First Place: WHC Spring Kukai

white lilac
the knife grinder's wheel
throwing up sparks
Paul T Conneally, Britain

Comments by Christopher Herold:

This haiku combines the appeal of a classic style with an unusual juxtaposition of subjects. The images in this poem work beautifully together. We aren’t told that the tiny star-shaped clusters of blossoms look like the sparks from the grinding wheel, but that is there for us to discover. Also effective is the contrasting of the softness of the flowers to the hard, roughness of the wheel (as well as the sharpness of the knife). I imagine this sharpening works to take place outside. The sparks spray up from the wheel. The possibility that the poet worries about the flowers being singed by those sparks is available to readers, but I prefer to take the path of a less ominous scenario. The poet's eyes follow the sparks up to where they vanish. Just above, or beyond the sparks is a blooming white lilac. The spikes of flowers thrust up among leaves. I intuit a connection between flowers and sparks that isn't merely a visual identification. Another fine feature of this poem is scent. There is a marked contrast between the somewhat acrid scent produced by the friction of metal on stone and the delicate perfume of the lilac. Actually, this poem includes every sense but that of taste. We see sparks, hear the grinding, smell flowers and ozone, and bear witness to the press of knife to stone. Such a wealth in a single haiku moment!