THOSE OF FEW WORDS RULE AT HAIKU FESTIVAL
UKIAH -- Drew Gravier, a freshman at Ukiah High School, stepped to the
microphone, gently cleared her throat, and read her award-winning poem:
a town is a town.
a city is a city.
Ukiah is home.
Ukiah, it turns out, is also haiku spelled backwards. And on Sunday, nearly
200 people attended a celebration of the ancient Japanese poetry at the
seventh annual UkiaHaiku Festival.
This year's event attracted nearly 1,600 haikus, submitted by people from
all around the world. Dozens were selected to be honored in a range of
categories.
Ellen Lawrence Skagerberg of Santa Rosa won an honorable mention in the
most-competitive ''adult contemporary'' category. She read it aloud at the
celebration:
two bicycles
''Daddy, can we stop
and pick a flower''
The crowd ohhed and ahhhed as Skagerberg and others read their poems at the
Ukiah Chamber of Commerce, where the event was held.
''This year was my first time entering,'' said Skagerberg, who has worked
at Copperfield's Books for 17 years. ''It was such a thrill to get the
hand-addressed award letter in the mail.''
Gravier said it was a rush to be on stage, and she loved reading her
poetry.
''I've been writing poetry since the fifth grade,'' she said. ''I thought
this was so great.''
Competition was stiffer than ever this year, as organizers found their
event has begun getting international attention from haiku junkies. Letters
from all around the world arrived, bearing haikus of three lines of five
syllables, seven syllables and finally five syllables.
The winner of the general adult category was Janak Sapkota of Kathmandu,
Nepal.
a white pigeon
drops a feather in the yard
first winter snow
John Fray took second place in the category of haikus about Ukiah. He read
it aloud Sunday:
after the street fair
only a wisp of strawdust
where the scarecrow stood
He received an extra bit of applause from the largely local crowd.
''I was a little nervous,'' Fray said.
Like others, Fray said he was attracted to writing haikus by the challenge
of packing significance into so few syllables.
''It's challenging,'' he said. ''You have to produce meaning with very few
words.''
You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at 521-5494 or
nathan.halverson@pressdemocrat.com. Check out his blog at
DailyGeek.Pressdemocrat.com or on twitter.com/eWords.
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