Spectator Competition Winners: haiku book reviews

In Competition No. 3298, you were invited to provide a book review in three haiku. When I saw that the unofficial poet laureate of Twitter Brian Bilston had tweeted some haiku book reviews, I thought I’d challenge you to do something along the same lines.

The traditional Japanese haiku is a snapshot of a moment in time rendered in 17 syllables in three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables (though these rules have not always been slavishly observed by western poets). Or, as the incomparable Stanley J. Sharpless put it:

This is a haiku.
Five syllables, then seven.
Then five more. Got it?

Some entries incorporated references to the natural world, which is a hallmark of the haiku. And there was a streak of subversive humour too. The winners take £20. First up is Alex Steelsmith, who reviews haiku-master Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

As the May wind blows,
Scattered blossoms of haiku
Emerge amid prose.

Gusts meander through
Petals opened to release
Floral scent and hue.

The blooms never cease;
Blown away, one cannot close
Basho’s masterpiece.

Alex Steelsmith

It’s bucket-list-lit.
One to read before you die.
Get you in the mood.

Samuel Beckett, eh?
Life and soul of the party,
Him and Thomas à

Spoiler alert, guys:
Godot never pitches up.
Nothing happens. Twice.

David Silverman

doting father’s tales
of son’s stuffed menagerie
enchant all ages

childhood’s toys outgrown
boy and bear live on to play
poohsticks forever

all anthropomorphs
will pledge lifelong devotion
others may throw up

Martin Parker

Penguin have published
this guide to country pursuits
at three and sixpence.

Advice is given
on cover, partridge sexing
and vermin control.

Hide it from your wife,
your servants, and, above all,
from your gamekeeper.

Nick MacKinnon

‘In the beginning’
begins this uneven read.
Sometimes tedious

(with endless ‘begats’)
often misogynistic
(women as ‘helpmates’)

there is nonetheless
a flavour of the divine.
Five Stars of David!

Robert Schechter

Here, Chandler’s PI
Bonds with a charming burnout,
Taking a big risk

Murder, suicide,
Shady ladies and a quack
Dissolve their affair

Heartbroken again,
Hardboiled but so soft-centred,
That’s Philip Marlowe.