Just last month, the U.S. Consulate General Leipzig organized a Haiku contest for both high school and university students. The motto for this creative writing challenge was “Looking outside – Looking inside,” that is, noticing the connections between the change in season and the change in one’s internal landscape. Students were asked to put their thoughts and feelings into a Haiku consisting of three lines and 17 syllables in total.
The consulate received about 100 submissions from eight German states and places as far away as Nigeria. American poet and now also haiku contest judge, Jennifer Kronovet, selected 10 of her favorite Haikus and commented on her top three.
The blog editors congratulate all winners. Keep up the good work!
All 10 winners:
University students:
Jonas Griethe (MLU Halle, Saxony-Anhalt)
There’s peaceful singing
Mixing with sirens ringing
I hope I get home
Caroline Grimm (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lower Saxony)
People stop to hug
Absence makes hearts grow fonder
Is just a saying
Louisa Kunze (University of Jena, Thuringia)
Up at 3 a.m.
Digging the depths of Youtube
Covid, nothing new!
Linda Hoffmann (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lower Saxony)
a big loud black jeep
sounding like a howling wolf
the geese are frightened
Tolulope Ogedengbe (University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria)
Under the night sky
The moon follows a woman
Back to a mud house.
Dominik Lalka (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lower Saxony)
work and sleep, repeat
endless cycles of a clock
you will not survive
High School Students:
Annabelle Dickes (Helmholtz-Gymnasium, Zweibrücken, Rhineland-Palatinate)
Kids running through the
garden, enjoying what my
childhood was made of.
Shania Zoé Nelles (BIP creative high school (Kreativitätsgymnasium), 5b, Leipzig, Saxony)
A little bird sings.
Suddenly the wind gets strong.
Yeah! The autumn comes.
Hannah van Eimern (Schulpforta in Naumburg, Saxony-Anhalt)
fear and vexation
I stand alone in my room
pling! a new message
Lynn Niermann (11, Schuldorf Bergstraße in Seeheim-Jugendheim, Hesse)
twitter wakes me up
Birds are picking the cherries
An empty tree is left
Please listen to Jennifer Kronovet comment on her top three Haikus, written by Linda Hoffmann (Leuphana University Lüneburg), Annabelle Dickes (Helmholtz-Gymnasium, Zweibrücken), and Shania Zoé Nelles (BIP creative high school, Leipzig) on Instagram or Facebook.
You can find all Haikus online under Facebook or Instagram.
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