EDITOR’S
CHOICE HAIKU
coronavirus -
he strives himself to prove of God
that he exists
Dan Iulian (Second Place)
This haiku poses ‘the’ big question – a forbidden one, the taboo
for a long time. A catastrophic event like COVID-19 inevitably evokes an urge
to ask the most fundamental questions. Many say that COVID-19 has happened for
God or gods to punish our sins. Others use it as yet another proof that He or
gods did not, or could not, prevent it from happening to save us. Still others
feel that God or gods categorically have nothing to do with it. We are in a
mental and emotional wasteland under COVIS-19 not only because of its voracious
appetite to infect but also because we don’t know much about it. Fear of the unknown
is liable to lead to blind belief in super-human or supernatural forces.
Neither science nor the government is guarantee of reassurance or remedy.
Dan Iulian is more nuanced and delicate. We don’t know who this
‘he’ is in line 2 (I have advocated strongly that pronouns should be avoided in
haiku, except ‘I’ and when it is obvious whom a particular pronoun is referring
to). More difficult to decipher is line 3 where there is a double entendre.
‘He’ can be the same person as the one in line 2, or ‘he’ can be the god, even
if it is not written as ‘He’, which is a convenient feature of haiku tending to
be written in small letters. So, one interpretation could be that there is a
man (perhaps the author himself) who is trying hard to say to God that he (the
man) is still
alive and that he wishes to be saved from the ravages of the
virus.
The more controversial but common interpretation would be that the
person in the haiku finds his belief in God shaken in the face of COVID-19 and
is struggling to fight off the lingering doubt that He does not exist after all
if He allows such disaster to humanity as COVID-19 to happen and does not do
anything at all to save us from the infection and/or death or serious cases
emanating from it, or even to help our doctors, nurses, care workers or
academics, and indeed all our citizens who are desperately fighting against the
virus. From the haiku I hear painful and pitiful voices saying, ‘Where are
you?’, ‘Why and how could you forsake us?’
This desperate cry is beautifully and subtly related by Albert
Camus in an almost imperceptible change which occurs within the priest who
first oppressively and agrily chides the citizens for their sins causing the
plague but gradually realises that his condemnation is wrongly directed.
Neo-Classical
Haiku Section-Zatsuei (Haiku of merit)
autumn in Venice –
from an empty gondola
rising moon
Steliana Cristina Voicu
Shintai Haiku Section-Honourable Mention
marriage picture
taken off the wall
the brighter spot
behind
Mona Iordan
Shintai Haiku Section-Zatsuei (Haiku of merit)
white birch
cut in the
bark
the heart
still growing
Mona Iordan
Vanguard Haiku Section-Second
Place
coronavirus
-
he
strives himself to prove of God
that he
exists
Dan Iulian
Vanguard Haiku Section-Zatsuei, Haiku of Merit
self-isolation
turning my
balcony
into a
greenhouse
Cezar Ciobika
corona outbreak -
in my
drawers
piles of
love poems
Ana Drobot
social
distance -
the roses
are planted
apart
Ana Drobot
coronavirus-
measuring
whose loneliness
is greater
Dan Iulian
without social distancing –
the tree
full of
birds
Capotă Daniela Lăcrămioara
with masks and gloves
we look at
each other
like two
strangers
Vasile Moldovan
Neighbor‘s
bed is empty-
he is gone,
maybe home,
maybe in
eternity
Vasile Moldovan
artificial
lung -
every
breath of air is worth
its weight
in gold
Vasile Moldovan
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