Music Haiku from Around the World
The year of 2025 is also 250 years since the death of famous Japanese haiku poet Kaga no Chiyo (加賀 千代, 1703-1775), also known as Chiyo-jo or Chiyo-ni (千代尼; lit. 'Chiyo the Nun') from the Edo period. The following woodcut by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川 国芳, 1798-1861) illustrates Chiyo-ni's most famous haiku:
朝顔に
釣瓶取られて
貰い水
asagao ni
tsurube torarete
morai mizu
the morning glory
took the well-bucket away from me –
I go to the neighbour for water
(Source: Suiseki)
TO LISTEN TO ZOE'S HAIKU READING DURING THIS FESTIVAL PLEASE FIND THE PLAYLIST HERE
First, we'd like to thank everyone who participated in our 10th Anniversary Haiku Contest 2025 and helped make our celebration such a wonderful success.
This contest was judged blind (to make the process as objective as possible) by Sherry and Zoe Grant. Michael Smeer was the contest coordinator.
Out of 488 submitted haiku and senryū the judges selected 3 winners and 7 Honorable Mentions, making it a total of 10 Winners.
FROM ZOE & SHERRY, THE JUDGES:
Zoe and I are especially honoured to be invited to judge this international haikai competition to mark the 10th anniversary of My Haiku Pond. We have received hundreds of beautifully written haiku and senryu in the theme of music, many of which also mentioned classical music or musical instruments. Although the number of winners including honorary mentions is limited, we wish to curate more at the upcoming International Scriabin 2025 Festival taking place online on 3rd-5th January 2026 (NZ timezone). Our choices for this competition, however, seem to gravitate towards music from sounds of nature.
We congratulate all participants on their wonderful and high quality submissions. Especially the winners, who wrote the poems ranked, commented, and listed below...
.
FIRST PLACE!
released
from the weight of the earth
skylark song
— Ewan Rourke, Australia
This haiku is particularly breathtaking and uplifting. We love the choice of skylark for its ability to sing in flight and this moment of release from the heavy weight is exactly what we need living in a modern society of chronic stress. For Zoe, skylark songs sound like rapping or beatboxing!
SECOND PLACE (equal)
notasinglepauseinthecricketcourtingsong
— Rafał Zabratyński, Poland
We love monoku often for its ambiguity. This poem however is very clear in its intention and we can feel the urgency in the song of love without the spaces.
SECOND PLACE (equal)
a hummingbird
performing its magic…
quivering blossoms
— Keith A. Simmonds, France
A hummingbird is so petite and out-of-the-world that we can almost associate it with magic and fairyland. Its rapid beating wings leave not only the blossoms but our hearts quivering.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order):
moonlit pond
a lone peeper joins
the cricket chorus
— Al W Gallia, USA
my toddler discovers
what else spoons can do
drummer boy
— Baisali Chatterjee Dutt, India
silent disco
two strangers duet
through their hands
— C.X. Turner (Luci), UK
silent truce
he hums our song
in the kitchen
— Christine L. Villa, USA
spiderweb—
the sound of twenty years
from the record player
ragnatela—
il suono dei vent'anni
dal giradischi
— Angiola Inglese, Italy
taiko drums
children and butterflies
spread their wings
— Sarah Paris, USA
history repeating...
the crack and pop
of an old record
— Jay Friedenberg, USA
.
Fondly,
Sherry & Zoe Grant and Michael Smeer
More haiku Zoe chose to read out during the International Scriabin 2025 Festival
Zoe's 20 haiku (1)
flute music
the dance of tadpoles
on a stave
- Jackie Chou (USA)
poem of ecstasy
my heart leaps
in trills and rhythms
- Lakshman Bulusu (USA)
wind chimes out
of scream shells
didn't sell
- Barbara Anna Gaiardoni (Italy)
twilight drizzle…
a busker’s melody fills
the alley with laughter
- Hifsa Ashraf (Pakistan)
coming home
the piano plays
a rest
- Sean Murphy (USA)
spring stream playing pebble songs
- John Hawkhead (UK)
autumn wind
whisper of
our last kiss
- Martina Matijević (Croatia)
old sailor
repeating refrains
whale songs
- Ernesto P. Santiago (Greece)
half past midnight
the ebb and flow
of a Chopin's nocturne
- Milan Rajkumar (India)
leaves heaped
by the side of her broom
a gust of wind
- Kala Ramesh (India)
my fingertips fly
over piano keys -
the metronome ticks
- Anne Louise Curran (NZ)
soft music
the ants exploring
old guitar
- Silva Trstenjak (Croatia)
all night the crickets tune the dark
- Vijay Prasad (India)
morning song
of a solitary cicada
midsummer heat wave
- Pravat Kumar Padhy (India)
summer night –
the attic’s silence
filled with rain
- Cristian Matei (Romania)
slow movement
trumpet player in the back row
keeping time
- Valorie Broadhurst Woerdehoff (USA)
electronic music
flashes and thunders
storm the stage
- Mona Iordan (Romania)
piano rehearsal
the soft spins
of a spider
- Lakshmi Iyer (India)
summer fever
disco beads and bells
in our anklets
- Corine Timmer (Portugal)
bubble wrap
I delay adulthood
one pop at a time
- Nitu Yumnam (UAE)
Zoe's 20 haiku (2)
wind chimes –
raindrops
cover the notes
- Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă (Romania)
your last visit
Moonlight Sonata
still echoes
- Charlie Smith (USA)
blossoming love
the colourful vibrancy
of a goldfinch song
- Paul Callus (Malta)
whirlwind
spinning the tumbleweeds
devil's dance
- Peggy Hale Bilbro (USA)
on the car radio
my deceased daughter’s
favorite song
- Wilda Morris (USA)
sunbeam
seeing inside
my guitar
- Stephen Toft (UK)
flutter of leaves
a lullaby for
the street boy
- K. Radhika M. De Silva (Sri Lanka)
music box fading
autumn’s last leaves
pirouette
- Edward Cody Huddleston (USA)
fiddle out of tune
cats yowling
in the night
- Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky (USA)
window sill
raindrops
in a staccato rhythm
- Rybak Barbara (Poland)
autumn equinox -
the sound of the gutter
filling with rain
- Francoise MAURICE (France)
faint violin notes
stir the midnight street
a shadow halts
- Neena Singh (India)
willow catkins
in the evening wind
notes of Chopin
- Wiesław Karliński (Poland)
plum blossoms
the concert reaches
a crescendo
- Valentina Ranaldi-Adams (USA)
frost on pumpkin
an old forgotten song
comes to mind
- Jane Myhill (NZ)
music of workers...
clink and clang
fixing an old railing
- Fatma Zohra Habis (Algeria)
junk shop guitar
wounded, strings broken . . .
I buy my soul mate
- Tony Steven Williams (Australia)
googlie eyes
on bicycle helmets
magpie alert
- Thomas Smith (USA)
a break
in our conversation
the fridge hums
- Regina (Gina) Piroska (Australia)
the great spring silence
only her cat sometimes runs
across her piano
- Urszula Marciniak (Poland)
Zoe's 20 haiku (3)
cherry blossoms –
pink petals dance
with gentle sax tones
- Katica Badovinac (Croatia
the static
in an old jazz tune
winter stars
- Jay Friedenberg (USA)
accordion weeps
in the jester's pale hands
the moon crystallises
- Takanori HAYAKAWA (Japan)
spectral glass jar
the dance of its colors
on the piano
- Lakshman Bulusu (USA)
frog hunt
i scatter the moon
in the pond
- Taofeek Ayeyemi (Nigeria)
heirloom piano
my late mother’s prints
still on the keys
- Ron C. Moss (Australia)
winter dusk
his quivering lips
flute music
- Ramya Attanayake (Sri Lanka)
old vinyl records
every year the timeless songs
of the nightingale
- Sebastian Chrobak (Poland)
moonlit deck
the rising falsetto
of the Bee Gees
as they jive
- Rupa Anand (India)
lovers embrace
shadows dance on walls
passionate melodies
- Karen Morris-Denby (NZ)
dance of yellow grass —
in the pale sunlight’s glow
autumn opera
- Piotr Mesyasz (Poland)
Chopin Nocturne
the pianist looking up
at the starry sky
- Yves Abramovici (France)
music and wind
among the dead leaves
allegro con brio
- Nazarena Rampini (Italy)
spiderweb -
the sound of twenty years
from the record player
- Angiola Inglese (Italy)
strips of light -
jumping
from note to note
- Anastasia Krasnokutskaya (Russia)
last performance
the coins clink in
his violin case
- Jahnavi Gogoi (Canada)
last light
a forest stream gurgles
into the darkness
- Mona Bedi (India)
sunday jazz jam crumpets for brunch
- Isabella Mori (Canada)
