Every year, the Irish Haiku Society conducts an International Haiku Competition. In 2024, the competition was judged by the Society’s founding Chairman, Anatoly Kudryavitsky.

Details of the competition and a copy of the successful poems can be found here. First Prize went to Gary Hotham from the USA while the Runner-up was Tony Williams from Scotland.

Third Prize was shared between Debbie Strange from Canada and myself. My third-placed haiku was:

Eiheiji staircase
an old monk climbs
the sound of timber

I have written previously about the Eiheiji Zen Buddhist temple in Japan. Eiheiji was established in the year 1244 and is one of two main temples in the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism (see the banner photo above). The monastery is a beautiful complex of buildings set among tree-covered hills. It’s still an important training site for Buddhist monks today.

Many of the older halls and temples are built on the side of a hill with a long timber staircase providing access (see the photo below).

The Japanese haiku masters often referenced earlier poetic works in their writing and current haiku poets would recognise that my poem alludes to the following haiku by Matsuo Bashō (this translation by Jane Reichhold):

an old pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water

Referencing Bashō’s haiku seemed particularly appropriate as Bashō had himself visited Eiheiji in 1689. Indeed, you can find the visit recorded in Bashō’s classic travel diary: The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Australian writers have often featured among the Irish haiku awards, and this was the case again in the most recent contest. In addition to my Third Prize, four other Aussies received an Honourable Mention in the competition. Their haiku were as follows:

deepening dusk
shadows cage
the heron’s flight

(Gavin Austin)

forest pool moonlight dapples the darkness

(Simon Hanson)

faster than its shadow
the dragonfly
disappears

(Earl Livings)

breathless evening . . .
a dove’s call fading
with the light

(Jo McInerney)

Each year, the Irish Haiku Society’s website provides details of the competition timing and guidelines. Keep an eye on their site if you would like to submit haiku of your own in the future.