Haiku winner, Pat Daharsh

I am so excited that Pat Daharsh, who just submitted her first Haiku in June of 2008, has won Adult First Place,a monetary award, from the ukiaHaiku Festival, April 2009. The notification arrived on her birthday.



Contemporary Haiku, Adult First Place winner – April 2009


rusty plow
behind the old barn
a harvest moon


Randy Brooks, editor and publisher of Mayfly, a twice a year magazine on Haiku says the old form we learned in school of five, seven, five syllables in a three line poem is not the form considered correct today. He also says that Haiku seems to fit our contemporary lifestyle and has become contagious among the public. Festivals such as the one in Ukiah California, magazines, and even posts on Twitter bring this form of poetry into the mainstream.

In an Associated Press article, Brooks is quoted as saying the Haiku is a three line poem which presents an image and then a pause or silence in the middle which the reader completes with his imagination as he reads the second image.


In August 2008, Pat won Honorable Mention when she submitted to a contest held by the Poetry Society of Texas, The Fort Worth Haiku Society Prize.




autumn leaves
dripping from trees --
unsigned paintings


In her short publishing career, Pat has submitted to five places, and submitted only 19 Haiku. She is now a member of the Florida State Poets Association where her winning haiku will be included in the association's newsletter, Of Poets and Poetry, which will come out in the fall of this year.

Although Pat and I are close in age, and we are cousins, we had not met until about ten years ago. Our love for writing has brought us close and also our interest in family history.

Congratulations, Pat! We look forward to reading your memoir and more of your poetry.