A total of 240 haiku from 83 authors and 38 tanka from 21 authors were submitted for this selection. The deadline for entries was January 15, 2019. 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.
Only previously unpublished texts can be submitted (also applies to publications in blogs, forums, social media and workshops, etc.).No simultaneous submissions please!

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

deutschehaikugesellschaft.de/haiku-und-tanka-die-wahl/

Otherwise by email to:

Wahlen@deutschehaikugesellschaft.de

The next deadline for the Haiku / Tanka selection is

of the 15 April 2019.

Each participant can submit up to five texts - three of which are haiku. With the submission, the author gives his consent for a possible publication in the DHG Agenda 2020 as well http: /www.zugetextet.com/

Haiku selection from HTA

The jury consisted of Bernadette Duncan, Sebastian Salie and Helga Stania. The members of the selection group did not submit their own texts. All selected texts - 29 haiku - are published in alphabetical order of the author's names. Up to max. added two haiku per author.
"A haiku that particularly appeals to me" - this is the motto for each jury member to choose up to three texts (still anonymized), to present and comment here.
Since the jury is made up of changing participants, I would like to cordially invite all interested DHG members to participate as a jury member in upcoming selection rounds.

Eleanor Nickolay

A haiku that particularly appeals to me

the seat stone at the pond
after the rain -
wait for me there

Claus Hansson

When you read it for the first time, the questions may arise whether this is a haiku at all, whether the lines don't sound a bit old-fashioned and the setting makes you think too much of translations of old haiku and a Far Eastern garden landscape. If you come back again - the seat stone invites you to linger - this poem may be classified under 'unconventional' and we remember about Bashōs 'lead my horse / across the moor / where the cuckoo calls' *.
At the same time, we notice that despite the clear language, despite the seat stone, the rain and the indication 'there', everything remains very vague and allows many possibilities: which pond, which seat stone, after which rain? After the long rainy season in autumn or winter, after a summer rain or the spring rain thawing snow? And who is the author anyway - man, angel, natural being? Who is the addressee? Tension arises: Will he / she read these lines and wait? Or am I meant by this and every reader?
The 'wait, wait' of the frog in the fairy tale about the frog prince sounds. Don't we always have a choice between waiting (noticing the smell of the rain, the last drops that fall into the pond, the rough surface of the stone, etc.) and hurrying on? An almost universal ambiguity opens up, reinforced by the mixing of the time levels of past, present and future. Maybe the poem is a kind of recipe for writing haiku yourself.
* (No o yoko ni uma hikimuke yo hototogisu; English translation by RH Blyth: Lead my horse / Across the moor / To where the hototogisu is singing!)

Selected and commented by Bernadette Duncan

Heidedorf -
no store in sight, children
with bow and arrow

Marcus Blunck

The meaning and sound of the first line creates an idyllic picture. It could be one of the notorious home paintings you sometimes see in certain cafes or living rooms.
Line 2 then reads like a deconstruction of this impression called into the scene; the statement is now more reminiscent of a family traveling through, reducing the location to the hoped-for supply options, while at the same time giving disappointment about a lack of this expression. But be careful, there is a trick in there, which is already indicated by the comma! The children may not be addressed directly, but rather part of the picture described.
Indeed, line 3 reveals that these children are equipped with bows and arrows, and it seems unlikely that they would be abroad looking for a business. Rather, they belong to this village and just play there.
Has the initial idyll been restored? At first not really. After all, ranged weapons serve as toys here, which is not without danger and in some eyes may also be of questionable educational value in terms of conflict management. In addition, the presence of this equipment, which can also be interpreted as an archaic hunting device, could take up the lack of supply options described in line 2 and thus give it greater weight. Accordingly, the poem can also be read as a gloomy, reverberant reference to the development of infrastructure in rural areas and the resulting civilizational regression in the wasteland.
However, the opposite is also possible: if you want, this sketch shows children who symbolically stand for the future and who learn playfully beyond the superficial world of consumption, act responsibly and provide food sustainably. That would be more than an idyll, it would be utopia - and not the worst, unless you can get by with vegetarian food anyway.
Anyway: This text creates m. E. a strange tension and stimulates thought, which is why he particularly appeals to me.

Selected and commented by Sebastian Salie

Angelus.
Plumage fanned out of a dipper

Ramona Left

A haiku that eludes the usual scheme, refined in form and language, evokes images and thoughts.
The ringing mixes with the sound of the water, it should be clear and fast flowing, as the dipper loves it. Human world and nature meet, perhaps to pause and hope that the habitat of this shy bird is preserved.

Selected and commented by Helga Stania

The selection

Poison gas attack
in the newsreader's throat
a lump

Christa Beau

Solitaire
irgendwann
someone comes

Martin Berner

last day
we move quietly
the words

Christopher Blumentrath

on soft soles
from the orchestra pit
the flugelhorn

Christopher Blumentrath

Heidedorf -
no store in sight, children
with bow and arrow

Marcus Blunck

dead fly
legs closed
to a star

Marcus Blunck

the unknown soldier -
his wife is laying
Flowers on the grave

Gerd Borner

grandfather
stares at his shadow -
Klezmer sounds

Gerd Borner

before the year runs away
again
to the source

Horst Oliver Buchholz

Postseason.
A beach walker whistles
in the key of the wind.

Reinhard Dellbrugge

Autumn evening ...
read the fog backwards

Frank Dietrich

in the hospice
a new day
noon evening

Gregor Graf

the old master
done his day's work -
Grain in the light

Claus Hansson

Poetry reading -
under the holm oak
Silk in the wind

Claus Hansson

Church exit her different view

Birgit Heid

Summer wind the sound of its leaves

Birgit Heid

Easter baskets
still empty
her look

Gabriele Hartman

Night in a strange city
I would find the way very easily
on her skin

Markus Heep

November light
through the leaves that the wind left me

Anne Holtz

The cat and me
Enjoy the silence
New Year's Day

Deborah Karl Brandt

Missed the train
and now
the first cowslips

Eva Limbach

Snow morning ...
in his arms
don't have to find words

Ramona Left

winter birds
we count the time
that remains with us

Eleanor Nickolay

Ironing day
the ups and downs on his shirt
my thoughts

Eleanor Nickolay

reconciliation
The handle is missing - you open it
from the inside

Angelica Seithe

The barrier lowers
A train passes slowly
respite

Shulamith Sommerfeld

during the train journey
he smiled at me
the full moon

Brigitte ten Brink

The strong gust of wind
two laughs
and keep silent

Linda Weidman

HTA tanka selection

Tony Böhle and Silvia Kempen selected four tanka.

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

A tanka that particularly appeals to me

remain silent
between you and me
a calm lake
a dead sea
an ocean on the moon

Frank Dietrich

Depending on the situation, silence itself can take very different forms, both positive and negative.

On educalingo there is the following definition:

"remain silent is a form of non-verbal communication that does not speak and that does not produce any sounds. In general, despite the silence of the individual as a broadcaster, certain information can be communicated and meanings shown. Silence is particularly widespread in religions and legal systems as well as in spirituality. ”

"remain silent / between you and mir ”says nothing about the form of the situation. Is there a harmonious silence between two people, do they understand each other without words or are there any discrepancies, maybe a dispute has preceded it? If the third line "a still lake" is added, I can imagine a romantic environment, but the still lake could also be "between" the two people, which would suggest a certain distance.

Then: "a dead sea". This is where the turn takes place, which is already subliminal in the previous line. In my eyes the romance, the harmony is finally gone. Now I see a couple who have probably known each other for a long time and have no more to say, the words have stopped. This is reinforced in the following line "an ocean on the moon". Figuratively speaking, the distance or the gap between the two is even greater. But the silence also increases. So I imagine the silence of a dead sea more oppressive than the silence of a lake, and on the moon the silence is absolute. Because noises are transmitted through the sound, which in turn requires a carrier. That is the air on Earth. But the moon has no atmosphere and therefore no air or any other carrier for sound.

Selected and commented by Silvia Kempen

The selection

remain silent
between you and me
a calm lake
a dead sea
an ocean on the moon

Frank Dietrich

late return
the stairs creak
silvery the moon
varies
back and forth

Gregor Graf

the colored eggs
in the grandchildren's nests
I look at
with desire and treat me
a white

Gabriele Hartman

Wide terrain,
Horizon to horizon:
Fence, wire and rails.
The ash pit: empty. No
Rest of walls and people.

Carsten Kaven