should be published on the member's own page if the jury disregards it.

Can be submitted only previously unpublished texts (also applies to publications on blogs, forums, including the forums on HI HAIKU, social media and workshops etc.).

No simultaneous submissions please!

Please Haiku / Tanka collected in one operation Enter yourself in the online form on the DHG website HI HAIKU:

March selection: Entry deadline January 15, 2022

Otherwise by email with a keyword Haiku / Tanka selection January 15, 7 in the subject please to:

Wahlen@deutschehaikugesellschaft.de

The next deadline for the Haiku / Tanka selection is the July 15, 2021.

Each participant can take up to six Texts - three Haiku and three Tanka - submit.

With the submission, the author gives the consent for a possible publication in the Agenda 2022 of the DHG and on http://www.zugetextet.com/ as well as for a possible presentation on the website of the Haiku International Association.

Haiku selection from HTA

The jury consisted of Bernadette Duncan, Sonja Raab and Wolfgang Gründer. The members of the selection group did not submit their own texts.

All selected texts - 40 haiku by 33 authors - are published in alphabetical order of the author's name. There are max. two haiku recorded per author.

"A haiku that particularly appeals to me" - this is the motto for each jury member to select up to three texts (still anonymized), to present and comment on them here.
From SOMMERGRAS 134 on, Peter Rudolf will replace me in the coordination of the HTA jury.
Since the jury should consist of changing participants, I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of Peter Rudolf, to cordially invite all interested DHG members to contact him in order to participate as a jury member in upcoming selection rounds:

Wahlen@deutschehaikugesellschaft.de -
Keyword "HTA jury participation"

Eleanor Nickolay

A haiku that particularly appeals to me

today I keep quiet
just the buds
Break up

Horst Oliver Buchholz

At first glance, an inconspicuous poem, but it contains many characteristics of a good haiku: simple language, a touch of sabi, easily comprehensible images with simultaneous openness and thus enough space for your own reading.

Whether the working week was full or a decision is pending - your own silence and silence focus your attention and let nature have its say. I think of Mahatma Gandhi, who for a long time had the habit of being silent every Monday.

Even the urban reader can easily find himself in these three lines, as there are weeks in which what is described can be observed in every parking lot, in front of every bakery.
Particularly appealing to me is the counter-rotation of the increasingly concentrated form while at the same time opening up the content.

One shouldn't throw the truth around the other's ears like a wet washcloth, but hold it out like a coat that one can slip into, said Max Frisch. This haiku gently holds out words that one can easily slip into with one's own experience.

Selected and commented by Bernadette Duncan

first birthday
she kisses again and again
the black doll

Petra Fischer

First of all, this haiku corresponds formally to the characteristics of classic Japanese haiku, it is short, describes in simple language a unique event, a momentary, concrete situation. In strict observation, some may regret the lack of a season word here. Well, he should, it doesn't affect the haiku.

We experience the actions of a child on their first birthday, which they will hardly consciously perceive as such, celebrations and periods of this size are probably not yet in their experience horizon.
Moving is the uninhibited joy of a child, which is portrayed to us in repeated kissing of a doll that it has obviously received as a gift.

I noticed two formulations about which I have to comment.

So far I have deliberately spoken of the protagonist as "the child". To what extent is it necessary to specify the child's gender? Why can't it be a boy too?

I also asked myself why the doll is described as "black". What is so remarkable about the fact that a colored child (which cannot be described as “politically correct” as “black”) kisses a “black” doll?
Yes, I noticed this trap!

It has struck me lately that this may be a highly subjective feeling, that there is a tendency to compose haiku as a vehicle for transporting opinions and also to preach or raise problems as current daily events.

I feel uncomfortable when I feel a club that tries to drive me in a very specific direction in my freedom of interpretation, which a haiku is supposed to encourage.

I feel more comfortable when I discover a haiku whose literary concept does not postpone a desired evaluation from the outset, but a concrete moment of mindfulness, the "heartfelt perception and recognition of the moment"¹, describes, and leaves the recipient the freedom to rummage through his memories or experiences, his visions of the future, in order to complete it. This brings it closer to its East Asian origins in terms of content.

Let's just let the visitors of this children's birthday experience this little joyful experience: their first birthday, they keep kissing the new doll.
Yes, in its original form a remarkable, moving haiku!

¹   www.honpantarhei.com; 16.02.2021/XNUMX/XNUMX

Selected and commented by Wolfgang founder

today I keep quiet
just the buds
Break up

Horst Oliver Buchholz

Spending a day in silence is not an easy exercise. Withdrawn in a monastery, it is made easier because everyone in the monastery knows and respects this exercise and you don't have to explain yourself or feel compelled to write little notes. One can simply withdraw and be silent. In everyday life this is not so easy, because as soon as your neighbor greets you, you get a guilty conscience if you don't say hello back, just nod or wink. In the course of a day the children ask you so many things, you often answer automatically. I tried it myself once and it was so bad for me that I got a sore throat after two days. The suppressed words, the thoughtless words that slip out of you as a mom, but which you immediately regret because you wanted to be silent. There are so many moments in the family that make one despair. In the end, you help yourself with your mobile phone or with little pieces of paper, but of course that has a significant impact on the value of the exercise.

In an anonymous city it is perhaps easier than in a small village in the country, where the morning shopping to the bakery alone becomes a gauntlet because you are constantly approached by acquaintances.

But let's assume that this haiku really offers the ideal case: someone sits alone and undisturbed somewhere in a garden or in the shade of an arcade and decides to spend this day in silence.

And then there are the buds of a bush, a tree or a flower and they are just breaking open, they are opening, also quietly, but it is the language of nature that tells so much.

You feel yourself how you want to leave. How to sing, cheer, laugh. How it penetrates from the inside out, just as nature creates everything.

What is the point of silence? Suppressing the sounds that are part of us? Is that against the nature in us? Or do we just hold back for a moment, an hour, a day or several days and allow ourselves not to push outside, but to listen and let something inside of us. Mindful, conscious, mindful.

Perhaps something can break out inside of us that we have never felt before because we have never noticed it in our noisy world. Because we talked it over or drowned it out.

Selected and commented by Sonja Raab

Spring cleaning ...
one of the ancestors falls
out of the frame

Ramona Left

In the first line this one word with the three dots that give space for thought. Winter is over, the last remnants are wiped away, the house swept, cobwebs removed, windows cleaned, the new view outside, finally sunlight again, fresh air, the chirping of birds into the house.

The old and dusty will be driven out.

Then suddenly an ancestor falls on the second line.

If you had an argument with a family member, is it an "ancestor" who is still alive? The grandpa? Or do you no longer think about someone who has passed away? Has the memory of this ancestor been extinguished with the new that spring brings and has the grief of winter been driven away with the spring cleaning?

The last line resolves it: the ancestor has fallen out of the ordinary. And yet, not only did a little mishap happen while cleaning, but there is again the possibility of another picture. Someone who is out of the ordinary is not adapted. An ancestor who will be remembered for having achieved something unusual. One that will not be quickly forgotten because it stands out from the crowd.

With this in mind, you can now go into spring. Strengthened and courageous to go your own way and advance with the strength of your ancestors, perhaps with the pioneering spirit to start something unusual.

Selected and commented by Sonja Raab

The selection

the sky touches
the earth on the horizon
holiday start

Elisabeth Other

The little joy
a lady in the elevator
two smiles in winter

Jurgen Artman

the garden path
freshly graveled
Cherry blossoms

Martin Berner

old Steinway
i play patterns
in the dust

Christopher Blumentrath

A camel
passes in the sky
an elephant

Christopher Blumentrath

Forget Me Not -
the girl picks up briefly
his mask

Marcus Blunck

Dog roses
my grandson tells about
his magic sword

Brigitte ten Brink

today I keep quiet
just the buds
Break up

Horst Oliver Buchholz

Holiday
in front of me the sea
the day

Stefanie Bucifal

Lunar rainbow
unexpectedly after 50 years
she says "yes"

Maya Daneva

at the playground
der hund
looking for the children

Hans Egerer

first birthday
she kisses again and again
the black doll

Petra Fischer

German course -
under the last flight of stairs
his prayers

Petra Fischer

Sunflowers.
The expectation that the light
good is.

Volker Friebel

march at the ice cream counter
the blossom
in wallet

Claus-Detlef Grossmann

At the recycling center
the farewell to emptying
of the trunk

Taiki Haijin

The scent of youth
canned
Cheap pils

Taiki Haijin

alone in the hotel -
The durability
the memory

Claus Hansson

Ant route
the youngest asks where from
everything comes

Gabriele Hartman

Sea breeze
she puts on her hearing aid
in my ear

Birgit Heid

End of concert
the frog takes the night away
in the pond

Anne Holtz

Telephone meeting
the boss's voice from the receiver
and a woodpecker

Anne Holtz

Discussion of the subject
She shows by zooming
Your baby

Deborah Karl Brandt

Round birthday
The strollers
of the other

Deborah Karl Brandt

footbridge over the moor
the load capacity
the silent one

Michaela Kiock

Motorbike parade
the wheelchair user switches
up a gear

Petra Klingl

Children's laughter -
at the old landmark
fresh wolf solution

Klaus Kornexl

Flight mode
on my lock screen
the sea

Eva Limbach

the old battlefields ...
on the way home
some more snow

Eva Limbach

Kalaw revisited
my joy
suprises me

Ingrid Meinerts

Curfew
you receive me
with open arms

Eleanor Nickolay

Mysterious
the woman next to me in the morning
for forty years

Frank Sauer

riding lesson
the girl on the horse
types a message

Evelyn Schmidt

Loss of friends -
feeding the old lady
a robin

Angelica Seithe

chained to the house
he caresses
his carrier pigeon

Helga Stania

desert wind
a flute is singing
of love

Helga Stania

Crack walnuts
from the tree of yesterday
was felled

Angela Hilde Timm

my way to the canal
waddles on the sidewalk
a pair of mallards

Ingrid Toepfermann

the skyscraper on the river
i send my dreams
into the wave game

Erika Uhlmann

back at home
a dead fly is swimming
in the cold coffee

Jan Christian Weck

HTA tanka selection

Silvia Kempen selected 8 tanka from 5 authors. A maximum of two tanka per author will be accepted.

"A tanka that appeals to me particularly" - texts are presented and commented on under this motto.

A tanka that particularly appeals to me

in the church
behind the pillar
the mask taken off -
a cappuccino to go
in silent devotion

Ruth Guggenmos-Walter

The church, a place where there is not so much going on these days, which is not only due to the corona pandemic. A quiet place. And behind the pillar you won't be seen so quickly, even if someone does come. There the person dares to take off the mask to drink a cappuccino-to-go. No, to enjoy it, "in silent devotion". There are currently hardly any suitable places for this outside of your own four walls.
A simple scene that makes it clear what restrictions we live with at this time and yet can cope with them. At least if you make the best of it, as in this tanka.
I think that if this tanka is read in years when there is no pandemic, it would probably be placed in the carnival season.

Selected and commented by Silvia Kempen

Information about the Tanka jury:
Unfortunately, Peter Rudolf has left the Tanka jury because he will replace Eleonore Nickolay in the Haiku Tanka selection in the future. For this reason, I carried out the Tanka selection this time alone and hope that by the time the next selection is made, someone will be found who will do it with me.

Note on anonymity:
The tanka sent in were anonymized by Eleonore Nickolay and then sent to me. This time there was a tanka who showed the author's name in the text, so anonymity was not guaranteed here. The allocation of numbers made it clear which tanka came from the same author. So all three tanka of this author could not be taken into account. I ask you to avoid in the future that conclusions can be drawn from the text about the author.

 The selection

with the hand
in the warm fur of the dog
the eingeschlaf
I climb the apple tree
in short lederhosen

Christopher Blumentrath

what ways
love takes sometimes
or so you say
and give me yours
stone buddha

Christopher Blumentrath

Three days
I haven't heard from you
and gradually
I feel like the bananas
that turn brown on the table.

Tony Bohle

You a coffee
brewing seems a thing to me
to life and death -
It should be
stay uncomplicated with us.

Tony Bohle

in the church
behind the pillar
the mask taken off -
a cappuccino to go
in quiet contemplation ...

Ruth Guggenmos-Walter

barefoot on the beach ...
so different from then
our tracks
deeper, longer and further
separated from each other

Gabriele Hartman

with you at the wheel
down the switchbacks
at all the crosses
over - I think so too
to God

Gabriele Hartman

do you see the star
in the sky over Bethlehem
just like back then
when we still knew what
we could hold on

Eva Limbach

Special contribution by René Possél

René Possél chose a haiku from all anonymized submissions that particularly appeals to him.

Kalaw revisited
my joy
suprises me

Ingrid Meinerts

Again I am fascinated by a haiku that is very short even within the haiku standard. Again it comes a little closer to those "six words stories". And again it confirms to me that you have to listen to poems, especially haiku, in which every word, every line counts, so that you only know what you are hearing ...

Because only when listening is the punch line of the last line understood as such. For interpretation: The first (and only) word of the first line is so meaningful that it arouses a wide variety of associations:

A reunion (usually with people) is a situation full of emotions and memories ... How long have you not seen each other? Was it just a short time, or has it been a long time? If so, why haven't you seen each other for a long time? How will the reunion be experienced by those who reunite after this time?

The second line answers the last question by mentioning a feeling that everyone immediately understands and can understand: "my joy". The word disambiguates the range of feelings that are possible when you meet again, starting with this same joy and mixed feelings up to insecurity or even aversion towards the one you see (possibly after a long time).

Up to this point, however, the haiku is within a conventional framework. One could even go further and ask: After the mention of joy at a reunion, what else can there be that special, unexpected?

The third line is unusual: "(my joy) surprises me" is itself a surprise to the reader / listener. The second line has already brought in the author's I. Now the subjectivity in the third line is carried on by the introspection: “My joy surprises me” is the confession of a sudden discovery in me at the moment of the encounter. The discovery, one could say, allows us to look deeply into the author's inner being. Since this is a universal phenomenon, the “I” of the haiku is not a disturbance, but a representative. At the same time it points back to the opening word about the reunion.

In plain language: After a shorter or longer period of time, someone encounters someone - and is surprised by their own joy at the encounter itself.

Does that mean that you did not expect this joy because the last encounter was not such that you would have been looking forward to the next? Or also: Didn't you take any feelings or expectations with you after the last encounter - and are you now positively surprised? Or finally: Did the reunion even from the other side proceed in such a way that the joy arose in the one who observes himself to his own surprise? The last line triggers many questions and possibilities - and thus, to a certain extent, many stories - "long stories".

The fact that one can rediscover and surprise oneself, based on situations, may be the insight of haiku. A realization that doesn't need many words - just the time and reverberation inside to understand the course of the knowledge. Five words that the author has carefully considered and set. In short: a successful, memorable haiku!