2020 Haiku Contest

Compiled by the U.S. Consulate General Leipzig

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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